The Lady with the Books
Nov. 21st, 2010 10:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwaevalarinI met with a few friends yesterday and somehow we decided that we should just write the next big hit tv show. I swear there wasn't a drop of alcohol involved. We figured that we just had to throw everything together that makes a show good and/or successful, both character and storyline wise, and add a mystery to hold it together. Easy. Here's what we came up with:
The Characters
We have three main characters at the center of the story.
Our female lead is a librarian. She's known as the Lady with the Books (LwtB). She owns a library with a little café where everyone meets up at least once per episode and where all the storylines run together. She is very inconspicuous at first glance. Hair usually worn in a bun, no make-up, plain clothes. Just a nice and quiet girl. But if you look closely you figure out quickly that she's equally smart and beautiful.
No one knows her real name. She's just the Lady with the Books to everyone which is also the name of the show.
Our first male lead is a doctor at the nearby hospital. He's the good looking charming and just overall nice guy whose does everything to help people and make their lives better. He also owns a dog, just because.
The second male lead is an FBI agent. He's incredibly smart but a little odd and dealing with people is not exactly his strong point. We later decided that he's going to be played by Misha and that once in a while we'll just let Misha write his own storylines and dialogues. And since our show will air on HBO we can just let him run wild.
Of course we also have a bunch of amazing supporting characters:
Our most important supporting character is LwtB's gay best friend. He's psychic, which means he gets visions and is telepathic. He also has a direct psychic link to the bad guy of the show and is in constant danger because our bad guy is after him and other psychics like him.
Said bad guy is played by Mark Sheppard, naturally. He's the owner of the big department store across the street from the library. He's a very likable and charismatic and no one knows that he is the bad guy. The only clue comes from LwtB's cat who is friendly to everyone but always hisses at him. The reason he is after psychic's like LwtB's gay best friend is that his parents where killed by a psychic gone rogue and he wants revenge and actually believes he'll save the world from all the evil psychics out there.
The blond model-type girl is our comic relief (no, we're not afraid of clichés, why do you ask?). Mainly she's just annoying. She's also the one who gave LwtB her 'name' because somehow she just doesn't manage to properly pronounce 'librarian'. She also speaks with such an extreme Southern drawl that the other characters don't understand her half of the time.
The FBI agents female partner is a very tough and feisty girl who is not afraid to tell you her opinion but once you've learned to accept her the way she is, she's a very loyal and trustworthy friend and ally.
For the teenage fangirls we have LwtB's nephew. Mainly he gets into trouble a lot.
And because we decided that every good show needs a pirate we added a secret informant for our FBI agent. He's a piraty guy with a wooden leg and a parrot on his shoulders. Everything he ever says is "Arrrr!" which of course is not very convenient in an informant. The clue is that in reality the parrot is the informant and pirate guy himself doesn't know anything about anything. Or does he? It may turn out later that pirate guy is actually Bad Guy's spy.
The Episodes
In the pilot our FBI agent getting injured and being admitted to the hospital where our doctor works. That's how they meet, become friends and the whole thing starts.
In later episodes we will jump from genre to genre. Every episode focuses on one of our main characters. We'll have hospital show episodes, crime show episodes, horror episodes, mystery show episodes, family drama episodes, episodes with different genres mixed together... you get the idea. There's something in it for everyone.
As stated before, the show will air on HBO and all episodes - aside from the parts Misha comes up with - will be written by Ben Edlund.
The Mytharc
Obviously we need something to hold the storyline together.
Our biggest mystery is the true identity of LwtB. There will be some mysterious family secret and we will reveal bits and pieces as we go along. In the course of the show you will get little hints on why she has to keep her real name a secret at all costs and what will happen if anyone ever found it.
Every episode will have a very dark, mysterious scene where our bad guy (still played by Mark Sheppard) stands in front of a a large chart in the basement of his department store. There are tons of pictures and news snippets and arrows and writing. In the centre of the chart you'll find pictures of our main characters and there'll always be something from the current episode as well. This is the second big mystery that will keep you guessing about our bad guy's master plan. But don't worry, we will reveal it. We're thinking around episode 400 because we're optimistic that we'll have figured out what we want it to be by then.
If we ever get canceled - you never know. Networks can just be stupid enough to do something like this - we only have to know one episode in advance to wrap everything up. Pretty genius, isn't it?
WHAT FOLLOWS NOW IS A MAJOR SPOILER. DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU.
In the very last episode LwtB will hear someone say here true name. Everything fades to white and... LwtB wakes up in a hospital bed to find out that all the mysteries, adventures and dramatic storyline have been nothing more than coma induced dreams. And every major character from that dream is someone working in the hospital. The doctor is obviously still a doctor. The FBI agent is really the hospital's janitor and so on.
But don't worry. This doesn't have to be the end. When the fans complain and start campaigns to save the show - and we all know that they will and that they won't stop until the network agrees to bring us back - we'll just do a u-turn and reveal that the 'real world' LwtB woke up to is a hallucination induced by our bad guy to make her think that the actual real world - the world of our show up to the last episode - is just a dream. That's the sort of power Bad Guy now has over her knowing her real name and all. Naturally, our doctor and FBI agent will have to convince her again that they are real and that she is in danger. We'll make sure to have the audience so confused by that point that they have no idea what's really going on any more. That makes things really easy for us because now we can get away with everything and claim that the average viewer is just too stupid to follow our genius, well thought through storyline. And then we'll add a few polar bears here and there, just for good measure.
