Please, Netflix, don't screw this up

Advice on the Warner Bros. deal from a critic who still watches a lot of TV and movies.

- MARY MCNAMARA CULTURE CRITIC

Times photo illustration; photo by DANIA MAXWELL Los Angeles Times

Dear Ted Sarandos, Congratulations on making the winning bid for Warner Bros. By directly contradicting your famous “build don’t buy” mantra, you have managed to throw the already beleaguered entertainment industry into an apoplectic meltdown, and just in time for the holidays!

On the plus side, the thought of Paramount's David Ellison throwing a nepo-baby “but I want it” tantrum when he heard the news has provided a fair amount of grim delight.

Just not enough, I'm afraid, to assuage the overwhelming outrage and fear currently being voiced by many, that you will personally not be content until every movie theater is shuttered, every other network/ streaming service consumed, forcing every person in the world to watch only Netflix via a crystal embedded in their hand like something out of “Logan's Run.” (Which is not available on Netflix, so perhaps you haven't seen it.)

In other words, a lot of people, including thousands who actually make film and television, are not happy, not happy at all, Precious. (Including the stock market, where Netflix fell after the deal was announced.)