When I was a kid, my parents had a strict family rule: No television during dinner. So we ate fast. At our peak, we could complete dinner in about seven minutes. Everything changed when Wheel of Fortune hit the airwaves. My parents flipped on the rule faster than Vanna White flipped letters. Today, when I look back our TV obsession, I realize we were ahead of our time. The internet dominates our lives, but TV dominates our attention (and most of our dinner party conversations). Maybe you’re a liberal elitist watching and rewatching episodes of Succession. Maybe you’re a rugged red-stater watching Yellowstone. Or maybe, like me, you’re a true American patriot who watches both. Whatever you’re choice of viewing, there’s more than ever to watch and it’s always waiting for you whenever you’re ready to press play — you can even leave the TV off during dinner and not miss a thing. Karl Marx called religion the opiate of the masses. But then again, Marx didn’t have cable. Scripts are the new scripture. As of today, our opiate supply is getting cut off. Hollywood writers have put down their pencils and stopped tapping on their keys. “The Writers Guild of America is on strike for the first time in 15 years, as writers will fan out on Tuesday afternoon to walk picket lines outside the major studios in LA … The guild has said that writers are facing an existential crisis brought about by the shift to streaming, with fewer TV episodes and lower residuals.” Late night talkshows will be the first place you’ll feel the strike, but things could get a lot more dire if a deal isn’t made soon, and the two sides are far apart on big issues. All I know is that if I run out of new TV shows to watch, I’m going to have a serious episode.

+ From Vox: Here are five questions about the WGA strike, why it matters, and what it might mean for you and for the future of entertainment.

+ Artificial intelligence is enriching (or infecting) everything these days, so this is a plot twist you should have seen coming. The looming threat of AI to Hollywood. “Artificial intelligence could be the most important part of a writers strike.” (I worry that when it comes to this topic, the writing is on the wall.)

+ “How did it come to this? About a decade ago, in the era of “Mad Men,” “Breaking Bad,” and “Veep,” TV writing seemed like one of the coolest, best-paying jobs a writer could have. As with the talkie boom of the nineteen-thirties, playwrights and journalists were flocking to Hollywood to partake in the heyday of prestige TV. It was fun.” Then everything changed, from the goal of streamers to the economics of what has become a highly leveraged business. The New Yorker: Why Are TV Writers So Miserable?