Monomythic Screenwriting, Episode 13: Treatment

April 16, 2019

Two Dragons in the foreground, look at Daenerys and Jon Snow. — Image Courtesy of HBO

In this episode, we discuss how to create a screenwriting treatment.

THE RIGHT METHOD

It needs to be said that despite this being one of the most important lessons in screenwriting: there hasn’t been a consistent ‘method’ that I’ve found in writing the ‘proper’ or ‘correct’ style of treatment. However, as I’ve mentioned here in the past – I’ve met writers who’ve sold on treatments alone – without having finished the actual screenplay. So, writing a good one is important.

Now to be fair, not every writer I’m speaking about sells for big dollars. Most of it comes down to contracts and negotiations, though I won’t get into those nitty gritty details here. What I can share, like most of these lessons, is what works for me. So, take it as you will but understand that there is no right method in writing a treatment.

There is only the objective: summarizing your script in a concise and easy-to-read fashion.

HOW I WRITE A TREATMENT

Remember, ‘The Ghost in the Machine’ script which I used as an example in my early lessons? Well, here it is again in treatment form – albeit in a rough-cut first draft:

The Ghost In The Machine

Most of my treatments run about 5 pages. I don’t try and make anything too long, as I want treatments to be straight and to the point in an easy to read short pitch. Personally, I’ll admit that I’m not the best at pitching in person – but I can write a decent treatment, depending on the story objective. I’ve done treatments for comics and short stories as well and those can have different agendas or styles.

However, screenplays are very particular in format despite not having a ‘proper method’.

The General Format for a Screenplay Treatment:

Title
Name
Logline, and/or Brief Summary
Summaries of all your acts in an organized layout that suits your potential buyer’s needs.

Remember all that work we did in Monomyths and Story Circles? Well, here is where it shines – as your story structure basically becomes your treatment and plot of your story. The only difference is you can put in more details in your treatment – stuff to really sell your story.

ACT BREAKS

Usually, you need a three-act to a five-act structure for screenplays. Which seems like a lot until you realize, almost every sort of western styled writing relies on the ‘three-act’ method.

Four-act structure, most people will divide the middle act in half (which three-acts already technically do, this is just the industry calling itself out).
Five-act structure, you can see a two-part third act and a two-part middle.
Six-act structure, which rarely happens, just divide all the acts in half.

It sounds complicated though is pretty straightforward.

Story Circles and Monomyths Act Breakdowns (Three-act structure):

You – Call to Adventure
Need – Refusal of The Call, Meeting The Mentor

Break into Act Two

Go– Crossing The Threshold, Belly of The Whale
Search– Road of Trials

Midpoint/Middle of Act Two

Find– Meeting With The Goddess, Temptation
Take – Atonement With The Father, Apostasis, The Ultimate Boon

Break into Act Three

Return – Refusal of The Return, Magic Flight, Rescue from Without, Crossing the Return Threshold.
Change– Master of Both Worlds

For even more step-by-step help. Here’s another tutorial from Studio Binder

GAME OF THRONES TREATMENT

Game of Thrones came back this weekend. Just in time to use this example!

For those who don’t know, Game of Thrones came back this past Sunday for its final season after a long two-year hiatus. It’s probably the most acclaimed and talked about series in the past decade of television. Yet even this cultural gem: started out as a treatment. In fact, most query letters are treatments.

TRANSCRIBED, IS A TREATMENT BY GEORGE R.R. MARTIN, WITH ORIGINALS POSTED JUST BELOW:

Dear Ralph,

Here are the first thirteen chapters (170 pages) of the high fantasy novel I promised you, which I’m calling ‘A Game of Thrones.’ When completed, this will be the first volume in what I see as an epic trilogy with the overall title, ‘A Song of Ice and Fire.’

As you know, I don’t outline my novels. I find that if I know exactly where a book is going, I lose all interest in writing it. I do, however, have some strong notions as to the overall structure of the story I’m telling, and the eventual fate of many of the principle characters in the drama. Roughly speaking, there are three major conflicts set in motion in the chapters enclosed. These will form the major plot threads of the trilogy, [unclear] each other in what should be a complex but exciting (I hope [unclear] tapestry. Each of the [unclear] presents a major threat [unclear] of my imaginary realm, the Seven Kingdoms, and to the live [unclear] principal characters.

The first threat grows from the emnity between the great houses of Lannister and Stark as it plays out in a cycle of plot, counterplot, ambition, murder, and revenge, with the iron throne of the Seven Kingdoms as the ultimate prize. This will form the backbone of the first volume of the trilogy, A Game of Thrones.

While the lion of Lannister and the direwolf of Stark snarl and scrap, however, a second and greater threat takes shape across the narrow sea, where the Dothraki horselords mass their barbarian hordes for a great invasion of the Seven Kingdoms, led by the fierce and beautiful Daenerys Stormborn, the last of the Targaryen dragonlords. The Dothraki invasion will be the central story of my second volume, A Dance with Dragons.

The greatest danger of all, however, comes from the north, from the icy wastes beyond the Wall, where half-forgotten demons out of legend, the inhuman others, raise cold legions of the undead and the neverborn and prepare to ride down on the winds of winter to extinguish everything that we would call “life.” The only thing that stands between the Seven Kingdoms and an endless night is the Wall, and a handful of men in black called the Night’s Watch. Their story will be [sic] heart of my third volume, The Winds of Winter. The final battle will also draw together characters and plot threads left from the first two books and resolve all in one huge climax.

The thirteen chapters on hand should give you a notion as to my narrative strategy. All three books will feature a complex mosaic of intercutting points-of-view among various of my large and diverse cast of players. The cast will not always remain the same. Old characters will die, and new ones will be introduced. Some of the fatalities will include sympathetic viewpoint characters. I want the reader to feel that no one is ever completely safe, not even the characters who seem to be the heroes. The suspense always ratchets up a notch when you know that any character can die at any time.

—

Five central characters will make it through all three volumes, however, growing from children to adults and changing the world and themselves in the process. In a sense, my trilogy is almost a generational saga, telling the life stories of these five characters, three men and two women. The five key players are Tyrion Lannister, Daenerys Targaryen, and three of the children of Winterfell, Arya, Bran, and the bastard Jon Snow. All of them are introduced at some length in the chapters you have to hand.

This is going to be (I hope) quite an epic. Epic in its scale, epic in its action, and epic in its length. I see all three volumes as big books, running about 700 to 800 manuscript pages, so things are just barely getting underway in the thirteen chapters I’ve sent you.

I have quite a clear notion of how the story is going to unfold in the first volume, A Game of Thrones. Things will get a lot worse for the poor Starks before they get better, I’m afraid. Lord Eddard Stark and his wife Catelyn Tully are both doomed, and will perish at the hands of their enemies. Ned will discover what happened to his friend Jon Arryn, [unclear] can act on his knowledge [unclear] will have an unfortunate accident, and the throne will [unclear] to [unclear] and brutal [unclear] Joffrey [unclear] still a minor. Joffrey will not be sympathetic and Ned [what appears to say] will be accused of treason, but before he is taken he will help his wife and his daughter Arya escape back to Winterfell.

Each of the contending families will learn it has a member of dubious loyalty in its midst. Sansa Stark, wed to Joffrey Baratheon, will bear him a son, the heir to the throne, and when the crunch comes she will choose her husband and child over her parents and siblings, a choice she will later bitterly rue. Tyrion Lannister, meanwhile, will befriend both Sansa and her sister Arya, while growing more and more disenchanted with his own family.

Young Bran will come out of his coma, after a strange prophetic dream, only to discover that he will never walk again. He will turn to magic, at first in the hope of restoring his legs, but later for its own sake. When his father Eddard Stark is executed, Bran will see the shape of doom descending on all of them, but nothing he can say will stop his brother Robb from calling the banners in rebellion. All the north will be inflamed by war. Robb will win several splendid victories, and maim Joffrey Baratheon on the battlefield, but in the end he will not be able to stand against Jaime and Tyrion Lannister and their allies. Robb Stark will die in battle, and Tyrion Lannister will besiege and burn Winterfell.

Jon Snow, the bastard, will remain in the far north. He will mature into a ranger of great daring, and ultimately will succeed his uncle as the commander of the Night’s Watch. When Winterfell burns, Catelyn Stark will be forced to flee north with her son Bran and her daughter Arya. Wounded by Lannister riders, they will seek refuge at the Wall, but the men of the Night’s Watch give up their families when they take the black, and Jon and Benjen will not be able to help, to Jon’s anguish. It will lead to a bitter estrangement between Jon and Bran. Arya will be more forgiving … until she realizes, with terror, that she has fallen in love with Jon, who is not only her half-brother but a man of the Night’s Watch, sworn to celibacy. Their passion will continue to torment Jon and Arya throughout the trilogy, until the secret of Jon’s true parentage is finally revealed in the last book.

—

Abandoned by the Night’s Watch, Catelyn and her children will find their only hope of safety lies even further north, beyond the Wall, where they fall into the hands of Mance Rayder, the King-beyond-the-Wall, and get a dreadful glimpse of the inhuman others as they attack the wilding encampment. Bran’s magic, Arya’s sword Needle, and the savagery of their direwolves will help them survive, but their mother Catelyn will die at the hands of the others.

Over across the narrow sea, Daenerys Targaryen will discover that her new husband, the Dothraki Khal Drogo, has little interest in invading the Seven Kingdoms, much to her brother’s frustration. When Viserys presses his claims past the point of tact or wisdom, Khal Drogo will finally grow annoyed and kill him out of hand, eliminating the Targaryen pretender and leaving Daenerys as the last of her line. Danerys [sic] will bide her time, but she will not forget. When the moment is right, she will kill her husband to avenge her brother, and then flee with a trusted friend into the wilderness beyond Vaes Dothrak. There, hunted by [unclear] of her life, she stumbles on a [something about dragon eggs] a young dragon will give Daenerys [unclear] bend [unclear] to her will. Then she begins to plan for her invasion of the Seven Kingdoms.

Tyrion Lannister will continue to travel, to plot, and to play the game of thrones, finally removing his nephew Joffrey in disgust at the boy king’s brutality. Jaime Lannister will follow Joffrey on the throne of the Seven Kingdoms, by the simple expedient of killing everyone ahead of him in the line of succession and blaming his brother Tyrion for the murders. Exiled, Tyrion will change sides, making common cause with the surviving Starks to bring his brother down, and falling helplessly in love with Arya Stark while he’s at it. His passion is, alas, unreciprocated, but no less intense for that, and it will lead to a deadly rivalry between Tyrion and Jon Snow.

[The next graph is blocked out.]

But that’s the second book …

I hope you will find some editors who are as excited about all of this as I am. Feel free to share this letter with anyone who wants to know how the story will go.

All best,

George R.R. Martin

Try This: Write A Treatment

This is your only assignment for the next three weeks:

Create Your Story’s Treatment.

This is you writing your entire story in an outline from beginning to end. Use the Monomyth and Story circle methods to provide plot structure. Character sheets to provide descriptions and voice. World Building rules to provide hooks and exposition and twists to be revealed.

Basically, bring it all together in this assignment and write your story. Next week, I’ll talk about tools you can utilize for your screenwriting. Then, I’ll analyze some fiction and short stories for fun – using the Monomythic method. Afterward, I will take you step-by-step in writing the screenplay – though, I’ll be using this treatment you’re writing as your major guideline. So, use these three weeks to get it done.

Good luck, screenwriter.

‘What We Do In The Shadows’ Review: Episode 3- Shear/Con

Robert Kijowski

April 12, 2019

The gentle art of topiary has been around since Roman times. Shaved shrubbery is majestic as it is thought-provoking. Going on the latter trait, it can also be Freudian.. at least according to Lazslo’s (Matt Berry) pastime in the tertiary episode of What We Do In The Shadows (FX). His verdant works of pride are all Obelisks, if you will, to women he’s been with and greatly admires. We run the gamut from such luminaries as Nancy Reagan down to the most prized piece in the collection: Mummy Dearest. This is where things take a very oddly scented turn as a werewolf has urinated on his physical and emotional real estate. Lazslo, the genteel-man and all around level headed cornerstone of the House sees more red than he does on a buffet night. This means war.

In this third episode, my focal point was way more on the love interest of Colin (Mark Proksch) and his newcomer to the Office, a woman named Evie Russell (Vanessa Bayer). He believes this is a new plate on the menu, and through a ‘business-casual’ stance in welcoming her, he simply cannot read her nor drain her. This flummoxes the poor guy, but his interest is piqued, as this marks the first time he’s in a superposition. He cannot overcome nor be overtaken by her gradual stories that would take a run at Raymond Carver as what they call an ‘Emotional Vampire’- those who don’t drain you of energy but of tears. Evie is basically a Sarah McLachlan song wrapped in a plaintiff visage swaddled in more dramatic swag. She is one not to be trifled with and because Colin sees something is off, he starts falling for her.

Back onto the more contentious side of things, Lazslo’s caught the culprit, which is hilarious as the rest of the housemates take a very civil approach to the protocol with handling a Werewolf. Think of it as the Geneva convention… was it drafted in 1993. There are a few lines one does not cross between the vampires and lycanthropes. This is 2019 and though the werewolves have crossed enemy lines and the vampires drew first blood, the doggies could give a bloody fig about what they think. And oooh, does that juice taste sweet.

In the office, Colin shows more of his softer side. His overall contempt of humans as mere cattle to the slaughter. I’ve said it before, he is one to watch. However, he realizes Evie (get it, E.V.) is another energy siphoning one, but for one who looks at us like mere Capri Suns, he actually catches feelings, which is in the human condition. This culminates in a late night office battle with Evie, as they finally realize what each other is and actually at the end of it try to ally and romantically link. What pursues is bliss for them, for a time. I’ve always been a believer in not going with someone too much to what makes you special. It will ‘were’ thin and ultimately have you questioning yourself.

Meanwhile, in the House, the band of werewolves presents themselves in glorious fashion. By the by, these ARE swearwolves. They don’t really care how you perceive them, though they are breaking an armistice. The order of 1993 stipulates they weren’t to engage in a brawl in any count and if such were to happen, it were to transpire on neutral ground (in this case, the roof, excuse, ruf’top) of a Circuit City. Both parties are to pick their Champions to partake in a battle to the death.

This multicultural pack of werewolves chooses a ringer that could go claw-to-fang with Nandor (Kayvon Novak), their bulkiest choice. Before it goes down, as per the rules of engagement, a party is able to choose a weapon for the dispatch of said foe. Silver bullets won’t do (without a gun) so, with a smile and a thought, when basically walking furry and fury death is staring him in the face, Nandor picks up a squeaky toy. Throws it off the ‘ruf. That’s all I needed to just laugh my ass off. It was a funny moment that smacked us in the face with its beautiful simplicity. Nicely done.

We end on that high with a more poignant, if you could outdo a depressingly boring person dating the embodiment of a Feed The Kids commercial note.

Though Colin enjoys a familiar, in that she’s like him, I think we’ve all been there in that sadly, the person that is like you isn’t the best fit. Opposites attract sometimes work, but if you’re competing and that makes you turned on, it will only turn into A Star Is Born. I think Colin had realized that before it got too serious. You want someone that complements you, not competes with you.

The wonderful thing is that Evie keeps gaslighting Colin in the final scene and I don’t believe this is the last we will see of her.

Overall, I really liked this episode. Some of the most choke on your Vampires Kiss moments have been with the werewolves. I truly feel the episodes, like a good werewolf getting used to their skin and how it changes and is elastic.

Nadja’s (Natasia Demetriou) slight foray into the lair of her beloved, Lazslo’s I thought was a slight throwaway, but I was brought back in due to the sheer humor of it. The pack we got an inkling of and actually, I am thirsty for more of them.

Overall, this episode was on brand and what made it special was the subtle humor. It’s still trying to find its footing, but that’s cool with me. The series is going to be something special, and it has a lot of diamonds in the rough to mine, as we are scratching the surface of that… diamond.

So what has topiary taught us? If you’re an artist, live your truth. If you’re a critic… fall off a roof. Ruf, ruf, ruf.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6K33ujhWD8

You Can Watch What We Do In The Shadows on FX

‘The Twilight Zone’ review: ‘Replay’

Matt Perri

April 11, 2019

THE TWILIGHT ZONE
Season 1, Episode 3
“Replay”
Available on CBS All-Access (new episodes uploaded every Thursday)
GRADE: A-

In 1959, Rod Serling gave us “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street”, a tale of deep-rooted prejudices, fears and suspicions exposed in the face of the unknown and misunderstood which inexorably escalate and eventually spiral into horrific violence. “The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout,” Serling said to his television audience, leaving them with a final warning about the dangers of unleashed virulent hatred: “There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices – to be found only in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill – and suspicion can destroy – and a thoughtless frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all of its own – for the children – and the children yet unborn. And the pity of it is – that these things cannot be confined – to the Twilight Zone.”

Fast forward several decades later. “Black Lives Matter” had rooted itself deep within the American socio-political picture, taking center stage in the discussion of modern race relations in the United States. The reactions I witnessed from (mostly) Conservative white people ranged from dismissive eye-rolling to pure outrage. Rather than taking a breath and attempting to understand how people of color felt about the exposure of an uptick in police violence toward black people and concerns about systemic racism, we got defensive memes-turned-movements in “Blue Lives Matter” and “All Lives Matter” which, while they mean well, are fairly ridiculous in their attempt to be “inclusive”: one cannot counter “Black Lives Matter” with “All Lives Matter”, while also saying “Blue Lives Matter”, lest one logically has an issue with the word “black”.

We may be 60 years into the future but Serling’s haunting soliloquy is no less potent. They may be forever prophetic.

“Replay” is the story of Nina Harrison (Sanaa Lathan) a proud mother on a road trip with her son Dorian (Damson Idris) to a prestigious black college where Dorian’s been accepted. This is a big moment for Nina, an extension of family and racial success and she’s ready to record the entire trip on an aged video camcorder so she can play it back for the grand-daughter she facetiously says Dorian will eventually have in his life. Things get weird for Nina, however, when she discovers that her camcorder has the ability to not only rewind the tape inside of it, but also time itself. This comes in handy when Dorian accidentally spills ketchup on his shirt — but it pays massive dividends once the two run into the sinister Officer Lasky (Glenn Fleshler) who seems adamant about causing problems for the Harrisons simply because he feels the badge on his chest entitles him to do so.

So, when Dorian rebels against Lasky and refuses to comply with the officer’s orders to shut off his Mom’s camcorder while being stopped for speeding, things get out of hand fast, leaving Nina no choice but to use the rewind button to avoid a seemingly inevitable tragic ending. But what good is a “rewind” button when something might actually be inevitable? What if you couldn’t escape something that’s fated to occur? Such an idea has been explored before with films like “12:01” and “Groundhog Day”, but “Replay” isn’t about saving a crush or bettering yourself to escape the time loop you’re stuck in. “Replay” is a taut, well-executed parable, an extremely clever examination of racial tensions presented in such a way that it feels just as frightening as anything you’ve ever seen on any episode of The Twilight Zone.

The episode has the benefit of a tightly-written script which provides us with an environment that is both familiar and surreal at the same time and a flawless cast who inhabit their roles without being overwrought or excessively contrived. Whereas a viewer might see a town with clear paths and roads that would move Nina and Dorian out of danger, one also gets the feeling that if the camera panned out, we’d instead see a giant labyrinth with no discernible escape even if the prize they seek is achingly close. Sanaa Lathan plays Nina as someone any mother can identify with, somebody driven and unselfish. One of the benefits of going back in time is that you’ve already seen the future, so you’d know what to expect if you had another chance to go through everything again and you’d be able to act accordingly. Here, Nina and Dorian watch as a local station reveals the winning state lottery numbers. Nina rewinds time and tells Dorian that she can “guess the numbers” as part of a bet she makes with him.

Beyond that bet, Nina does nothing further with that information or the idea that she could make herself rich with the abilities she has. Like Dorian, there are no excuses in her family. Everything she has, she has earned, something she points out to Officer Lasky when he questions her about who actually owns the vehicle she drives. Lasky is played beautifully by Glenn Fleshler who most people might remember as the psychotic Errol Childress in HBO’s “True Detective”. Here, Fleshler plays Lasky as an unstoppable monster, hiding around arbitrary corners of that aforementioned metaphorical labyrinth which envelopes the Harrison Family. There’s a sense that there’s no escape from his wrath, no matter which direction Nina or Dorian attempt to travel. Every single time you see him along with Nina’s eyes going wide with fear, you tense up and brace for some sort of detrimental impact.

The ultimate take-home, of course, is that there really isn’t an escape. This danger will always exist unless a change is made on the part of the people who live in fear of people of color.

After two introductory episodes involving a comedian with magic powers and a hokey, disappointing remake of a classic episode, “Replay” is a welcome return to what Rod Serling gave us all those decades ago: an unfortunately necessary and relevant allegory of modern race relations and the dangers people of color face on a daily basis. The only area where it slightly falters is the climax (see below) where Nina defeats the monster — at least for the time being. Her declaration that Lasky and his troops “are the ones living in fear” really didn’t need to be said. The dozens of black people holding cameras in their faces while Lasky’s back-up looked frightened drove that message home. This reason this episode gets away with this as opposed to, say, the ending of “The Comedian” is because the final twist that follows wrecks you while simultaneously reminding viewers that until meaningful change comes, the struggle is nigh-eternal.

Serling would have been proud.

LOST IN THE ZONE

So let’s talk about that ending. Oh wait…SPOILERS AHEAD. HIGHLIGHT THE TEXT IF YOU WANT TO READ THIS. Nina’s brother has some sort of underground railroad which brings the Harrisons to the college. This culminates in a stand-off where Lasky pulls his gun and threatens to shoot Nina or Dorian. Nina pulls out the camcorder…but chooses to use it to film rather than hit “Rewind” because what would be the point of going right back to this moment? That portion is beautiful because it means that Nina is sick of running and going backwards. By choosing to go forward, she’s enacting change on her end. it’s just too bad the moment is nearly sunk when she yells “YOU’RE THE ONE WHO’S AFRAID!” It’s the ONE THING next to the unnecessary sub-plot involving Nina’s brother and the path to the college, something that could have been done regardless of his existence. Of course, feel free to sound off in chat.
I love the photography in this episode. There are some real Hitchcockian angles and Dutch Angles and stuff you’ve seen Soderbergh do that Sam Esmail is currently doing with Mr. Robot on USA. It really works for this episode as well.
I’m happy that Jordan Peele only showed up to narrate the beginning of the episode rather than showing up at both the beginning and the end. Rod Serling knew less was more and left us with his voice at the end of each episode. Having Peele show up at the end takes away from whatever kick the end of each episode has.
That said, the writers need to work on the soliloquies at the beginning and the end of these episodes. It feels like they’re working off a template from Mad Libs: (Character) is very (feeling). But what they don’t know is that you can be (same feeling) while (verb) through The Twilight Zone. At the end of this episode, Peele says that Nina “embraced her past to save the future” and “love prevailed” or some such nonsense. That’s not really true but that’s what we’re getting. It concludes that “the future is uncertain…even in the Twilight Zone”. Well, yeah. The Twilight Zone always presents futures and endings that aren’t “certain”. Hopefully, this improves.
Here are this week’s Easter Eggs:
- So, we had a repeat of “1015” which is odd. I’m not fond of the running Easter Eggs. This isn’t “Lost” but the writers seem to think it is.
- Viewers who are up on their T-Zone trivia will recognize the name of the diner (“The Busy Bee”) which is the same name as the cafe in the classic episode “Nick of Time”. If you’re crafty, you’ll even spot the sinister “fortune telling machine” with the devil’s head on it that was at nearly every booth in that cafe. There’s a quick shot of it in the diner at the beginning of the episode.
- Even craftier viewers will spot the headline on the newspaper Jordan Peele is holding at the beginning of the episode: “New experimental rocket ship crashes outside Reno, NV”…which is in reference to the classic episode “I Shot an Arrow into the Air”.
- The video camera Nina totes with her is made by a company called “Whipple” which also made the mp3 player in the last episode. This is a reference to the classic episode, “The Brain Center at Whipple’s”.

‘Happy!’ Season 2 Review: Episodes 1-3

Christian Angeles

April 10, 2019

A shirtless Nick wakes up next to his imaginary best friend, Happy - the talking unicorn. — HAPPY! -- "The War on Easter" Episode 201 -- Pictured: (l-r) Patton Oswald as Happy!, Chris Meloni as Nick Sax -- (Photo by: SYFY)

Season 2 of SYFY network’s Happy! has been nothing shy of ridiculous. This season sees Nick Sax try his best to get clean and sober for his daughter, Hailey. Though the emphasis here is on the word: try. As Nick consistently finds himself in provocative situations, gorily doing away with nefarious bad guys this Easter season in a manner that would make Ash Williams proud.

Review

Happy! is arguably the best story ever created about an ex-super-cop-turned-assassin-turned-cab-driver, and his imaginary pubescent tiny unicorn with wings. Now if that sounds ridiculous… that’s because it is. This show is nothing shy of outrageous and has been since it debuted last Christmas.

Season one was all about Nick Sax (Christopher Meloni), an ex-super-cop turned hitman with a bad heart and a plethora of addictions – though mostly drugs, booze, and prostitutes. He takes a break from his self-destructive lifestyle to aid in the investigation into stopping a ‘Very Bad Santa’ from kidnapping little children – one of whom is revealed to be his Nick’s very own daughter, Hailey (Bryce Lorenzo).

He hunts for her kidnapper with the help of her imaginary friend, Happy: a tiny flying unicorn with an upbeat personality (voiced by Patton Oswalt) that Nick can see – yet, nobody else can. Together, Nick and Happy form a dynamic procedural styled partnership, investigating the city’s criminal underbelly – which includes foraying into, though is not exclusive to: meeting different mafias, killing various types of bad people, rampant drug use, meeting fellow imaginary friends, watching mindless reality television programming, watching mindless children’s television programming, confrontations with a genitalless serial killer with a penchant for torture, observing an insectoid EDM sex orgy, and tangling with possessive spiritual death demons.

…And that was only season one.

How season two could ever hope to topple all of that was simple: a hard reset. In the sophomore season of Happy! Christopher Meloni’s Nicholas Sax character has turned sober, stopped drinking, and more importantly: is trying his best to stop his killing of bad people. He has inherited both Happy as his personal imaginary friend (was his daughter’s before), and the occasional weekend visitations with his daughter Hailey – something that Nick takes quite seriously.

Nick tries his best to reconnect with her this season. He wants to be a responsible father by avoiding drinking, drugs, whoring, and murdering – though still indulges in the occasional breath freshener for a tiny chemical kick. Nick’s clean living proves difficult, as he finds himself reeled back into the city’s criminal cesspool of bad people.

For example, while working as a cab driver, Nick meets a client ‘looking for a good time’ – an easy opportunity to pimp his prostitute friend from season one who has an enthusiasm for blowjobs. Seemingly easy money for them both, Happy discovers that the entire ordeal is a front to murder her and harvest her internal organs for a Jewish mob. One hellbent on keeping their family’s patriarch alive. Nick puts his foot down on the whole thing – saving his friend, and later, his daughter, once the same mob begins threatening Nick with Hailey’s life.

