Weeds: The Archive

Our final TV show archive!  Thanks for putting up with me as I archive all these old posts.  The upside is that I didn’t take the summer off like I usually do. 

• The Ultimate Pilot Story Checklist: Weeds
• Straying from the Party Line: The Lack of a POV Character in Weeds (and Why Satire Must be Center-Cut)
• Rulebook Casefile: Potential Energy in the “Weeds” Pilot
• Storyteller’s Rulebook: Strong Metaphors Aren’t 1 to 1
• Storyteller's Rulebook: Know and Show the Bad Reasons
• Storyteller’s Rulebook: Great TV Heroes Should Be Self-Aware, But Not as Much as They Think They Are

Transparent: The Archive

A brilliant show.

• The Ultimate Pilot Story Checklist: Transparent
• Straying from the Party Line: Transparent and the New Reality of Streaming
• Rulebook Casefile: The Masterful Subtext of Transparent
• Storyteller's Rulebook: Let Words Belie Actions (But Make Sure We Notice)
• Storyteller’s Rulebook: Let the Listener Rewrite the Scene
• Rulebook Casefile: Showing Off a Spectrum of Moods in the “Transparent” Pilot

The Sopranos: The Archive

 Lots of good stuff here, especially the Masterful Weave breakdown.

• The Ultimate Pilot Checklist: The Sopranos
• Rulebook Casefile: The Masterful Weave of The Sopranos Pilot
• Rulebook Casefile: The Short-Lived Framing Sequence in the Sopranos Pilot
• Straying from the Party Line: Separating Plot and Character Scenes in the Sopranos Pilot
• Rulebook Casefile: Details from Life, from Research, and from Imagination in the Sopranos Pilot
• Storyteller’s Rulebook: Add Realism, But Don’t Subtract Unrealism
• The Hero Project #9: Freud and Jung and Tony and Don
• Hero Personality Profiles, Part 2: The Underappreciated
• Storyteller’s Rulebook #7: Movies Are About Change, TV is About Fate
• Storyteller’s Rulebook #41: Drama Is How It Is, Genre Is How It Feels
• Storyteller’s Rulebook #152: Give Every Hero a Part of Yourself

Scandal: The Archive

A great pilot that’s worth studying.

• The Ultimate Pilot Story Checklist: Scandal
• Rulebook Casefile: Swiftly Differentiating the Ensemble on “Scandal”
• Rulebook Casefile: Art vs. Entertainment in the “Scandal” Pilot
• Storyteller’s Rulebook: Use Ironic Set-Up and Pay-Off Dialogue
• Storyteller’s Rulebook: Hypocrisy Can Build Sympathy
• Straying from the Party Line: Overdoing the Ticking Clock in the “Scandal” Pilot
• Rulebook Casefile: The Effortless Moment of Humanity in the “Scandal” Pilot

Modern Family: The Archive

I had a lot to say about what this show does wrong and what it does right.

• The Ultimate Pilot Story Checklist: Modern Family
• Straying from the Party Line: The Failure to Bring Different Classes Together on Modern Family
• Storyteller’s Rulebook: Stay on the Edge of Edgy
• Rulebook Casefile: Backstory vs. Front Story on Modern Family
• Rulebook Casefile: Generating Empathy in Modern Family (as Opposed to Trophy Wife)
• Straying from the Party Line: Co-Equal Heroes in the Modern Family
• Rulebook Casefile: Concise Comedy in Modern Family
• Storyteller's Rulebook #129: Comedy Requires Pain
• The Ironic Statement of Theme on "Community"

Mad Men: The Archive

My all-time favorite show.  I miss it badly.

• The Ultimate TV Pilot Checklist: Mad Men
• Straying from the Party Line: “Mad Men”
• Rulebook Casefile: The Importance of Being Good at Your Job in “Mad Men”
• Rulebook Casefile: How “Mad Men” Creates Its Own Sense of Right and Wrong
• The Hero Project #9: Freud and Jung and Tony and Don
• Storyteller’s Rulebook #42: People Only Want What They Want
• Storyteller’s Rulebook #96: The Difference Between Literature and Entertainment
• How to Create a TV Show, Part 15: Establish the Philosophy And/Or Theme

How I Met Your Mother: The Archive

Yes, I wrote all these before the finale but I’d do it all over again because I thought the finale was brilliant, heartbreaking, honest TV.  If you hadn’t figured out the mom was dead years in advance I don’t even know what show you were watching.

