#maureen ryan

But if we popped all of the writers/showrunners tires, we'd be the bad guys.

This part didn't surprise me in the slightest because they kept pushing that girl on us even though we weren't interested, simply because the show runners admitted they thought Lyndie was more attractive:

"Maureen Ryan's exposé, out Tuesday, also suggests through multiple sources involved with the show that the co-stars on the Fox series, Tom Mison and Beharie, "did not want to have a whole lot to do with each other" and that co-star Lyndie Greenwood was brought in as a potential replacement for Beharie."

"Burn It Down also claims that following alleged conflict between co-creator and director Len Wiseman and Beharie while filming the pilot, actress Lyndie Greenwood — who portrayed Beharie’s sister, Jenny Mills — was brought on as a potential replacement for the 42 and Shame actress."

This part pissed me the fuck off THEE MOST:

Beharie was said to have prefaced statements with “I’m not trying to be difficult,” despite one source saying they never witnessed her being so. Or at least no more than Mison, who was allegedly described by a producer as “the star” and who another source described as “a handful” as well. “He had his own set of issues,” they said. “I’ve always said that on any other show, he would’ve been the biggest problem.”

They had the audacity to ruin Nikki's career AND THEIR SHOW for this lanky uncharismatic Beans On Toast bitch, and where has he been since Sleepy Hollow? What has he done?

JUSTICE FOR NICOLE! She deserved so much better oh my god.

"The show was a groundbreaking smash, but behind the scenes it devolved into such toxicity that even co-showrunner Damon Lindelof now says of his leadership: 'I failed.' A powerful excerpt from the new book Burn It Down" by Maureen Ryan."

Burn It Down, Mauren Ryan

It’ll never happen sadly.

There's account after account of awfulness, assistants being overworked and getting things thrown at them (and nothing happening because, well, that's just HoW ThINGs aRe), to racist remarks in the writers' room, to sidelining characters of color in Lost (which you can read about here in this excerpt). There are chapters focused on SNL and Sleepy Hollow, and I think the Sleepy Hollow details are only seeing light for the first time in this book. There's even a chapter on the Muppets series that ABC did, and the showrunner hated Miss Piggy as a character and shut down a writer who spoke up about how Piggy was being written and also SHUT DOWN THE MUPPETEERS WHO COMPLAINED THAT THEIR LINES WERE OUT OF CHARACTER

I've reached the section of the book devoted to discussing Star Wars and Marvel and how risk-averse studios are to making new and original media when they can just adapt IP from somewhere else that has a built in audience. Current Star Wars (the TV shows on Disney+) are being run by Jon Favreau and Dave Feloni (two white dudes) while the Cathy Jenkins project Rogue Squadron got canned and Taika Waititi's SW joint has been off the radar for forever, it seems. Marvel shows don't have showrunners, only head writers, and there's very little wiggle room for creativity when everything is overseen by a production committee. I think the book gives a lot of background on why the WGA is striking.

I’m digging in!