Unscripted: The Epic Battle for a Hollywood Media Empire by James B. Stewart, Rachel Abrams

3.69 AVERAGE

edematteis1's review against another edition

4.0
Excellent reporting, depressing AF

ktpineda's review against another edition

4.5
fast-paced
Very interesting story. Well researched. So much greed and bad behavior by powerful and rich people. 
femmecheng's profile picture

femmecheng's review against another edition

4.0
4.5 stars rounded down.
simonariccardi's profile picture

simonariccardi's review against another edition

3.0
she's no empire of pain!

that being said, this felt more like a spiritual successor to "she said" with the moonves coverage - however. i think with as gargantuan of a cast of characters as this, i wasn't following everybody as closely as i could have. the characters jumbled together. i lost track of sumner lol.
acinthedc's profile picture

acinthedc's review against another edition

3.0
informative slow-paced

sbrot's review against another edition

4.75
dark informative sad medium-paced

saman417's review against another edition

4.0
informative medium-paced

bookishlykendra's review against another edition

3.0
dark informative slow-paced
cmr727's profile picture

cmr727's review against another edition

4.0
I found this a pretty compelling story, though much less so once it switched to the Moonves part (which also felt like a pretty jarring shift). I missed the first half of the story with its the focus on family and the impact of enormous wealth, how you reconcile your dad being a not great person, etc etc.

mdenmark2026's review against another edition

2.0
This book is really more like two long-form articles mushed together for some reason. The first part about Sumner Redstone is disturbing and strange but gives little context as to why the events described were taking place; the second part about Les Moonves was even more disturbing but in the context of #MeToo, had some footing. There are parts that delve into how corporate boards operate and parts about how Viacom/CBS was late to the game on streaming; either of these subjects could have been a good read. Maybe more context about the Redstone family and the creation of National Amusements would have brought more coherence to the rest of the story.