I always wondered why those later seasons of Angel seemed like shit, and come to find out it's because Whedon was treating his cast like shit.

There's a disturbing belief among people in film and television (including critics) that treating your cast and crew like shit is completely justified if the results are "good."

Started with folks like Kubrick and Hitchcock.

For one, it's simply not true. I don't care how good your work is, it doesn't justify treating people terribly.

For another, it got so ingrained into directors and producers and actors and critics that somehow it morphed into great works *requiring* treating your cast like shit.

So you have pretty good or decent or even utterly crappy creatives in the industry just shitting all over everyone as if it's actual manure required to grow something.

In fact it was just behavior that was rationalized and tacitly approved by almost everyone involved.

It's that old "correlation is not causation" thing.

Kubrick didn't create "great" films because he was a fucking sociopath. Whatever work he made was due to his skills, which did not include driving Shelley Duvall into a breakdown.

But everybody wants to be Kubrick. Everybody wants to be Hitchcock.

It's like buying Air Jordans so you can be like Mike, except in this case it's not sneakers but it's casually shitting on other human beings.

Maybe it's the new blood pressure meds, but I'm gonna give you a "good faith" chance on this one.

I don't think you appreciate the power dynamics involved, and I also don't think you appreciate that bullies focus on "weak" targets. https://twitter.com/SpoonyViking/status/1359551396404727814

People in entertainment don't complain or speak up because if you complain or speak up you're a complainer and you cause problems, and no one wants to work with someone who will cause problems.

And by "cause problems" I mean "reveal your shitty and inappropriate behavior."

And finally, don't let that "Well, they weren't shitty to *me*" nonsense infect you, because it's a bastard to clear out of your system.

He might have been great to some cast members.

He was still shitty to others.