The Warner Bros. Discovery merger is in a state of disrepair. The reaction thus far has been overwhelmingly negative, after a number of shows were pulled from the network. The sudden removal of shows from the air has a bad taste in the mouth of creators and fans alike.
Owen Dennis discussed his feelings on the matter with Substack on Saturday. The plan was for the affected shows to be removed next week so as to give the Powers That Be time to inform the show creators and employees. Dennis claims that Discovery didn't listen to the demands of being transparent. He wrote that theCartoon Network warned them not to do this as it would hurt relationships with creators and talent.
Dennis thinks that the reasons for this are money and not paying artists. The residuals that go to the animation union to pay for healthcare can no longer be used as pay for the show is incomplete without them. Dennis speculated that the money Discovery is attempting to save isn't so much as to warrant the current PR crisis.
Dennis admits that he doesn't know why all traces of the show have been wiped from social media accounts. The people who may hold the answers may have just been fired. He doesn't know if the metrics being used to justify the removal of the shows and films are right. All of this is pretty shitty, that's what he's certain of.
I don't think Discovery did a good job of handling this. Most people who make things feel this way. If it's just going to be taken away and shot in the backyard, what is the point of making something, spending years working on it, putting in nights and weekends and not seeing our families? They are not going to get their best work out of whoever stays. The people in charge have forgotten that there will be no commerce without the art.
Dennis is positive that the show will return to HBO Max eventually, and that it is still available on services such as Amazon Prime. Talking about the show will ensure its chances of winding up on another platform, he said, and advised that watching it wherever it ends up will get more eyes on the series. He acknowledged that piracy may be a valid course of action during these times.
Dennis hoped that it would be done for the right reasons in order to preserve the environment. He said to think about what you are doing ethically and not justify it. Below are his thoughts.
“Most well known art is, for the most part, owned by about five gigantic, multinational corporations. That means they also own our culture. If you own our culture, then you also own our history and our access to it. Should a handful of companies own that, much less have the monopoly they have on it right now? I don’t think so. So the question you have to ask yourself becomes: if a giant corporation has stopped me from having the ability to access my own culture, is it ok for me to watch a copy that doesn’t funnel any money toward them, doesn’t create scarcity of the art, and doesn’t make a mark on some algorithm’s metrics?
Only you can answer that for yourself.”
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