I didn't finish your essay because I'm only on the middle of the second episode of Hellbound, & people sometimes unintentionally provide spoilers.

That said I've long enjoyed Korean horror, suspense. I quite like Parasite, though I also believe it ought to have received either the International Best Picture or Best Picture, but not both.

Anywho, I recall learning in the mid 70s that Los Angeles's level of film & TV production had been eclipsed by Bollywood. At the time I'd never seen an Indian film or TV episode. I think then the numbers were due largely to domestic consumption.

As you write, LA's future is uncertain. In addition to so many challenges to its native industry, you have drought, wildfires, earthquakes, the astonishingly high cost of living. Who knows? I moved away, not by choice, in '94 to NYC. Now I live upstate. I was there last year. Very painful with all Covid restrictions. The Pacific Dining Car closing down, for one. But the worst thing I saw there was that the 24 hour World News & Books stand on Cahuenga had closed down for good (though not because of Covid). Now that entire part of Hollywood will get darker & scarier at night with no all-night anchor business.

In 1991 you could still sit in a cafe on Hollywood Boulevard & run into a movie star (Lawrence Tierney just before Resevoir Dogs drinking beer & inviting passersby, including me, to join him. Very cool).

I'd like to write on the topic, but since I don't live there anymore I just don't feel right about doing so. Glad someone is.