Dr. Unpleasant's Operatic TikTok

I didn't spend eight years in Unpleasant Medical School to be called "Mr. Unpleasant."

With May being an Intern month, I’ve been tight on space for our normal dispatches from Senior Clipshow Correspondent Allegra Rosenberg. So today she’s here to expand a bit on the indie streaming media landscape of the past and perhaps the future.

A friend noted its “nice that Tabs feels like a bit of a group publication” lately. I love the vibe that Intern Camille and Allegra and Music Intern Sam have brought in, and we’ve got three more interns lined up this year who I’m also excited to introduce you to. All of this is funded by your subscriptions, so if you dig it, and you’re not already a paid subscriber, please consider chipping in to help me pay everyone.

See you Monday, xoxo yr friend Rusty

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Spring has burst into full bloom, bringing on its warm breezes gusts of pollen and labor action. The striking writers of the WGA are putting up strong resistance, even as the AMPTP try to use the sharp leading edge of “AI technology” as a rhetorical wedge to force what was formerly a sustainable, full-time career into permanent freelance gig-work. 

Memories are being dredged up by both sides, as the WGA and the AMPTP both look back on the 2007-8 strike to try and predict and head off each others’ next moves. Audiences are looking back too: along with shortened seasons and premature cancellations, many also recall, with either fondness or distaste, the film & TV alternatives created during the height of the strike—the most famous one being Joss Whedon’s Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog, which epitomized an exciting early peak of internet geek culture. Cringe now, but thrilling then: not so much the show itself but the realization that we were entering a world where underground, offbeat tastes could be targeted with high-quality production and talent.