Accountability in Entertainment • Page 394

Is it bad that I recognize the importance of an expose like the Quiet on Set docuseries, but also feel like it comes off a bit opportunistic/tabloidy/misery porn-esque? Started it during my lunch break today and don't know how much interest I have in continuing. Could just be my intolerance to feel-bad news these days.

edit: to clarify, it's nothing about the content of the doc, it's the fact that these things feel so stylized in a way the same doc wouldn't have been 20 years ago. Everything feels very TLC/Investigation Discovery when a documentary about abuse should be shocking enough without that tone. I don't know if I'm making any sense, or if I just sound like an old man yelling at clouds.

 

No, you make a point. I avoid that type of stuff specifically because it’s treated that way.

 

I'm very anti true crime and the doc is definitely unintentionally flaming conspiracy theorists, I don't think I can watch it

 

Yeah it's hard for me to watch those at this point. I still really dig the ones like the McDonald's Monopoly one that came out a few years ago, but anything with actual victims and abuse are really hard to get through now.

 

Fart noise

 

Sounds like he was getting a little too into character behind the scenes

edit: not a dismissal, I'm saying it sounds like he was coked tf out

 

I think we’ve learned that blowing up and being a piece of shit is his character

 

Finished watching Quiet On Set last night and I’ve got some feelings about it. Thought that overall it felt a little disjointed, like they had very little to go off of when painting a picture of Dan Schneider as the monster that he is beyond former cast and crew talking about events that ranged from outright abusive things that he said or did to “that’s kind of weird, right?” Then when they got into the Drake Bell episode, it was very illuminating, certainly, about what went on between him and Brian Peck, but it also felt slightly disconnected from the rest of the show? Like this is the lynchpin to the narrative, but also feels like a story that should be its own thing? I say that because the moment Drake’s story is finished, we’re right back into “and here are some OTHER things Dan wrote into his shows that seem kind of weird” and it’s a bit of a tonal whiplash. There are two other pedophiles mentioned who worked on the crew and one of them gets a little bit of analysis and screen time (but nothing compared to Brian Peck let alone Dan Schneider), and the other pedophile gets only a brief, passing mention of less than a minute. There are two female writers I would like to have heard more from as well as some crew members who chose to keep their faces off camera presumably out of fear, and Alexa Nikolas was brought in for the last episode and seemed to be hinting at more going on behind the scenes that we’re not privy to because she is clearly hurting but also speaks somewhat cryptically.

I just know that without being able to get the full truth about the man from someone like Amanda Bynes (again, there’s an AWFUL lot implied here about the nature of their relationship behind the scenes, but never explicitly stated and it’s an instance where it seems like they don’t have anything more to add to that so they just drop it and leave it up to the viewer to be like “weird, huh?”), there will always be a sense that the story is incomplete and that he’s absolutely getting away with murder. As it is, yeah his career is essentially at a bit of a standstill, but he’s also out there leveraging the damage with former child actors who give him space to “clear the air” while he goes on an apology tour in lieu of kickstarting his career all over again and this ends up feeling more or less like a slap on the wrist. He’ll take it on the chin for a while until the public consciousness moves on and then he’ll quietly return. I absolutely respect that some people might still live in fear of the outcome of truth telling and that there can be real world consequences, but it leaves me walking away from this with a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. I guess I’m not entirely sure what the goal is here. It’s important to hear these stories, yes, and to ensure that future generations of child actors are safeguarded from systemic abuse, but what else am I gleaning from this that I didn’t already know about Dan Schneider? The cultural impact it’s currently having is obviously going to shine a light on this topic for a while, but what else?

 

I generally don't watch documentaries (or any sort of reality tv) but I did watch Quiet on Set just because it was going viral and I was curious. I didn't have Nickelodeon when iCarly and Victorious were on, but it's still a tough watch, especially the Drake Bell episode. I don't really have anything profound to say on the subject, I just hope this helps bring about necessary change in the industry.

