END CREDITS

A former TV writer recounts her years working in the business.

“Ever since I retired from television at the ripe age of thirty-eight,” writes the author, “people have asked me: ‘Why would you quit such a cool career?’ ” Lin, a former staff writer and producer for shows like Friends, Freaks and Geeks, and Desperate Housewives, shares her mostly negative experiences in “an unhealthy culture filled with damaged people who both perpetrated abuse and accepted it.” With a few exceptions, notably her stint on Freaks and Geeks, the author’s tenure as a TV writer was unsatisfying. “On my first day as a television writer,” she writes, “my boss used me to fuck over one of the other writers.” Years later, her outlook remained unchanged: “I’d been through some harrowing shit in my career,” but on a specific day during her time with Breaking Bad, “I hit a new low.” Lin acknowledges she was paid well while exposing the countless unsavory aspects of the entertainment industry. “We all became worker bees,” she notes, “writing disembodied scenes that would get stitched together into a Frankenstein of a script.” When she attained the level of producer, she had “to deal with problems I used to be sheltered from. And by problems, I mean actors.” The author effectively illuminates the loneliness she experienced as the only Asian writer in the room, “buckling under the pressure to represent my entire race,” as well as examples of “the culture that allows men to behave badly.” The weakest parts of the narrative focus on Lin’s long-term relationship, which ultimately failed, and include tepid revelations such as, “It takes two to tango.” A year after leaving the industry, she began this book “as a therapeutic exercise.” It’s clear the author’s writing process was cathartic, but her audience may be limited to fellow former TV writers and those interested in the behind-the-scenes goings-on of that world.

There’s nothing groundbreaking here, but the book is heartfelt and candid.