It’s awards season and Donald Trump calls The White Home dwelling.
The mathematics virtually does itself.
Awards present after awards present is smiting President Trump this time of yr.
That is how democrats misplaced the election. Now Judd is making an attempt to lose his viewers.https://t.co/OUQoA4mTab
— Peter Sauer (@CoffeeAddict40) February 9, 2025
The most recent instance? Saturday night time’s Writers Guild of America (WGA) awards ceremony in Los Angeles. The gala featured a number of artists taking jabs at President Trump.
The night’s honoree, “Breaking Unhealthy” creator Vince Gilligan, used his time accepting the Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for Tv Writing Achievement to do the identical.
He additionally expanded the dialog to take an extended, arduous take a look at Hollywood content material. And he made a degree that individuals throughout the political spectrum ought to heed.
“In our profoundly divided nation, everyone appears to agree on one factor: there are too many real-life dangerous guys, it’s simply we’re residing in numerous realities so we’ve all obtained totally different lists.”
He made it clear that the present President is considered one of mentioned dangerous guys. He didn’t cease there.
“As a author, talking to a room filled with writers, I’ve a proposal; it definitely received’t repair all the things however I believe it’s a begin. I say we write extra good guys … For many years we made the villains too attractive,” with Darth Vader and Hannibal Lecter as examples, and “viewers in all places, all around the globe, concentrate. They are saying right here’s this badass, I wish to be that cool. When that occurs, fictional dangerous guys cease being the precautionary tales they had been meant to be. God assist us, they’ve change into aspirational.”
He’s proper.
You may identify examine his “Breaking Unhealthy” antihero Walter White or Tony Soprano, for starters. What about Ray Donovan? Dexter? Don Draper? Jax Teller? Vic Mackey?
And let’s not even begin on Hollywood’s love affair with hit males. What number of films ask us to root for skilled killers?
Too many.
Gilligan additionally shared a notice of warning. The duty at hand received’t be straightforward.
“Made-up dangerous guys are enjoyable and so they’re simpler to jot down effectively.”
Sure, it’s more difficult to jot down Boy Scout-style characters. It’s one purpose the latest iteration of Superman hasn’t been an entire success. The late ’70s model struck the proper notice, with Christopher Reeve capturing the aw, shucks DC Comics hero.
Henry Cavill’s Superman was darker and extra conflicted. It’s all trendy writers know the way to pen. Maybe that’s why director James Gunn is rebooting the character later this yr.
We do want extra heroes on screens giant and small. But there’s a resistance constructed into the equation. Bear in mind how the media savaged the fact-based story “Sound of Freedom,” involving the heroics of Tim Ballard?
We dwell in a deeply cynical age the place heroes are sometimes handled shabbily or framed as corny or pretend.
Nice writers can upend that notion. Possibly Gilligan, well-known for “Breaking Unhealthy” and “Higher Name Saul,” ought to prepared the ground.