I can’t stress this enough: several times in season two, Nick finds himself in a similar situation. One where he’s surrounded by bad guys but wants to talk it out and do the right thing. Yet, either by accident or hilarious happenstance – he finds himself the last man standing in a room full of people he killed in some form of self-defense. Which also sort of helps, because by episode one, Nick discovers organs fetch a high price in the black market – which he keeps in his refrigerator, much to his daughter’s unfortunate discovery by episode two. Still, it helps to pay for Hailey’s tuition for private school.

In the first three episodes of Season 2, Nick has acted like more like a cartoon caricature than Happy himself – which says a lot about this season. Everything seems like one giant over-the-top comedic joke. Nick finds himself doing silly things like slipping on viscera, ripping off the phallus of a gigantic Sunny Shine statue, and dancing like it’s Easter Parade with some tasered security guards.

Which brings us to our next topic: it’s Easter this season. As I covered last October at NYCC 2018, last year was Christmas in the series, and so in keeping the holiday spirit of the series, this season of Happy is set during Easter – easily offending every bit of my Catholic upbringing sensibilities. Still, for the sake of the joke I understand what the series is doing and just to give you a taste of what’s in store if you haven’t seen these episodes of season two yet: there are exploding nuns, a serial killer Easter Rabbit (revealed to be smoothie himself), skin flaying, and a pope making deals with the kingpin of crime, himself: Sunny Shine. Which is nothing short of crazy for the beloved children’s television icon.

Sunny has gotten even more eccentric this season. He is apparently, blackmailing almost every authority in the city, granting him a degree of power unrealized until now. Though he’s not without his share of problems. As he’s trying to outdo his Christmas Bonanza with a Make Easter Great Again slogan, or M.E.G.A. for short – disgraced police detective and Nick’s old partner: Meredith McCarthy (Lili Mirojnick), is slowly building a case against him.

Episode three sees Meredith working behind the scenes to get these alleged blackmail tapes, while Nick finds himself pushed back into the struggle against Sunny. Meredith is doing an overall good job, hiding away as a fake real estate agent, gathering evidence, and trying to get back into the city’s good graces after having all the faults of last season’s Christmas debacle – pinned on her.

Meanwhile, Happy is going through puberty, and discovering life without Hailey and living with Nick – is forcing him to grow up much faster than he’s ready. This season, he does little beyond provide a contrasting voice of reason towards Nick – trying his best to push his friend in the morally righteous direction. Though over time, his own convictions are tried through and through.

More than anything else, this season seeks to offend and cross the line. You can listen to our TV TALK podcast above for more specific details – though I think unanimously, we all agreed: this season is more about shock value than substance.

There are some great jokes and gross-out bits, but overall, it’s seemingly lacking a true direction – focusing more on the ability to offend, rather than hold any sort of emotional hooks – unlike the hunt for Hailey to save her from evil Santa, last season. I can see where the series is going, and unfortunately, I don’t think it’s the right direction – as there’s very little at stake on a per episode basis.

At most, you’ll be compelled to watch this show for its characters – which is fine, but it doesn’t make me a weekly viewer, personally. I will admit though, Smoothie (Patrick Fischler) is great this season – truly elevating onto unseen levels of psychopathy. Also, Blue (Ritchie Coster) is a demon. I don’t know how that fits into the story, and frankly, I don’t think the series does either.

You can watch Happy! Season 2 on SYFY every Wednesday at 10pm. EST

Sneak Peak of Tonight’s Episode

‘The Magicians’ Review: The Secret Sea

Nicole C

April 10, 2019

In the penultimate episode of season four of The Magicians, The Monster likes Starbucks, Quentin yells at a plant, Margo only has eyes for Josh, and whole bunch of librarians die.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Julia is transported to a forest location where The Monster has put the poor other woman he kidnapped on an altar and the four stones are also laid out. The hedge witch prays and calls for help from Our Lady Underground who tells her that she needs to make a choice before it’s too late. It seems that the circumstances Julia finds herself in was still some kind of test, but before she can make an actual decision (because both options are pretty crappy), The Monster’s sister leaves the body of the dying woman and takes over the hedge witch’s indestructible one. The other powerful being then easily kills Our Lady Underground (or Persephone). It’s interesting to note though how scared OLU seemed of the twins, which makes sense as she’s an old god. She also expressed that Julia would not fail as long as the choice was hers. So what exactly could that have meant and what do the other gods really have planned?

In the aftermath, the sibling are walking around and the sister comments to her brother that at first she pitied him being alone, but it turns out he was with the humans and he even thought like them. He protests that all he thought about was her as soon as he remembered her. She states that all she’s really been consumed with is revenge. The Monster happily tells her that he’d killed Bacchus, Iris, and the others for her, however she’s more concerned about why they were put there in the first place and who’s really responsible for that. He answers their parents and she says they need to get to the godly realm. In order to achieve that they need a scroll that they found a long time ago that acts as a key. The Library took it from them and so now they need to get it back.

The sister is definitely the more vicious of the two. The Monster likes murder as much as anyone, but she appears to be singularly focused on getting her vengeance. Looks like life with the humans have had some positive effects on him after all and he wants to just enjoy being reunited with her for a few moments.

The Secret Sea

Meanwhile back at the apartment, Margo, Penny 23, Q, and Alice are trying to figure out their next move. The ex-high king of Fillory is pretty annoyed that the traveler is adamant about using the axes now that it’s Julia that’s been kidnapped. He was more apathetic when it was only Eliot’s body that was hijacked. However though, they have a giant problem as the Incorporate Bonds won’t work unless they have an insane amount of magic. Penny 23 and Q head to Brakebills to try and get help from Fogg, but the dean ends up being arrested by the Library for teaching the first years a prohibited spell. Don’t fret however because the man wore the right suit today and has Todd drop a book in the library drop box post haste!

With Fogg no longer being an aid to them, the gang gets an unexpected source of magic via bunnies from Fillory. Fen sent word that she found magic and needs help. Penny 23 teleports Quentin and himself over and the Fillorian guards send them down the secret passageway. It’s notable that as they go down the cavern looks like it’s made from the living stone that also currently makes up Blackspire. Within the cave, they find a small garden with flowers that seem to bloom and then die in a cyclical fashion. Fen soon comes upon the two men and she takes them further down to reveal another opening. Through that opening is the reservoir, which truly turns out to be a vast sea of magic. Unfortunately, there is some kind of curse on it because after Josh touches the water he is turned into a fish. Fen returns to New York with Josh and tells Margo what’s happened. Turns out too that the chef has become a very specific type of Fillorian fish that only lives for a few days. You have to constantly give it eye contact or else it will literally die. At first she doesn’t want to help babysit fish but Margo gives in eventually.

Quentin is doing research trying to find more information on the magical sea but all he can find as a close reference is the Secret Sea, an underground ocean that that the Chatwins sailed through with a crew of pirate rabbits. Speaking of rabbits Alice has an idea and sends one to Sheila. She tries to get the new librarian to help them by providing some much needed power, but the older woman refuses, not wanting to jeopardize her position within the Order. Sheila wishes Alice well and hopes that the other woman finds what she’s looking for.

At some point Alice and Q head to the kitchen where Margo is researching fish cures while trying to maintain constant eye contact with fish Josh. She reveals that she and Josh have been banging and that it doesn’t matter if the later gave her lycanthropy. He kinda gets her and that’s all that really matters. An exasperated Margo says that it’s not like she’s in love with Josh Hoberman when Alice interjects that it kinda sounds like she is. The former Fillorian high king is aghast because have they met her? She doesn’t do feelings! The ex-niffin also adds that she can still be a b**** if she wants to be and still care for someone. Margo then has a revelation that maybe she does love this guppy. Q notices a calling card on the fridge for a magical vet that Kady called to fix Pete when he had the blood worm problem. Margo takes the card, calls the dude up and heads out with the fishbowl to leave Alice and Quentin alone. So finally he tells her how he’s been feeling since their return from Brakebills South. Q says that he didn’t think he could ever trust her again but now he finds himself wanting too. When they first met he had been clinging on to a naïve idealistic notion of how the world and people should be. He’s realized however if he throws away all those childish ideas he can forgive people for not living up to his stupid expectations. She is tearing up at this point and asks if that includes himself. Q asks what if they try again because he wants her in his life and she responds that she wants that too. The two kiss and make up. So this is a major hurdle crossed in Alice’s apology tour!

Margo visits Gordy the hedge vet and he confirms that there is some kind of bond between fish Josh and her. He is also able to tell that both of them are werewolves and notices her fairy eye as well. The hedge witch then suggests that she pop that eye out since it doesn’t even look attached so that she can keep watch on Josh while taking care of lady business. It seems to work and Margo is back to wearing an eye patch.

Plover in the Poison Room

Inside the Poison Room, I was partially correct! Kady and Zelda find Plover who is very much alive in there. He makes a deal that he’ll tell them how he’s been surviving if they agree to take him with them if they are all able to escape. The two women reluctantly accept and he says he’s been eating the moss which seems to counteract the poison. However as the three are reading through a number of books, Zelda notices that she’s formed lesions on her forearm and Kady realizes so has she. Turns out Plover was being protected by the anti-aging spell Martin put on him years ago and it wasn’t the moss. The younger magician starts to lose her cool as it dawns on her that she’s going to die in the most ironic way like Penny when Zelda interjects not necessarily. If they get out in time the Library has a cure which really pisses Kady off because that means they chose not to save Penny 40. She tells the librarian that is on her and she doesn’t get to hide behind her precious Library as if she had no responsibility for the people whom they’ve killed. Zelda protests that it is Everett’s fault that the group has gone towards authoritarianism but Kady counters that the whole system needs to go down. Here’s a fundamental world view difference where one person believes in reformation while the other thinks the entire system is flawed and corrupt.

Inside Everett’s office in the meantime, Cyrus has told him of Zelda’s treachery in entering the Poison Room with a hedge witch. They exercise protocol of course and the women have been locked in. However, the library head magically knocks his mentee out so that they can talk privately within her mind. She confronts him and asks why he wants to become a god. He explains that she of all people should understand how futile their work has been because there will always be knowledge they do not understand. Everett claims that as their equal he can discover information from the more powerful beings. She surmises that he intends to take The Monster’s power and he says that if they are to go up against an unkillable god they need that kind of juice too. Zelda points out that isn’t that what Bacchus and others tried to do before. Her mentor dismisses that thought and scoffs that they got drunk on their own power. That wouldn’t happen to him because he had her. Oh good one, try to seem dependent on her. Everett intended to leave the Library to Zelda once he became a god so that she could fix his mistakes with the benefit of all the knowledge he would bring. She sadly states that she wishes he told her sooner but it’s fine he must follow protocol. Her mentor explains though that she can still help him, he redirected the magic he’s collected to a reservoir but it triggered a curse that he can’t break and he’s discovered someone who can, Quentin Coldwater. I think we all know what that reservoir is. He asks her to get Q to open the body of magical water and the Library can still be hers to lead. Before he is able to say anymore Kady slaps Zelda to consciousness. Fogg had cleverly made his way to the Poison Room to rescue them. He isn’t too keen however in taking Plover with though. But the pedophile of course is up to his usual antics and bargains his way out by offering them knowledge of the reservoir which had been one of Martin’s secrets.

Once back inside the library stacks, Fogg sacrifices himself as a distraction for the others to get to the Earth fountain. He puts up a good fight but is soon apprehended.

The Secret Sea Part II

Kady, Zelda, and Plover return to the apartment where Alice is shocked to see the man she sent to the Poison Room. The writer claims that he’s the only one who can help them and after some Chinese food begins to explain that Martin called it the reservoir but he renamed in the Secret Sea. Quentin is in a weird spot after loving Fillory so much as a child and to have the books’ author there to sign his copy, yet also have the knowledge that the man did unspeakable things to Martin Chatwin. When he asks about how the Watcherwoman was planning to steal all the magic for herself but was stopped by Martin, Plover admits that most of the novel is fictitious because he had to make it marketable to children. The stories the Chatwin children told him in actuality were not appropriate for kids. After the older man basically craps on all the things he viewed as nonsense about FIllory, he finally gives some useful information that the reservoir was built by the thirteenth king to consolidate power for himself. Martin however drained all the magic because he didn’t want anyone to refill it and even put a curse in there to prevent anyone from trying to do so again. The solution to their problems is in a drowned garden within the cave that reacts to their emotions. One of the plants is the antidote but in order to make it bloom one would really need to love Fillory. Zelda interjects that Quentin really has the best chance to make the garden grow. So now we’ve got to wonder if she’s made this suggestion because she wants to help Everett or if her allegiances have changed.

Zelda tells Kady soon after that there’s a contractor that the Library uses that may help them with a cure but the younger magician says to text if she finds anything. Penny 23 then chastises her for not going to get help but he realizes that she doesn’t really want that. She would rather die because she knows there’s an afterlife and she gets to be with Penny 40. He may not know her the way his other self did but he at least understands that would be a giant waste. She retorts that most things are.

In Fillory, Plover identifies the plant and tries to give Q advice on how to make it bloom. He tells the older man to get out of there and isn’t able to summon the belief he once had. Alice gives him a pep talk though that being an adult doesn’t mean to throw away the things he used to love and truly believe in like magic and Fillory. When he asks what it means to be then she answers just to see the world through new eyes. And for what it’s worth, she tells him that the Cosy Horse is actually real and that she saw it when she was a niffin. She and Penny 23 then leave Q alone. Mr. Coldwater goes into a monologue and rails on the plants about how he was supposed to mean something in Fillory. He then says that maybe it was better when he believed that this place was fiction because it was the idea of it that saved his life. It was the promise that people like him could find an escape and there’s got to be some power in that. Shouldn’t loving the idea of Fillory be enough? And it turns out it is because the plant begins to bloom.

The Scroll

The twins have come to the Library killing people left and right. Cyrus tries to stop them with an energy ball but they are able to easily harness it and fling it right back at him. The sister then takes his keys to the Poison Room and they enter in search of the scroll. They locate it of course and continue on their merry way of mayhem. Sheila is able to evade detection and sends a rabbit to Alice in Fillory that they’ve been attacked. In Fillory, Q gives Penny 23 one of the leaves of the plant for Margo to cure Josh. The traveler’s job is to get Margo and the axes while Alice and Quentin level up with the magic water.

When Penny 23 returns to the apartment, he finds Margo had been busy baking for Josh. He hands her the leaf but doesn’t know how long it will take before it works. The ex-high king can’t believe she’s saying this but she can’t leave until Josh is cured or else he’ll die. Penny understands and promises that he’ll bring Eliot back.

Back at the Neitherlands, the Sister Monster finds Fogg in his cell and asks what he did to get locked up in there. He says that he went against every fiber in his being in an attempt to do something right and he recommends never to do that. The dean then apologizes to Julia for everything that’s ever happened to her because of him and just as he’s about to be dealt a death blow, Q’s voice is heard calling for the monster lady. Alice and Quentin are both charged up and have the axes and the bottles with them while she calls the two adorable.

Final Thoughts

So the siblings don’t have names, that’s pretty sad that their parents didn’t even see fit to give them any. When The Monster asks her if he had one, she asks back why would need one and he sheepishly mutters for Starbucks mostly. I suspect we’ll learn more about the backstory of the twins next season and we’ll probably see how their parents were.
Penny 23 has been so much like Penny 40 in his dialogue this week! It’s all that pent up frustration with Julia being kidnapped and not being able to do much about it for the time being.
Is Zelda really still trying to help her mentor despite everything?
I suspect that Everett becoming a god still won’t be enough to stop the siblings.
Where is the Binder this whole time?

The Magicians airs on Syfy Wednesdays at 9/8 central.

Monomythic Screenwriting, Episode 12: Story Circles

Christian Angeles

April 9, 2019

The cast of community season one as aliens with three pronged antennae and teal skin — RICK AND MORTY -- "Auto Erotic Assimilation" Episode 203 -- Pictured clockwise left to right: Alien versions of the cast of COMMUNITY - Alison Brie as Annie, Yvette Nicole Brown as Shirley, Chevy Chase as Pierce, Danny Pudi as Abed, Gillian Jacobs as Britta, and Joel McHale as Jeff -- (Photo courtesy of: Adult Swim)

By now, you should be able to see the story patterns of the Monomyth almost everywhere. While some may consider it derivative, as it’s formulaic and rehashed again and again: it does provide a general outline. Still, take it with a grain of salt, as Monomyths and Story Circles are simply a way to provide structure for your stories. Obviously, there are proponents for and against it, but for the sake of wanting to tell a story, they’re tremendously helpful. They’re great at preventing yourself from getting lost or meandering your plot, hitting the wall, and giving up on your writing.

Personally, a MAJORITY of the writers I have met in the past – quit before they created something truly substantial. I don’t think I’m alone in this statement either. Think back and ask yourself, how many times have you met someone with a story to tell? Someone who is willing to give ideas, though not actually sit down to write the story? How many people have you met in your lifetime, that claimed to have a groundbreaking movie, comic, or novel in mind… but never actually gave it the time of day to create that story?

I can’t speak for you… but I will say, for me, I’ll say it’s the majority. Which is why structure is so incredibly useful. It helps prevent people from giving up when the story inevitably gets hard.

It all comes back to Joseph Campbell’s Monomyth and the idea that stories are universal, and that there’s an inherent structure to all narratives. Is this true? I don’t know, but personally, Monomyths have helped me by providing a structured template in order for me to FINISH my stories. Something, I think most writers struggle with. Still, it’s only a template – one very open to customization, as this Dan Harmon proves.

Credit: storybinder.com A great place for indie film productions to find scheduling tools, devices, and equipment – as well a fantastic industry-related blog. Watch here for a breakdown of Dan Harmon’s Story Circle using The Dark Knight as an example.

DAN HARMON’S STORY CIRCLE

The story circle was created by Dan Harmon, the creator of such pop cultural gems such as Community and Rick and Morty. It’s a streamlined version of the Monomyth that changes a few critical elements – though essentially, streamlines the purpose of the process. The eight steps are listed below, as well as explanations for everything in its simplest terms by Dan Harmon himself.

A character is in a zone of comfort – When You
But they want something – Have a Need
They enter an unfamiliar situation – You Go Somewhere
Adapt to it – Search for it
Get what they wanted – Find it
Pay a heavy price for it – Take it
Then return to their familiar situation – Then Return
Having changed – And Change Things

What Dan does here is combine different elements of the Monomyth and converts it into a simpler and easier to comprehend formula. In terms of Monomythic Story Structure, here’s what Dan combined:

You – Call to Adventure
Need – Refusal of The Call, Meeting The Mentor
Go – Crossing The Threshold, Belly of The Whale
Search – Road of Trials
Find – Meeting With The Goddess, Temptation
Take – Atonement With The Father, Apostasis, The Ultimate Boon
Return – Refusal of The Return, Magic Flight, Rescue from Without, Crossing the Return Threshold.
Change – Master of Both Worlds

To help in this process, I’m going to quickly go over each segment, though for practicality I’ll just define the above eight segments by Parts and tell you what to do:

Part One: You

This is where you introduce your world and protagonist. You can mess around with a little exposition and have some fun or dramatic beats here to sell the emotional tone of your story, but you really need to make your main character likable and relatable here.

To be blunt, many studio script readers will read only this section and your ending. They want to see how far your journey goes and to what degree of change your little universe unfolds. If you can sell them here and at the end, they’ll bother reading the middle if you can hook their curiosity.

Remember, script readers read hundreds of scripts on a weekly basis, so you need to make your story sellable in these sections. Introduce all the elements of what the world is like, and what the protagonist is like, before the call to adventure happens. Because once this ‘inciting incident’ occurs, the journey begins, and you have to say farewell to this world…

Part Two: Need

Is where we address the change of some sort. Whatever the reason, something happens which gets the story unfolding. Sometimes, your character might be hesitant and Refuse The Call, and sometimes, The Mentor will come along and help push them forward.

Regardless, the point is something is wrong with your universe and your protagonist must change this. Whatever this is, must also be easily understood to your audience – otherwise, they’ll be less sympathetic to your protagonist’s cause, and you’ll lose them just as the story is beginning.

Part Three: Go

This is the moment of your story where the journey begins. It’s the first step, situation, or element outside of our character’s zone of comfort. It’s the point of no return and the first step into a bigger world of experience. Expect awkward and/or comedic beats here; or the first death in a horror movie; perhaps even, the first heart-wrenching moment in a Drama. The point is: this is the beginning of change.

Part Four: Search

This section continues down the path set-up in part three. Here we usually meet some secondary characters, or perhaps even, get to know the inevitable romantic interest. If anything, let the audience know your immediate supporting characters, better in this section. We can also see a bit of rivalry or have a small clash with the antagonist – perhaps even introducing them in this segment if they haven’t been introduced yet.

This is Blake Snyder’s ‘Fun and Games’ section in Save The Cat. ‘The Road Of Trials: Allies, Tests, and Enemies’ section of the Monomyth, which is a very befitting title, as this is what you’re showcasing here.

If part three didn’t sell your story, this section certainly will, as this is where a lot of the trailers of your movie will be featured. This is the reason you go to watch this film: So, sell it, and sell it well.

Part Five: Find

Dan Harmon really loves this section. From what I’ve read and watched about his works, the ‘Meeting with The Goddess’ seems to be his favorite of all the segments. This is the midpoint of your story – the exact opposite moment from when your story began in part one. This is the promise of the premise of your TV episode. The beginning of the journey’s alleged “End” if you may, though is just the first step in getting what your protagonist needs.

Everything your character has wanted since the beginning: they find it here. There’s also a small degree of ‘temptation’ and the promise of a ‘happy ending’ showcased – however, it doesn’t come easily. There must always be a final trial involved. This is the prize in front of your protagonist, so it’s inevitable that there will be a dragon (literal or metaphorical) of sorts.

Depending on your story, this takes on many faces: The love interest’s potential romance reciprocated, the answer to all of the mystery’s questions, the alleged showdown leading to the ‘defeat’ of the story’s villain, the return to status quo of the town or city, or the highpoint just before the fall of a tragedy.

Part Six: Take

This is the prize itself. This is your protagonist acting and executing on what they realized in part five. It’s also the fulfillment of the needed change in part two. However, a lot of the times it takes sacrifice and coming to terms with the demons of their past (Expect a death scene here. Or a set-up, to see the mentor sacrifice themselves for the hero, here).

This is where we see Thanos sacrifice Gamora for the Soul Stone. The moment the monster or serial killer allegedly dies or when true love becomes actualized in a romance. This is where your hero embraces becoming the legend that their story is supposed to be. It is also where we gift them with all they’ve ever wanted.

Part Seven: Return

This is the act of returning home with ‘the gift’ in hand. Whatever victory we had in part six, we need to bring it with us to ‘the world before’ in part one. If part three was leaving the old world, part seven then, is returning towards it. However, getting back is never straightforward. You usually see chase scenes here, or a timer set to go off, as the point is to build tension as we try and escape.

Sometimes the flight is less literal and more internal. It could be mastering a skill of some sort, or a training montage meant to build-up the protagonist’s newfound abilities from part six, in order to defeat the actual ‘villain’ in part eight. It could also just be accumulating all the parts together, usually with help friend friends or secondary characters, in order to resolve the actual big conflict.

Think of it this way: if part six was self-actualization (or becoming your true self), part seven is bringing us to the forefront of the ‘world before’ so that the better, stronger, self-actualized ‘you’ can save whatever what was wrong.

Part Eight: Change

This is the ‘Master of both Worlds’ segment where the hero saves the day, the knowledge of how to save the farm is bequeathed, the Death Star blows up and celebratory libations are had, and things end happily ever after. If part four is the trials and supporting cast introductions, part eight is the mastery of the trials and supporting cast resolutions – including the love story (if there is on).

Depending on your story structure, it can also just be getting home after having had the victory back in part six. Again, it’s role depends on how you’d written the story arc, though never-the-less, suits and satisfies both needs.

PROOF: RICK AND MORTY

Don’t believe me or Dan in that this method works? Well, here’s me proving it to you. Below is a video explaining how Rick and Morty tells a story – using Dan Harmon’s story circle and Season 2, Episode 6: “The Ricks Must be Crazy”

DUALITY ON THE JOURNEY WITHIN

I’ll mention this briefly here as it’s the Jungian theme in Monomyths that I didn’t talk about during the last lesson, but is also featured briefly in Dan Harmon’s story circle.

Now, if you were to draw out the story circle, you should see it divide evenly. In the analysis of the Story Circle listed above, I mentioned that the different parts of the eight steps contrasted each other: 1-5, 2-6, 3-7, 4-8.

There’s a reason for this.

According to Jungian psychoanalysis, there is a difference regarding the duality of adventure its rhythm. A cycle of death and rebirth. Truths that can be revealed only within the journey of self-discovery. The light and dark sides of the self, and the necessity to bring the two halves together – through the experience; hence, The Hero’s Journey.

Parts 1,2,7,8 of the Story Circle:

Represent life, consciousness, and order. It’s the life cycle being reborn – including and incorporating, the themes of bequeathing life (Also known as: Children, Family, and Legacy). The patterns of seeing a living thing grow and breathe (Think Simba from the Lion King). This is where we consciously know about nature, ourselves and our routines. The humdrum of our day-to-days gone by, structured within an ordered universe. This is our control over the situation, our conscious view of the world, but most importantly, this is for all intents and purposes: Life.

“Little one, it’s a simple calculus. This universe is finite, its resources, finite… if life is left unchecked, life will cease to exist. It needs correcting.”

Yet, as good old Thanos was saying: what happens when life continues to grow uncontrolled? In a strange way – the Hero’s Journey is a cycle that perpetuates the Mad Titan’s Vision, though with a lot more storytelling and free agency involved, which then makes it okay!

Because in the end, you can’t allow life to grow uncontrolled, nor keep a perfectly ordered utopia – it can’t all be the light – existence, in fact, needs darkness. It needs to throw in chaos and death and the uncomfortable – in order to conjure a necessity to change.

Parts 3,4,5,6 of the Story Circle:

Represents death, the unconscious, and chaos. It’s what happens to our lives after the loss of someone important to us. The death of a part of ourselves of who we are or who we once were. Death is change. Change is scary. It feeds into our fears about what we don’t know, or even worse: are too afraid to know. These are the questions rooted and festering within the unconscious mind. These are the great secrets we can only learn via living and dying, self-destruction, and the desire to break the routine. The darkness within represents chaos by embracing that which is unfamiliar, yet also, holds truths our structured and ordered world has yet to understand. For only the journey takes us to the fountain of wisdom and rewards us with a newfound gift of appreciation of life.

For all intents and purposes, this side of the circle represents the end of things, but also, the promise of a newfound knowledge or change. The dark side represents the death of the old ways.

