Board Thread:Spoilers/@comment-96.228.137.74-20160311185338/@comment-26247132-20160406070230

Ricky's interview on youtube with Ben Bateman. It was a fantastic interview for the most part. I've only listened to it once so I wasn't too clear on some things and might have missed some other things. I've summed up the JR stuff below.

Ricky loved everything about that show, loved Lincoln, misses the everyday contact with his vanfam. Lincoln was supposed to survive S3 but JR started cutting Ricky's scenes and dialogue to the point where Ricky sat around for 6 weeks not even filming. JR further "abused his position to make [Ricky's] job untenable." Typical, run-of-the-mill, power-mad-boss-type bullying and other inappropriate behavior that got so bad Ricky tried to quit in S2 and again in S3. He also briefly touched on all the script changes that kept happening last minute and how Lincoln's entire storyline continued to shrink with each new script release.

Ricky finally reached an agreement with CW/WB to stick out the season but could addition for other roles? (I wasn't too clear on what was being said here). He would absolutely work with CW and WB again in a heartbeat. He was even still considering returning to The 100 S4 until JR changed the script and killed him off for unnecessary shock value and sabotaged the story. (Ricky also made a passing comment  that it was probably because JR heard about the American Gods audition.) It sounds like the original plan might have been to write him off in the finale, allowing him to come back for S4? (again not too certain on what he meant).

^^ALL of this makes it sound like he's still technically under some sort of loose contract with CW/WB, which brings me to the only cringe-worthy PR moments. He continuously pushed for us to keep watching a show where the show-runner bullied the audience and has completely crossed the line in terms of story. I want to keep watching, I want to support the cast and crew, but I'm sorry, Ricky. Like you said, "enough is enough." People's mental and emotional health is at stake. Lexa's death triggered people, Lincoln's death triggered people, this next episode sounds like it's also going to be triggering.

I really honestly think he hasn't even bothered watching this season and doesn't realize it's so much worse than a couple of dead favorite characters. This season is abusive and bullying to the audience and if Ricky actually saw what we're seeing, I don't think he would have almost guilt-tripped us into keep watching it. He did make up for that PR spiel a little bit with a comment at the end about how the show is great, the cast and crew are great, the show-runner just needs to go.

He also phrased a couple of other things poorly but this is a live interview so it's understandable (but I have a feeling people will still be jumping on him for it because everyone is so freaking over-sensitized now because of JR's manipulation).

All in all, great interview. Still no real specifics besides typical bullying behavior from a terrible boss but that's okay because there's no need to air dirty laundry that graphically. What he gave us was enough information to understand the problem while also remaining respectful and professional.

And now, I'm even more excited for American Gods!