 

Oh and also, those letters written by actors in support of Brian Peck are out there now and there was one thing that stood out to me in Rider Strong’s letter he’d written at the time. Drake stated in the doc that a red flag for him now is that Brian began attending every one of his concerts, no matter how far away they were. Dan attended one that was nearby where he lived, but Brian went out of his way to be there at every single event even if it meant he had to drive two hours to get there. In Rider’s letter he wrote:

Personally, he has showed up at every screening, theatrical play, or event of my career, and has given me free coachings for auditions. He is one of the most dependable people I have the pleasure of calling my friend.

That’s pretty fucking chilling knowing that was Brian’s tactic. Rider was almost definitely on Peck’s list of potential victims and I think the only thing that probably saved him was that the set of Boy Meets World had more systems set in place to keep the kids safe (and Rider’s family was also very close juxtaposed with Drake’s parents who were separated and didn’t get along, which Brian used against him) whereas Nickelodeon was a pedophile’s playground. So Brian likely never got the chance to make a move like he did with Drake. I think Rider wrote those words in that letter without realizing at the time that what he thought was a friend being there for him was actually a tactic being employed by a master manipulator who was in the midst of grooming him. Peck also seemed to have a type. Drake was a sensitive artist who was interested in old Hollywood and wrote lyrics and poetry. That describes Rider to a T and Peck used those same interests to get close to Drake.

 

Agreed on everything you said. God that Drake stuff was heartbreaking to watch/hear.

 

Yeah I have a lot of mixed feelings that I can’t exactly put into words at the moment.

It feels gross when the entertainment industry tries to make money off of stories about how bad the entertainment industry is. Knowing how connect Hollywood is, I have a hard time believing every single person in a higher up position at Max have a crystal clean record on this subject… so it kinda feels like somewhere there are some rich pigs collecting checks for making stories about the same type of, if not literally the same, abuse they’ve inflicted and laughing all the way to the bank.

The cliffhangers teasing Drake’s story to keep viewers watching all 4 episodes makes it seem extra gross.

 

Discovery’s true crime content is pretty trash and the tone/reporting is nowhere near the quality of say HBO or other, more esteemed documentaries about similar true crime subjects.

 

This is what's given me pause on really judging anyone who sent in letters of support. I appreciate Rider and Will Friedle being so open an earnest about their experience with it. If I recall correctly, James Marsden mentions knowing Peck since he was a teenager in his letter. I'm not letting him off the hook, but I don't think it's far fetched to think a similar scenario to what the BMW guys went through happened to others.

 

Taran too

 

I wonder if they asked some of the “bigger” names of Nickelodeon who worked with Dan and the others involved like Ariana, Miranda Cosgrove, Jamie Lynn Spears, Victoria Justice, Josh Peck, Kenan/Kel, and Amanda Bynes but they said no because of how the doc was being presented. I hope everyone is able to tell their stories when they feel comfortable doing so and in a way they feel comfortable doing.

 

Yeah very much this, and Drake’s episode in particular feels so divorced from the rest of the proceedings for this exact reason. Like it feels as though the first two episodes are teeing the viewer up for the thing they know you really want to hear because of how they marketed this and that’s when they drop that cliffhanger on you. Drake even says in his episode that Dan Schneider was one of the only people who was there for him during the entire process after Peck was arrested, which sort of runs counterintuitive to the rest of what we’re being presented with in the other three episodes and that only serves to further remove Drake’s tragic story from the support beams surrounding it. I don’t know, that almost made it feel distasteful, like they’d pulled Drake out of a twenty year silence for a project whose premise doesn’t really have a whole lot else to do with him?

 

This pretty much nails what I was trying to say earlier, the tldr being something about the presentation feels very...off, and gross. It seems to prioritize the "entertainment value" of misconduct allegations as opposed to being strictly informational.

 

This goes for YouTube families too

 

the MVP is Drake's girlfriend's mom

 

Soon as I heard that part I said out loud to no one in particular, “god bless that woman” because who knows what might have happened had she not stepped in. Drake’s mother’s absence from this whole thing was notable.

 

We got so angry at the mom who explains that her daughter was sent inappropriate pictures, and was wondering if she should go to the police "but how would that make me look?" so she did nothing. It's not about you!