My Most-Read Pieces Of 2024

Like everyone else tasked with cranking out pieces close to the end of the year, I am reminded that this is a great time to revisit the most-read pieces from this 2024. 

It's been an interesting year. I've done a bunch of media appearances, including some appearances in the buzzy Dan Schneider documentary Quiet On Set: The Dark Side Of Kids TV. I also won the 2024 David Robb Award for Best Investigative Civil Justice Story at the National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards. I think it's fair to say that as a solo journalist, I've been punching above my weight.

So here is a quick rundown of the most read pieces of 2024, in no particular order. Aside from the fact they are all stories I am very proud of, they also provide an indication of the range of my reporting:

• • Netflix Isn't A Movie Studio, It's The Costco Of The Streaming Industry
    I wrote a lot about streaming and this is the piece that generated the most positive and negative feedback from readers. The interesting part for me was that TV critics and the general public seemed to really disagree with my premise. But I heard from a number of people who work in the industry who thought it was very on point with the reality of the streaming business and Netflix's role in it.
    
    
  • Michael Feeney Was Minnesota's 'Quiet On Set' Moment
    Obviously the fact that reporting on this story ended up winning me a national investigative reporting award makes it a big deal for me. But even more important to me what that it highlighted a story that deserved more attention. And reminded readers that despite all of the press coverage of sexual abuse of underage actors, the laws and guidelines surrounding child actors has not changed at all.
    
    
  • Deep Streams: 'Building Outside The Lines'
    One of the most popular types of reviews I write are the ones in which I highlight some obscure show that no one noticed when it premiered. This review of the gentle and heartwarming father/daughter home rehab series generated a crazy number of thank you messages from people who learned about the show through the review and then fell in love with it. 
    
    
  • Forget Chasing Non-Partisanship, CNN Should Embrace Populism
    Being thought of as a non-partisan cable news network sounds great in theory. But aside from the difficult challenge of convincing viewers who think they know which way your network leans that they're mistaken, what does "non-partisan" even mean in 2024? In the case of CNN (and if press reports are to be believed, MSNBC), the default answer is to add a few contentious conservative on-air voices. However, I had a different suggestion
    
    
  • Netflix And The Moneyball Of Streaming
    One of the ongoing games in the entertainment news press is to try and determine the "success" or "failure" of a Netflix original by comparing its viewing numbers to every other title that has come before it. But I write in this piece, the real way to determine success is by taking a Moneyball approach to keeping a subscriber base satisfied and engaged.
    
    
  • Review: 'Matlock'
    While I liked the underlying long con premise of the show, I found the idea of calling this series "Matlock" was done more as a marketing gimmick than anything else. Which to be honest, annoyed the crap out of me.  A lot of people read this review, but not many people agreed with it.
    
    
  • The Cowardice Of Bob Iger
    The CEO of Disney has convinced himself that if he just strips away any culturally-sensitive elements from the company's TV show and movies, conservative critics will leave Disney alone. He's in for a rude surprise.
    
    
  • Review: 'Ultraman: Rising'
    You might not expect for an animated film based on the iconic Ultraman character to be as much about what it means to be a father as it is about kicking some kaiju behind. Which is why this was one of my favorite films of the year.
    
    
  • Q&A: PBS Chief Digital and Marketing Officer Ira Rubenstein
    I really love doing long-form interviews that allow me to dig deep into an executive's role and use that as a way to highlight the overall business model and challenges of that organization for my readers. I really enjoyed this interview, but I was pleasantly surprised to discover it was a conversation that a lot of people enjoyed and passed around to co-workers.
    
    
  • Review: 'Dave Chappelle: The Dreamer'
    One thing I learned this year is that when you write a negative review of Dave Chappelle, you will hear from his fans. Although for the most part, their complaining emails reminded me a lot of what I disliked about this Netflix special: a lot of misplaced anger and the need for some serious copyediting and pruning.