#dick samuels

[wfhandwatchingtv]

No, seriously Jack. Because what does make you think you can sit down uninvited and interrupt Mr. Samuels lunch?

Drama • S1 E3: Outlaws • Michael Uppendahl

[sinmonger]

Hollywood (2020)

I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. What have I done? All my life I have been a good man, I’ve been a company man.

+ Bonus because Richard Samuels deserved nothing but love and happiness

[twyllodrus]

Okay, final scene: this girl that we've spent the whole movie rooting for, jumps off the Hollywoodland Sign, kіlls herself. Credits roll, right? 

What are we saying here?

HOLLYWOOD (2020) – 1x05, "Jump"

[soohyukslut]

WE STAN DICK SAMUELS IN THIS HOUSE THIS JOURNEY OF HIS WAS SO TRIUMPHANT AND BEAUTIFUL AND AT TIMES HEARTBREAKING AND IM SO PROUD OF HIM AND UGH IM CRYING THIS SCENE WITH ROCK “DONT BECOME ME ROY”

[biconspodcast]

TBP - Episode 9: A Hollywood Sized Peg Joke

[malcolmstucker]

All of my life, I have been a good man. I’ve been a company man. Which meant that I couldn’t be who I really was, because then I would get fired, so… And the loneliness that comes along with that, I just… I just accepted it, year after year. I’ve been pretending to be someone else, just like you’re pretending now. You play the part that they’ve written for you. And then suddenly, suddenly it’s… it’s just too late. You’re lost. And the person that you were, the person that you wanted to be, is just swept far out to sea, and you’re standing on the shore… You’re watching the person... you’re watching the person go under, and there’s nothing you can do about it, it’s just… it’s just too late. And you hate yourself, because you’re the one responsible for letting it happen. Because you wanted people in this town to love you. To accept you.

[rachelking2819]

Hollywood

SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT

I want to start of with a grand applause for Hollywood on Netflix. It is was not at all what I expected, but I was positively surprised! When I first watched the trailer and saw Darren Criss I was already sold, but I just thought that it was going to be old Hollywood and how he was going to be the breakout star. And then there was the tease about the controversy of a black person involved in the making of a movie, so that also got my attention, but nothing else was remarked from the trailer. It also gave me major musical vibes, so I expected that they would break out in song every moment… Spoiler, they didn’t.

There are a lot of important and remarkable characters on this show. Almost everyone we see has some significance to the plot and overall story. But I don’t want to bore you with a detailed dissection of all of them, so I’ll be explicitly discussing 4 characters.

The new series on Netflix is basically about 5 young people trying to make it in Hollywood.

First there is Jack Castello, he essentially drives the story, he was a veteran in World War II. Now he is trying to pursue a dream of becoming a movie star so he can provide for his (spoiler) cheating pregnant wife… bit sad ain’t it. In the beginning he obviously struggles and makes some morally questioning decisions to make ends meet. This shady business gets him a foot a in the door at a major production company, Ace Pictures, by sleeping with the casting director and the wife of Ace Pictures’ owner. Ultimately, he gets cast in the movie Meg written by Archie Coleman.

Secondly, we meet Archie Coleman. An aspiring black gay screenwriter. He also is struggling to make ends meet. He gets caught up in the same shady business as Jack. However, he has written and send a script to Ace Pictures. A peculiar thing about this, is that no one at the studios know of his race or sexual orientation. Archie doesn’t want to be known as a black screenwriter, but as a screenwriter. Which I think is a great sentiment. Against all odds, he gets the call that his script will be made into a movie and that is when the series really starts.

Then there is Camille Washington. She is a contracted black actress at Ace Pictures. As a black girl in the fifties she doesn’t get cast as important roles though… She mostly plays the dumb maid and is used for comical relief. The latter is quite recognizable still… Camille tries to give the characters she plays more agency and some sense of seriousness but is shutdown at every chance. Until a very lucky audition she gets cast as the leading actress of Archies movie, becoming the very first black lead actress on the white screen.

With a black lead actress, a black screenwriter, and an interracial couple at the head of Meg, the movie and studios get major criticism from the society. They threaten everyone involved, going as far as setting fire to the studios’ president’s home and protesting outside the studios’ gates. While all of this is going down, Dick Samuels rises to the stand to offer comfort and motivates everyone to go on and “fuck the haters”. Dick is a closeted employee at Ace Pictures and oversees every movie in production and makes sure that everything is as it should be. He really is the backbone of the whole project. From the very beginning he is very much supportive of the movie and the progressive innuendos. He really feels like the sweetest uncle ever. However, he is struggling with his sexuality. Society isn’t very supporting of homosexuality, to say the least. Especially in Hollywood it could mean the end of one’s career.

Together with countless amazing characters these four remarkable people set out to make the movie that will make history against all odds. Everyone is aware that the movie they made will either be an incredibly good thing or a great disaster. As the president Avis Amberg during her toast says: “we’ll either be looked at as the smartest people in the room or we will never work again. To never working again.” Personally, I love this quote. This quote means that the movie will be so controversial, that changes need to happen within the filming industry. But the people are too small minded to ever want that to happen, hence the protests. So, while to be looked at as the smartest people in the room is great, it won’t have the same impact as when they all would be fired for releasing the movie and then never work again. This means they have done a tremendous job with so much power and impact, that people will be scared for what they will do next and how it will affect them. So, keeping them out of a job represents the fear of that power to me.

What I commend Hollywood most for is that every properly introduced character had a purpose, a mission, a “flaw” and grew from it. I say “flaw”, because of the way the “flaw” was perceived by other in the series, like sexual orientation and race. But there were also genuine flaws like sexual manipulation, homophobias and infidelity. The characters were so well fleshed out that I really understood them, what they stood for and why they would do certain things the way they did. Even the “villainy” characters showed this growth and progression. Most tv shows I watch, characters are mostly explained but growth is barely shown. So, for this series with only 7 episodes to round out their characters without it feeling rushed, is something I appreciate.

While I definitely enjoyed the series, I don’t think I want another season. It probably would be about how the characters are holding up now as well-established names in Hollywood or maybe different people would take the spotlight now. But to me that feels unnecessary, because the way this show ended already gave me a feeling of completion and I think a second season would be too much of a good thing.

Kudos to everyone involved with Hollywood. I thoroughly enjoyed it and recommend it 10/10 to others to go and watch it. I might have already pressured my sister and cousin.

Thank you for reading! Tell me what you thought of Hollywood and ‘till next time!

[geekofchaos]

Can I just say something that I appreciate about Hollywood Netflix? It doesn’t show editors and/or editing and revising your work as pure evil and killing artists. Censors yes, because they are but not editors.

Hollywood often tends to show this one brilliant guy with an idea that must not be changed or altered in any way even though Hollywood works in Hollywood and knows that’s not how it works. Which leads to people thinking that’s the way it is and that they shouldn’t revise or change their work in the drafting process.

But writing is mostly rewriting and I promise you that every writer has had a reader or an editor say “why don’t you do it like this or add this,” and had a reaction of “oh shit, why didn’t I think of that?” I love the scene where Dick and Raymond are revising Archie’s script and Archie is pissed at first but by the end is into it because they’re spitting good ideas. For sure, there have also been times where the editors or the suggested ideas are dumb but that’s just being human.

But this series showed just how collaborative the film-making process is and how many parts we as the viewer never see.