It’s been called “the best political ad of the year,” a plea to save the city, and an act of narcissism.
The AI-generated social video showing Spencer Pratt in a Batman suit overthrowing the dystopian rule of bourgeoisie Joker Karen Bass is racking up millions of views and becoming the one thing non-Angelenos know about the mayor’s race.
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But for all of the attention lavished on the video, there is also something highly familiar about it. When it comes to portraying Los Angeles as a wasteland ruined by wimps, Hollywood got there long before Spencer Pratt.
Ryan Gosling walks through L.A. in Blade Runner 2049.
(Warner Bros. Pictures)
Is L.A. in its postapocalyptic era?
There is perhaps no other city on earth that has been vaporized, invaded, flattened, overrun (by criminals, aliens, drugs, frogs, chemicals) more on film than Los Angeles. The culprit is extraterrestrial or geologic or religious. But often, the destruction comes with a message: This decadent, over-tolerant city fueled its own demise.
One iconic depiction came in the 1996 blockbuster “Independence Day,” when a group of L.A. hippie dippies gather atop the U.S. Bank Tower to greet an alien spaceship. They expect intergalactic love only to be burned to a crisp.
The genre has been around since the 1950s. But it really went into overdrive in the 1990s, when the postwar ideal of Southern California paradise devolved into economic and social decline.
“The decay of the city’s old glamour has been inverted by the entertainment industry into a new glamour of decay,” L.A. historian and “City of Quartz” author Mike Davis wrote in The Times in 1999.
The ‘L.A. is a real wasteland!’ defense
To me, Pratt’s disaster video hearkens most to a movie about L.A.’s moral and political decline: 1993’s “Falling Down.” Michael Douglas plays a laid-off defense worker who, triggered by a traffic jam, cuts a path of destruction across L.A., taking on gang thugs, a white supremacist, an officious fast-food employee and a surly Korean liquor store owner.
The screenwriter, Ebbe Roe Smith, said when the movie came out that it was clear to him L.A. was in serious trouble. “The main character represents the old power structure of the U.S. that has now become archaic, and hopelessly lost,” he said, a sentiment some use decades later to described American politics in the era of Trump.
The reaction to “Falling Down” might sound familiar. The New York Times noted at the time that it got good reviews on the East Coast but, in Southern California, faced a storm of controversy so dramatic that Kirk Douglas felt the need to pen an op-ed in defense of his son. The backlash was fierce enough that “Falling Down” actually brought much-needed valentines celebrating L.A.’s ethnic diversity, beauty and urban charms that many residents seemed to have forgotten. Peter H. King retraced Michael Douglas’ route and found much to love. “Los Angeles still has plenty of this kind of life left,” he concluded.
“Falling Down” did not spark a political movement. But it helped develop a way for the city to defend and deflect against critics. You see it on social media all the time. Grim videos of Skid Row and crime scenes juxtaposed with glorious ocean sunsets, often with captions like “L.A. is a real wasteland!”
Tommy Lee Jones flees the deadly destruction of lava on Wilshire Boulevard in “Volcano.”
(20th Century Fox)
The train to somewhere
A few days after the Pratt video landed, our feeds were taken over by a decidedly happier event: the opening of the Metro D Line, the subway connecting Beverly Hills to downtown L.A. It was a real party, and a retort to how Hollywood predicted a Wilshire subway would end up.
In the 1997 movie “Volcano,” construction of the subway brings to the surface a sea of red-hot lava that burns through the city. The film’s tagline was “The Coast is Toast” and its message seemed to be, “Don’t even try to get us out of our cars.” The movie’s climax has Tommy Lee Jones and a diverse cast of L.A. characters trying to stop the lava where the Fairfax-Wilshire station now sits.
Score one for L.A., but we still have a long way to go.
So which view of L.A. will voters embrace, the failed-state wasteland in need of a superhero or a charmed but highly imperfect place slowly making progress? We will find out in a few weeks.
Today’s top stories 
Eileen Wang, then a city councilmember, at Arcadia City Hall in November 2024.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
Arcadia’s mayor accused of being a Chinese foreign agent
- Eileen Wang reached a federal plea agreement after being accused of acting as an unregistered foreign agent for China, promoting the country’s propaganda.
- Arcadia officials and Wang’s attorneys said the conduct described by federal authorities occurred before Wang was elected.
Inside LAUSD’s alleged $22-million money-laundering scheme
- In an elaborate four-year scheme, a Los Angeles school district manager enriched herself with $3 million in kickbacks by working with a tech company executive to deliver $22 million in work, according to allegations in a lawsuit filed by the school district.
- L.A. County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman called it “the largest money-laundering operation in LAUSD history.”
Hantavirus fears heighten with 4 Californians exposed to the disease
- Four Californians were exposed to hantavirus in the deadly outbreak aboard a luxury Dutch-flagged cruise ship, public health officials confirm.
- While officials and infectious disease experts have been quick to note the seriousness of the rodent-borne disease, they have also stressed that this virus is far less transmissible than COVID-19.
California’s Democratic incumbents face primary challenges from political newcomers
- The challenges are part of a national wave reshaping the debate over generational power and the direction of the Democratic Party ahead of the 2026 midterms.
- California is home to three of the 13 members of Congress age 80 or older who are seeking reelection in 2026. Not a single California Democrat age 80 or older is running unopposed.
What else is going onCommentary and opinionsThis morning’s must-readFor your downtime 
(Embroidery and photography by Jenna Blazevich, a.k.a. Vichcraft / For The Times)
Going outStaying inA question for you: With three new stations open, will you ride L.A. Metro’s D Line?
Michael says, “I’ll ride Metro anytime it can take me where or near where I am going … Now the Wilshire corridor has opened up to a car free visit. The museums, the restaurants, the shopping. No driving, no parking.
One thing Metro needs to focus on is safety. I’ve taken some rides at night that were kinda sketchy. Once, coming back from Disney Concert Hall, I contemplated getting off before my stop because things were getting loud and rough.”
Email us at essentialcalifornia@latimes.com, and your response might appear in the newsletter this week.
And finally … your photo of the day 
Mike and Matt French on the property of their future venture, Miracle Hill Hot Springs and Leisure Club in Desert Hot Springs.
(David Fouts / For The Times)
Today’s great photo is from Times contributor David Fouts at the Desert Hot Springs property of two millennial brothers who have had strong influence on the modern aesthetic of the sun-drenched desert near Joshua Tree National Park.
Have a great day, from the Essential California team
Jim Rainey, staff reporter
Hugo Martín, assistant editor, fast break desk
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Andrew Campa, weekend writer
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters
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