"Man looks into the abyss and when there's nothing staring back at him, that's when he finds his character. And that's what keeps him out of the abyss."

— Oliver Stone, Wall Street

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Hollywood lives with its finger on the panic button, and Hollywood trades live with five fingers permanently pressing the panic button for all its worth.

Quarterly earnings were down! It's the end of the world! Subscriptions were flat! It's the end of the world! Our favorite division head was fired! It's the end of the world!

That said, latent hysteria notwithstanding, we might actually be at the end of the world, or at least this one as we know it, as the WGA contract expiration deadline of May 1 looms.

Problem is, we've got a host of factors creating a perfect storm of intransigence and cluelessness. And the scenarios by which the studios and streamers get it together and deal with the issues on