It’s in this harmony of the two worlds, of light and darkness, life and death, and conscious versus unconscious, where we create stories. If you’re looking for themes or places to throw in conflict: think about this dynamic. The unknown versus the known, and the order versus the chaos. Sometimes it helps…

MORE HARMON THEORY

For more lectures on Dan Harmon’s story circle by Dan Harmon himself, check these out:

https://channel101.fandom.com/wiki/Story_Structure_101:_Super_Basic_Shit

https://channel101.fandom.com/wiki/Story_Structure_102:_Pure,_Boring_Theory

https://channel101.fandom.com/wiki/Story_Structure_103:_Let%27s_Simplify_Before_Moving_On

https://channel101.fandom.com/wiki/Story_Structure_104:_The_Juicy_Details

Try This: Craft A Story Circle

Alright, this one will be your hardest test to date, so I leave you only with this single exercise. Now that you know about monomyths and story circles: create a story circle for your story. This is the most important exercise out of all these lessons, as from here, you’ll use this story circle to outline a treatment, then use that treatment, to write your actual screenplay. Remember to use what you’ve learned to determine what type of story circle you’re creating – create a logline even, to help ground your writing. Use your voice to see what you’re trying to say.

Thankfully, you’re not going at it alone: use the tools that you’ve created in these lessons to help you with this process. This is where your worldbuilding and character sheets tremendously help you.

That’s all for this lesson. Next week, I’ll go over how to turn your story circle into a treatment, which is basically: a detailed outline of your screenplay. After the treatment, we’ll get into lessons about writing the screenplay – including formatting rules.

‘Shazam!’ Review: It Shizzles

Christian Angeles

April 9, 2019

The siblings gather — Zachary Levi, Grace Fulton, Jovan Armand, Jack Dylan Grazer, Ian Chen, and Faithe Herman in Shazam! (2019). Photo Credit: IMDB

Shazam! Is a movie I would have taken my nephew to – as it’s young, bold, and childish – with the gravitas of the loss of familial innocence dignified in an out-of-body orphan experience. Which is where this movie exceeds in its fun factor.

For all intents and purposes, this could’ve been a very serious DC movie. Instead, it aims for geeking out on superhero tropes, and reminding the audience: what it’s like to see an origin story again – as the movie relies on tried and true Superhero formula – yet, it works.

Billy Batson (Asher Angel), is an orphan seeking his mother. After bouncing around foster homes, it seems like he finally finds a suitable one, run by parents who were former orphans, Victor and Rosa Vazquez (Cooper Andrews, whom many know as ‘Jerry’ on the Walking Dead, and Marta Milans). The home is filled with fellow orphans, who seem like an idyllic representation of America – six children of different races in a room, each having their own distinct personalities.

In a chance encounter, Billy is bestowed the powers of Shazam after fighting off some school bullies, becoming the eponymous adult sized superman trope that shoots lightning out of his fingertips (Zachary Levi). Billy as Shazam, is much like his childish counterpart except in an adult body; that is, he is awkward, clumsy, yet has a good heart – which is great characterization both for having fun with the story, but also, in its ability to poke fun of itself.

Image Courtesy of Warner Brothers

The origin story is something you’ve seen many times before: a magical place with a sort of wizard or genie bestows gifts upon a needing orphan/hero (think Luke Skywalker or Aladdin). Coincidentally, another person behind the scenes, who likewise failed that same test of courage the hero passed, also seeks the same power (think… Darth Vader or Jafar… wow, even I didn’t plan for that one).

What matters though, isn’t the origins, as much as it is the fun training montage in-between (kind of like Luke becoming a Jedi, or Aladdin pretending to be a prince). Learning how to be Shazam is priceless because of what this story does differently: it includes its side characters as vital to our hero. This works wonders, as instead of a single-person themed trial and error, it becomes instead: a fun buddy comedy adventure; all thrown within the midst of a superhero origins story.

There are jokes, but also kinship, as well as fun exploitation about what it’s like being a Superhero at the age of fourteen – during a time of youtube and clickable likability. Alone, Billy doing these things feels selfish. Together, with his brother Freddy (Jack Dylan Grazer), it feels very fun. Which is really the selling point of this movie: it is all about the family. Even the siblings and what’s happening with them, between college, internet hacking ability, and innocence: all play a role within the grand narrative. This movie is awkward fun like a Spider-Man film, and it excels in capturing the Hero’s Journey, but what makes this an awesome experience is hands down: stellar performances by its supporting cast working together, especially by the film’s climax.

Kudos to Cooper Andrews whom I want to give a big hug to: always, Asher Angel and Jack Dylan Grazer for really selling the brotherly love/hate, but most importantly – Zachary Levi who was fantastic in playing a gigantic man child in arguably his most memorable role since Chuck. I can tell from his appearance in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and his physical fitness there, that he’d worked hard at being Shazam and it shows.

Likewise, the characters Mary (Grace Fulton) and Darla (Faithe Herman)definitely accentuate the film by not only providing a powerful female presence but also, by showing that every family operates better with a parenting older sister and an adorable caring younger sister. This teen film truly embraces its awkwardness and sells itself to the YA crowd in excellent fashion and style.

You can watch Shazam! In theatres, now

‘The Tick’ Season 2: Review

Christian Angeles

April 6, 2019

The Cast Of The Tick — Photo Courtesy of Amazon Prime Video.

Season Two of the Amazon Prime superhero comedy returns, providing a sophomore season that is equally hilarious as it is strong, utilizing every bit of talent from each of its cast members.

We Reviewed the first four episodes of ‘The Tick’ on TV Talk Episode 6

Review (Spoiler-Free)

The Tick is sort of an accidental promotion turned delightful hero of hope. Originally, not a true comic book hero by any traditional standards, the character evolved over time – though was always meant to be a sort of parody on superheroes. Starting as a newsletter mascot for a small New England comics store in the 1980s, the franchise would grow into its own individual comic run, eventual children’s animated series on Fox kids in the 90s, comedy central syndicated reruns for the latter half of the decade, and eventually, had not just one, but two live-adaptions in the 2000s. The latter of which was picked up by Amazon Prime Video.

The first two episodes of the Amazon series were directed by Wally Pfister. You might not recognize Wally’s name, but for over a decade, Pfister served as the primary director of photography for critically acclaimed director: Christopher Nolan. This includes working on Nolan’s greatest classics such as Memento, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and Inception – the latter of which even earned Pfister an academy award, so from the get-go, ‘The Tick’ was immediately off to a great start.

Season one was a little slow in pacing, primarily only concerned with Arthur’s story about coming into his own, and was incredibly formulaic in openly utilizing The Heroes Journey to the letter (just think of Tick’s opening episode monologues). But by journey’s end, the product was a series that was cognizant of the tropes within its genre, and so, managed to place the superhero mythos on its own head – often, in hilarious fashion. In this world, the public doesn’t hesitate to embrace superheroes, nor does it ignore the bureaucracies behind them, nor disavow the overt praise of the superhero celebrity: product placement, magazines, and even the Superian (a parody off superman) brand – are all things about this universe the series plays around with.

We get the wholehearted yet dumbfounded Tick: the embodiment of wholesomeness who is ironically rather empty on the inside, the maniacal villain The Terror: whose grand scheme turns out to be the improvised drum solo of a crazy person without an actual plan, got to know the grittiness of Overkill: a borderline Batman cliche with a penchant for murdering bad guys, and embraced Superian: a supermess who is more concerned about how people see him rather than cares about the people itself. Overall, these are flawed superheroes and characters fighting for purpose within a slightly absurd city.

Season Two is a continuation of what we’ve seen from these characters so far, though truly allows each and every individual to come into its own. There isn’t an overarching Villain like ‘The Terror’ bringing it all together this season – rather, this is about every person’s journey, where they are today, and because of what has happened with the Terror being put on ice (quite literally) – what happens now that the secret force running the city for decades has gone away?

And to be frank… the series executes it brilliantly. All beginning with the reinstitution of A.E.G.I.S. (A blatant ripoff of Marvel’s Shield) and their desire to create a new Flag Five superhero team for the city. This excites Arthur, who is more than happy to be in the running, along with his superhero partner: The Tick. Most of this season sees Tick and Arthur work together to try and stop the nefarious Lobsterculues (A Herculean Lobster whos strength rivals the Tick’s) from bank robbing – though the lobster is apparently more than what appears to be. This season also sees Tick and Arthur pull out all the stops, going through different tests to prove themselves along the way. From heroic acts of saving to showcasing features of lobster parenting(I am not joking), we really get to know our protagonists, plus get to meet a bunch of very interesting superpowered folks along the way. Through their journey takes a very different tone by season’s end, it never takes itself too seriously, yet still finds a way to become akin to a sillier version of Captain America’s Winter Soldier.

Meanwhile, Dot realizes she has special powers of her own – which as the season unfolds, proves to be very powerful. She begins to embrace her calling, by taking up a position as a pseudo-sidekick of Overkill’s, who is also trying to tie up his past as a former A.E.G.I.S. agent. As and secrets and backstories for both him and Dangerboat (who is fantastic this season) are revealed.

Look, there are a million funny reasons to watch this season. Lobsters parenthood, bubbles, mind control, super zeroes, puns on words, poetic alliteration, a suitable goth kid, Greek mythology, and dance parties before the coming of the storm. There’s so much fun and funny about this, yet the craziest part: is that it all makes sense given what we know about this superhero genre and world.

With a final nod to Miss Lint, whose journey this season is nothing shy of amazing (she’s switching sides… we think?) as well as Superian’s story, which is oddly humanizing. Not only does our blatant ‘Superman’ knock-off have a social media crises, but also, what’s his deal with fugitive 11-X? I guess we’ll have to wait for season three.

Honestly, not only this was the best season of the series, this is now officially my favorite take on The Tick, definitely worth a binge this weekend.

You can Watch The Tick Season Two On Amazon Video Right Now

‘What We Do In the Shadows’ Review: Run For Their Life

Robert Kijowski

April 5, 2019

gmi4tx7s6cndt6n4oi1y — WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS -- "City Council" -- Season 1, Episode 2 (Airs April 3, 10:00 pm e/p) Pictured (l-r): Harvey Guillen as Guillermo, Kayvan Novak as Nandor, Natasia Demetriou as Nadja, Matt Berry as Laszlo, Mark Proksch as Colin Robinson. CR: Russ Martin/FX

Have you ever been reprimanded by a parent? It’s not sunniest of times, but it’s also not the most disheartening. Have you ever been reprimanded by your parent’s parent? That will mess with your psyche so much, you either want to pick yourself up by your bootstraps, dust yourself off and try harder or you want to pull a Kano on yourself and do the disheartening. The former thankfully is where we begin on the second episode of What We Do In the Shadows (FX).

We open up whence we left off, as the Baron rakes the group over the coals in them being lackadaisical in their purpose- to take over the New World within their Old Ways as a path subjugate humanity. To me, Staten Island is a great jumping off point. Geographically, they group is between two worlds (New York, New York and Philadelphia, PennsylVANIA). The housemates feel their feet to the fire and hold an impromptu meeting (in the Fancy Room) to devise their strategy. Not until Colin Robinson, their oft looked over (but most powerful) roommate joins the brainstorming that things are set into motion.

We’re treated to a master scene with all the vamps at a City Council Meeting which is a feeding ground for Colin, which he calls “a smorgasbord of banality and despair”. He knows what he’s doing and he’s Top Shelf with it… If that top shelf were also members on the board and the crowd in tow. Through a series of statutes he proposes on the behest of the rest of the group (whom still barely tolerate him) to have on the books and record for consideration, he is able to drain them all of energy until the perfect one is primed for the picking of the panel. More on that in a moment.

We also take stake (hiss) with a sub-plot of Nadja taking pity on virgin member of the previous LARPING community, Jenna (Beanie Feldstein). As a woman, vampire or not, she understands the being passed over when in a group of guys.. even in the setting where she’d be you would think coveted. I was initially thinking she was going to possibly going to make Jenna a familiar, as hers was voraciously consumed by the Baron himself upon awakening. I get it… some of us want a hot breakfast when we wake up! No judgement. Instead, Jenna is what’s on the menu, but not before her falling for Jenna. I figure it’s Nadja’s way of wanting her even more, which invites some trouble in the homestead with Laszlo. Hey, ya gotta be invited in to be kicked out.

Speaking of seduction, Laszlo, set on his romantic ways feels that going for the head of the City Council is going for the heart. In a failed attempt to win her over, he murders all the Raccoons in Staten Island and lays them at her doorstep like a feline, causing a Racket.

These night-walking denizens are all well meaning, but they still haven’t adapted to the way stuff works, so I would give them a little leeway. By that way, I would say the whole subplot is kind of throwaway, but it’s still funny.

Lastly, we concurrently deal with Nandor, whom, in his own way is contributing to the house. I mean, do these people have jobs? Outside of cleaning the occasional cobweb and Colin having an actual job, the rest just have to simply exist and conquer. I’m not saying that’s not awesome, but I want to know them more as (formerly) living people. I could so see myself commiserating with the likes of any of them, living or undead. Well maybe not Colin unless he let me into his magic.

With the Relentless, Nandor lives up to his honorific, trying to topple the Council and going for the throat.. well, not literally. He plays the long game, going for Doug Peterson, a constituent on the Board hypnotizing him. He plays mind games with him, resulting in one of the funniest scenes I’ve seen in a while. Through a bit of mind prompting, Doug at the next Board Meeting goes ape and this is when we see the full power of his cunning. We also see how turgid Colin gets. To impress a vampire whose sole purpose is to bore you to death? That’s a gift… and probably a curse.

‘The Magicians’ Review: The Binder Reveals All

Nicole C

April 3, 2019

The Magicians - Season 4 — THE MAGICIANS -- "The 4-1-1" Episode 411 -- Pictured: (l-r) Summer Bishil as Margo Hanson, Arjun Gupta as Penny Adiyodi, Stella Maeve as Julia Wicker -- (Photo by: Eike Schroter/SYFY)

On this week’s episode of The Magicians, we discover a truth bombshell on what Everett is really after and how it connects to The Monster and his sister.

Return to Brakebills South

Margo returns to Earth and proceeds to tell her ice axe story to multiple people in the group. She informs them that even though The Monster is a powerful god, her axes can still dispel him from a body and they just need to trap it afterwards. The trouble is that they would need a container strong enough to hold that kind of power. Alice then suggest that they cast an Incorporate Bond on the bottles which would like a giant paper weight. When the phosphomancer goes to talk to Dean Fogg about it, he confirms that he had performed the spell once on Professor Mayakovsky, but it was the Russian himself who actually wrote the spell. Apparently he was the only person who could write an Incorporate Bond that he couldn’t break. Alice reports back that their old teacher became human again (after a stint as a bear) once magic came back and he returned to Brakebills South. Margo tells Q and Alice to have fun talking to the old drunk. Quentin tries to get her to come because things between him and his ex was still weird. Margo tells him to grow a pair. Oh boy things are about to get even more awkward.

However, when they return to the school, Mayakovsky doesn’t quite seem himself. After some investigation of their surroundings, Alice explains that the professor swapped consciousness with a different version of himself and this version looks to be from the future when the teacher has dementia (Mayakovsky made a mistake with his calculations) Q then suggests that maybe he can talk to Mayakovsky in the past about the spell. So they set up the timeshare spell and Quentin switches consciousness, only to be ambushed by an Alice ready to sleep with him. But he exercises restraint and is able to pull away to go find the Russian magician. Meanwhile in the present, Alice isn’t able to fully use a memory charm on past Q (who is in present Q’s body) and so she convinces him that Mayakovsky had teleported them to the lab as a test. They just needed to tie rope knots for magical purposes. Since past Q had no idea of what was to come, he kisses present Alice’s head nonchalantly and oh my heart! It’s a hard punch in the gut at how their relationship used to be like before things got real screwed up.

Inside Mayakovsky’s office, the Russian is very suspicious as to why Quentin suddenly needs to know how to cast an Incorporate Bond. The professor is confused why he isn’t having lots of sex with Alice (who is the better magician) but has chosen him to sleep with. Eventually Q convinces Mayakovsky to help, however in order to do so he needs to know what the other man’s discipline is. He makes the younger magician drink with him while he performs a test to determine the Quentin’s magical affinity. Showing us how brilliant he is, Mayakovsky knows that Q is from the future and refuses to say anything more until the student reveals what’s going on. To even protect the timeline, Mayakovsky says he won’t remember the conversation because of the copious amounts of vodka he is drinking. In a turn of events, the surly older man writes out the basis of the Incorporate Bond and hands it over to Quentin. Before leaving we find out that his discipline is repairing small objects and past Alice had eavesdropped! She demands to know what happened and understands the paradox so she writes a charm that will erase her memory for the last hour. Q relents and says that a lot of things have happened and it’s pretty bad. Past Alice tells him that she’s scared losing what they have, not of the future because he’s the best thing that’s ever happened to her. She hopes he remembers that when he goes back. In the present, Alice and past Q are still tying knots and he suggests that instead they should just have sex right then and there. She gives in and kisses him only to have present Q return to his body. The two then talk a bit where Alice asks what Mayakovsky said his discipline was. He answers mender of small objects and she comments that at least now he knows. She asks him to show her and he puts a broken mug back together again. When questioned on how it felt, Q answers that it’s like helping it wake up remember what it was like before. Seems that he’s just not talking about the mug there.

Fillory and Climate Change

Back in Fillory, Josh rushes up to Fen and Tick and blurts out that he’s had some kind of vision. He was just walking into the throne room when he saw a biscuit on the ground and decided to pick it up. Just as he was about to eat it a gust of wind blows through and all of a sudden a TV crew appears and he’s in the middle of filming his show, “Eating Out with Josh Hoberman.” But soon after that all vanishes and he’s alone once again. Apparently the winds of fate are a thing in Fillory and they’ve come unseasonably early. The magician points out that it seems like the country’s entire magical ecosystem is out of whack. Tick then says funny that Josh should mention that because not too long ago they imprisoned a naiad that was committing acts of violence against farmers and that he recalls her saying something about Fillory’s failing ecosystem, but he wasn’t paying too much attention because she was covered in guts. Fen says they should go talk to her and so the trio head to the dungeon to chat with Ismene. The magical being says that Fillory’s ecosystem is indeed messed up because the waters are moving and it’s the fault of the thirsty thirteenth. Apparently this guy tried to capture and dam them (the other water spirits).

Fen and Josh go check the archives and weirdly the thirteenth has been stricken from the records. Ismone however refuses to speak the dude’s name and so Tick returns with a threat. He’s gone all the way to her well and if she doesn’t start talking he’s going to drink the water, then pee it out and then Josh is going to drink it. That act is torture to the naiad but the government official is determined to get information so he starts chugging. Fen and Josh are both freaking out when the current high king remembers that the thirteenth’s name is Roderick from a children’s rhyme. Josh then supposes what if Ismone isn’t talking about water but magic and that there could a giant cistern of magic below Whitespire. That makes sense since The Beast got his magic from the Wellspring, which is a magical body of water that Ember pooped in at one point. I wonder too if its somehow related to keeping the powerful magic required to contain The Monster within Blackspire all these years since it is located in the inverse of Fillory. Fen suddenly has an idea of how to find this cistern. In one of the hallways in the castle, the floor is set up like the Fillorian version of hopscotch. Josh makes the winning move and says, “Honey or die” and suddenly a passageway is revealed leading below ground.

The Binder Explains All

At the apartment Julia, Penny 23, and Margo are examining the book that Alice brought back from the mirror world. The ex-goddess comments that it is written in a language she’s never seen before, when Margo suddenly gets a paper cut and the tome slams itself shut with the magician’s hand still inside. When they open it again, the pages have become blank except for one page that is now lightly illustrated in Margo’s blood. Well now, if the book wants some red liquid, she’s got plenty to provide via her tampon. Thank you uterus! A spell in Latin becomes visible and since Julia still can’t cast, she asks Penny 23 to do it who is grossed out at first but relents and reads the text out loud. What happens next is unexpected to say the least as the book begins to vibrate, forcing the traveler to place it down. Soon after a hand emerges. It’s a kind of weird and disturbing birthing scene where a fully-grown man comes out of the pages dressed in a linen smock akin to Biblical times. He begins to speak in third person, narrating that as they stared at him in wonder he thought to himself that it took them long enough.

He says that he knew Julia was on a quest to gain her divinity back and that The Binder had the answers, but in order for him to provide that information they would need to know how he came to be. But all of a sudden, The Binder says that pages were missing from his book and he collapses to the floor. True enough after examining the tome there are some page missing. All of a sudden Margo notices a shadow upstairs and she goes to investigate. When she enters one of the rooms, it’s all decked out in candles and rose petals. The drapes and the door move by themselves and the former high king of Fillory gets knocked out. When Penny 23 and Julia go up to check in on her, the candles get mysteriously lit and the door closes as well. A tied-up Margo then falls out of the closet door and angrily rants that a panty sniffing ghost dude tied her up and he keeps pointing to Penny. It’s the return of Hyman Cooper! Turns out he left Brakebills after Penny 40 died to find out what happened to everyone and now he wants to participate. So he’s been responsible for trying to spice the mood in order for Penny 23 and Julia to finally be together. Hyman (like perhaps many of us viewers) know a good thing when he sees it and he keeps witnessing the two of them sacrificing their own joy for others. He can’t be blamed for wanting them to be happy because they would never do it for themselves.

Once Hyman returns the missing pages and The Binder’s book is made whole again, we learn a major plot twist! The man resumes his tale and we discover that it begins in the Library. He was studying the limits of power and his specialty was the inherent magic of gods. Here’s the point where the puppet show starts. The Binder had a theory that when a god was killed his energy would be lost, but he believed it could be preserved by binding it to an object and then in turn binding that object to a magician who had sufficient training and preparation. This would effectively turn the magician into a god. However, they couldn’t just kill a god because as Margo pointed out that would mean a shutdown of magic. The problem perplexed the librarians but it was the old gods themselves who provided a solution in the form of two siblings who were born with the power of many gods (aka The Monster and his sister). They also had an important element that was essential to the experiment, the twins could not die. When the two were separated the less dominant one would be in a confused childlike state. The sister was then split into four parts, bound to four stones, and then the stones bound to four librarians (Bacchus, Aengus, Iris, and Heka). In the aftermath The Binder regretted what he had done and the four new gods were afraid of him because he alone held the secret to make them human again. So they cursed him into becoming a book so that they could hide him from the rest of The Order and from history. It just so happened that a young librarian read his book and hid him in the mirror world where he hoped no one would find him again, until word reached The Binder of Julia Wicker’s quest. He could help her either become human or goddess again. The choice would be hers but both roads would be painful. The Binder knew she would need time to decide and he only asked for one favor in return, that she would burn his book after because he didn’t want to be used again.

Julia and Penny 23 talk after and she asks if he thinks Hyman is right about them. She’s also been thinking about being a goddess a lot and how she’d try not to screw it up like the other gods but maybe she should also consider just being happy. He suggests they make a pros and cons list, if she becomes divine again she gains power and can help in the fight. If she turns human she can feel things like hunger and sadness. Unexpectedly she goes in for their first kiss! Suddenly The Monster pops in and says that he has a problem. The body he has for his sister isn’t durable enough and he needs one that’s stronger, like Julia’s. He then kidnaps her and they vanish leaving Penny 23 alone in the room.

Back To the Poison Room

Meanwhile, Zelda tells Kady and Fogg that she wants to go into the Poison Room to steal Everett’s book in order to be one step ahead of him. At first the younger magician wants nothing to do with that room because going there is what caused her Penny to die. She asks why the dean can’t go instead and he says that he can’t because the Library has been harassing him heavily and Zelda agrees that it would cause too much unwanted attention. Eventually Kady relents and dons a disguise. The two women then return to the Neitherlands branch of the Library and head to Everett’s office. Zelda says that he is in an acquisitions meeting and so they should have enough time to go grab his book but then the man himself appears and explains that he snuck out of the appointment early. He asks what she’s doing there and she fibs that she was hoping they could chat in his office. Kady then calls Fogg asking him to create a distraction big enough that it would warrant Everett’s attention. So he proceeds to get massively drunk and teaches the surviving first year students how to do a cloaking spell. This in turn gets reported to the Library and Zelda is able to do a quick key copy spell as she leaves her mentor’s office.

The duo then head to the Poison Room, but they must drink a bottle of insects as protection first. Turns out the magical creatures will eat the poison inside their bloodstream. The bugs only last one hour so they will need to be quick. Kady finds Everett’s book and Zelda speed reads through it. The librarian confirms that her mentor had been lying to all of them and he indeed had been hoarding magic to become a god. Worse is that if the book is correct, he succeeds. My theory is that Everett was the young librarian who had found The Binder’s book some time ago. They make their way back up to the entrance when Kady comments that she has a chocolate taste in her mouth. The older woman responds that as the bugs eat the poison they’ll experience different flavors and that they are in trouble if they taste mint. Unfortunately as well, someone has locked them inside and now the Hedge Witch leader has finds herself with minty fresh breathe.

Final Thoughts

Are we beginning to see Alice and Quentin learning to be friends with each other at long last?
Will Plover be the one who provides Zelda and Kady a way out of the Poison Room or perhaps a way to survive within?
If Everett really succeeds in becoming a god, The Binder could still return him to being a human. Or hopefully he passes on the knowledge to someone else.
Now that Julia has been chosen to be The Monster’s sister’s body, if she can overpower said sister she would totally have goddess level (if not more) again.

The Magicians airs on Syfy Wednesdays at 9/8 central.

Monomythic Screenwriting, Episode 11: Monomyths

Christian Angeles

April 2, 2019

The Hero's Journey described in comic panels. — Image from ACTION PHILOSOPHERS graphic novel

In this episode, we go over the Monomythic storytelling structure.

For a quick contemporary lesson on The Monomyth. Watch Here.

I’m going to let you in on a little secret: every story ever told has been told in some another shape or form. Stories are universal. They date back to the oldest of traditions and are passed down through different forms of art and culture. They’re fundamental to being human as every person is a natural storyteller. Stories are simply how we think about and interpret our world – whether we realize it or not.

If I asked you, “What did you do yesterday?” You’d begin by telling me a story. Maybe you ate breakfast, walked the dog, went into work, and afterward, had tacos for dinner. Congratulations, you just told me a story. Maybe it was something else? Perhaps it was something less conventional? Maybe you went into a job and did nothing but solve complex equations all day, looking for a new formula of rocket fuel in order to travel to Mars. It might be more math related, and thus, personally, something I’ll never truly understand, but that’s still telling a story. You’re still out there doing things.

Every memory, every experience, and every type of thinking where ‘you’ (literal or projected onto another: aka empathy) is involved in performing an action is a type of story. Humans are natural storytellers because it’s how we conceive of the world around us related to ourselves.

The Monomyth

This lesson has been a long time coming. It’s the foundation of this blog, as well as the reason why you’re here. This is how you tell a story according to the Monomythic Structure of Joseph Campbell’s Hero With A Thousand Faces.

