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Even those who argue that the guild is not blameless concede that the summer of suffering was entirely unnecessary.
Given where they ended up, it never needed to go this long, one executive-suite veteran concludes.
It was bad all around.
Of course, thats not what happened.
The actor walkout left many studio sources I spoke to genuinely shocked.
When SAG went out, anybody with half a brain knew this was different, one longtime showrunner says.
Thats a choice the studios made, and its a devastating moral indictment.
By contrast, The AMPTP had a policy agenda, which is different from a strategy.
It was playing a very traditional ground war, and it absolutely didnt work in this environment.
Twitter suddenly became very useful again, one writer quips.
We were able to have each others backs in a way that was unprecedented.
I mean, they beat the crap out of Drew Barrymore.
The WGA also notched wins with smaller items over which it had been unsuccessful for decades.
Theres no way to spin this: Its a huge win for the WGA, Littleton says.
And yet this breakthrough concession also comes with some major asterisks.
ThoseSuitsandBallersreruns that have been killing it on Netflix this summer?
No extra coin for them.
Its going to be a high bar to clear, Littleton says.
But they had to address it because it had become such an issue with membership.
Its a big, flashing red light that says theyll address it in the next talks.
They picked so many little things off of their wish list, Littleton says of the WGAs negotiating committee.
These were marginal items but they got a lot of them.
There are dozens of things which will matter to a lot of people.
Peak TV was a bubble and that bubble burst, says one Hollywood exec.
But once all the peace treaties a.k.a.
Simply put, thats bull.
Maybe the strike sped things along a little bit, but there was already a contraction happening.
When bubbles burst, its painful.
But the aforementioned anger over what just happened is very real.
I will never understand why they had to take that gamble that wed break, one simmering writer says.
Just to save what, not even that much money?
Why not be human beings?
It was shameful behavior.
We will conveniently forget about it because we need to work with them.
But we will never forgive.
