questions one should ask themselves
about writing a TV show okay there's
nine questions I always ask when I'm
first talking to some other TV show
first of all what Stevie do gives us a
great world we need a great world
because we're gonna be in it for 150
episodes right so what's a great world
right I would do an exercise where I say
to you you give me a great world and
don't tell me it's New York City I want
to know a specific neighborhood of New
York City what's the great world because
great television is always about a great
world now if you want to talk about New
York then give me a specific world and
like there's a show called billions and
this show is brilliantly written it's
probably the best television out there
right now and it's all about
billionaires how they make their money
and how they live their fascinating
lives right another fascinating world
the assassination of Gianni Versace that
was a world of Versace fashion world in
Miami and then this guy who became a
serial killer his world and never seen
it before so carbon black is this really
cool sci-fi show it's about a cool to
the future where people can change
bodies right so they have sleeves they
call it so your world you want to ask
yourself what is the world of your show
Atlanta is probably the coolest show on
television right now and it's all about
this african-american milieu of middle
class lower middle class Atlanta and
this sort of slacker guy in it and how
he's gonna survive in this slacker world
never seen it before stranger things
that's the world of the 80s and that's
big nostalgia for kids that are twenty
thirty right now people on their bikes
without helmets not the television sets
that were tubes with rabbit ears so the
world there is absolutely about the
nostalgia yeah so big question what's
your world that's what we want to see
fantasy continues to be big I hate it
but zombie is a world that just
continues to be true True Blood vampires
romance continues to be good black
comedy world of shame
was quite trash so worlds are
extraordinarily important in your show
the next question I ask is do you have a
do you have a theme that matters what do
you want to say about the world in your
television show for instance a Oh like a
Sons of Anarchy which is a great world
the world of motorcycles show the theme
is if you have a bad mom or dad you're
gonna be screwed you need to have a good
parent you need to be mentored well he's
not and that means the entire show is
about how the hero of the show fails
because he doesn't have a good mom and
dad his dad's dead
his mom's horrible and and so this truth
about life is often what hipsters ignore
when they're writing a story the way I
want to write this story I call it the
Whedon speed it's gonna be a sort of
motorcycles and violence and razor
blades and people smokings crack and rap
and I'm like okay great
ten minutes I love it then what's the
truth about life you're saying sons of
anarchy Kurt Sutter's brilliant writer
why because he's got a theme that this
harrow hero who drives a motorcycle
who's tough who does all the things that
you're saying you want to see the
violence the sex the motorcycles all
that stuff but every episode is about
this guy struggling with the fact he
doesn't have a dad what how do I live my
life without a dad or a mom and he never
figures it out and he's screwed because
it was so theme answers the question in
orange is the new black which is a
brilliant show what's the theme will you
better know yourself piper can't doesn't
know if she likes girls or boys and the
whole show is about hood or like guys
don't like girls I don't know Who am I I
don't know you tell me who I am so
that's a great theme too so Downton
Abbey has a theme which is that the
lower-class is rising and we have to
understand how it's rising that's the
theme of every episode of Downton Abbey
okay so
theme is in a struggle in the wire which
is probably the most the
lecture halls a wet dream of a show the
wire David Simon in his story Bible and
that's something you should also have
when you're pitching a story his message
is this this story I must read this
because this is in the front page of the
story Bible this story is about the
human condition about it's not just a
police show it's a show about how we
have taken the urban underclass and have
jailed them and tormented them and
turned them apart in our stupid drug war
ok
that's his theme and it's a social theme
and that motivates every every one of
those episodes so if you don't have that
and it works even in a sitcom you're not
going to have a show that works so what
are you passionate what do you believe
in I asked my students is sometimes what
do you believe in like I don't know I
mean that's not important I'm gonna
write a hip story no you're not you're
gonna bore us the next question is why
do we want to watch the show every week
ok every week we got to watch a show 100
episodes so you need a great question
right and Breaking Bad what's the great
hook question every week how Bad's