It’s important to note that not every step needs to necessarily be used. If anything, think of the Monomyth as more of a guideline.

Also, for every segment below, I’ll be talking about, I’ll be referring to Hero as a gender-neutral term – because that’s only fair.

Joseph Cambell's 17 Steps of the Hero's Journey — Joseph Cambell’s 17 Steps of the Hero’s Journey

1. Ordinary World/Call to Adventure

This is the world before. Where the protagonist is before the story begins. It is their safe space and where we learn about the main character: their personality, abilities, and perspective on life. It’s the part in the movie where we sympathize and understand exactly who this person is and how we relate to them. It is where we will empathize with them the most. Usually, this is where we will see your character in school, at their job, and with their family – understand their status quo before the call to action.

Then, something happens. Their status quo breaks. This could be meeting the love interest in a romance, or getting the ticket to the Titanic, losing a well-sustained job, or entering cryogenic sleep in the science fiction space chamber before waking up and finding the ship is now infested with aliens.

The Call to Adventure is exactly that: the thing which causes the initial change or necessitated change in the story – which will eventually propel your character forward.

2. Refusal of The Call

The hero may or may not be eager to accept the call but let’s be honest: change is uncomfortable. At this point, your character may have doubts or second thoughts about whether they should be doing this. If that’s the case, the hero may refuse the call and suffer, like Luke Skywalker losing Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru. The goal of this moment in the story is hesitation. It’s the perfect time to make aware the stakes of what’s at hand but also give us a sense of the limitations of the main character – see what they can do versus what they are willing to do, at this point in the story.

3. Meeting the Mentor/Supernatural Aid

It’s straightforward: this is when we meet the mentor figure. The person who helps guide the hero into making the decision and sets them on the path. Whatever the mentor provides, it helps the hero believe in themselves to take the necessary journey. Often, however, the Mentor also provides a degree of magic and supernatural aid – though more in the sense that they introduce them to elements of a world they’ve yet to understand.

4. Crossing the Threshold

The main character crosses the threshold of the familiar world and begins the journey entering the unfamiliar world. It can be a small dip into being a superhero. A foray into a talent one hadn’t expected to be good at; Or even the beginnings of an emotional, mental, or physical journey.

It can be the first step in traveling to a new destination or taking on a task the protagonist has always been afraid to do. The goal is that this will be the first step of a new world of experience.

5. Belly of the Whale

This is the point of no return. It’s crossing the Rubicon. Or entering the belly of the beast. It represents the final stage of separation from the known world. From here on out is this new experience – whether it be a new relationship, quest to destroy the ring, or whatever lies ahead. This is the beginnings of the hero’s metamorphosis.

6. The Road Of Trials: Allies, Tests, and Enemies

The protagonist is then confronted with a series of tests and challenges. Obstacles that bar the way which can stop them in their tracks. The main character then needs to push through everything to overcome this, pass their tests, and continue the journey towards their end goal.

Yet to do this, they not only need resilience but also: awareness. This is where the hero learns who to trust, builds allies, and makes enemies – forming bonds with people who will help along with the trials ahead.

These lessons and experiences will then help forge the character into becoming who they need to become, provide greater insight, but more than anything else: help them grow as a person.

It’s also some of the most exciting parts of the screenplay as it’s where your main character starts turning into what you had promised in the movie trailers.

7. Approach to The Inmost Cave/Meeting with The Goddess

Honestly, this entire thing sounds like a euphemism for a vagina. Given the psychoanalytic influences, I don’t think that it’s much of a stretch.

The inmost cave is supposed to represent the ultimate goal of this quest. It’s not a literal location, but a representation of the large trial the hero must undergo in order to obtain their objective. Approaching it usually requires a lot of preparation. Which is why you should think of the ‘approach to the inmost cave’, as the calm before the big storm. The moment where the hero reflects on everything they’ve now gone through since crossing the threshold.

A lot of the anxieties from the ‘Refusing the call’ section of the character’s life before will manifest again here. It’s where the audience is reminded what the protagonist is capable of doing (which should be more than before) but also, should reflect on what’s at stake – which by now, may seem like an even bigger threat than when the protagonist first started.

The ‘Meeting with The Goddess’ also takes a slightly odd interpretation by contemporary standards. From my understanding, the Cave and the Goddess are somewhat synonymous (again, vagina), however the Goddess can also be interpreted as a quite literal meaning: as it’s supposed to represent what the protagonist needs at the moment to feel whole again.

Sometimes this can be as simple as finding an Oasis in the desert. Or perhaps it’s even just a break from all the fighting. Often in Hollywood, this is where one of the allies picked up on the road of trials reveals themselves as a potential romantic love interest (have I mentioned vagina enough?), and in the even more traditional sense: provide a potentially promising life with the protagonist in a happily ever after situation.

8. Temptation

This should be straightforward: instead of finishing the task at hand, why not run away together? This is in myths, the moment where Circe or Calypso holds onto Odysseus. The moment where the hero is tempted by a female in abandoning his quest.

To be frank, this one isn’t all too utilized in Hollywood screenwriting anymore; however, I will mention it here because I am acknowledging that it exists in the original Monomythic structure. Unlike many sources which try and shy away from the poorer looked upon sides of the material, I am acknowledging that it exists – again, story formulas are never perfect.

9. Atonement with The Father

This is usually the big showdown. It’s confronting the thing that killed Inigo Montoya’s father. It’s making the family proud by conquering the thing that has control over the protagonist’s life.

Symbolically, this is seen as the father. At least, according to the original Monomythic interpretation. However, for all intents and purposes, ‘The Father’ is really just the thing in the protagonist’s life that represents control over life and death.

Which is why the atonement moment is usually synonymous with the big trial and test ahead of the hero. It’s the moment they have to call upon all of their newfound powers, skills, and experiences to overcome the greatest challenge – essentially atoning with the father – though sometimes quite literally, as seen with Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader.

10. Apostasis

And in order to beat the demons of the past: Your character is going to have to die…

Yep.

Basically, your character must undergo some form of metaphysical death in order to be reborn again. A resurrection that allows them greater power and knowledge, necessary to fulfil their destiny and reach their journey’s end.

This is the exact opposite point of where your hero started in the story. It’s the climax in which the hero has ‘atoned with the father’, confronted the demons of the past by accepting the frailty of their own life, and are now having their most dangerous encounter with death (And when I say death I really just mean, the worst-case scenario imaginable. Though death often fits that category).

It’s also the moment where the hero realizes that there’s more to their decisions than just their life. Their actions have consequences that affect the lives of others including the ones they care about, but also, have consequences upon their world at large.

So ultimately, this is where your hero succeeds, vanquishes their demons, and emerges reborn as a type of golden God or Goddess. This is their moment of triumph.

11. The Ultimate Boon

The hero is transformed into a new state and is thus, able to reap the rewards for vanquishing their big bad demons. The reward can come in many forms: objects of power, deep romance, hidden treasures, greater knowledge, or reconciled sins now forgiven and atoned for. Whatever it is, the hero is going to bring it with them back to their ordinary world.

12. Refusal of The Return

This echoes the call to adventure but in reverse. This is the moment where the protagonist is supposed to return, though often hesitates, as at this moment in time, they’re feeling at their best and perhaps don’t want to return to the world before.

Regardless, the important part is that the character must make a choice, then commit to their cause as the last steps of the journey take place.

13. Magic Flight

This is the first step to return into the world before. Though remember, having to get back isn’t exactly easy – The Odyssey was literally an entire story about this. It can take a very long time sometimes. In many movies, this is usually the final flight out of a hostile situation, avoiding the big explosion, or the order to evacuate. Whatever the case, it’s intention is usually one thing: to get out of there and retreat home.

14. Rescue from Without

Often, the Hero needs help to get back. Just as they needed the mentor to push them forward, they’ll usually need a friend to help them return home. Think the Eagles at the end of Lord Of The Rings. Or Han Solo saving Luke by clearing the path during the Death Star run.

15. Crossing the Return Threshold

At this point, the character has returned into the old world and are officially where they were prior to leaving on the journey. This is Frodo heading back into the Shire. This is the moment the kids return home not ever knowing if they can go back to Naria.

16. Master of Two Worlds

The character looks back and reflects, having achieved mastery of both worlds. They’ve grown from their journey and can share the lessons and wisdom from what they’ve learned: things significant enough to make a difference in their immediate world.

Likewise, whatever problems they had before… are not the same anymore. They’ve changed. They’ve grown up.

17. Freedom to Live

Having mastered both worlds and gone through the journey, the character is now able to live freely with an unprecedented degree of authenticity. They can live out their lives however they see fit, knowing about what it’s like on the other side of life.

Try This: Find a Monomythic Adventure

This one is a complicated lesson, so this is my only assignment: Find as many movies as you’d like that fit the Monomythic structure. List how they fit into it.

If this all seems confusing and messy, don’t worry. Next week, we’ll be going over Dan Harmon’s story circle – which is basically this, but simplified.

You will also find several reduced versions such as these of the Hero’s Journey. Some feature only 12 or even 8 steps. Next week, I’ll show you Dan Harmon’s version.

‘The Twilight Zone’ review: ‘Nightmare at 30,000 Feet’

Matt Perri

April 2, 2019

The Twilight Zone Nightmare at 30000 Feet

THE TWILIGHT ZONE
Season 1, Episode 2
“Nightmare at 30,000 Feet”
Available on CBS All-Access (new episodes uploaded every Thursday, starting 4/11)
GRADE: C-

Passenger Justin Sanderson (Adam Scott), an investigative reporter suffering from PTSD from an assignment in Yemen, boards a flight that’s meant to go to Tel Aviv (a “less stressful assignment” according to Sanderson) but takes a detour through hell.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one.

The second episode of Jordan Peele’s re-boot of “The Twilight Zone” visits familiar territory with the second re-telling of “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet”, a classic episode from the 1959 original series.

However, Instead of monsters dining on engine parts while hanging out on the wings of a passenger jet, Sanderson’s demon comes in the form of a mysterious mp3 player left behind from a prior flight. The device seemingly contains one track: a podcast called “Enigmatique” which details the tragic loss of Flight #1015 out of Dulles Airport which is ominous enough, considering Sanderson’s stressed out and riding on an airliner in the middle of a massive thunderstorm and that’s probably the last thing somebody wants to hear about…but it’s even more odd because Sanderson is currently on Flight #1015.

It’s a clever enough premise given the notion that another version of this story already feels unnecessary and the execution of the episode is near-perfection, thanks to a talented cast and a reduced running time of just over a half hour but the episode is not without its flaws.

First, with a major change of the antagonist comes natural adjustments of the original storyline. While a haunted mp3 player with a Podcast that tells the future sounds creepy, the constant explaining of the proceedings on board the plane and the podcast’s narrator pushing clues on Sanderson seems somehow redundant and borderline annoying. Sanderson is led around the plane like a puppet on strings, attempting to do what he does best: find the truth at any cost, even at the sake of his own sanity or, in this case, his life and the lives of everyone around him.

His only friend on the plane is an admirer he met at the airport prior to flight by the name of Joe Beaumont (Chris Diamantopoulos) who tells Sanderson that he was “once a pilot” but that he made mistakes in his past which saw him being deemed ex-communicado. Whereas Justin tries to talk himself through his severe panic attacks, Joe has already begun his “therapy” through alcoholic means. Why is Joe on this flight? Because he is. That’s fate, I guess. There’s lots of that in that episode but it never really ties together in a satisfying manner, which is a shame considering the incredible pacing and use of tension throughout the episode.

As Sanderson races against the clock to prevent a disaster only he knows is coming, the episode becomes slightly implausible and can’t quite reconcile certain ideas and what they mean (the unknown significance of “1015” feels like a homage to LOST with its set of “cursed numbers”) and while the climax is haunting (the plane heads to the ground to Sinatra’s “Fly Me to the Moon” which has an ethereal post-production echo added to it for effect while Sanderson stands there, ironically docile and accepting), the final resolution is equal parts ridiculous, unbelievable, and mean-spirited. But as I stated, when you make changes, them’s the breaks.

This is the third time we’ve seen this story. While the original series version hasn’t held up well (the Gremlin in the original just isn’t frightening and I can’t imagine it was even shocking back in the earliy 60’s), the 1983 version starring John Lithgow (and directed by Mad Max helmer George Miller) is a masterpiece of modern terror. While the performances are good, there’s not a whole lot to Sanderson other than a guy who’s stressed out and Scott doesn’t really sell his character the way Lithgow or William Shatner did and that’s unfortunate because Chris Diamantopoulos’s brooding, alcoholic former pilot Joe ends up being a lot more fascinating than Sanderson is which makes me wonder why the writers thought it would be a good idea to feature two broken protagonists rather than focusing on just one.

It’s probably not healthy to compare but this “Nightmare” turned out to be more a bad dream than anything else.

LOST IN THE ZONE

One thing I forgot to note in the last review is the abundant amount of swearing in this new Zone. I don’t care about swearing. Anyone who’s read me knows that. And It doesn’t really do much harm to the experience. However, it must be noted that this is the first Twilight Zone series to have swearing so it’s slightly off-putting to hear the characters let loose as if they’re on Showtime or HBO.
Yes, that’s Samir Wassan, the main character from the last episode, “The Comedian” on the cover of an entertainment magazine inside the airport gift shop at the beginning of the episode. WE HAVE A TWI-VERSE!!!
I may be wrong but “Joe Beaumont” sounds like it’s a reference to Classic Zone writer Charles Beaumont who, along with Richard Matheson and Rod Serling, helped write the bulk of the series.
The original “gremlin” from the 1959 series makes a cameo in the form of a keychain which washes up on the shore of the alcove where Flight #1015 ends up.
Yay, Nicolas Lea as the plane’s original captain! It’s great to see him as the good guy rather than a dude hiding in the shadows, tormenting Fox Mulder.
SPOILERS HERE (DO NOT READ AHEAD IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THE EPISODE): The twist IS ridiculous. I don’t say that to be contrary. I don’t believe, for one moment, that these people all become pseudo-zombies hell-bent on straight up murdering the one dude who constantly tried to warn them about the plane crashing, especially after the entire plane witnesses Beaumont breaking into the cockpit and crashing the plane himself. It’s just a terrible ending to an episode that really could have used a memorable ending to off-set the modern changes.

‘The Twilight Zone’ review: ‘The Comedian’ goes for grandeur

Matt Perri

April 1, 2019

THE TWILIGHT ZONE
Season 1, Episode 1
“The Comedian”
Available on CBS All-Access (new episodes uploaded every Thursday, starting 4/11)
GRADE: B-

Every single night, comedian Samir Wassan (Kumail Nanjiani) goes on a stage and attempts to be topical. He starts each one of his sets ridiculing The Second Amendment for being just 27 words long, three of which happen to be “A well regulated”. He remarks that it’s “11 percent” of the entire Amendment which is sad because it’s like an airline flight “that only gets you 89 percent of the way to your destination”. I’m paraphrasing here but you get what Wassan’s attempting to say. Or perhaps you don’t. Or perhaps you’re worn out by the extensive coverage of tragic shootings on television that you can’t bring yourself to laugh. Or…whatever. Nobody’s laughing. But this doesn’t stop Wassan as he struggles each night, attempting to get more than a giggle from his audience. By talking about evil Presidents and horribly flawed firearm laws, he believes he’s doing the world a service. Except nobody else agrees with him.

Luckily, his fortunes change when he meets the great “JC Wheeler” (Tracy Morgan) at the bar inside the club. Wheeler, as it turns out, is a comedy legend who walked away from the game at his height. For some reason, Wheeler knows the secret of comedy: “put yourself out there, get personal and greatness will come”. Everything that Wassan opens up to his audience about will end up being forever theirs and, somehow, gone for good. Wassan learns this fast when he compares his apathetic, confused audience to his “dog while he’s taking a shit”. He’s surprised when his joke sticks the landing and gets over with the audience, so he hits that note over and over, topping off a fairly successful set. Wassan is excited to tell his girlfriend (Amara Karan) all about his night, but wonders where their dog went since he’s used to him greeting him at the door. That’s when Wassan gets a bit of a mild shock: his girlfriend tells them that they don’t have a dog and never did.

Thinking it’s a prank, Wassan continues with life as usual, inviting his girlfriend’s 10-year-old nephew, Devon, to watch his set. When he mocks Devon during his set, Devon disappears, too…and nobody except Samir remembers he was even a thing. After the initial shock passes, Samir realizes he can finally use his newly-acquired powers for good, targeting terrible people on the Internet: right wing nutjobs, misogynists, white supremacists, and the like. But Samir has underlying issues: he’s the type who seeks validation from others. He wants to be liked and he has hang-ups about the people he knows and loves. So, when his insecurities drive him to eliminate people who are barely on the cusp of irritation, Samir does so without question.

When one thinks of “The Twilight Zone”, the first word that one may think of is “legendary”. It’s been 60 years since we first took a trip into the Fifth Dimension and got gut-punched nearly every single week by host and writer Rod Serling as he gave us glimpses of the darker sides of our imaginations. His stories, morals and messages still resonate today as evidenced by three re-boots, a feature film, a television special featuring “lost” episodes, a magazine series, books and a pinball machine which stands as one of the greatest of its type by several connoisseurs. Peele is fresh off his critical successes of “Get Out” and “Us” which felt like Twilight Zone stories. But while he produces the series, he has yet to write or direct anything we’re seeing here. Thus, “The Comedian” is only a decent start to Jordan Peele’s version of “The Twilight Zone”, one of the most hyped-up re-boots in recent memory. However, like its protagonist, it’s also frustrating when it should be engaging.

While Tracy Morgan plays his role with gusto, the Satan in Human Form trope (something the series has been famous for) feels a touch worn out, as is endowing protagonists with supernatural abilities and putting them in situations that have no real explanation beyond the sake of being creepy or unsettling. The problem, I think, is that there’s no background for Wheeler. He’s just “a legendary comedian” who just happens to stop by Eddies Bar (yes, “there’s no apostrophe in ‘Eddies’ as Devon points out) and, by the way, he has superpowers now and he can pass them on to whomever he chooses. It’s also unbelievable that Samir would actually invite and subject his very young nephew to his and other comedians’ comedy sets when 1) the entertainment is foul-mouthed and 2) late night comedy clubs don’t actually let minors into the building because of the first point. But, here we are. That’s what’s put on the table and the entire point, I suppose, is that we’re being taught a lesson on sacrifice for personal gain. It also fails to stick the landing which, anyone could tell you, is pretty important in this series, serving up four different “twists” (if you’re counting the reveal after Peele’s ending monologue), one that’s fairly obvious; one that is just plain unexplainable, seemingly existing just to give us a somewhat “happier” ending (Devon?! Come on…); one that just serves to make the audience say “here we go again”; and one that’s just ill-advised, especially with regard to its execution. With a runtime of 55 minutes, that final shot of the club’s wall (shamelessly ripping off “The Shining”) could have been something. Instead, it feels like Pink Floyd done by a cheap cover band. One of these endings would have been enough but it seems as writer Alex Rubens (Rick & Morty, Community) wanted to toss everything but the kitchen sink at the audience in an attempt to be clever when keeping it simple might have been the best choice.

That isn’t to say the episode doesn’t work.

The atmosphere is beautiful, giving us that flawless paranoid Zone noir we’ve come to know and love. Even when the episode shows us a comedy club and we’re hearing jokes being flung at the audience, the place feels creepy thanks to claustrophobic photography and close-ups of a nervous Samir as he gets through another shaky performance. When Samir is angry and loses his mind, focusing his rage on his targets, and his audience laughs until they’re choking on their drinks, there’s no humor to be had. Samir is fire and brimstone. His audience is cult-like, cheering him on, lapping him up, worshipping him like a god on social media. These moments are ironically nightmarish and chilling, just as they should be. The club’s mural in the background recalls the creepiness of Rod Serling’s “Night Gallery”, his lesser-known foray into the unknown, post-Zone. Every performance in the episode is outstanding. The chemistry between Nanjiani and Karan is wonderful and feels real, so it’s that much more heartbreaking when Samir ends up inadvertently wrecking part of life with his girlfriend when his insecurities get the best of him, a twist that really could have served as the episode’s final moral had the episode been shorter and more tightly written.

So, “The Comedian” is a good start into Peele’s fifth dimension, not a great one. But, then, not every single episode of the original was a classic. It’s just that the good ones were so great, they made us forget the lesser efforts.

LOST IN THE ZONE

Astute viewers with a sharp eye will recognize the ventriloquist dummy from the 1959 series’ classic “The Dummy” sitting in the breakroom of the club.
Nobody can top Rod Serling and Jordan Peele knows that even though he’s there with the trademark suit and deadpan narration. He is, however, perfectly at home and at ease here as if he was made for this and he’s the best re-boot narrator thus far.
The end credits are a great callback to the classic series consisting of the credits playing over a signature shot from each episode as Marius Constant’s end credit variation of the T-Zone theme plays, ominously, to complete the effect.
The club is “Eddies” with no apostrophe. Some speculation here: an “eddy” is a “circular movement of water, counter to the main current”. Since there’s no apostrophe, one could assume that “Eddies” is the plural of “Eddy” which explains how the episode sees Samir attempting to go against the grain, only to send everything looping around toward the beginning.

Supertrash: ‘Supergirl’ 4.16 “The House of L”

Alyssa Berkowitz

April 1, 2019

This week on Supertrash Alyssa and Jen discuss episode 4.16 of Supergirl “House of L.”

We capital L LOVED this episode. We weren’t even bothered by age differences and we sang Beauty and the Beast! You can listen along below.

Show Notes:

Kara’s Fridge

Russian to English Dictionary

So you can compare to the original:

Don’t forget we have launched a Supertrash Patreon, so if you want to support us while also receiving some cool stuff, be sure to check it out! Supertrash Podcast Patreon

Be sure to follow Supertrash and the hosts on Twitter:

Supertrash Podcast: @SuperTrashCast
Jen: @JenStayrook
Alyssa: @TVwithAPB

‘Umbrella Academy’ TV Talk: Podcast Review

Christian Angeles

March 30, 2019

The Hargreeves family dances each in their own seerate rooms. — Umbrella Academy simultaneous dance sequence. Photo: Netflix

If you still haven’t heard about it, the ‘Umbrella Academy‘ is a saving grace in terms of Netflix superhero TV series (especially now that all the Marvel shows are gone). It has been such a critical hit for Netflix that it has already been picked up for a second season, which already begins filming this May. According to the data firm Parrot Analytics (one of the most accurate data firms around for TV content, particularly: streaming), the show has allegedly outperformed all the Marvel Netflix television series this year and was the most in-demand show on Netflix at the beginning of March.

Millions of people are watching the series in droves, and by every standard, Umbrella Academy has proven itself to be a surprise critical success. Not bad for a series about a family of off-kilter superheroes in the golden age of Superhero related media.

In episode 4 of ‘TV Talk’, I speak with Jen (Longtime Workprint author, Supertrash Podcast co-host), from right here at The Workprint headquarters (our computers). We chat about what we thought about the series. Discuss our favorite arcs and storylines, and sort of address our issues with the show: spoilers included.

I also wrote a spoiler-free review of ‘The Umbrella Academy’ back in February if you’d like to check that out.

Overall, the series is solid though with some foreseeable issues. Mostly in terms of meandering storylines and a degree of overt melodrama simply for the sake of keeping secrets and maintaining tension. Still, the series has some very memorable characters and has a unique cinema-quality style in terms of both action sequences and set pieces. It is definitely worth the watch and also has one of the best soundtracks I’ve listened to in a long time for a TV series.

Final Score: 8/10

Hissing Contest: the ‘What We Do In The Shadows’ Review

Robert Kijowski

March 29, 2019

Nadja and Laszio, two vampires in gothic attire, laughing maniacally. — Nadja (Natasia Demetriou) and Laszlo (Matt Berry) in the FX series "What We Do in the Shadows." (Byron Cohen/FX)

Imagine being not being able to enjoy the sun, not crashing a party unless invited (which defeats the purpose) and not being able to enjoy life’s little pleasures, like FOOD! Instead, you must subsist on the blood of others, enter only if invited and live by night. For some, that might seem like a nightmare, but for others, that seems like a dream. Sprinkle in a bit of kinda-immortality, the ability of flight and kick ass canines (hissss) and you might be living the dream… Now let’s drop you in Staten Island and put a film crew in your face at all times. What did I say about a nightmare?

In 2014, Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement sought to turn a mirror on the serious and romantic world of vampires in order to poke fun at it… only there was one problem… it couldn’t see itself for what it really was. It was a true stroke of genius and initially the conceptualization of the movie was through the magic of TV. Through a steady diet of Real Housewives and Let The Right One In, the duo released a sleeper called ‘What We Do In The Shadows’. This was a piece of cinema that was spoke by friends of something that would rival ‘This Is Spinal Tap’ as a mockumentary. After watching it, you HAD to show it to others.

In this FX adaptation, lasting but 10 episodes we meet new Children of the Night. For anyone that bristles at cast changes, this might make your blood boil, but I hear that’s prime for a light snack. Who likes cold soup?

We open in on Guillermo (Harvey Guillen), the thirsty l-meaning familiar of Nandor “the Relentless” (Kayvan Novak), a vampire of the Ottoman Empire and the (or so he deludes himself into believing) Alpha of the homestead.

So commences the night, with Guillermo waking up his Ten Year Anniversary Master. Nandor couldn’t care less because in any aspect, mortal or undead, we all go through some version of ‘Don’t bother me until I get my bearings’ after we being roused from slumber. In what we could approximate as waking up and going to the office, Nandor (who seems the sunniest! of the quartet) summons Laszlo (Matty Berry), a vampire dandy who can see through the so called Captain O’ The Ship’s veneer… he. Was. Turned. By actually one of the most refreshing vampires I seen on screen in a good while- Nadja (Natasia Demetriou). She has a temper with Laszlo because these entwined romantic, charismatic blood sponges have an voracious appetite, so, all in all. they can be harlots. Correction, they are harlots… Oh, did I cite romantic and charismatic? There is one that that stands out for me the most and makes the most genius premise.

Vampires drain, as they are wont to do, but who ever said they only have to drain physical life? Life energy can be drained as well and actually that’s what makes this new group of vampires so special. We round out the roomies with Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch), a resent energy vampire. In contrast to the maybe sartorially questionable choices the rest make, Colin is the most dangerous. He is a plain clothes day-walker and someone that we’ve all experienced. He won’t go for your neck but rather for your time, crafting the most soporific small talk, by the time you’re dead, you’d be happy to at least have a decent rest. Let’s call him the ‘sleeper cell’. As an added bonus, he’s the only type that can defeat one of his kind.

So, the table is set, but do we know the course?…

Nandor receives a missive (complete with wax seal) from The Baron (Doug Jones), stating he’ll be arriving for an impromptu visit. Both Laszlo and Nadja are chomping at the bit to welcome him, as they’ve both bedded him at different times. The table maybe set, but when you set don’t simply set out a Welcome Mat bought from a dollar store to a guest of honor. You set out the Red Carpet. That’s where Guillermo takes flight and hops on finding Virgin Blood at the only place that makes sense to him- a LARPING event.

