The Writer’s Strike is Over

The WGA and the AMPTP have made nice with each other. We can now look forward to at least a few more episodes of our favorite TV shows this season. Speaking as a geek, I’m especially glad that Smallville will have an opportunity to wrap up some storylines before Michael Rosenbaum exits. It would have been a shame to have Lex Luthor leave without a few more explosions and chewed-up scenery. I predict that he discovers Clark’s “secret” just before he “dies”. Sadly, 24 and Heroes will apparently not be seen until next season. As for the rest of the shows returning or not, it’s hard to get too concerned. As far as I am concerned, this strike uninterrupted what was already the worst TV season in several years.

On the issue of the strike, there are a number of articles out there assessing who won and who lost. You might want to take a peek:

• The WGA strike’s winners and losers — LA Times
• WGA Strike: Was It Worth It? Athens Exchange
• Tallying points after the strike — Hollywood Reporter
• A post-writers strike scorecard — The Kansas City Star
• Writers Guild’s 100-Day War Produces A Fair Share Of Winners And Losers — The Tampa Tribune

My take is that the writers won some important battles, especially in winning their newfound oversight over the studio’s ledgers when it comes to online broadcasts. Studios are notoriously creative in their accounting, and even some oversight of their “process” is a big step forward. The price the writers, and much of Hollywood, had to pay in terms of expense, jobs lost, and relationships damaged was high, but I just don’t see that they had another choice. There was never an atmosphere of compromise between the studios and the writers. A strike was going to happen, and I’m glad it ended as soon as it did. I honestly expected it to last at least until the actors joined them on the picket lines.

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