Picture this, you sit down with snacks in hand, ready to watch your favorite show. You binge for hours upon hours getting hooked into the plot, finding parts of yourself inthe characters on the screen. At the end of the last episode, you see that the show has been approved for another season, you get so excited and start to do some research to find out when your favorite show is going to air only to see that the writing and producing of the show has been set back for months, or even years. This has been the case for many people’s favorite movies and television shows including the HBO Max hit “Euphoria”, Netflix’s “Stranger Things”, and Hulu’s “The Handmaid’s Tale.” This is all the cause of the current writers strike that is going on within Hollywood today. The strike is due to the underpayment of actors and writers.
How does this affect us within our daily lives? Many people, including myself, turn to movies and television shows as a form of entertainment that is used constantly. This entertainment can be through streaming subscriptions such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, HBO Max, Disney Plus, Youtube T.V., and others. This can also be through cable television that is provided on many platforms. As someone who watches their fair share of television shows, the delay of some of my favorite shows has been upsetting.
Specifically, after finishing season four of Netflix’s Stranger Thing, I was really looking forward to the end of the story after the announcement that season five would be the final season of the show. With the writers’ strike going on, even though I watched season four in July of 2022, the final season will not air until I graduate high school in late 2025. Many shows will continue to get postponed and many of the most anticipated movies will be released later due to the strike.
In my opinion, I believe that fair pay is essential for the strike to end. Until changes are made there will most likely be more delays to our favorite shows, series, and movies across all streaming services and platforms. Overall, this could affect television and the film industry in itself for many months or even years.
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