Now for whatever reason, after the ‘Lightning Bolt’ video went viral in the early aughts, jokes about that would have fallen flat… yet somehow, they make it work! Plus, if you wanted to think about it on a deeper level of which we have to link things, it’s like a dying, then being resurrected!

In the meantime, Nadja is possibly stepping out on her beloved, as she believes one of her past loves bears the resemblance of possibly a human she continually stalks. No bellwether points to him as being him, but I wouldn’t put it past the series to take a left turn and really careen into that… and if they do, I would be so happy.

Ultimately, after a funny scene of Nandor wanting to by all that he can to welcome the Highest in a dollar store with Guillermo in tow and wanting Baron to see him as the prettiest and most willing Vamp, we realize that him and his familiar are not to unfamiliar. I love this concept. It’s unbeknownst to them for me but they are closer in personality than they let on.

The housemates get the Virgins together, the clock is set.

Through an awkward exchange on a boat (which I thought was clearly amazing as a turn of expectation), Baron is delivered. I guess if you’re that ancient, Float First Class in terms of not doing a damn thing. Let them do all the heavy lifting.

Upon Baron’s arrival, we are treated to one of the most bloody but funny lines I’ve ever snorted at.

Overall, I am actually super, super, super happy with something that wanted to be a TV show but ended up as a movie. This has wings, and it know how to use them!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyZi3rJPENs

You can Watch ‘What We Do In The Shadows’ Wednesdays on FX

‘The Magicians’ Review: Margo’s Epic Quest

Nicole C

March 27, 2019

THE MAGICIANS -- "All That Hard, Glossy Armor" Episode 410 -- Pictured: Summer Bishil as Margo Hanson -- (Photo by: Eike Schroter/SYFY)

In this week’s episode of The Magicians we meet the god Angus, The Monster remembers he had a sister, Zelda is confronted with some hard evidence, and Margo’s journey leads her to free nomadic women in the south.

Margo’s Quest For the Ice Axes

Margo has made her way to the southern part of Fillory where she searches for the Foremost and his tribe of nomads in hopes to getting the magical ice axes that are supposed to be able to repel demonic possession. The journey there is a long and difficult one and as the magician goes through her limited water supply, she is forced to lick a single bead of water from her birthright iguana in desperation. That’s when things get super trippy. She begins to see Eliot there singing to her and she comes to realize that she must be high from whatever ingredient was in that lizard bead of sweat she ingested.

However, after fainting from dehydration, she is found by the southern nomads! They see her mark of banishment from Fillory and is taken into one of their tents to rest. When Margo wakes up, she meets one of the nomadic women who appears to be one of their elders. This individual explains that the red sand they have trapped are actually demonic spirits who come whenever a woman had any heightened emotions. The spirit would then possess someone, causing paralysis and even death, but then the Foremost with his ice axes would be able to exorcise the entity out. Margo listens to all of this with raised eyebrows because of the other woman’s comment on how lucky they were to have men around to protect them. A commotion is suddenly heard outside where we witness an argument between a married couple after the man is caught cheating with his wife’s sister and he had the balls to be mad at her. Red moving sand quickly arrives and jumps into the body of the dude and the Foremost comes out and axes him. Then the elder woman traps the red spirit into the bottle as soon as it leaves the unconscious male.

Margo eventually makes her way to the Foremost’s tent where she seduces and sleeps with him, although we learn that the Eliot she is seeing is a manifestation of her conscience and we discover more of Margo’s background through him. Even Josh is projected out before she’s about to get busy and he asks her if she really wants to do this. But she’s determined that she needs to do this in order to save Eliot. The following morning however, the Foremost tells her that the magical objects are enchanted only to work for him but she could collect black grains of sand out in the desert that could then be forged into axes for her. He obviously doesn’t think she can do it because of the demonic spirits that plague women. Margo is confident however and says she’ll be back. Singularly focused, she goes off on her own to collect the tiny black specs. After many hours of digging, Margo talks to the fictitious Eliot inside her tent, exhausted and angry AF. We find out how her father treated her like his special princess until she grew up and he realized he couldn’t control her. Then she tells her conscience that the only thing she ever did right in her entire life is be Eliot’s best friend and now she isn’t even doing that correctly because she can’t manage to fill the small canvas bucket with enough black sand. Her rage and frustration boil over and she screams in agony. The red sand though starts to come inside her tent but then recedes. Margo goes outside and finds the spirit of a woman who mentally communicates with her. The ex-high king of Fillory asks why the other being torments other women as female entity herself and she gets an answer. The next day she returns to the southern nomads’ camp with her bucket of black sand. Margo is ready to get to forging the axe with the raw material when the Foremost and the elder lady just laugh at her. They tell her that she should be proud because no woman has ever accomplished what she has although they no intention of ever helping her. Margo then reveals that she spoke to the spirit and it turns out that they are there to help any woman who angry, hurt, or in pain, but they already knew that and had been telling their people lies to control them. Well that stops now. Margo uses battle magic to knock out the Foremost and the elder woman then frees the trapped spirits. She then takes the axes and prompts the creatures to attack the douchebag men in the camp. Lastly the magician tells the women that the spirits work for them now and they can ask them to do anything. After freeing the controlled from their bonds, Margo takes the ice axes and heads out with the entire main cast singing with her. It’s such a powerful moment.

Alice and Kady Talk to Zelda

Meanwhile back at the Neitherlands branch of the Library, Zelda goes up to Everett and asks if they’ve found the leader of the Serpent group yet. He says no but they are continuing to look into it and that Phyllis is in charge of that investigation. She offers her services and that she might be able to help think of other places to look given her background. Her mentor says her offer is very generous but she has enough on her plate. Kady and Alice must have then invited the librarian to the apartment to show her what they’ve discovered regarding ambient magic output levels. The elder magician says that these reports are published weekly, but the duo explain that they put a tracer into the pipeline to discover the truth. Alice says that once they saw the real levels of magic in the system she thought they should tell Zelda because she didn’t think the older woman signed up for an organization that lies. However, Zelda is defensive and says that she’s sure there’s a valid explanation. Kady interjects that there is, Harriet told both of them that Everett is trying to squeeze out Hedges. Alice adds that the librarian is on the inside and can find out what they’re doing with the extra magic, why they’re hoarding it, and why the Library is lying.

The Monster Remembers He Had a Sister

After Penny 23 wakes up from his trip into The Monster’s mind, he tells Julia and Quentin that the creature isn’t trying to build a body for himself but for his sister. If he was the one who got imprisoned and the she got chopped up, she must be even worse than her brother. So the girl on the altar that The Monster thought was a sacrifice was actually his sibling. Meanwhile said powerful entity is drawn to a bar that smells like death. He chats with a woman who is clearly not having a good day. She proceeds to tell him that she’ll talk to him if he buys her a drink. He does and eventually she explains that she got good news that she’s only going to be sick for two maybe three more months. The Monster though is missing the underlying message that she’s got a terminal illness and only has so long to live. As she is about to leave, she cups his face in her hand and it suddenly triggers a memory for him. He tells her to do that again and he smiles saying that when she does that he remembers things. Creature Eliot realizes that she reminds him of his sister and abducts her.

Back at the apartment, Alice gives Julia the book of the binder she found in the mirror world and the two wish each other luck on their respective missions. The team is currently split up with Kady and Alice trying to help the Hedge Witches with Pete and Zelda, while Julia, Penny 23, and Quentin trying to figure out how to keep The Monster happy and save Eliot at the same time. While researching, Penny 23 says that he can’t find anything useful on Enyalius, saying that there’s information on how he looks like and what he likes to eat but nothing on how to actually find him. The traveler though remembers that the god was wearing an emerald ring in the memory, which helps Julia recall another deity. While she was doing research with the Freetraders there was a god who always worked in disguise but he was known for always wearing an emerald ring. Penny 23 then assumes that Enyalius is just a front. Jules then finds an entry in one of their books for a Celtic god named Angus. Q tells his bff though that this entity is a trickster, but she shrugs it off and says that this won’t be a summoning. Apparently though there is a whole group dedicated to entertain and protect the god, they need to find a leprechaun.

So the trio head to a shoe repair shop and have a real talk with the owner Berry. Eventually she gives in and takes them to the back room that leads to Angus. But it turns out that they need to find a way to unlock the door where the god is and everything they need is within sight. It’s designed to be an escape room that can kill you. Luckily since Julia is pretty indestructible right now, she manages to get a door knob that was placed inside a machine with blades jutting out in the opening. Finally Penny 23 finds the key to the door on top of the door frame. However, once they enter the other room it looks empty. Just kidding Angus was hiding behind his chair. The god tells them to relax and offers snacks but understandably the trio passes and wants him to run away because The Monster is coming. Angus is very blasé about it all though but eventually gives in and says that he has a secret panic room of sorts that even the creature can’t get inside. Before he goes in though he asks Julia to come with him, saying that they are very alike and he’s sure he could help her figure out what’s going on with her. She declines however and he shrugs it off. Next problem, he can’t seem to remember his password to unlock the hiding place. Soon it’s too late as The Monster arrives and rips out the last missing stone from his body. Penny 23 then teleports the three magicians out of there.

Back at the apartment Penny 23, Kady, Alice, Julia, and Q are drinking. Quentin is sitting on the stairs apart from everyone else and Jules goes to him. She says that this isn’t over and he says yes it is. The former goddess is insistent that she’s going to figure out what this binder is all about and become a deity again. However, she’s going to need him to remind her what it feels like to care about people and want to give up your life for them. Suddenly there is a knock at the door and Kady goes to open it. On the other side is Zelda who asks if she can come in.

Final Thoughts

It’s nice that Alice is finally back with the team! Is the apology tour over?
The Monster killing the Berry the leprechaun, RIP.
How does The Magicians slay every musical episode? How do they do it?
This Margo-centric episode was so beautiful and Summer Bishil gave such a raw and rich performance. She was gritty, tough, vulnerable, and mad as hell. Perfect.

The Magicians airs on Syfy Wednesdays at 9/8 central.

‘Dumbo’ Review: Adorableness Over Substance

Matt DeGroot

March 26, 2019

DUMBO — EARS TO YOU – In Disney’s all-new, live-action feature film “Dumbo,” a newborn elephant with oversized ears make him a laughingstock in an already struggling circus. But Dumbo takes everyone by surprise when they discover he can fly. Directed by Tim Burton, “Dumbo” flies into theaters on March 29, 2019. ©2018 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

It is only March but it is clear that 2019 will forever be known as the Year of the Disney Live Action Remake. Sure, they’ve been at the game of remaking their animated classics into live action (though still chock full of CG animation) epics for a few years, but this year boasts no less than four if you count the sequel to Maleficent opening in October.

But before we feast our eyes upon Angelina Jolie’s witchy return, Will Smith’s confounding appearance as the Genie in Aladdin, or Jon Favreau’s Beyonce-fueled re-telling of The Lion King, we have this week’s release of Dumbo, reimagined by famed genre director Tim Burton. And I’ve gotta be honest, when Disney started this live action remake racket, Dumbo was NOT a title I expected to get the treatment any time soon.

For starters, the 1941 original doesn’t exactly offer a lot in terms of story. Clocking in at a slim 64 minutes the film keeps things extremely simple and even dedicates 5 of those precious minutes to Dumbo accidentally getting drunk and tripping balls about pink elephants, which has no bearing on the plot whatsoever. Throw in some racist crows and a storyline that keeps the animal characters in fairly depressing circus captivity, it just doesn’t feel like great fodder for modern audiences.

It therefore falls upon Burton and screenwriter Ehren Kruger to seriously flesh the story out to last a more substantial 112 minutes. And while they succeed in delivering something that consistently entertains for that entire duration, the movie never takes off in a way that makes your heart soar alongside Dumbo.

In this telling of the story the animal characters are stripped of speaking voices, which requires the introduction of a wide host of human characters to carry the weight of exposition and drama. Leading this charge is Colin Farrell as Holt Farrier, a wounded soldier returning to his children (Nico Parker and Finley Hobbins) and circus life after serving in the first World War. Once a famed equestrian in the circus, Holt is now faced with a new role of caring for a newly acquired elephant named Jumbo and her soon to be born baby.

As in the original, Jumbo gives birth to an adorable baby elephant who comes outfitted with tremendously large ears and eventually earns the name of Dumbo after botching his first performance under the big top. Dumbo is then separated from his loving mother and everything seems terrible until Holt’s children discover the magic of Dumbo’s ability to fly, which is soon put to good use in the circus and becomes a media sensation.

It is at this point that the remake’s story dramatically deviates from the original by introducing V.A. Vandevere (Michael Keaton) as a wealthy entertainer from New York City who strikes a deal with Dumbo’s circus owner (Danny DeVito) to move the entire circus to live and work out of his futuristic amusement park. It’s no secret that Vandevere’s main goal is to exploit Dumbo for every penny he’s worth and this eventually leads our heroes to plot an escape from this wannabe entertainment Utopia and reunite Dumbo with his mother for good.

This is all nicely paced and works well enough but never succeeds in completely enveloping you as a totally invested viewer. In fact, much of the film’s emotional strength can be attributed to the incredibly high cuteness level of the title character. I’m not exaggerating when I tell you that Dumbo himself is so adorable that you’d do anything for him. If this Dumbo asked you to rob a bank so you could buy him more peanuts, you’d do it. He is just THAT CUTE. He’s so cute that I’m tempted to call Tim Burton out for emotional manipulation and cheating, but I’m gonna let it slide because…he’s so fucking cute.

The movie also benefits from some eye-popping art direction and cinematography that make every scene enough of a visual treat that you won’t really mind if your brain isn’t being challenged at all.

The cast also delivers the goods with humorous turns from DeVito, Keaton, and Alan Arkin as a potential millionaire investor. Farrell makes a charming (and ridiculously attractive) father, the kids handles their often cheesy dialogue with panache, and even though she isn’t given nearly enough to do, Eva Green shines as Dumbo’s artistic partner in the air. But really all you need to know about this cast is that Batman and the Penguin are on screen together again with Burton behind the camera. What more could a movie nerd ask for?

I’m tempted to argue that Dumbo could be so much more than it is, but given the original subject matter I’m not quite sure it could get much better than what Burton gives us here. It’s occasionally cheesy and completely implausible (even once you’ve made peace with the flying elephant aspect) but visually stunning and cute enough to make for a lovely time at the movies with your family. Kids will absolutely love it and adults could do so much worse.

Grade: B

Monomythic Screenwriting, Episode 10: Character (Part 2)

Christian Angeles

March 24, 2019

Different Personality Attributes From the HBO Series - Westworld.

In this screenwriting lesson, we continue discussing characters. We talk about physical and personality attributes, how to make characters memorable, skim over some advanced level characterization, and then end on some character sheet building.

PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES

Physical attributes are the first noticeable thing about a character onscreen. Clothing style can detail a lot about what time period a story takes place in, as well as provide details regarding a character’s socioeconomic status or personality. Likewise, detailing a character’s hair, face, and build, can provide what qualities to look for in regards to casting. In screenplays, characters can be written with a specific actor or actress in mind. Sometimes they can be referred to directly in a screenplay, but other times, you have to beat around the bush to get your ideal character across. A good way to describe an ‘Anna Kendrick type’ is by literally describing Anna Kendrick. Write about what she looks like. Describe her physical attributes. If you can, accentuate her quirks as a character. If you’re going to have Anna Kendrick sing acapella – then have her sing as she diddles with cups while being a waitress!

Yes, I’m referring to this.

Give your characters tiny scars or even token trinkets to carry around. Do everything you can to make them real and interesting. You should always strive to make memorable characters, so don’t be ashamed to throw interesting tidbits of pizazz that makes your character stand out in a crowd. Let Anna sing, Have Batman throw his batterang, and give Johnny his guitar. It makes them cool. Nothing’s more dangerous in a screenplay than forgettable characters. Especially, if you must read several pages about this character.

PERSONALITY ATTRIBTUES

To convey a sense of personality, a character needs their own unique voice. You have to treat them like how you treated yourself while learning about your own voice. Act is if they are a real person. Let them speak uniquely in their own style and tone. For all intents and purposes, they are a real person within the context of your story. Their dialogue should sound unique enough where you can infer who it is that is speaking, without necessarily reading that character’s header. So give your characters a solid voice.

The HBO series Westworld is a good basis on building character attributes.

Have you’ve ever seen the series WESTWORLD? It’s about a futuristic park filled with custom themed androids that emulate human behavior. The android personalities consist of prototypical character archetypes, and seem for all intents and purposes, like real people of their environment. Each host personality is grounded in physical and personality character attributes but is also centered on a deep organizing principle – either a trauma of their past, or some sort of experience that defines them.

It could be the love of a mother for her child, the desire to always to the honorable thing, or even a deep-seated history at the center of a maze – where the true self actually lies. To what extent lie the boundaries between human and machine in Westworld, are a little fuzzy, and are sort of an ongoing question within the series. Regardless, the importance is that the personalities and backstories dedicated to each ‘host’ heavily contributes to the android’s sense of realism.

That being said, I want you to treat your characters like you would an android/AI from Westworld. Give them personality attributes that ring so true it’s shocking to your psyche. See where they morally fall and make them struggle with difficult choices.

All of this, on top of excellent dialogue, will make a very three-dimensional character.

For further help in building characters, you can also take a free Myers-Briggs personality assessment. Ideally, fill it out as if you were your character. This will help you a lot along the way for this next assignment.

TRY THIS: Building Characters

Physically Describe Your Character. Emphasize physical build, face, clothing/style, and one highlighted quirk (i.e. singer) that your character can showcase on camera.
What type of personality does your character have? List it in three adjectives.
Find out your character’s personality attributes by taking that Myers-Briggs assessment linked above. Afterward, fill out the list below and answer on a scale of 1 (least/not at all) to 10 (most/always), where you think your character stands.

Friendliness:
Honesty:
Confidence:
Agreeableness/team player:
Manners:
Discipline:
Rebelliousness:
Empathy:
Strength/Resilience
Intelligence:
Wisdom:
Charisma:
Luck:

Use the data from this to build-up your character sheets. If you ever run into a wall, look at these sheets and determine what you think you character would do.

TRY THIS: Intro to Dialogue

Given your character’s personality, write a few lines of dialogue. Then, I want you to try and write a line of dialogue so intense and memorable, that you could quote your own character as if it were a famous person. Try throwing it in casual conversation or use it in your writing on social media somewhere – just try and gauge your audience’s reception towards it.

MAKE YOUR CHARACTERS MEMORABLE

Unlike other forms of writing, screenplays are driven forward almost entirely through character action and dialogue. A lot of what they do must be memorable. Good characters are believable characters, and even, larger-than-life characters – people you can’t help but feel attracted and compelled to see what they do next. The goal is to have your readers turning the page with enthusiasm.

That said, the best way to create characters beyond the many methods listed so far – is by getting to know different sorts of people. Get inspired and write everything down.

I want you to read this section by John August on how to introduce your character. I want you to also fully pay attention to that lesson, because formatting is key in regards to the type of introduction you’d like to utilize for your story. How we meet your character initiates a lot about how we perceive this person from here on out, so you want a solid foundation in the introduction.

TRY THIS: Introduce Your Character

From everything that you know about your character, list the most memorable aspect about their personality. Then, I want you to list the most memorable moment in this character’s story.
I want you to write an action line introducing your character. Do one that stands out in 4-6 lines, and then another that’s straight and to the point (think of your character as a minor character in someone else’s story) in 1-2 lines.

ADVANCED LEVEL CHARACTER BUILDING (OPTIONAL)

This section is optional. Though it will get you through a lot of hurdles. I used to think I was excellent at writing characters. Then I took a class with author, Serena Valentino and she showed me just how much further I could learn regarding character design and work.

Writing is a journey of constant growth. Just when you think you’re certain that you know what you are doing, something new comes along that changes your worldview. Your writing grows the same as you do as a person. No one will ever be perfect, and you can always improve in ways that will surprise you.

TRY THIS: Advanced Level Character Writing – Answer the Questions to give your character even more depth

Who are your character’s friends and what are they like?
Does your character have any family and if so, what are they like?
Does your character have any significant events in their past that define them?
What period would your character want to live in? Why?
What is your character interested in? How does it influence them? Do they pursue this interest?
What’s special about your character? What makes them extraordinary?
Who is your character’s nemesis? What happened that caused this?
Is your character single? How do they feel about love? Do they want a family?
Who was your character’s first romance? What was their first partner like?
Name three benchmark moment’s in the life history of your character.
What is your character’s place in the world? What would they like to become?
If your character was here right now and you asked them, “What do you want, right here, right now?” what would they say?
How does your character feel about death and dying? Does your character believe in an afterlife?
If I told you to describe your character’s entire lifetime in three adjectives. What would they be?

CHARACTER SHEET

Probably one of the easiest ways to write with a character in mind is to see it right in front of you. I can’t stress how many times I’ve had to run through a character sheet just to remember where to go from there. That said, I want you to compile everything that you’ve written and learned about characters.

TRY THIS: Character Sheet – Construct a character sheet for every character in your story. Answer the following questions.

Age: How old they are.
Gender: Gender they identify as.
Location: Where they live, or if needed, list their hometown (Maybe this has to do with their personality).
Race: Their race.
Face: Any important attributes or shape. Click here if you need a facial description.
Build: What kind of body they have. Click here if you need a body description.
Style: Type of clothes or how they carry themselves.
Personality: Shy, Reserved, Sneaky, boisterous? Create adjectives describing your character.
Occupation: What they do for a living.
Skills: What can the do better than other better?
Hobbies: What do they do to relax or have fun?
Habits: What ticks or traits or even catch phrases, do they often repeat?
Likes: What does you character like?
Dislikes: What does your character avoid?
Fears: What is your character afraid of?
Backstory: Who was this person before we meet them in the story?
Progression: Who does this person become or need to be by journey’s end?

By now, you should now your characters very well if you followed all these lessons. You should be able to assess and understand what they would do in any given situation. Character and World Building are probably one of the most important starting points in writing a story. If you can establish these well enough before writing a script, much of the work will be taken care of for you.

Because I’m leaving you with a lot of material this lesson, I’ll be taking a week off from Monomythic. Afterwards, I’m going to move the posts to Tuesday, as I think it’ll be easier on my schedule, personally.

My next lesson will be on Dan Harmon’s story Circle – sort of an abridged yet concise approach on Joseph Campbell’s Monomyth. The following week will be on how to outline and write an effective treatment.

For those keeping up. ‘The Heroes Journey’ is our starting point in writing. Video description above.

Keep everything that you’ve worked on in class because after those lessons, we’ll be writing the actual screenplay. Use everything you’ve written so far as tools, as they’ll make the journey in writing your screenplay a lot easier.

‘Workin’ Moms’ Season One: Review

Christian Angeles

March 23, 2019

Jenny, Anne, Kate, and Frankie attend maternity with their babies. — WORKIN' MOMS - Pictured: (l-r) Jessalyn Wanlim as Jenny, Dani Kind as Anne, Catherine Reitman as Kate, Juno Rinaldi as Frankie - (Photo courtesy of Netflix)

‘Workin’ Moms’ is the story about four women returning from maternity leave, and how they live their lives trying to balance work, family, and life, living in Toronto. Already a critical hit in Canada, the series is trying to branch internationally, debuting their first season on Netflix last February.

We reviewed ‘Workin’ Moms Season one’ on TV Talk, Episode 3.

‘Workin’ Moms’ is a 22-minute drama comedy or dramedy, consisting of 13 episodes. It was created by Catherine Reitman, of the famous Reitman family, and Phillip Sternberg, Reitman’s husband both in real life and on the show. ‘Workin Moms’ is that rare combination of drama, comedy, and most importantly: a three-dimensional portrayal of working women.

The show follows Kate (Catherine Reitman), an in your face ad executive trying to balance career and motherhood. She is blunt and assertive, though usually struggles with sexism at work, which makes her life all the more difficult – because she’s damn good at her job. Supporting her, as well as each other, are her friends from the ‘Mommy and Me’ class: Anne (Dani Kind), a psychiatrist dealing with an unwanted pregnancy and a 9-year old daughter – who has become an ‘early bloomer’ in terms of exploring her sexuality at her gradeschool as of late (though its mostly just kisses, provocative dressing, and flashing), Frankie (Juno Rinaldi), a mother struggling as a real estate broker who is in denial about the severity of her postpartum depression, and Jenny (Jessalyn Wanlim) a woman having an early midlife crises, who wants to have an affair with her manager as she is no longer attracted to her husband.

The four are rather acerbic characters, in that many of their decisions are cringe-worthy, they also authentic in its portrayal of just how much mothers need to put up with to reenter their jobs after having a baby. A lot of the noteworthy moments in the show come from all four of the women characters approach to just go for it in life – often pushing the line for the punchline or dramatic beat. They meet up for a “Mommy and Me” class every episode, where they let their kids bond – while all the while, share their personal experiences about their lives and motherhood in the episode. They discuss everything from breastfeed shaming, to saying no to your child without actually saying the word ‘no’, to even such extremes such as Japanese Hentai in regards to favorite pornography. These episodic bits are usually executed in hilarious fashion, especially in regards to the other women in the class which the core four utterly disregard at times.

Although a critical hit in Canada, the show’s wide release has had a lukewarm reception internationally. Personally, I enjoyed it, but I think the problems are in a little of the characterization (though it’s comparable to something like ‘Girls’ so I don’t personally think that’s an issue), but more importantly, that people don’t always have the best criticisms for a dramatic comedy. As a professional screenwriter myself, I can vouch there are notes I’ve gotten saying there was not enough drama and too much comedy, and vice versa – it’s kind of hard to gauge, and is totally up to the reception of the viewer’s personally preference.

Though what’s great about the show is how open it is about its portrayal of struggling working mothers. Issues such as feeling inferior to your nannies who is becoming more of the parent, missing out on your child’s major events due to work, competing in work when you have so much less time due to obligations to the baby, and even big subjects such as abortion and extramarital affairs.

The show does a pretty good job capturing this thin slice of life and oddly enough, I learned a lot more about being a parent by watching this TV show. I definitely recemond it for recent parents.

You Can Watch ‘Workin’ Moms’ season one streaming on Netflix

‘Deadly Class’ Review – Season Finale: Sink With California

Christian Angeles

March 20, 2019

Saya, pulls out her Samurai Blade across her face and strikes a fearsome pose. — DEADLY CLASS -- "Sink With California" Episode 109 -- Pictured: Lana Condor as Saya -- (Photo by: Katie Yu/SYFY)

Everything falls apart in Episode 10: Sink With California, the season finale of Syfy’s Deadly Class. Master Lin tries escaping the wrath of Diablo, the gang battles the murderous Fuckface family, and Marcus finally confronts Chester and the demons of their past.

REVIEW

Overall, this season finale nails it on every level. Providing a bit of humor, some crazy cousin related content, the best fight scenes in the series, and a whole lot of heart – with some nailbiting cliffhangers by the episode’s end.