• The Ultimate TV Pilot Checklist: How I Met Your Mother
• Straying From the Party Line: How I Met Your Mother
• Rulebook Casefile: The Vainglorious Moment of Humanity in “How I Met Your Mother”
• Rulebook Casefile: Unique Point of Entry in “How I Met Your Mother”
• Storyteller’s Rulebook #206: Have a Reversible Metaphor
• Finally: the Corrected Statement of Philosophy on "How I Met Your Mother"

Community: The Archive

How many of these people are starring in their own shows right now?  (I guess Joel McHale and Danny Pudi’s new shows just got cancelled, but Brie, Olver, Glover and Jacobs are going strong.)

• The Ultimate Pilot Story Checklist: Community
• Straying from the Party Line: Unambiguous Right and Wrong on “Community”
• Rulebook Casefile: The Framing Device (and Unsafe Space) on Community
• The Ironic Statement of Theme on "Community"

Cheers: The Archive

This was one of the first ones I did, back when I didn’t do as many posts about each one.  I should go back and add some more at some point.  There’s certainly no shortage of things to say about this great pilot.

• The Ultimate TV Pilot Checklist: Cheers
• Straying from the Party Line: Co-equal Heroes on “Cheers”
• Rulebook Casefile: Invoking National Pain on “Cheers”

CSI: The Archive

A fantastic pilot that launched three shows and at least two dozen seasons.

• The Ultimate Pilot Story Checklist: “CSI”
• Straying from the Party Line: The Lack of Decision Making Power on “CSI”
• Straying from the Party Line: Undifferentiated Philosophies on “CSI”
• Rulebook Casefile: Dramatic Questions on “CSI”
• Rulebook Casefile: The Disposable POV Character on “CSI”

Breaking Bad: The Archive

I’ve had a lot to say about this show over the years, partially because it was I was blogging almost the whole time it was on.

• The Ultimate Pilot Checklist: Breaking Bad
• Straying from the Party Line: The Lack of Hard Choices in “Breaking Bad”
• Straying from the Party Line: Sacrificing the Other Characters In Favor of the Lead in “Breaking Bad”
• Storytellers Rulebook: Save Your Flashforwards For Stories With (Initially) Passive Heroes
• How to Build a Scene: Evaluating every scene in one episode of Breaking Bad
• How to Build a Scene, Epilogue: Mix and Match
• Storyteller's Rulebook #126: Some Scenes are More Ambitious Than Others (Further evaluating every scene from that episode)
• Rulebook Casefile: Empathy Lost and Regained on “Breaking Bad”
• Rulebook Casefile: Everything and the Kitchen Sink in the “Breaking Bad” Pilot Script
• Storyteller's Rulebook #124: Every Scene is a Mini-Movie

24: The Archive

No, I’m not going to update these TV checklists, just archive the posts, if that’s okay.  Can we all pretend the most recent season of this show never happened?  Good!

• The Ultimate TV Pilot Checklist: 24
• Straying From the Party Line: 24
• How to Create a TV Show, Addendum: Create Sparks
• Rulebook Casefile: Character Descriptions in the “24” Pilot Script
• Rulebook Casefile: Predicting National Pain in “24”
• Storyteller’s Rulebook Follow-Up: A Hero Split In Two
• How to Alienate An Audience, Part 4: The Hero Agrees with Everybody

Film School Confidential: The Archive

Don’t go to Film School, folks!  There’s a fair amount of anti-MFA stuff in the book, but there used to be a lot more before we slimmed the autobiographical element.  Here it is in all its gory glory.  Feel my rage!

• Film School Confidential, Part 1: A Confession
• Film School Confidential, Part 2: It’s Worse than Nothing
• Film School Confidential, Part 3: It Feeds Your Worst Instincts
• Film School Confidential, Part 4: You're The Whale
• Film School Confidential, Conclusion: Instead of Film School, Listen to the Crickets

Mackendrick's Rules: The Archive

Writer-director Alexander Mackendrick made underrated movies such as The Man in the White Suit, then became a revered film professor and published a great book called “On Filmmaking.” Commenter J.S. found a list of 41 Mackendrick truisms online, so I spent a few days discussing how those excellent rules lined up with my own advice... 

• Mackendrick's Rules, Part 1: Rules 1-10
• Mackendrick's Rules, Part 2: Rules 11-21
• Mackendrick's Rules, Part 3: Rules 22-31
• Mackendrick's Rules, Part 4: Rules 32-41

Beyond Good Vs. Sucky: The Archive

This was my very first attempt to break down writing into different categories and give a list of advice on each.  Still lots of good stuff here.

• Storyteller's Rulebook: Beyond Good vs. Sucky
• Beyond Good vs. Sucky, Part 2: Character
• Beyond Good vs. Sucky, Part 3: Story
• Beyond Good vs. Sucky, Part 4: Structure
• Beyond Good Vs. Sucky, Part 5: Dialogue
• Beyond Good vs. Sucky, the Conclusion: Theme
• Beyond Good vs. Sucky, Epilogue