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Pilots need to raise questions that lead to processes,
That’s what True Detective season one has that season two lacks – an immediate narrative hook that connects us to the protagonists.
showrunners do not know how long they will have to tell their stories.
Maintaining a television series is a constant balance between the planned and the spontaneous.
the organizing principle behind your series, the thing that defines whether a story belongs in the show or not. And that organizing principle is made up of three elements: Concept. Conflict. Theme.
But theme is essential in serialized drama (or comedy, for that matter). Because the theme is the organizing principle behind the series; it’s what determines what should go into a show and what needs to be left out.
It’s got to be about a specific argument.
It’s opposition. It’s thesis and counter-thesis.
The question is: How do we explore it? What do we need? Well, we need a good man who is in a position to fight evil. And we need an evil. That’s the minimum. And one more element, I think – we need other good people who are fighting evil in the traditional way and failing. Because we need to understand our protagonist’s decision to start using the methods of his enemies.
So the pattern set in the pilot is this: Walt has a problem. His solution works, but puts him in direct conflict with people more
evil than him. Walt comes up with a solution to that, but it requires him to become more evil than his enemies.
That’s the show. That’s the narrative pattern. Th...
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in Martial Law, as I mentioned earlier, it was those three big action scenes (as set in the pilot written and executive produced by Carlton Cuse); in Nashville, the standard number of musical interludes; in the original Law & Order, the metronomic structure
built around the switch from cops to prosecutors at the midpoint.
And so one of the questions you must ask as you are charting out your pilot is whether you are inserting enough elements to make up your narrative pattern – that is, to make an engine that will create stories.
it’s no longer enough to say, “This is what interests me as a writer.” You have to take the next step to “how can I make this interesting to a jaded audience.”
He said: “We don’t believe in leaving good ideas on the table. If it will work next season, it will work better now.”