I like how things wrap-up, providing a resolution of sorts for just about everyone, except for Diablo’s ongoing story. Billy and Petra have been a smile-worthy gem in the series, and their minor moments in this episode are a bright spot in a dark-looking future. The Maria/Marcus/Saya storylines finally converge as the characters address their issues in a cathartic and violent fashion. I also like how Saya has finally given up. Even though it’s harsh, she’s right: she’s better than these rejects we’ve come to love. Given what happens in this episode, I don’t blame her, and in some ways, I feel like she’s the actual main character of the series. Her story rings truest and makes the most sense to me.

Still, despite what the finale does well, the world is still rather shaky. For one, Willie and his girlfriend have no role in the show – which is offensive, as they’re the only two black characters featured. Also, while Lin runs throughout the school’s outer and inner territories, I kept thinking to myself: where the hell are all the other students? The series tends to ignore the fact that it’s a school, whenever faced with faculty versus outsider challenges and battles. Likewise, I know Maria does this in the comic, but why is she always in the crazy makeup and attire during battle? It makes no practical sense as an assassin, outside of the first episode being set during the day of the dead. This is of course unless we’re confirming what everyone has said all along: that she’s utterly crazy.

I will say though, that I loved the depth between Maria and Saya’s friendship captured in the show. Looking back at what they’ve gone through, I think they do a much better job building an arc of friendship to hate here compared to the comic. I also thought the show delivered a perfect amount of drama at the end, with the final scenes providing compelling enough moments to hopefully propel a season two.

OVERALL: 9.3/10

Teaser for the Season Finale

RECAP

DIABLO’S WRATH

The episode opens at a Butcher’s shop in Chinatown. The song ‘London Dungeon’ by The Misfits plays as background noise, setting the tone for something crazy about to go down. We see several pigs’ heads, and an Asian butcher packaging some pork for a customer, who then gets accidentally shot in the head by a stray bullet. In the backdrop, daughter in arm, is a fleeing Master Lin. He is trying to retreat to King’s Dominion as two of Diablo’s cars give chase and open fire recklessly at Lin. Innocents be damned.

Lin gets inside the Butcher’s shop and two of Diablo’s armed men follow. Lin gets behind the alley, where several butchers working for King’s Dominion try and protect Him. A brawl ensues allowing Lin time to escape until Diablo’s right-hand man arrives with an automatic rifle. He guns everyone down, including his own men. After, he speaks with Diablo who coldly addresses him, “Lin, watches his daughter die (tonight).”

Master Lin, bleeding on his left arm, carries his daughter. — DEADLY CLASS — “Sink With California” Episode 109 — Pictured: Benedict Wong as Master Lin — (Photo by: Katie Yu/SYFY)

Master Lin continues fleeing from Diablo within the territory around King’s Dominion. He tries to console his crying daughter, telling her to clear her mind of the murder of her mother. Lin is upset, as Saya was supposed to protect his family. Instead, as we know, she went off to aid Marcus against Chester. At that same exact moment, Master Gao goes to visit Shabnam. He informs her that he knows where Marcus and Maria went.

Shabnam looks concerned. — DEADLY CLASS — “Sink With California” Episode 109 — Pictured: Isaiah Lehtinen as Shabnam — (Photo by: Katie Yu/SYFY)

At a drug den by the school, Lin continues running with his daughter. Diablo’s men slowly approach. Lin hides with her in a closet and asks her how long she can hold her breath. Nearby, Diablo’s right-hand looks for Lin and his daughter, just as one of the henchmen passes by a homeless man strung out on drugs. The right-hand opens a closet – to no avail – when suddenly, the homeless man stands and snaps the unsuspecting henchman’s neck. Diablo’s right-hand shoots him in retaliation, just as Lin jumps out of the closet, and attacks him. The two have a drawn-out battle as Lin’s daughter looks on in silence. Diablo’s right-hand then pulls out a match and blows a type of flamethrower onto the headmaster, forcing him to remove his now flaming coat. The right-hand asks where Lin’s daughter is. A split second later, Lin’s daughter hits him in the head with a wooden plank. Lin uses the chance to throw him down the stairs. Now exhausted, he gets up and keeps running with his daughter. Shortly after, Diablo’s right-hand gets up from the stair fall and continues chasing them.

Outside the drug den, Lin uses a secret passage to get behind a wall. The right-hand man loses them. He is picked up by Diablo, who smokes a cigar. Diablo is informed of some recent events through his pager.

Last week, the flashback of when Gao is taken away as a child.

Lin carries his daughter into his office and then hits the floor, dead tired. He notices that the monks around him are dead. Madame Gao approaches saying that her brother has failed. She says she will take his daughter to the temple for examination. Lin begs his sister not to as she’s not ready. Gao replies with a snide, “Nor was I” – referring to when Lin let her get taken as a child. Lin cries on the floor as Gao steals his daughter. All the while, bleeding out from his wounds today.

THE FUCKFACE FAMILY

Saya scopes out the place behind the group's large blue truck. — DEADLY CLASS — “Sink With California” Episode 109 — Pictured: (l-r) Benjamin Wadsworth as Marcus, Lana Condor as Saya — (Photo by: Katie Yu/SYFY)

On the street outside Shabnam’s house, the gang prepares for battle inside the large blue truck. Marcus constructs a nail-bat, as Saya steaks out the joint. Marcus wants to say something about them sleeping together the night before, but Saya says she can’t right now.

Marcus wants to talk about this night with Saya.

The group starts assembling and immediately notices Marcus still smells like shit. Petra mentions she’s alright with Saya’s plan but wonders if they can trust Maria? Coincidentally, Maria arrives just after scouting the back. She confirms there are traps, but also, that there is no way to know if Chester is inside. Lex is skeptical of the plan. Petra wonders if they should just call the cops. She is starting to see why Willie bailed on them.

A concerned Billy and Petra question Maria. — DEADLY CLASS — “Sink With California” Episode 109 — Pictured: (l-r) Maria Gabriela de Faria as Maria, Liam James as Billy, Taylor Hickson as Petra — (Photo by: Katie Yu/SYFY)

Seeing the group get the jitters, Marcus tries delivering a motivational speech, acknowledging that they could die in there, but for a good cause: stopping someone evil. It fails. Saya gets on his case, then shows him how it’s done – emphasizing that their little messed up group is a family and that Marcus and Maria need them. Inspired, Billy tries giving a three musketeers rally before Petra cuts him off. Lex cockily mentions to Petra, that when this goes wrong – she’ll come to his rescue. Saya reassures him they’ll be fine, then goes over the plan again, which is executed onscreen in real time:

Billy and Petra look onward — DEADLY CLASS — “Sink With California” Episode 109 — Pictured: (l-r) Liam James as Billy, Taylor Hickson as Petra — (Photo by: Katie Yu/SYFY)

Mailman Lex drops the bomb package off at the front door. Petra and Billy go out back, being wary of the minefield. They are the backup team, waiting until Marcus signals to detonate the bomb so they can flank the rear. Remembering their lessons, Saya believes distractions are mandatory and has Billy and Petra set off fireworks to drown out the noise of the bomb explosion. Saya grapple hooks and goes topside. Marcus and Lex, who is armed with a custom machine pistol, go through the front door.

When they enter the rundown house, a cat escapes, and the duo finds animals everywhere. Lex confirms that Marcus wasn’t lying about Chester’s ‘love’ for creatures. Billy and Petra look on from outside. Billy thought Petra wasn’t afraid of death, but she confirms that this is obviously different. Saya jumps in through a window, katana in hand. She scouts upstairs and into Shabnam’s room to find nothing there. She notices a cigarette burning out but it’s too late. A woman from behind jumps Saya, twists her arm, and breaks her finger.

Marcus gets to the family room and sees a video of Chester holding a knife up to a guy’s throat. Lex is concerned that the house is empty when suddenly, he is caught in an animal trap which pulls him a great length away, towards Chester’s bloodthirsty cousins. Marcus calls out to Lex but gets ambushed too. He fights off more of Chester’s cousins with his spiked bat, as a crazy fight scene ensues amongst everyone in the house. Eventually, Lex breaks away to run from a chainsaw-wielding hillbilly who chases him into the kitchen. The cousin swings but misses, and then accidentally gets his chainsaw stuck in another cousin in the process. He tries prying it and revving it loose from his poor cousin’s flesh, but then falls onto his back, and accidentally chainsaws his own face. Marcus and Lex scream in hilarious fashion as it happens right in front of them. They get disrupted by gunfire and take cover behind the refrigerator in the kitchen. Lex fires back at the hillbillies. Chester finally comes out to join with a shotgun and starts shooting at his former roommate.

Upstairs, the crazy woman grabs Saya’s katana and brings it against the girl’s throat. Maria sneaks in and hovers above them and addresses Saya as she’s about to be killed: “You fucked him, didn’t you?”

Petra and Billy curiously observe in the hazy distance. — DEADLY CLASS — “Sink With California” Episode 109 — Pictured: (l-r) Taylor Hickson as Petra, Liam James as Billy — (Photo by: Katie Yu/SYFY)

Outside Shabnam’s house, Billy and Petra wait for the signal. Petra admits, that their friends are the only people she likes in the whole world. Because there’s a good chance they’re going to die, Billy asks if they can (kiss) just once… just as they’re about to they get the signal. They activate the backdoor bomb, and then Billy bum rushes the door, to no avail. It’s sealed shut with reinforced steel. Billy says they should go up through the second floor as the main entrance seems like it is death. Petra believes they should go through the front, as she promised Lex.

Chester fires shotgun rounds and then sends cousin Jim to finish Marcus and Lex. Jim hops over the fridge to kill them, but he sees a bomb and says ‘aw fiddlesticks’, as he gets blown up, and turned into scattering chunks of viscera.

Upstairs, the bomb goes off, allowing Saya a moment to kick off the crazy cousin. Saya kills her with a throwing knife to the face. She gets mad at Maria for letting her almost die. Saya tells her former best friend, that she risked the future of her family to be here and help her. Maria asks Saya, what it says about herself, that Saya risks so much just to prove Maria wrong. To prove that she can have anything that’s hers (i.e. Marcus). Saya agrees that everyone was right: Maria is crazy.

Angered, Maria attacks Saya. The two exchange a flurry of blows in what’s easily the best-choreographed fight sequence of the series: Maria striking with grace and calculated precision using her fans; Saya fighting with a whirling defense utilizing side-flips, her katana and sheath. During the fight, Saya tells Maria she should be grateful that she gave her a new reason to play the victim. Maria retorts, by saying Saya’s just happy she gets to play the assassin: cynical, unsafe, and alone. She strikes Saya in the face with her fan blade. Saya says Maria would’ve killed Chico anyway. Maria condemns her, saying that it doesn’t make what she did (sleeping with Marcus) alright. Out of the corner, a hillbilly woman charges with a pitchfork pinning Maria’s shoulder to a wall. A big bald looking hillbilly, looking like something straight out of ‘The Hills Have Eyes’, tells Saya that she doesn’t belong here.

Meanwhile, Marcus and Lex bust out of the refrigerator they hid in to protect themselves from the bomb. Chester and the cousins begin open firing on them again, just as Chester says, “Party downstairs!” and heads down into the basement. An obvious trap, Marcus wants to follow anyway, and so Lex provides covering fire for him.

Upstairs, Saya fights the large ‘hills have eyes’ looking hillbilly. He knocks her sword out of her hand, then punches her unconscious, Saya’s body rag-dolling as it hangs off the edge of the upstairs balcony. That same moment, Maria forces the handle of the pitchfork in her shoulder back, grabs it, and then stabs the hillbilly woman. The ‘hills have eyes’ man gets angry, as Maria killed ‘Gran-Gran’, and so he starts chasing her. Ozzy Osbourne’s “Mr. Crowley” starts playing in the background, as many of the epic fight sequences from various scenes continue.

In the basement, Marcus descends with a lighter in hand, Ozzy’s “Mr. Crowley” playing on a downstairs radio. He looks around and sees different dogs in cages, and then finds Dwight Shandy there, who confesses Chester fucks the dogs – something Marcus already knows. Marcus finds a woman dressed as a dog (Shabnam’s mother?) who begs for her ‘bulldog’ to love her with his ‘murder stick’. Suddenly, a surprise Chester appears and shotgun blasts the woman in the face. He questions Marcus’ choice in weaponry, observing the spiked bat, he says Marcus watched ‘The Warriors’ one too many times.

The ‘Hills Have Eyes’ man finds Maria, but a revived Saya stabs him, then calls him a “White trash piece of shit”. She helps Maria up but gets interrupted, as the man knocks her down again, angry that Saya’s slandering his Godly people. He mentions that there’s a “Price for getting too close to the real America,” but before he can stomp her to death, Billy arrives, and fires darts of Mellow Yellow. It doesn’t work. Saya tries warning Billy but gets smacked down hard. The man chases after Billy downstairs. As he flees, Billy is told to “Get down!” by Petra, as acid is flung into the large man’s face. Billy is ecstatic Petra choose to save him over Lex.

At that same moment, Lex runs out of ammo. A hillbilly jumps him and gets on top of him with a knife. Inches away from being stabbed in the chest, Billy arrives and uses a razor wire to choke the man to death. Lex hugs his two best friends, scared shitless that he almost died. Petra says they need to head to the rendezvous.

Upstairs, Maria binds up her wounds. Saya is badly beaten up. Maria says that they need to find Marcus. Saya says outright: No. She then says that the group is like bloodsucking ticks, draining her, and pulling her down with them. Saya admits that she’s done with them and abandons the mission.

THE FINAL SHOWDOWN

In the basement, Dwight films the ‘Chester Fuckface Variety Hour’, introducing his new master. Marcus is tied up on the couch with tape over mouth. Chester talks about what makes a monster as if this were a talk show. He wants Marcus to admit that he didn’t commit the orphanage murders. That he, Chester, the ‘fuckface’ killer, did. Dwight releases Marcus’ mouth tape. Marcus admits Chester killed all those people. He says that Chester did it because he is desperate for some semblance of significance to “Make a mark, even if it’s just a shit stain, because you’re the type of guy who’d screw a goat on national television if it got people to pay attention.”

Angry, Chester holds the shotgun up to Marcus’ face calling him a hypocrite, because when society came to reward him for his work, Marcus took the credit. He threatens to blow a hole in Marcus’ brain to make a point across. Marcus apologizes. He admits that he thinks Chester’s murder spree was done in pursuit of the adulation of strangers because if enough people loved him enough, it would fill the void.

“Sadness is rage turned inward. When I look at you, all I see is sadness. You don’t want fame, you want to be loved. The solution isn’t on the other side of that camera. Fame won’t fix what happened to you. You can’t fix what’s broken.”
– Marcus to Chester.

Marcus realizes from the events of this year, that inflicting pain on others doesn’t fix you. That when you’re feeling weak or sad, friends and family are the only things that make you feel strong. Chester rebukes this, saying that his family is a bunch of dumb hill people, people he’d be happier with if they weren’t around. Marcus tells him family isn’t only defined by blood.

Chester breaks down. He admits he was happier when Marcus was with him. Marcus was Chester’s first friend before he blew him up. Marcus apologizes, saying both did shitty things to each other. He offers to put it behind them and tells Chester to join him in King’s Dominion, where they can figure it out together as friends. Chester says he’d love to go to that school. He’d love to be Marcus’ friend.

Just then, Marcus grabs a nearby brick and uses it to smash the shotgun. Marcus flees and Chester chases after him, tackling him just beneath the dog cages. Chester starts beating Marcus severely on the floor, and so Marcus unlocks the cage to one of the dog’s above him. The ravenous canine tears open Chester’s jugular and devours his flesh. Dwight picks up Marcus and films Chester’s death.

Marcus walks over to the nearby refrigerator and finally finds Chico’s head. He carries it upstairs and finds only Maria there, waiting. Maria tells him that all she ever did was love him. He responds by saying he never asked for that. She voices that he doesn’t have to worry about that anymore, and then admits that Saya’s and her cynicism was right: she should have never let herself care. She saw Marcus was alone just like she was, and so she thought that he’d understand. Marcus tells her that he does. She admits she was desperate to believe in that lie. But she knew better because, in the end, you can’t count on anyone but yourself.

Marcus says that’s the last thing he wanted. He admits that he doesn’t know what’s wrong with him. Their relationship just started feeling like an obligation. Maria storms off, upset. He tries to console her and admits that he loves her. She asks him, after everything they had been through together if he could do her one courtesy: stop lying.

They exit the house and find Diablo and his men. They immediately notice that Maria is with Marcus, who is holding onto Chico’s head. Lex rushes out asking what’s taking the two so long? Then is shot and killed by Diablo’s men.

End of Season One

‘The Magicians’ Review: Harriet Returns

Nicole C

March 20, 2019

On The Magicians this week we learn of a new sinister group called Serpent, Harriet makes a return from the mirror world, The Monster tries to remember things, and Fen makes a difficult choice.

Bloodworms and Serpents

As Pete shows Kady video of a group of renegade Hedges calling themselves Serpent, Alice arrives at the apartment offering to help. She is still on her apology tour and says that when they went on the quest for the seven keys none of them signed up to have good people be enslaved to the Library just for a little magic. She had been on the inside (albeit as a prisoner) and wants to help, especially after the events of last week’s episode with Sheila joining the Order. Kady hands Pete her crowbar and then proceeds to punch the ex-niffin. She then says they are having a crisis and that Alice can stay if she can help. He tells the other magician about the rogue group that has been putting magical bloodworms into other Hedges and when they try to cast a spell, they are burned to death from the inside. This is a fear tactic in order to stop other Hedges from using more ambient magic because the Library provides so little already.

Alice tells them that she had helped burst a magical pipe in Modesto and Pete is livid that she was related to that incident. She comes to realize however that it doesn’t help to just bust one pipe and they would need 50 or a 100 more. Alice then determines that a blueprint of the Library’s magic pipeline system would be extremely helpful. But to accomplish that they need the location of a junction box to drop in a tracer that way they can find weak spots and spots with higher levels of magic. Pete, ever practical says what they must have a mole in the Order.

Meanwhile the Library themselves have taken notice of the Serpent and vote on a temporary solution in the form of the Reed’s Mark. Anyone who has the mark applied on their body will be unable to use magic therefore if they had a bloodworm they wouldn’t be able to accidentally trigger the parasite. They decide that the procedure will be offered voluntarily for those already infected and those living in fear. Once the Serpent group has been dealt with, the mark will be removed free of charge. Hmmm that is a bit fishy. What incentive would the Librarians have to reverse the marking when Hedge Witches aren’t exactly treated as well as card carrying magicians? Back in her office, Zelda uses a drop of her blood onto the compact mirror beacon and starts project it into the mirror world to find Harriet. The magician signs to her mom that she can’t get out but she needs to find Alice again. Audiences see that Harriet has appeared in mirrors to Alice inside the apartment and to Stephanie in her house. Kady is able to translate that Zelda’s daughter is in pieces within the mirror world.

Kady and Alice meet up with Zelda in a park with Pete nearby. The ex-niffin explains that when you stay in the mirror world long enough you fragment. The librarian asks what they want and Kady (aka new Marina) asks for the location of a junction box because increasing magic will help lower the body count, otherwise it will be full on war. Zelda protests that giving more magic won’t necessarily help but Kady said Hedges have always self-policed and she considers it her full-time position. The older magician says that their proposal is very risky but Alice counters so is putting Harriet back together but she can do it, can Zelda do her part? The elder woman agrees at last when Pete comes up and has a private word with Kady. It turns out that the Serpent group attacked an entire safe house and infected everyone within. She wants them to find the leader of this group while he favors getting the Reeds Mark until this whole thing blows over. Kady asks him to give her a day.

Alice then heads to Dean Fogg who informs her the Library has requested for a list of former students as a potential Hedge Witch watchlist. The Brakebills principal decides that even he is not willing to cross this line because it’s all starting to feel like a totalitarian regime. Only now it feels like it? As a result he’s going to have to resign. Alice though provides him with an alternative and reveals that Zelda needs his lab and his secrecy in order for them to retrieve Harriet. He needs to stay in office where he can make a difference and protect those whom he can from within the system. As she looks for information in the library, she overhears Julia, Penny 23, and Q talk about the binder.

She leaves them be though and sets up the lab with Kady and Harriet. There she uses traveler’s blood to draw a glyph on each of the three mirror surfaces. Alice then asks the other two women to leave so she can begin. The new leader of the Hedge Witches has a moment of compassion though and tells the phosphomancer not to die. After the two depart, she seals the room, sets up the prism and the compact mirror beacon then begins to cast the spell. One Harriet soon appears and is able to set out of one of the mirrors, but something goes wrong. The two women aren’t able to communicate and Harriet then forcibly pulls the ex-niffin out of the casting circle just as the prism erupts in sparks. Alice tries to go back in to fix it (despite the other woman’s warning) and she grabs the glowing object when a force pushes her to the ground. When she looks up, another Alice tells her that she’s really screwed this up. We meet the aggressive and know it all version of the phosphomancer! The nicer, albeit more panicked Alice then proceeds to knock out her other self and locks that Alice inside a cell in the mirror world. Well now that was pretty extreme. Harriet tells original Alice essentially that she needs to fix the prism but the younger magician realizes that she needs her other half to do that because she’s become unsure of herself. Forced to go into the mirror world, the two Alices have an interesting chat where arrogant Alice says scared Alice destroyed the keys out of fear. Scared Alice said the other one destroyed her life, but her other half states that they did that together. How poetic. Arrogant Alice is then released from the cell after she asks if the other would rather lock her up in here to die and she can live a boring ordinary life never knowing what they are capable off. As the two head back outside a book with the word binder on the side is thrown out of nowhere. Scared Alice tricks arrogant Alice into picking it up and taking it with them. Once the duo repair the prism, they become one person again and the spell is finished to make Harriet whole.

As Zelda and Kady are waiting outside, we find out that the two both had Hedge Witches for mothers. The librarian reveals that her mentor Everett found her when she was 10 years old in an alley after her mom passed away, he then gave her a new home and educated her. She says however that her choices now seem much worse than when she was younger because no matter what someone gets hurt. Zelda though trusts Kady will make wise decisions because she can sit here with the woman responsible for the death of the man she loves and is able to try and understand her. Once Alice and Harriet emerge from the lab, the librarian tells Fogg that he can consider the list misplaced indefinitely. Kady then takes Alice to get some food while Harriet tells her mom some important things. When she was in there, the former head of Fuzzbeat could see into many places and she learned that the bloodworms weren’t being spread by Hedges but by her mother’s mentor Everett. She explains that he’s using this a means to get the fringe in line or completely out of the picture. Sure enough we see Everett with a Hedge Witch that had attacked Pete and placed a bloodworm in him. Zelda begs her daughter not to do anything crazy and Harriet agrees not to but she needs to do something about it.

The Monster and The Psychics

While Julia, Q, and Penny 23 are searching for any information on “The Binder” per the East River dragon’s mysterious suggestion, The Monster appears and tells the group that the last item they brought him is 100% authentic. However, the good news is that he knows exactly how many missing parts are left and that number is one. So they need to find Enyalius who has the final piece. Julia suggests that they try to figure out what the god’s signature is in order to find clues to locate him. The trio head to the Brakebills library to research where they are observed by Alice. The traveler suggests they find Enyalius and then destroy his part but Q points out that it doesn’t save Eliot so that’s not going to happen.

As Q, Jules, and Penny 23 have been trying to find his missing last piece, The Monster eats and watches TV in the apartment. He comes across a psychic commercial and ends up going through a whole bunch of fakes until he finds a real one that can help him go through his memories. As the threesome return, they find Creature Eliot and a poor man gagged and tied to a chair. The powerful being then proceeds to take the psychic into his mind but the guy just isn’t powerful enough and he soon has a seizure and expires. Q is visibly upset and The Monster notices and says that he’ll get this gross corpse out of sight. Penny 23 then volunteers himself as a psychic for The Monster to use so that others don’t have to die. Julia though takes the traveler aside later on and asks if he’s serious because they just watched another dude croak. Penny 23 is confident though that he can handle this, after all this is his discipline and he had The Beast in his head. He’s touched though that she cares and asks if he can buy her a drink after surviving this. Julia one ups him and says that if he makes it he can buy her dinner instead. Just as the two are about to kiss, Quentin and The Monster return having just disposed of Alan the psychic.

The Monster takes Penny 23 into his memories and they appear in a clearing. As the traveler asks if there was anything else here, the other being remembers that there was an altar and bowls that would eventually filled by the stones. There is also lots and lots of rope. The Monster says that Bacchus, Iris, and Heka were all there scared of him but they needed Enyalius. They lured him there with a defenseless girl who was near death as sacrifice. The Monster is super pissed as he watches his memory but doesn’t know why. Penny 23 suggests that there could be something more there and that Creature Eliot should keep watching. In the meantime the psychic has noticed that a door has suddenly appeared behind them. He goes through and finds the real Eliot who tells him that they don’t have much time and he knows what The Monster’s forgotten. Moments later Penny 23 is being called by the powerful entity and it asks where he’s been. The traveler lies that he was just looking around and in the real world he begins to seizure. The Monster returns as well and says that was helpful and to say thanks, he knows exactly who to get to have Enyalius come to them.

When Penny 23 wakes up, he tells Q and Julia that he saw Eliot in there and that the other man is still alive and poking around like a pro. The Monster’s memories are all still in there and that they’ve been wrong about everything. The stones aren’t to rebuild his body, it’s so much worse than that.

Fen Dethrones Margo For a Noble Cause

Meanwhile in Fillory, Fen wakes up from her Ambien laden sleep chat with the Napster and Margo’s eager to find out what her lizard is for and what her destiny is. Given what we learned in last week’s episode, the native Fillorian isn’t too keen on revealing to the high king what was actually said and instead goes over to Josh. Conveniently, Q has sent over some talking rabbits who tells the trio that Eliot is alive though trapped inside a mind prison while the creature controls the joystick. In addition, another crisis they have to deal with is a wild Fillorian clock tree that’s sprouted in the middle of a village leaving the entire area trapped in time. Fen suggests they call for a council but Josh is one step ahead and has set up a feast to get all their allies under their roof. Margo though clearly doesn’t care about the other stuff and asks if Q is sure that Eliot is still alive in there. Josh confirms and she begins to make out with him immediately. After the love session, the high king is ready to peace out to save her bff when her boy toy asks her to stay for the banquet, especially because he invited a person called the Foremost who has a weapon that can reverse demonic possession.

As preparations for the banquet are under way, Fen meets Ru, the Queen of West Loria, whom we discover was also visited by a prophetic dream. She tells the knife maker’s daughter that her instructions were clear that to protect the health of her land she must aid Fen in dethroning Margo. Ru can tell that the other woman’s prophecy falls in line with hers but Fen shows her reluctance in going through with their destiny. The other ruler though says that she’s willing to forge peace with Fillory as long as Fen is high king. Ru suggests that the only other alternative is eternal banishment, she gives Eliot’s wife until the feast to decide. Meanwhile hidden away, Josh overhears everything!

