HeyJaredStraczynski’s Substack
Essays and commentaries, original writing available exclusively on Substack.
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 7
- Latest publication
- Sep 28, 2026
- Audience
- Checking…
- Earliest in this view
- Jul 13, 2026
Latest issues
We Killed Them in the Ratings (opens the original)
Read excerpt
(Note: the following story contains some scenes of violence.)Carl Sarotkin was getting desperate. He tried to hide it from everyone else at the station, a Business As Usual smile stamped firmly on his face, but he could feel himself buckling under the stress. He was losing weight, his thinning hair greyer than before, and his eyes felt pinched behind his wide-frame glasses.StreetScene was slipping in the ratings.Straczynski’s Substack is a reader-supported public
Catching Up With an Upload and a Story (opens the original)
Read excerpt
Between still deciding what the best course of action is in terms of sticking around here or going elsewhere, and a flood of deadlines, I’ve fallen behind a tick on this site. So now we fix it, starting with adding to the JMS Script Archive. The bulls-eye center of the Babylon 5 story, midway through season three, is a trilogy of episodes that turns the entire show upside down, as the show’s characters decide to secede from EarthGov and take on their own government and those who were once their
JMS Twilight Zone Script (opens the original)
Read excerpt
So I’ve been giving some considerable amount of thought to moving this effort to another system, given some concerns I have about this particular platform. (If that should happen, I will turn off the stripe which I believe should refund everyone that’s signed on as a subscriber in full or in part, unless anyone reading this has a more effective means of ensuring the maximum degree of refund, especially given that nothing has been taken out.)Meanwhile: I promised the next uploaded script would be
Fair Replies to Fair Questions (opens the original)
Read excerpt
Following my post about having a (very) short addendum from an AI system discussing what is arguably the first story actually about AI, a number of folks posted concerns and questions in response. The majority of those replies (minus some of the more colorful bits of invective) are well-considered, fair, and deserve a respectful response. So let’s have the conversation.Some quick background, starting with AI in general.The very first article I published on this site was a two-parter discussing w
What the New Spider-Man Movie Got Right (opens the original)
Read excerpt
Over on Twitter (annoying, I know, but I refuse to call it X) a user posted the following in response to a discussion about Spider-Man: Brand New Day in regards to what is or isn’t a MacGuffin, whether they’re used in the movie (they’re not), and if using them is really such a bad thing in the first place. Along the way, the comment shown below came along, which motivated me to post a note here going into the situation in detail. (In case the individual would not want their name used, I’m omitti
Publishing over time
Last 90 days. Choose a month to open its work.
Recurring subjects
Named in the text we hold. One piece can cover several.
Audience
No verified audience measurement yet.
About this data
Counts cover the work we have indexed. Tone needs enough text and a confident classification. Excerpts and episode notes are not full articles or transcripts.
Identity or attribution wrong? Suggest a correction.