The Franchise: What Stage of Capitalism Is This?

★★★★★

Review

I honestly had no idea what I was getting into when I picked up The Franchise. I was skimming the synopsis and saw the words "dystopian," "science fiction," and "medieval world," and I checked it out from my library on a whim, and I'm so glad I did!

Author Thomas Elrod blends science fiction, fantasy, dark comedy, and action into a story that is wildly entertaining while also deeply unsettling. The novel has a lot of exciting scenes, but its mostly a book about ethics in storytelling, media, and the relationship between audiences and the entertainment industry. It never feels like it's “beating a dead horse;” the book, instead lets you contemplate these ideas long after you've put the book down.

I am a sucker for great narrative structure. Linear is okay…but I really enjoy unraveling the pieces of a story myself. The Franchise constantly shifts between timelines and perspectives of different characters slowly revealing how unrelated events fit together. It has that "you're probably wondering how I ended up in this situation" vibe. Every time I thought I understood where the story was headed, Elrod revealed another piece of the puzzle and once I realized where he was taking me I could not put this book down. 

I am also a sucker for dark humor, and the franchise is a perfect mix of dark, absurd, existential, and laugh-out-loud funny. I like how it balances humor with more serious topics. 

If you enjoy speculative fiction that mixes big philosophical questions with action, memorable worldbuilding, and sharp social commentary, I can't recommend The Franchise enough. I recommend this book to fans of The Truman Show, Westworld, Black Mirror, and The Studio. 

My Thoughts (Spoilers)

We've seen a lot of them lately. Shows like Apple TV’s The Studio or the Netflix Original Bojack Horseman, that poke fun at impossible production schedules, executives chasing the next billion-dollar intellectual property, and an entertainment industry that seems more interested in a box office success than storytelling. Although satirical in nature they serve to represent a deeper problem within today's media. 

The Franchise by Thomas Elrod does just that, showing us how original stories, once placed under the bright lights of studio production, can morph into trashy cash grabs. Elrod explores the hilarious and gruesome consequences of corruption and overconsumption within the entertainment industry through two intertwined settings: a near-future science fiction world and the magical medieval realm of Malicorn.

While reading I kept coming back to this one question:

What stage of capitalism is this?

It feels strangely common now to laugh at the very systems creating the problems. We joke about streaming services raising prices while adding advertisements. We roll our eyes every time another remake, reboot, prequel, sequel, or cinematic universe is announced. We make memes about corporate greed while watching the newest prestige series produced by billion-dollar corporations. The machine has become so obvious that it has become entertainment itself. Maybe that's part of the problem. Somewhere along the way, we stopped asking what a story was trying to say and started asking what else it could become?

A successful novel isn't just a novel anymore. It's a potential television series. Then a limited series. Then another season if the numbers were good. Then a spin-off following a side character. Maybe an animated series. Maybe a live-action adaptation of the animated adaptation. And before long, the story isn't “the story” anymore. 

It's easy to blame Hollywood for this. Studios respond to incentives, and familiar franchises are safer investments than original ideas. But The Franchise asks a more uncomfortable question. What if the problem isn't just Hollywood? What if it's all of us too?

Fandoms are just another part of the equation here, and I'm not exempt from it either.

Yes, I know my Hogwarts house. I even own Luna Lovegood's wand. Yes, I watch every Marvel movie and show that comes out. And yes, I have an arguably unhealthy obsession with Doctor Strange—I read fan theories, browse Reddit discussions, and convince myself I can predict where the next movie is headed.

The Franchise forced me to ask an uncomfortable question about all of that.

In Elrod's world, ordinary people are given the opportunity to become background characters in beloved fictional worlds. Their memories are erased and replaced so they can exist inside the story, never realizing their "real" life has disappeared.

And honestly?

If someone offered me the chance to attend Hogwarts for real... I don't know that I'd immediately say no.

That's what makes the novel so unsettling. It isn't just criticizing Hollywood executives or greedy studios. It's also asking something about us as audiences. Why are these worlds so appealing? Why do we long to escape into them? At what point does loving a story become wanting to live inside it?

Maybe that's the relationship The Franchise is really examining. Studios are constantly trying to create bigger franchises because audiences keep asking for more. Audiences keep asking for more because studios have spent decades teaching us to see stories not as endings, but as worlds we can inhabit forever. It's a feedback loop where each side reinforces the other until the story itself risks becoming secondary to the franchise built around it.

I could really go on about this book forever and ever, and go more in depth into the characters but I think I'll save that for later. The book alone speaks for itself and without getting into the nitty gritty of each character and their roles in this fictional world. I will just say please read this book!