Mike Schur

To put a fine point on this, no matter who buys it, like HBO is in the business of making a small number, a relatively small number of very expensive TV shows and movies, very expensive, like, you know, things that are extremely high quality that take a long time to shoot and that are, when you watch them, you're just like, man, that look how good that looks.

The level of filmmaking of an HBO product is incredibly high.

And that is the kind of thing that no matter who buys them, you have to just say...

okay, keep doing that.

It is not the most tech-efficient, streamlined kind of production, but it is worth doing because it's artistic.

And the imprimatur of HBO means a lot to viewers and to the world of Hollywood.

And so right now, anyone can say, yes, we're going to let HBO keep doing what they've been doing.

After four years, when they've had a couple shows or expensive projects that didn't work out so well, will they still maintain that?

Will the tech guys who run those companies still say, you know what, I don't care that we're losing money or that we're not making as much money as we could.

Keep going, HBO, because you're great and we love you.

They've had that protection.

for years decades even because they win awards and because they that brand means something if they're bought by a tech company any tech company if if amazon bought them would they still maintain that i don't know and that's that's the scary thing like the landscape of tv used to have a lot of different

outlets that meant a lot of different things and different shows could go to different places for different reasons and they all had brands and you know you wanted to make a fun you know down the middle of the road multicam comedy you put it on cbs you want to make a super high-end

Like, you want to make I May Destroy You?

You go to HBO.

And at some point when these companies all merge and they all became the same people and they are run by algorithms and they have massive, you know, institutional shareholders who demand a certain profit level...

Do they still allow places like HBO to make I May Destroy You and The Wire that nobody watched ever?

No one ever watched The Wire and The Wire is maybe the most important TV show of the last 50 years.

That's my fear as a writer and as a producer is that

The mergers and the consolidation ultimately just drives everything to the middle and you don't get the kinds of shows that make a lasting impression on us as a human species.