whilst you're gonna break what's he
gonna do this week oh god he's gonna be
even worse ok
making a murderer Hey did did he do it
or not that's pretty good question now
every week we get that orange is a new
black
it's probably ever gonna figure out if
statics girls are boys no she's not
gonna so but this question continues
it's the hook it's the great question of
the show mr. robot can Elliot take down
the big corporation ok Game of Thrones
which family is gonna win every episode
is about that right and what's the theme
of Game of Thrones by the way it's kind
of important the theme is do you have to
be evil to be a great leader
ok that's the whole question for every
episode right so that's an important
question ok so the next one is genre
let's not go into that because I teach
that it's a structural thing but you
need to stick in your genre what pair
sir your show like in television if
you're gonna write a TV show you got to
ask yourself what are the parents of the
show who watch shows are like this that
you've seen before him and my hip
students I was gonna have here I don't
want ever my shows like nothing else
ever on it's like okay well then it's
not going to go it's not going to get on
even if you want it to be completely
different from everything we need to
understand what you're reacting to what
did you hate okay you gotta have parents
for the show and it'll help you build
your show if you do okay so then the
next question and this is super
important is how do I say it what is the
question that torments the hero forever
that will never be resolved
what's the unsolvable dilemma for the
hero that will never ever be solved and
that is in Mad Men it's I am unlovable
and the things I do to make myself
lovable make me so uncomfortable that I
run away Don Draper seduces woman after
woman after woman in that band but every
time they fall in love with him they
always do he runs away because he hasn't
stopped his basic dilemma which is I'm
unlovable okay so that is the unsolvable
dilemma okay even in Buffy the Vampire
Slayer it's I just want to be alpha
and be in high school and be
popular no you're a vampire I don't want
to be a vampire so 150 episodes of that
unsolvable dilemma okay brat Breaking
Bad waltz dying he's gotta take care of
his family how does he do it
he's becomes a drug dealer and destroys
his family so the thing that makes him
want to take care of his family the way
he does it destroys his family okay
true detective rust vs. rust knows the
world is meaningless Marty believes
there's a lot of meaning in the
world how do they resolve that well they
do in the end because remember it's a
miniseries it's like a movie so in the
end they do both believe the world is a
great place but that's not classic TV
okay so will Walt protect his family
destroy it will rust you how can good
prevail in a world that's run by the
strongest that's Game of Thrones how can
we have a world where there's a good
leader when it's the worst people who
always win
right unsolvable dilemma maybe in the
end you know the two people with the
IKEA rugs on their back they're gonna
learn but but for the whole seven eight
years they don't have it so what is the
irreconcilable conflict in your show
what is the dilemma that will never be
resolved that that that will keep people
coming back and obviously that has to do
with their core wounds so the next
question is what's the big core wound in
your hero how does that work in your
television show and there's many
different ones and and and it's always
about that unreconciled ulema madman I'm
unlovable a Tyrion in Game of Thrones
I'm unlovable everything he does is
because of that Walter's is I'm weak and
my father you say never corn or a weak
man dad the old adult sir not to be
really strong Wade and Deadpool by the
way because this is true also and movies
on ugly a Randall in this is us which is
a great serial show you haven't talked
much but Randall is I'm not part of this
family right my skin color Zimmerman not
really part of the run Pete and Sneaky
Pete I'm not part of a family great
Corwin Jessica Jones and Jessica Jones
I'm not safe this villain can get me
he'll always get me so core wounds are
the nuclear reactors of your show they
really are and they have to Daenerys his
core wound in game of thrones' I'm
powerless and we see the entire first
season for dinner she starts out as this
little sex slave for her brother she's
given to this warrior as a sex object by
the end of the season she's walked
through fire and hatched dragon eggs
so her powerlessness is beginning to go
away
but it will continue through the entire
run of Game of Thrones I'm powerless is
she getting powerful she's beginning to
but that'll take a long time so these
are just the beginnings of the questions
that I would ask there's many others but
this is a start when you're writing
television and they are different from
film but those those start when I would
start talking to someone about their TV
show these are the questions I would ask
them at the beginning
you