At the party, the chef tells Margo about the coup underway and she instructs him to hold it off until she gets to talk to the Foremost. She then pulls Tick aside to ask him about the missing guest and he tells her that there is no way the man would have ever accepted the invitation because he is a sworn enemy of Fillory. Her subject comes up with all sorts of excuses not to go get the magical axes for her and so she is forced to do it herself. She then goes to Fen and tells the other woman to dethrone her and to do it now or she and Eliot would never forgive her. Margo needs the banishment to find the southern nomads and claim the weapons that can save her best friend. It’s such an emotional moment for the two as Fen is forced to stay true to her high king’s wishes and take her place. Margo is then branded with banishment and before she leaves she curses Fen’s name but also tells everyone that they should listen to the new high king and be nice to her. As the Earthling is being escorted out of Whitespire with her birthrite box, Josh comes running saying that he should go with her, but she tells him that she can handle herself and he needs to stay and help Fen manage Fillory. He provides her with some delicious danishes, a new map, and a fully charged mp4 player with pop anthems from the 80s. She says he’s a good man and they kiss goodbye for now. Her parting words are that she’s going to try to live through this because it feels like they have some more banging to do (to which he whole heartedly agrees) but to not wait for her. Josh interjects that he’s probably going to wait for her so sorry. JOSH HOBERMAN YOU STOP THAT. He then puts the headphones on her and Margon Hanson leaves to Pat Benetar’s We Belong.

Final Thoughts

Since Harriet survived in the mirror world, there’s a big chance that so did Victoria. I can’t imagine though that Harriet then won’t try to save the other traveler too.
Kady’s ascendance to top Hedge Witch in New York to replace Marina 23 is pretty awesome. She never wanted the role but I think it’s giving her new purpose to do something useful and meaningful with her life after the finality of Penny staying in the Underworld as a librarian.
So has Marina 23 really given up her need to have lots of power in favor of love? Seems to be the case at the moment.
Who could have thrown the binder book into Alice’s path in the mirror world? I doubt that it randomly happened. Another god perhaps?
It’s nice that Alice is kind of back to help out, even if things are still tense at least Kady has become more sympathetic. She even offers to get some food with the phosophomancer after bringing Harriet back.
Brittany Curran and Summer Bishil were riveting in the banquet scene together. You could really feel the love between these two that’s developed over the last four seasons and it’s so beautiful!
Having women seize control and be the ones leading in all these different storyline lines are amazing. Next up, Zelda needs to dethrone Everett.
Fun tidbit, Heka is the ancient Egyptian goddess of medicine and magic.
Zelda and Kady sharing a smoke via pipes. Classy.

The Magicians airs on Syfy Wednesdays at 9/8 central.

Supertrash: ‘Supergirl’ 4.14 “Stand and Deliver”

Alyssa Berkowitz

March 18, 2019

This week on Supertrash Alyssa and Jen discuss episode 4.14 of Supergirl “Stand and Deliver.”

It is safe to say that this wasn’t our favorite episode of Supergirl in the world, and we make that pretty clear during the podcast. As usual Nia Nal was an absolute pleasure to watch, and her and Brainy’s relationship continues to be the glimmer of light shining through from Supergirl. Oh, also, James got shot.

Show Notes:

Alex’s puppy dog eyes to Kara having a deadline or something:

Thread on Brainy’s backstory

Ok back to the story: In 2004 the Legion was rebooted again as a complete re-imagining by Mark Waid and Barry Kitson. The marketing was focused around this intriguing image of a very Vril Dox looking Brainy and his flight ring #legionofsuperheroes #longlivethelegion #brainiac5 pic.twitter.com/2veSf9Impe

— Supergirl and Brainiac 5 (+ Nia) (@kara_querl) March 7, 2018

Theories on who shot James

Option A) Haley had James shot, hoping Lena would use the serum to save his life, & test it

Option B) Eve has been double agent working for Lex the whole time and she shot James herself.

Option C) anti alien Zealot shot James

Option D) pro alien zealot shot James#supergirlcw

— BLJackson🍷☕📕🤔 (@JacksonBrittsny) March 11, 2019

Polygon article about Captain Marvel

A little Shazam/Captain Marvel history

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‘Dune’ Filming Begins

Nicole C

March 18, 2019

Filming of the highly anticipated reboot to the science-fiction classic Dune begins at long last. The Denis Villeneuve (Blade Runner 2049, Arrival) helmed project is set to be shot in Jordan, Budapest, and Hungary.

Jordan will likely be the location for Arrakis with Budapest and Hungary filling in for planet Kaitain (seat of power for Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV), Caladan (home of House Atreides), or perhaps even Geidi Prime (home of House Harkonnen).

The star power for this cast is staggering with Timothee Chalamet (Paul Atreides), Stellan Skarsgard (Baron Vladimir Harkonnen), Javier Bardem (Stilgar), Rebecca Ferguson (Lady Jessica), Dave Bautista (Glosu “The Beast” Rabban), Oscar Isaac (Duke Leto Atreides), Josh Brolin (Gurney Halleck), Zendaya (Chani), Charlotte Rampling (Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohaim), Jason Momoa (Duncan Idaho), David Dastmalchian (Piter De Vries), and Chen Chang in discussions to play Dr. Wellington Yueh.

Brian Herbert, son of Dune creator Frank Herbert tweeted today that filming is underway and that it was a big step for fans everywhere.

Cameras are rolling on the new DUNE movie, so we have a Greenlight. That is a really big step forward for Dune fans all over the world. I know Frank Herbert would be pleased, and I am proud of my father for creating such a great work of literature.https://t.co/oWGjazDdBo— Brian Herbert (@DuneAuthor) March 18, 2019

Dune tells the story of young Paul Atreides, the heir to a dukedom who’s family has been given stewardship of the desert planet Arrakis. There the spice melange is harvest and is the single most important commodity in the entire Imperium. Paul and the rest of House Atreides are challenged by dark sinister forces that seek their destruction, including his father’s enemy the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen.

Herbert previously mentioned that the film will cover the first part of the original novel.

There are still some notable characters that haven’t been cast yet (I’m looking at you especially Feyd-Rautha) and it’ll be exciting to find out who will be joining this stellar group.

Dune is set to be released worldwide on November 20, 2020.

Monomythic Screenwriting, Episode 9: Character

Christian Angeles

March 17, 2019

In this screenwriting lesson, I discuss character: What are the different character archetypes using the Monomythic structure, what the difference is between wants versus needs of your character, and how to create a fictional character that feels independent.

WHY EMPATHY MATTERS

Movies are about empathy. They are gateways into untapped feelings that start at the screenplay, and end at the journey onscreen. Movies communicate honest truths about human psychology and relationships. They get us to acknowledge that we are not alone out there. That there is in fact another person, like us, whose experiences and hardships – we can relate to.

Relating to others, including empathy for fictional characters onscreen, triggers similar neurotransmitters pathways in the brain, as if we were experiencing the motions ourselves. This is the real product of entertainment: from violent videogames down to sex in pornography. Entertainment is like a training simulation, allowing us to emulate, stimulate, educate, and process for ourselves – safely from a distance. Rehearse the what if scenario’s in our head.

For instance, I find apocalypse stories entertaining, but I’d never want to be in one – I’d be one of the first to die, easily.

Getting into a fight, laughing at a joke, and even falling in love, these are powerful emotions triggered on the screen. What’s human about it is that we can project ourselves through our conscious onto the character and feel what it’s like to be in the moment… if only for a moment.

Characters you can relate to capture elements of your personality. Which is why I think building good characters, is the most important part of writing your screenplay. They’re your entry point into the story, but also, where the audience’s sense of agency holds onto within this constructed world. Every decision, conflict, victory, and defeat; every experience, is felt through your characters – evoking emotions to your audience. Your character is the center of your story, at least it is for character-driven writers, such as myself.

ARCHETYPES

To create a new character, you’re going to have to build it from the ground up. Give them personality, physicality, attributes, quirks, and even dreams – qualities characteristic of a real person. Depending on the story you’re trying to create, you’ll most likely base your characters on a person, or a thing, you’ve encountered within your lifetime. The thing is people have been doing this for ages. The Monomythic Screenwriting blog is all about showing you the tools people have used a million times in the past.

That said, here are the twelve character archetypes, often associated with Monomyths and Jungian psychology. You don’t have to follow these exactly to build characters, and a good amount of them I think personally overlap/are sort of outdated caricatures, but they do provide a solid starting point. To make it fun, I’ll use The Avengers as an example for each.

The Innocent: Optimistic people who desire a free world of expression you can be yourself in. They seek to be happy and for the world better to be a better place – yet they dislike bending the rules. Their biggest fear is to be punished for evil, as they always try and do the right thing. Idealists fall into this category. Think Captain America. Spider-man too.
The Orphan: Down-to-earth people who desire to connect with others and belong. They seek to fit in and are afraid of abandonment, as they are as empathic and approachable as they come. They tend to be morally grey and represent sort of the ‘everyman’ role in the world. Almost every main character fall into this category. I’d also go with Bruce Banner as the best representation in Avenger’s world, as he’s down to earth but very disconnected.
The Hero: Courageous people who desire to make their mark on the world for the better. They are afraid of weakness and will push through any obstacle with strength and determination. However, they do have a weakness in their arrogance. Thor fits perfect in this category.
The Caregiver: Compassionate people who seek to heal and protect others. They loathe selfishness, as they often give too much of themselves, and will always try to help whenever possible. Their empathy, however, can sometimes be exploited. Scarlett Witch comes to mind for me, as she’s both compassionate and has been exploited. As does Captain Marvel, who is literally off to protect an entire race in a one-woman war against the Kree.
The Explorer: Ambitious people who like autonomy and authenticity. They risk being an aimless misfit, but also tend to live a much more fulfilling lifestyle, always seeking their hearts desire. They hate being tied down and aspire for freedom above everything else. Starlord and The Guardians of The Galaxy make the most sense to me.
The Rebel: Radical people who break the rules. They will break the law, disrupt governments, and rage against authority – and provide the ultimate examples of radical freedom. However, they fear being ineffectual, worst of all: irrelevant. Always fighting for a cause but never seeking actual peace. They risk turning evil as rebels often boarder a moral line. This is easily The Hulk, but also, Rocket Racoon. Wolverine as well though he’s not an ‘official’ avenger… yet.
The Lover: Sensual people who provide support and intimacy. They utilize their charisma and sex appeal first and foremost, which can often catch people off guard. They bring a lot of heart to the team as they often desire being close to someone, which is why they are often easy to fall in love with and are frequently paired with the orphan – who also fears being alone. Please don’t hate me, but the one that fits this best is Black Widow (which would explain the pairing with Bruce Banner. I swear, I used avengers as a random example).
The Creator: Creative people who are both innovative and imaginative. They have tremendous vision and problem-solving capabilities and desire to leave an enduring legacy through their creations. They tend to be heavily tied to culture, especially of their world and are prone to unrealistic aspirations of perfectionism. Iron Man fits this category easily. As does Shuri, the Black Panther’s sister.
The Jester: Usually funny people who bring joy to their community. They live for the moment and are often uplifting, with an unnatural ability to bring positive energy at even the worst of moments – a blessing, but also at times, a burden. Being boring is their greatest fear. I want to say Drax the Destroyer from the Guardians of The Galaxy, but the most obvious choice in Marvel’s universe: Deadpool.
The Sage: Wise people who provide expertise and mentorship. They usually teach a character something we don’t understand about the world. They desire the pursuit and preservation of knowledge above all else and always try to gain a better understanding of the world. However, their studies also distract them from actions, as the sage knows the heavy costs of recklessness – it’s how they’ve outlived their cohorts, and became masters, after all. Nick Fury has fulfilled this role, but so does Vision. Iron Man too in relationship to Spider-man.
The Magician: Mysterious people who make things happen. We don’t always understand their methods, but they seem to be able to make the impossible come true. They stick to their vision and abide by it, yet they’re also manipulative and don’t anticipate the negative consequences of their actions. They also seek to understand the universe, however, in reckless action in pursuit of truth, they tend to accidentally destroy things too. Magicians tend to fall into the law of equivalent exchange, where something cannot be made without sacrifice. Unsurprisingly, Doctor Strange falls into this as he’s a bit of a hot head, but one who makes the impossible happen at a cost. Tony Stark falls into this category too, both men are brilliantly innovative, yet also have a history of leaving behind a trail of destruction.
The Ruler: Leaders who call the shots and rule over things. They dictate a lot of the big choices in the world, and desire above everything else: maintaining control. They fear being ineffectual leaders unable to delegate or command, and their morality is up to the type of ruler. Black Panther falls into this category, easily.

Try This: Build an Archetypical Character

Build three archetypical characters using the twelve examples listed above. You can even fuse some of the archetypes together. Just be creative.
Write your characters in a scene together. If you really want, you can even put some of your favorite Avengers together. I’ll even spitball a few ideas, but feel free to go wild:

The Group attends a funeral after having not seen each other in a long time.
The Group attends to an awkward mistake.
The Group argues over chores or errands. Think about assigning who to get coffee or pick up the dry cleaning… maybe even who must feed the cat.
The Group attends a party together.
The Group holds an intervention.
The Group attends court together.

WANTS VERSUS NEED

A well-constructed character should be detailed enough where you can throw them into any situation and know how they’d react.

Let’s say you were on a spaceship with a crew of guests and engineers, when suddenly, the ship stopped. You’re now stranded in space. To make matters worse, some sort of mysterious creeping stowaway is starting to pickoff passengers and crew. Who would you rather have on the ship: Ellen Ripley from Aliens or Doc Brown from Back to the Future? I can envision Ripley barking command and getting people in-line in order to survive. Likewise, I can see Doc Brown pulling off some crazy research experiment to better understand the creature, or maybe work with the engineers to fix the engine.

The point is, we get these characters and know what they’d likely do. While the outcome of what happens will depend on your needs for the story, you should have an overall idea about what choices and decisions your character would like to make. The key is knowing the difference about what your characters want and what your characters (and story) needs.

Want – Is based on who your character is at the beginning of the story. It’s usually extrinsic, an object of affection, or something external that’ll make the person’s life easier – though not necessarily better.

Need – Is based on who your character will become by the end of the story. It’s usually intrinsic, a life lesson, or newfound relationship, something that’ll change this person’s life for the better. However, it has got to be something intangible. A lesson of sorts that the person takes with them. Something motivated by growth and change by story’s end.

For More Information on Wants Versus Needs in Characterization.

Try This: Wants Versus Needs.

Describe your protagonist. Jot everything that comes to mind about them.
Think about what your character would want more than anything else in the world. Make something up if you can’t think of anything. Based on what you know about them, what does your protagonist ultimately want at the beginning of your story?
Think about the message or theme you want to convey in your story. Think about how you want the audience to feel when leaving the theatre. With that in mind, what does your protagonist need by your story’s end?

INDEPENDENCE

Characters should be independent enough to have their own thoughts and opinions. You’re constructing people, which should be grounded with such verisimilitude that your audience should naturally think these are actual people. If writing fiction is the magic of make believe, the most dangerous thing I think you can do is a writer – is create a character that feels false or inauthentic. It’s something that breaks the dream and distracts from the story. Worst of all, character mistakes are a lot less forgiving… as they continue throughout the entirety of your narrative. It’s easy to forgive an action of discretion. It’s hard to forgive poor character development.

You will need to make authentic feeling characters. To do so, you’ll need to base a lot of who they are off experience, research, and even, people you know in the actual real world.

Eventually, you will have to learn how to trust them on their own. I know that sounds strange, as they’re not ‘real’ people, but if you must let them be independent. If you can’t separate your characters enough from yourself, you risk coddling them, watering down the conflicts, and telling a boring story.

Don’t do that. Have your heroes go through every possible difficulty you can imagine. How they overcome problems, builds character, and lets keeps your audience compelled.

Rule of Thumb: If you can add conflict, do it.

Try This: Making Independent Characters.

I want you to take a character you’ve built and put them in a situation they excel in. Write their ‘Save The Cat’ moment – let them be a hero/excel in what they’re good at. Showcase what makes them special. If your character is a pilot, let them fly. If they’re a romantic, let them win over your heart. If they’re funny… give us moments of laughter or tell us jokes – show us why this person is funny.
Now, I want you to pull an experience from your life. Something from the darkest recesses of your journal. I want you to write about the most embarrassing experience of your life. Don’t worry, you do not have to share with anyone but yourself.
Now using that same experience… I want you to write what it would be like if your created character, went through your most embarrassing life experience. Highlight those differences, as that’s what makes your character independent from yourself.

A lot of the time writers hit the wall is because they don’t know where to take their character next. Ask yourself, what would this character do? By the end of these lessons, you should be able to know.

Next week, I’m going to have you go even further into character development, including building extensive attribute lists, how to model your character, and how to utilize situations.

Love, Death, And Robots: Review

Christian Angeles

March 16, 2019

A space ranger flees, a pilot in a mech fires guns from its arms, a werewolf devours flesh, a female android is disassembled.

Love, Death, and Robots, is beautiful in a messed-up sort of way. It’s very unlike the Hollywood Studio approach to animation, as it cares less about being thoughtful, and cares more about sensational line crossing. Which is sort of the point of the project.

http://cast.rocks/hosting/16429/TV-Talk-2—Love-Death-and-Robots—Review.mp3

For a short-by-short rundown, we reviewed ‘Love, Death, and Robots’ on TV Talk, Episode 2.

The Netflix animated anthology consists of eighteen unique shorts. Each episode has a runtime six to eighteen minutes in length and features a different type of story: drama, comedy, and borderline pornography. Above everything else, the series is about science fiction. Let me be clear that this is not a series for children. Even the title is misleading, as there isn’t much love as much as there was gratuitous sexuality.

Personally, if I owned the renaming rights to the series, I’d call it: ‘Heavy Metal: Violence, Sex, and Technology’ – because that’s what producers David Fincher (Fight Club) and Tim Miller (Deadpool), two critically acclaimed Directors in their own right, were in fact trying to create.

In 2008, the pair tried rebooting the cult classic movie from the 1980s, Heavy Metal.

Heavy Metal was a 1981 anthology of adult animated science fiction.

David Fincher was originally meant to direct, while Tim Miller was meant to animate through his co-founded animation studio, Blur. However, before the project took off, director Robert Rodriguez purchased the rights to Heavy Metal. Effectively ending all possibilities of a David Fincher and Tim Miller reboot. Rodriguez too, had intended to develop Heavy Metal into a series, though his project also seems to be stuck in developmental hell, which worked out in the long run, as it allowed him the time needed to focus a different project I’ve covered on TheWorkprint: Alita: Battle Angel.

Because they lost the rights to ‘Heavy Metal’, Fincher and Miller had spent about a decade reformatting their product and shopping it around. Eventually, they found a home on Netflix, and given the platform’s desire for original content, in addition to the growing competition from streaming services such as Hulu, Amazon Prime, and Disney+ (though to be fair, Disney+ would never greenlight this series), Netflix was more than happy to take on the project, which is how Love, Death, and Robots got made.

Tim Miller himself, mentioned in an interview at SXSW that the goal was to create a sandbox styled environment for less traditional animation and production circuits. As such, ‘Love, Death, and Robots’ was supposed to experiment with science fiction storytelling – while all the while, capitalize on streaming platforms lesser restrictions over a mature audience rating.

It is something that Studio Blur is familiar with, as the company is renowned for its acclaimed video game trailers; with rated mature hits for large AAA titles such as the Arkham Batman and Halo: Combat Evolved, series. Suffice to say, it was not surprising that four of the eighteen featured shorts in the series: Sonnie’s Edge, Suits, Shape-Shifters, and Blindspot – were all produced by Studio Blur.

Atop of this, most of the stories used in the series were adapted shorts of science fiction, written by acclaimed science fiction authors such as Joe R. Lansdale and Alastair Reynolds. Though most important to me, was the work of John Scalzi, a consultant for Stargate: Universe and good friend of actor and nerd enthusiast – Wil Wheaton.

If you listen to the podcast, you’ll notice Scazli had penned some of my favorite episodes: Three Robots, Alternate Histories, and When the Yogurt took over. Each were short form stories with comedic undertones that fit the expectations of an animated short, but was also refreshing, because Scazli’s style didn’t take itself all too seriously.

You see, most of ‘Love, Death, and Robots’ is lewd and atypical, obnoxious, but also somewhat heartfelt. It’s serious, and it wants you to take it seriously, though above all else: it’s complicated. It wants to capture the things you cannot traditionally see on in cinema. It seeks praise for seeking adult themes.

Which brings us to the biggest problems about the series: it’s completely immature. Everything about the series seems like the fantasies of a pubescent teenage boy – featuring excessive images of tits, trippy nonsensical rants, existential ennui, cyberpunk themes, and premises that are often heavy and full of themselves – spitting out tales of forbidden Machina, we can’t help but think we’ve seen somewhere before. It’s selling you the idea that excess and messed up shit, is cool.

I think the series would’ve been stronger in the 2000s era. I also think they should’ve sought more female artists and talent, as it wreaks heavily of male fantasy. I think the series works better as an idea because as a show, there is no coherent unifying theme, other than the promise of its premise: sex, violence, and technology.

Which is why overall… I absolutely love this series. Because the gem in this show is the animation, which I will honestly say – knocks it out of the park. Each episode is uniquely designed for its story and it’s more than enough to make up for the series’ shortcomings. You don’t watch Love, Death, and Robots for anything else except: LOVE. DEATH. ROBOTS. So, if you like animated shorts, this is a good place to nest and watch a few – especially if you’re an immature kid, like myself.

Though I do understand the criticisms (I listed many of them above).

You Can Watch Love, Death, and Robots streaming on Netflix

Citing Low Viewership, Netflix Opts to Not “Make Room” for ‘One Day At A Time’ Season 4

Jen Stayrook

March 14, 2019

And we should all be furious.

Last year, after Fox unfairly canceled Brooklyn 99 and viewers bombarded the internet with a rallying cry that would have made any Les Miserables fan proud, I thought networks took note of the outrage and learned to use more than an outdated ratings system when deciding whether or not to renew television shows, especially for ones that offer more representation than a 1990’s GAP ad. Given that Netflix canceled One Day At A Time after three acclaimed seasons that amassed a vocal following on social media, it seems the answer is a resounding I GUESS FUCKING NOT.

“We’ve made the very difficult decision not to renew One Day At A Time for a fourth season. The choice did not come easily — we spent several weeks trying to find a way to make another season work but in the end simply not enough people watched to justify another season…And to anyone who felt seen or represented — possibly for the first time — by ODAAT, please don’t take this as an indication your story is not important. The outpouring of love for this show is a firm reminder to us that we must continue finding ways to tell these stories.”
Netflix Twitter

Netflix’s Twitter PR statement tells us a few things about ODAAT’s cancellation: viewership numbers continue to reign supreme and diverse shows with smaller but loyal fanbases aren’t where they want to spend their money. Of course, this is Netflix’s prerogative. It is a business after all, and the bottom line is the easiest way to make any financial decision.

However, for a show like ODAAT that is so integral in telling stories that mainstream television tends to gloss over, making such a decision because of the bottom line feels harmful for the minorities these shows represent. Moreover, the timing of ODAAT’s cancellation is especially damning for Netflix given their recent ad campaign claiming to “Make Room” for more diverse storytelling.

https://youtu.be/Hx7Nbm_px1c

I suppose a show helmed by Gloria Calderón Kellett, a Cuban-American woman, and starring several Latinx actors, including the inimitable Rita Moreno and the always charming Justina Machado, while aptly tackling issues such as racism, immigration, mental illness, and sexuality, simply wasn’t diverse enough to “make room” for in the Netflix slate.

In completely unrelated news that definitely has no bearing on the canceling of a show like ODAAT, Netflix also managed to renew streaming rights for Friends, an extremely diverse television show that’s been off the air for 15 years, in a whooping $100 million deal. Oh, and The Ranch has another 20 episode season releasing this summer. I know this even though I don’t watch The Ranch because of the giant ad for the show that appears every time I log into Netflix.

Meanwhile, I’ve no idea why ODAAT didn’t hit the necessary viewership numbers given that the show’s marketing budget seemed on par with the likes of other well reviewed, yet canceled, fan favorites like Sense8 and The Get Down.

For fans, ODAAT is so much more than a comedy sitcom that follows a Cuban-American family’s daily life. Despite having a laugh track and set design reminiscent of sitcoms popular throughout the 80’s and 90’s, ODAAT makes smart use of the nostalgia to draw in viewers so that its writers can tell stories relevant to the modern American family. Even though it’s a comedy, and a well-written one to boot, ODAAT doesn’t shy away from the difficult moments.

To this day, no show has so accurately depicted the devastating truth of depression as well as season two’s “Hello, Penelope.” Elena’s coming out story remains one of the better LGBTQI narratives on television, especially with inclusion of her non-binary Syd-nificant other. ODAAT reminds viewers that addiction isn’t solved in a half hour format; it’s an ongoing battle that addicts like Schneider fight against for most of their lives and the impact of such events have lasting consequences. We need shows like ODAAT who give voice to the realities of racism and sexism in America and show that kids even as young as Alex come to face to face with discrimination and can be shaped by it.

Again, ODAAT is so much more than a comedy sitcom.

The good news is that ODAAT fans aren’t giving up on the show and neither is the cast and crew. While Netflix may pass on the series, Sony still has the option to shop ODAAT to other networks, which is what saved Brooklyn 99 last year from the unforgiving bottom line. Additionally, #SaveODAAT has been leading Twitter trends for much of the day, garnering support from several celebrities including his Highness himself, Lin-Manuel Miranda.

ODAAT has a long road ahead of it and given the current Hollywood struggle between the Writers Guild and talent agencies that is sure to have a lasting impact on the industry, the timing may not fall in ODAAT’s favor. That being said, there’s something every fan of ODAAT can do to help:

Or, you know, flood Netflix’s email with their own “Make Room” campaign and a gif of Abuelita dramatically opening a curtain.

‘Deadly Class’ Review – Episode 9: The Black Hole

Christian Angeles

March 13, 2019

Marcus, Maria, Lex, Billy, Saya, and Petra get off a bus. They mean business. — DEADLY CLASS -- "Kids of the Black Hole" Episode 108 -- Pictured: (l-r) Benjamin Wadsworth as Marcus, Maria Gabriela de Faria as Maria, Jack Gillett as Lex, Liam James as Billy, Lana Condor as Saya, Taylor Hickson as Petra -- (Photo by: Katie Yu/SYFY)

In the penultimate episode of season one of Syfy’s Deadly Class, everything comes together in Episode 9: Kids Of The Black Hole. Willie leaves King’s Dominion. Lin and Gao fight over leadership. Marcus and friends prepare for the battle against Chester over Chico’s head. But most importantly, Love is made, much to Marcus’ chagrin and disgust.

