Welcome to Eye on the Screen!
A newsletter by Mae Abdulbaki, entertainment writer and critic.
My Substack, Eye on the Screen, has been months in the making. I’ve been sitting with it for a while, unable to figure out what it is I wanted to focus on. For more than 13 years, I’ve been a critic and entertainment writer. I’d been lucky enough to call it a full-time job for seven years — until I was laid off late last year. The following months have been difficult, to say the least. Sporadically freelancing, applying to jobs that ghost you while watching colleague after colleague post to LinkedIn about being laid off.
The journalism industry is at one of its lowest points right now, and I’m deeply saddened by the direction it’s taken, with an aggressive focus on AI that has left us writers without work, much less anything meaningful. It feels a lot like watching the last snow melt; the brown mush is all that’s left. Turning inward, I’ve long wondered what my next steps would be. I’ve applied to what seems like every entertainment job that suits me, only to come up with nothing.
So here I am, starting a Substack so that I can write about what I want without waiting for someone to give me an assignment. I’m back where I started in a way. My career in the world of entertainment writing and criticism grew after I started my own website. Those days are over, but my love for writing and discussing TV and movies isn’t.
What you’ll find here is an analysis of the movies and TV shows I love, despise, and — this is the worst one — feel indifferent toward, with a specific focus on Arab and Southwest Asian and North African (SWANA) media. That includes how SWANA people are portrayed in Western media, an ongoing problem that is only occasionally disrupted by a film or series that avoids long-used stereotypes to offer something more refreshing and incisive. Occasionally, I’ll write about a pop culture moment.
How does the media we consume speak to us and, most importantly, how does it underscore the world we live in? Does it add to it? Is it representative of our present, like the 80s movies filmmakers so love to emulate but don’t always get right? Either way, I hope that my musings will leave you with some food for thought as I grow Eye on the Screen. I hope you will join me on this journey, and, if you’re still reading, thank you.