You can see, this is clearly going to be the best and most successful show ever. :p
The Characters
We have three main characters at the center of the story.
Our female lead is a librarian. She's known as the Lady with the Books (LwtB). She owns a library with a little café where everyone meets up at least once per episode and where all the storylines run together. She is very inconspicuous at first glance. Hair usually worn in a bun, no make-up, plain clothes. Just a nice and quiet girl. But if you look closely you figure out quickly that she's equally smart and beautiful.
No one knows her real name. She's just the Lady with the Books to everyone which is also the name of the show.
Our first male lead is a doctor at the nearby hospital. He's the good looking charming and just overall nice guy whose does everything to help people and make their lives better. He also owns a dog, just because.
The second male lead is an FBI agent. He's incredibly smart but a little odd and dealing with people is not exactly his strong point. We later decided that he's going to be played by Misha and that once in a while we'll just let Misha write his own storylines and dialogues. And since our show will air on HBO we can just let him run wild.
Of course we also have a bunch of amazing supporting characters:
Our most important supporting character is LwtB's gay best friend. He's psychic, which means he gets visions and is telepathic. He also has a direct psychic link to the bad guy of the show and is in constant danger because our bad guy is after him and other psychics like him.
Said bad guy is played by Mark Sheppard, naturally. He's the owner of the big department store across the street from the library. He's a very likable and charismatic and no one knows that he is the bad guy. The only clue comes from LwtB's cat who is friendly to everyone but always hisses at him. The reason he is after psychic's like LwtB's gay best friend is that his parents where killed by a psychic gone rogue and he wants revenge and actually believes he'll save the world from all the evil psychics out there.
The blond model-type girl is our comic relief (no, we're not afraid of clichés, why do you ask?). Mainly she's just annoying. She's also the one who gave LwtB her 'name' because somehow she just doesn't manage to properly pronounce 'librarian'. She also speaks with such an extreme Southern drawl that the other characters don't understand her half of the time.
The FBI agents female partner is a very tough and feisty girl who is not afraid to tell you her opinion but once you've learned to accept her the way she is, she's a very loyal and trustworthy friend and ally.
For the teenage fangirls we have LwtB's nephew. Mainly he gets into trouble a lot.
And because we decided that every good show needs a pirate we added a secret informant for our FBI agent. He's a piraty guy with a wooden leg and a parrot on his shoulders. Everything he ever says is "Arrrr!" which of course is not very convenient in an informant. The clue is that in reality the parrot is the informant and pirate guy himself doesn't know anything about anything. Or does he? It may turn out later that pirate guy is actually Bad Guy's spy.
The Episodes
In the pilot our FBI agent getting injured and being admitted to the hospital where our doctor works. That's how they meet, become friends and the whole thing starts.
In later episodes we will jump from genre to genre. Every episode focuses on one of our main characters. We'll have hospital show episodes, crime show episodes, horror episodes, mystery show episodes, family drama episodes, episodes with different genres mixed together... you get the idea. There's something in it for everyone.
As stated before, the show will air on HBO and all episodes - aside from the parts Misha comes up with - will be written by Ben Edlund.
The Mytharc
Obviously we need something to hold the storyline together.
Our biggest mystery is the true identity of LwtB. There will be some mysterious family secret and we will reveal bits and pieces as we go along. In the course of the show you will get little hints on why she has to keep her real name a secret at all costs and what will happen if anyone ever found it.
Every episode will have a very dark, mysterious scene where our bad guy (still played by Mark Sheppard) stands in front of a a large chart in the basement of his department store. There are tons of pictures and news snippets and arrows and writing. In the centre of the chart you'll find pictures of our main characters and there'll always be something from the current episode as well. This is the second big mystery that will keep you guessing about our bad guy's master plan. But don't worry, we will reveal it. We're thinking around episode 400 because we're optimistic that we'll have figured out what we want it to be by then.
If we ever get canceled - you never know. Networks can just be stupid enough to do something like this - we only have to know one episode in advance to wrap everything up. Pretty genius, isn't it?
WHAT FOLLOWS NOW IS A MAJOR SPOILER. DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU.
In the very last episode LwtB will hear someone say here true name. Everything fades to white and... LwtB wakes up in a hospital bed to find out that all the mysteries, adventures and dramatic storyline have been nothing more than coma induced dreams. And every major character from that dream is someone working in the hospital. The doctor is obviously still a doctor. The FBI agent is really the hospital's janitor and so on.
But don't worry. This doesn't have to be the end. When the fans complain and start campaigns to save the show - and we all know that they will and that they won't stop until the network agrees to bring us back - we'll just do a u-turn and reveal that the 'real world' LwtB woke up to is a hallucination induced by our bad guy to make her think that the actual real world - the world of our show up to the last episode - is just a dream. That's the sort of power Bad Guy now has over her knowing her real name and all. Naturally, our doctor and FBI agent will have to convince her again that they are real and that she is in danger. We'll make sure to have the audience so confused by that point that they have no idea what's really going on any more. That makes things really easy for us because now we can get away with everything and claim that the average viewer is just too stupid to follow our genius, well thought through storyline. And then we'll add a few polar bears here and there, just for good measure.
You can see, this is clearly going to be the best and most successful show ever. :p