REVIEW

I’m going to start with our boy, Marcus. He finally lets his guard down, and stops with the self-critical, greater than thou attitude thanks to our girl, Saya. It’s refreshing to watch him enjoy the moment… even if it turns out to be a huge mistake (at least, Marcus thinks so, I don’t). It’s a mistake I think most of us have been rooting for, in a moment that comic fans have been waiting on for a long time.

As a standalone episode this one was good. With a wide emotional tone that mixes the longstanding drama of Gao, Diablo, and Chester’s revenge stories, with some much-needed humor, surprising character anecdotes, and even moments of redemption. Also featured, are some epic musical numbers, including an ‘Adolescents’ slam dance taken straight out of the 80s. It’s an episode that is messy in a good way which executes on the show’s strengths of character, nostalgia, and surprises.

But what really makes this episode great is that it truly ties the season together. Every experience the characters have gone through manifests in these final conflicts: Marcus’ addresses Lin’s hypocrisy as the school benefits only the rich, Lin tries to protect his family, especially from his sister, Maria’s status with Diablo and Soto Vatos is figured out, Saya teaches everyone that despite being perfect in everything she’s really just a girl who wants to have fun, and even Lex, the resident douche of the rats, finds a way to be helpful.

Overall, this episode does a good job summarizing what this series is about. There’s a little bit of everything in this one, and the final seconds really hits hard. My only issue is that Willie seems to be entirely separated from the story, and doesn’t seem to have an organic place in the gang anymore – which upsets me, as he’s my favorite character.

FINAL SCORE: 9.3/10

Promo for Episode 9

RECAP

THE GANG PREPARES FOR BATTLE

At Shabnam’s house, in one of the funniest openings to the series, Chester’s cousins hold a hootenanny, and Chester showcases his musical talents in dedication to his friend, Dwight Shandy. Minutes later, we see Mr. Shabnam locked in a cage like a dog. He makes a break for it when Chester goes to change his diaper, but doesn’t get far, and is impaled by one of the many booby traps set outside the house. In the distance, we see Saya taking notes and scoping out the joint.

She passes a ‘rally the Vegas crew’ note along to Marcus the next day during AP Black Arts class. Master Lin finds Marcus reading Saya’s note, and so he swing’s at Marcus’ face with his stick, but Maria intercepts the blow with her fan. It’s obvious to the class that Maria cares about Marcus. He ends class with a warning:

“Emotions betray you and leave you exposed. If you are willing to die for someone… then you surely will.”
– Master Lin

After class, Marcus calls Lin a hypocrite. One who pretends to empower the outcasts but is really exploiting the younger generation. Marcus uses master Jurgen as an example of his hypocrisy and then points out what bothers Lin about Marcus is that he is what Lin used to be.

At the comic book shop, Saya shows the intel she gathered. She confirms Chester is holding Shabnam’s parents hostage and has Chico’s head, which will get Maria murdered if Diablo finds out. Saya also thinks someone is giving intel to Chester, which Marcus decides to investigate later. Together, the group decides they should heavily arm themselves and strike first. This causes Willie to leave.

Outside, Marcus follows Willie and asks him again to join their cause. Willie states he still doesn’t want to kill anyone, and judges that Marcus is just trying to get himself killed. Marcus claims, “Pretending to be a hero is better than admitting we’re not one”. He then reminds Willie that they’re friends. Willie still refuses, uncertain if he wants to remain friends with Marcus if this is the kind of life they’re living.

Marcus goes back inside to tell them Willie’s out. Saya admits that the compound is fortified. The only way in is to blow a wall open with C4 but only one person they know has it.

The gang tries convincing Lex to help them in his dorm room. — DEADLY CLASS — “Kids of the Black Hole” Episode 108 — Pictured: (l-r) Jack Gillett as Lex, Taylor Hickson as Petra, Liam James as Billy, Lana Condor as Saya, Benjamin Wadsworth as Marcus — (Photo by: Katie Yu/SYFY)

At King’s the gang talks to Lex. He’s hesitant to join their cause after Maria nearly killed him during sparring. It’s Christmas break and he wants to go home, but they admit that Fuckface is a real bad serial killer, and if Lex really wants to make a difference, he’d help them. Lex admits he knows someone.

Maria enters Marcus' room, not even trying to hide their relationship. — DEADLY CLASS — “Kids of the Black Hole” Episode 108 — Pictured: Maria Gabriela de Faria as Maria — (Photo by: Katie Yu/SYFY)

At his dorm room, Marcus returns to look for clues about how Chester is getting his intel and finds Shabnam. He asks if Shabnam has said anything to his parents about him, which we know from episode 8 is the case. But before Shabnam can answer, he is interrupted by a visiting Maria, who kicks Shabnam out – the two no longer trying to hide their relationship to him.

Maria looks at Marcus, asking why he doesn't open up to her. — DEADLY CLASS — “Kids of the Black Hole” Episode 108 — Pictured: Maria Gabriela de Faria as Maria — (Photo by: Katie Yu/SYFY)

Maria asks Marcus what Lex said and he replies that Lex is down. Expecting an apology but not getting one, Maria is upset that Marcus never told her about Chester. He said he wasn’t sure she could handle it. She gets angry that he thought Saya could. In his defense, he admits Saya knew about the boys’ home already, which irritates Maria further, but she shrugs it off saying she trusts him. She then asks Marcus to stay the night with her as she doesn’t want to be alone on what might be their last night together, alive.

Later in the hallway, Saya tells Marcus that Lex found a weapons supplier, and to meet at a concert show tonight to make a deal. Marcus tells her he can’t, and to have Lex store the explosives at the back of the comic shop. Saya asks why he isn’t coming, and he admits that it’s problems with Maria, as she’s upset. Saya tells him to straighten her out as they need Maria in full form. Marcus says thanks for all the help. Saya says she had no choice as he’s her pledge, but if he screws this up, she’s the one stuck with paying the price. Marcus gets to Maria’s room and peaks inside to see her drinking with a bottle, crying.

At the show, Saya meets with the rats to make the weapons deal. Lex gets angry Marcus isn’t there, but seconds later, he shows up, to the surprise of a now smirking Saya. She asks him what changed his mind. He didn’t feel right leaving it all on her shoulders.

The Gang go to buy explosives at a punk themed club. — DEADLY CLASS — “Kids of the Black Hole” Episode 108 — Pictured: (l-r) Liam James as Billy, Taylor Hickson as Petra, Lana Condor as Saya, Benjamin Wadsworth as Marcus — (Photo by: Katie Yu/SYFY)

Inside, after Lex and Billy debate the history of punk, Lex meets with Cactus Jack (Phillip Mitchell) to purchase explosives. Lex asks for the cash, but Petra is hesitant he’ll blow it on drugs and booze. They reluctantly trust him anyway. Saya tells him to stash the explosives at the comic shop.

Finished, Marcus wants to head home, but Saya calls bullshit, as the ‘Adolescents’ are playing. She tells him to have fun as it may be their last night alive. Marcus notices there is slam dancing though, and he’s against it, but Saya tells him to stop being judgmental, as the act is more about comradery. She convinces him to join and they dance along to the song ‘Kids Of The Black Hole’ which is also the episode title.

Marcus and Saya have a really good time. Marcus confesses someone even picked him up after he fell. Saya says they’re lucky no metal heads or skinheads joined in, and that she’s glad Marcus got to experience it. He smokes a cigarette and she bums one off of him. Marcus says Saya never tells him anything about her, and asks her to tell him anything at all about herself. Saya grabs him and then passionately kisses Marcus, as the two start to make out in an alleyway.

Saya staring deep into Marcus' eyes just before she kisses him. — DEADLY CLASS — “Kids of the Black Hole” Episode 108 — Pictured: (l-r) Benjamin Wadsworth as Marcus, Lana Condor as Saya — (Photo by: Katie Yu/SYFY)

NEVER SAY I LOVE YOU

Marcus wakes up in the middle of the woods with a terrible hangover. He notices ‘her’ hair smells like snow… then looks over and realizes, that’s not Maria. He acknowledges that he just cheated on his girlfriend with a deadly Japanese assassin: Saya.

Pulling out his watch, he realizes its noon and the comic shop was supposed to open two hours ago. He gets up and gets dressed and Saya asks him where he’s going. Marcus admits he needs to run to the store as it was supposed to be open and is full of explosives.

Marcus runs to the shop, still drunk from the night before. He grabs someone’s breakfast burrito and eats it, and then throws up on the street along the way. The whole time he reminisces about having sex with Saya. Then he feels guilty, thinking about Maria weeping in her room, admitting that he’s become the guy he hates. Still, Marcus never experienced anything like Saya. He says that her eyes burned into him, like she really seemed to know him and could fix everything. Take on the chore of being with Marcus. He thinks she could make him whole again and help him get free. Then he remembers, during sex, saying the words:

I love you.

This causes Marcus to have quite a dramatic reaction. He hates himself for being weak and needy, and regrets what he said, but also, is worried that he really meant it. Marcus remembers something Maria once said: “The difference between old friends and new friends is that new friends just haven’t let you down yet.” Maria said everyone let her down except Marcus. He admits that all he could think of was, “Give me time.”

Saya returns home after being out all night with Marcus but is reprimanded by Lin for violating her curfew. He says that he promised her father he’d protect her, and that during her training, she’s become one of the most fearsome warriors alive – one well on her way to becoming Valedictorian. However, her sword is in his service, so he gives her an assignment: tonight, Saya is to go to an address and guard it with her life. Saya hesitates, as tonight’s also the night the group is supposed to fight Chester. Lin tells her to honor her obligations to him as he has for done for years to her.

At Lost Innocence comic book shop, Marcus opens the store to a crowd of very angry customers. He checks that the C4 and the explosives are there, and they are. A young kid named Mike, keeps asking Marcus to fulfil a promise, of drawing Sabertooth fighting Spider-Man for him. Marcus remains hungover for hours, as people keep buying and haggling at the shop. He hates the banter, as well as the strange pain in his stomach. The burrito he ate on his run over. Mike is still nagging about his drawing, and with no way he can hide his fart, Marcus decides to fart right into Mike’s face. However… there was no fart.

Marcus accidentally shits himself, describing the sound as a Broken Slurpee Machine – a torrent of hot liquid soaking down to his shoes. He leaves Mike in charge then runs inside the storage closet, gets completely naked, and tries washing off what little he can. The door suddenly opens to find a shocked Maria, and the whole gang and store, surprised at Marcus’ nudity. They kick everyone out as the gang prepares for this evening. Confused, Marcus asks where’s Saya? Petra figures he’d know, as they lost track of the two of them after the show. Upset at this, Maria looks angry at Marcus.

Honoring her obligations, Saya waits outside of Master Lin’s house, unknowingly guarding his family. She looks impatient and is tempted to help her friends.

Outside of Shabnam’s house, the gang arrives with a truck filled with explosives. They guess that Saya isn’t coming, but as they open the backdoor to the truck, low and behold Saya’s there waiting. Marcus is incredibly happy that she’s joining them. Maria looks jealous. The gang then disembarks ready for the fight of their lives against Chester and his cousins.

Saya asks Willie to stay and help his friends, as he packs his things to go. — DEADLY CLASS — “Kids of the Black Hole” Episode 108 — Pictured: Luke Tennie as Willie — (Photo by: Katie Yu/SYFY)

WILLIE FLIES AWAY LIKE PETER PAN.

Before they left for the weapons deal, Saya visited Willie in his dorm room. He was packing his bags and admitted to Saya, how his mother used to call him Peter Pan, and sent him to King’s Dominion to grow up. Saya gets on his case about leaving when they need him, and how he owes Marcus for what he did for him. Willie admits the first murder helped him out, but then reflects on the second one committed. He confesses that he doesn’t like how the school is changing everyone for the worse. Saya says they love him, but if he leaves now, he’ll regret it for the rest of his life. Willie replies he knows one thing about Peter Pan: he doesn’t become a pirate.

Later, Willie talks with his girlfriend, Gabrielle, and admits he is running to LA to live with his sister and make a fresh start. He asks her to join him and she agrees. At a gas station, the two buy supplies on the drive out of town. They observe a gang of thugs mug and beat an innocent man. Gabrielle tells him to report it when they get away to a phone. Willie drives away leaving the man behind, though it obviously upsets him.

LIN’S MISFORTUNE

Lin tells his wife that Gao knows about their survival. She wants to know what Gao will do, and Lin admits his sister was always vicious. We then see Lin’s animated flashback:

Lin talks to his father and questions if his sister is ready. His father says she’s been ready for centuries and that her bloodline belongs to the guild. His father admits to grooming Lin to become headmaster at King’s, and says there’s nothing more to say about his sister. Lin goes over and tells her China will be a great adventure. She leaves, saying it’s been an honor to have been chosen, and then is given a knife to take with her from her father. Gao promises not to disappoint her family.

Back in the present, Lin’s wife admits Gao lost her only son to the temple and so doesn’t think their daughter will be able to walk away. Lin says he will do what he must to protect the family. He later calls on Saya to guard his family while going to a meeting with Gao.

At Gao’s office with her furniture servants, Lin is shocked to find an armed Brandy and Victor with her. Brandy admits that Lin sent them there to kill her. To have them secretly get close to Gao so that when the time is right, they could kill her. Gao admits, at least the students know when to change teams, and though she respects her brother, she is disappointed that he’s resorted to sending students to kill her.

A faint smile passes on Lin’s face. Suddenly, Brandy and Victor attack Madame Gao but she catches the double cross seconds before, and flips in the air, kicking them both just before they land their attacks. Lin comes at her with his sword and Gao also barely dodges his attack, counters, and then escapes through the tiny door and locks them in the room. The furniture servants arm themselves with sticks and get ready to fight Lin, Brandy, and Victor. They kill all the furniture people. Lin then chokes out Victor thinking he betrayed him, but Brandy says Gao was looking right at him, and that maybe she caught wind of the ambush. Lin has Victor help him force open the small door, then Lin rushes out, letting the door crush Victor’s fingers. Locked inside, Brandy questions whether they bet on the right side. Victor outright says: nyet (no).

Lin rushes home and doesn’t find Saya at her post. He goes inside and finds Diablo, eating dinner with his wife. Lin tells him Gao can’t be trusted. Diablo points a gun to Lin’s family, admitting that killing Lin’s wife and daughter won’t bring Chico back, but still wants him to suffer, as he does. Lin confesses he didn’t tell Diablo about Maria as losing a daughter too would compound his grief. Diablo calls his lie, saying Lin did it to preserve his position. Suddenly, Lin’s wife breaks free. Her and Lin proceed to take out the guards one by one. It’s going in their favor, until Diablo pulls out his gun, and shoots Lin’s wife pointblank in the head. The others grab their guns as well, so Lin grabs his daughter and runs.

If you’d like, SYFY does an ‘after school’ special detailing some of the special features and interviews of the show.

‘The Magicians’ Review: Dragons, Dreams, and Drama

Nicole C

March 13, 2019

In this week’s episode of The Magicians, Alice reunites with her mom Stephanie, Fen and Margo try to figure out Fen’s prophetic dreams, and we meet the East River dragon.

THE MAGICIANS — “Home Improvement” Episode 408 — Pictured: (l-r) Olivia Taylor Dudley as Alice, Mageina Tovah as Zelda, Rick Worthy as Dean Fogg — (Photo by: Eric Milner/SYFY)

Alice, Fogg, and Zelda Make a Deal

Alice goes to Dean Fogg to get help in rescuing her friend Sheila who was taken by the Library. However, she learns that Zelda has also approached Fogg to enlist her aid in finding Harriet in the mirror world. Fogg suggests that they come an understanding. If Zelda agrees to free Sheila, buries her book and Alice’s, and gives Brakebills a month’s worth of extra magic every month, the younger magician will help. Reluctantly the librarian consents and Fogg is able to provide a spell that will make any ordinary object into a beacon, however only Alice would be able to cast it because of her unique experience having been a niffin who lived in the mirror world for a time.

Unfortunately, the spell can only be cast by a mother and daughter and thus Alice is forced to go to Stephanie. Things between the two women are still dicey especially after Daniel’s death. The elder magician agrees to perform it, but it doesn’t work despite five tries. She is especially eager to get Alice out of her house because of her best friend’s Carol’s impending arrival. Carol of course was electrocuted by Alice and Q the last time they saw each other. As the ex-niffin is apologizing to the older woman for her past actions, two librarians show up and she activates her father’s protective wards. Alice is livid thinking her mother turned her in and the two argue. Stephanie reveals that she had actually turned Carol in because the other woman was selling voodoo dolls in the guise of intimacy aids. However, Alice realizes that maybe they could use them on the librarians outside. It just so happens that Stephanie has the DNA required for the spell since the two bureaucrats had been over to her house earlier that day. Once Carol goes outside to retrieve the coffee mugs, mother and daughter continue their argument. Stephanie says that there is nothing Alice could do that would ever make her turn her child in because the younger woman is all she has left. They try the cooperative spell once more and this time it works because Alice understands that she had been the one who gave up being Stephanie’s daughter. With the librarians incapacitated outside due to voodoo dolls, Carol makes her escape with Alice doing the same through the back door.

Back at Brakebills, Alice discovers that Sheila has joined the Order and is now a librarian herself. Zelda informs her that Sheila’s book is now in the Poison Room as a junior librarian and so won’t implicate Alice’s own book for inconsistencies. She’s devastated that Sheila doesn’t seem to care that the Library has done awful things because the other woman is convinced that she’s doing good work to help people as a whole. Eventually Alice gives Zelda the mirror compact that she and her mother did the spell on so that Harriet can be rescued.

THE MAGICIANS — “Home Improvement” Episode 408 — Pictured: (l-r) Summer Bishil as Margo Hanson, Brittany Curran as Fen — (Photo by: Eric Milner/SYFY)

Fen and Margo Go on a Side Quest

This week, Fen embarks on a side quest to find the mysterious person in her prophetic dreams. However, just as she sets off, Margo sneaks up saying that all those dreams actually relate to her so she needs to join in as well (the high king claims this has nothing to do with her not wanting to deal with Josh at the moment). They come upon a woman wearing similar green robes and Margo immediately suspects something fishy is going on when the mysterious figure tells Fen that in order to get the prophecy she needs to fix various things around her property. Eventually Fillory’s high king traps the woman in some vines and she is forced to come clean. Apparently, the individual they are looking for is a dream prophet or sorts called the Napster and she can only be captured in a state of sleep. So Fen pops an Ambien and is able to catch the elusive Napster (who is a catlike creature FYI). It is revealed that Fen will need to seize the throne from Margo, if necessary by blood to save Fillory. Well that’s going to be real awkward.

THE MAGICIANS — “Home Improvement” Episode 408 — Pictured: (l-r) Jade Tailor as Kady Orloff-Diaz, Arjun Gupta as Penny Adiyodi, Stella Maeve as Julia Wicker — (Photo by: Eric Milner/SYFY)

Poppy is Preggers

Meanwhile, The Monster wants Q and the gang to find his missing body piece from the Mandrake god (who is dead) and so Kady suggests they talk to Pete (aka Lovelady) since he deals in magical artifacts these days. Julia isn’t quite thrilled to be reunited with Marina’s former lieutenant, while The Monster agrees to give Q one more day. Pete shows Kady and Quentin images of three items with the last one being the correct item The Monster needs. Said object turns out to be inside the hoard of a dragon who resides in the East River. He’s arranged for them to talk to the dragon’s herald at 9 am the following morning and they need to bring in something to trade. While Q goes off to try and find a worthy trinket, Pete chats with Kady and tells her that he’s willing to be loyal to the right person and that could be her. He asks if she’s ready to graduate from helping her college buddies to solving a real problem like what’s happening to the Hedge Witches. The two have differing views though when it comes to other hedges. Kady thinks they should turn in Whitley who blew up the Library branch in Modesto to take the heat off everyone else. She says Pete can do it because she’s on the Library’s wanted list.

The following day Julia and Quentin meet with the herald of the East River dragon and the poor guy is super busy. It turns out that an elixir was taken from his mistress and they are willing to give anything to the individual that retrieves it. The only clue they go on in a dart that Q recognizes as one that originated in Fillory. And he knew exactly possessed it – Poppy. So he casts a locator spell and finds her inside the Physical Kids cabin, oh and guess what she’s pregnant. Julia follows up and heads to the cabin as well (which is pretty weirdly empty) and finds her best friend with a bowl of chili. She sees that Poppy is preggers surrounded by heat lamps and apparently the baby is Q’s.

Kady and Penny 23 return to the cabin with Julia and they are all super confused and wonder if this is an act. Kady notices a comic book called The Dragon Riders of Porn written by Poppy herself and they begin to put two and two together that the elder Brakebills student seems to have inseminated herself with the East River dragon’s elixir in order to get pregnant. Whomever then touches the dragon baby immediately feels the need to protect it, hence Q’s crazy paternal instincts. Poppy explains that they lied and that dragon sperm are universal donors so to speak and that’s how she got preggers. The field researcher claims that this is a first human-dragon hybrid and so her baby is going to be epic. However, Kady discovers upon reading the comic book some more that dragon eggs take three years to gestate and Poppy stole the elixir only last week. This would make her human-dragon pregnancy impossible. True enough they find the actual fertilized dragon egg and the redhead comes clean that she lied again so that they wouldn’t find Falcor (Q names the dragon egg after the delightful creature from The NeverEnding Story). While Kady and Julia distract Poppy and Q, Penny 23 slips on some oven mitts and grabs the baby dragon to be but soon falls prey to its pheromones as well. Apparently it initially causes an uncontrollable urge to lick the egg. He then hands it to Julia who fakes out the others but low and behold, she actually isn’t affected because of her more than human state. She and Kady (who still has Sam’s gun) are able to stop the other three from following them as they race to the East River. Poppy, Q, and Penny 23 catch up when the dragon finally makes an appearance as Julia threatens to drop the egg into the water. The magical creature at first is annoyed because she feels way too young to be a mother. Poppy interjects that it’s hers and that she won it off the Seine River dragon which makes the East River one reconsider and take it. The massive beast does wonder though how the former goddess is able to hold the object without being affected by it but nonetheless instructs her to put it into the basket.

THE MAGICIANS — “Home Improvement” Episode 408 — Pictured: Stella Maeve as Julia Wicker — (Photo by: Eric Milner/SYFY)

Julia Catches a Break

With the effects of the dragon egg pheromones wearing off, Penny 23 chats with Julia at the apartment while holding an egg as a remedy for dragon withdrawal. He asks if she’s ok with not knowing what’s going on with her and she shrugs it off saying that it’s useful at least. The two have a real bonding moment as she reveals how it’s going to be lonely outliving everyone else. Penny 23 chimes in that travelers aren’t quite human either and that they are often both alone and yet not at the same time.

Meanwhile in the other room, Poppy tells Q that she never even thought about being a mom and had no maternal instincts until she fertilized the egg. She then developed an attachment to her own unborn child after the dragon egg was taken away. Poppy had been planning to abort it but forgot after being invited to see a Haitian spiked toad mating ritual. He asks if she’s sure she wants to keep it and she instead says that unconventional parents can be cool. Q offers the chicken egg and asks her to sleep on it before making a final decision. But she declines and says that he’s convinced her that she and Dakota or Draco or Misty will crush this. Q then finally asks if the kid is his and she says no but did he want it to be? He admits that he would like to be a dad in the future but for now he is godfather to baby Kline.

As everyone else is passed out in the living room, there is a knock on the door and Julia opens it to find the herald of the East River dragon. He presents her with the rock artifact courtesy of his mistress. The man also relays a message to the former goddess that the magical creature wishes her good fortune and the recovery of her truth. She advises Jules not to accept her current circumstance and it would be best for her and all of their kind if she makes this stage she finds herself in temporary. Julia asks if the dragon has any advice on how to do that and he suggests that she look for The Binder.

THE MAGICIANS — “Home Improvement” Episode 408 — Pictured: Summer Bishil as Margo Hanson — (Photo by: Eric Milner/SYFY)

Final Thoughts

So Julia is not a goddess anymore but she’s going to be some kind of magical creature if the East River dragon considers her one of their kind.
I super love that Q wanted to name the dragon egg Falcor from The NeverEnding Story.
Excited to see what kind of twist happens in Fen’s storyline.
How many people have seen the Napster in their dreams? What is the larger scheme happening that all these individuals are having prophetic dreams?

The Magicians airs on Syfy Wednesdays at 9/8 central.

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THE RIGHT METHOD

HOW I WRITE A TREATMENT

The General Format for a Screenplay Treatment:

ACT BREAKS

GAME OF THRONES TREATMENT

TRANSCRIBED, IS A TREATMENT BY GEORGE R.R. MARTIN, WITH ORIGINALS POSTED JUST BELOW:

Try This: Write A Treatment

Review

DAN HARMON’S STORY CIRCLE

Part One: You

Part Two: Need

Part Three: Go

Part Four: Search

Part Five: Find

Part Six: Take

Part Seven: Return

Part Eight: Change

PROOF: RICK AND MORTY

DUALITY ON THE JOURNEY WITHIN

Parts 1,2,7,8 of the Story Circle:

Parts 3,4,5,6 of the Story Circle:

MORE HARMON THEORY

Try This: Craft A Story Circle

Review (Spoiler-Free)

The Monomyth

1. Ordinary World/Call to Adventure

2. Refusal of The Call

3. Meeting the Mentor/Supernatural Aid

4. Crossing the Threshold

5. Belly of the Whale

6. The Road Of Trials: Allies, Tests, and Enemies

7. Approach to The Inmost Cave/Meeting with The Goddess

8. Temptation

9. Atonement with The Father

10. Apostasis

11. The Ultimate Boon

12. Refusal of The Return

13. Magic Flight

14. Rescue from Without

15. Crossing the Return Threshold

16. Master of Two Worlds

17. Freedom to Live

Try This: Find a Monomythic Adventure

Show Notes:

Final Score: 8/10

PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES

PERSONALITY ATTRIBTUES

TRY THIS: Building Characters

TRY THIS: Intro to Dialogue

MAKE YOUR CHARACTERS MEMORABLE

TRY THIS: Introduce Your Character

ADVANCED LEVEL CHARACTER BUILDING (OPTIONAL)

TRY THIS: Advanced Level Character Writing – Answer the Questions to give your character even more depth

CHARACTER SHEET

TRY THIS: Character Sheet – Construct a character sheet for every character in your story. Answer the following questions.

REVIEW

RECAP

DIABLO’S WRATH

THE FUCKFACE FAMILY

THE FINAL SHOWDOWN

End of Season One

Show Notes:

WHY EMPATHY MATTERS

ARCHETYPES

Try This: Build an Archetypical Character

WANTS VERSUS NEED

Try This: Wants Versus Needs.

INDEPENDENCE

Try This: Making Independent Characters.

And we should all be furious.

Again, ODAAT is so much more than a comedy sitcom.

REVIEW

RECAP

THE GANG PREPARES FOR BATTLE

NEVER SAY I LOVE YOU

WILLIE FLIES AWAY LIKE PETER PAN.

LIN’S MISFORTUNE

Show Notes: