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Day 11 Assignments
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Jack Young’s Creating Irony!
What I learned doing this assignment is that sometimes we can choose directions to go with our characters that creates relationships that have little or no conflict. By reviewing our choices and choosing more “conflict creating” relationships, we can create more tension in our story and make it more riveting to the viewer.
ASSIGNMENT 1: Example Show
Watch the next episode of your Example Show and notice where irony shows up in this show — both in this episode and throughout the episodes you’ve already seen.
The irony that I discovered in the Example Show (American Horror Show, Season 10):
– Isn’t the theme of the show a bit ironic? Those of us with talent reap the benefits and those without talent fight over the scraps. However, there is a pricetag for having talent. It doesn’t come for free.
– Ironic that vampires enjoy Karaoki or find the time in their bloodsucking day.
– Ironic that the same little black pill that creates genius also gives us a thirst for blood.
– Ironic that the sweet little daughter turns out to be the most bloodthirsty of the lot.
– Wasn’t ironic that the wife turned out to be the least talented in the family. Would’ve been more ironic if she had turned out to be the MOST talented and turned on them.
ASSIGNMENT 2:
My Show (Stream)
The following are situations or character components that you could go opposite to create irony:
1. Michael’s stock broker friend
2. Michael’s relationship with brother.
3. Michael’s relationship with wife (Diane)
4. Michael’s relationship with his father. In previous version of the story, his father was just saddened by the suicide of his brother.
5. The Professor’s motivation
6. Diane gets a taste of the Stream
7. The “Ocean of Souls”.
8. Cronus’s and his relationship with humans.
9. Cronus’s concubine.
10. Thomas, the engineer.
11. The Alchemist/sorcerer from the 15th century.
12. The “Aliens”
13. The Ocean of Souls
14. Davidson, is a human captive.
15. Josh Manning, FBI agent.
16. Marcus works in the lumber/steel mills near the black forest.
Opposite Brainstorming:.
1. Michael’s stock broker friend throws him under the bus
2. Make Michael’s relationship with brother more complex and have Michael more involved in his death.
3. Make the relationship with Michael’s wife more complex and unpredictable
4. Michael’s relationship with his father is changed whereas his father holds him responsible for his brother’s overdose.
5. Make the Professor more unpredictable and some personal motivations get revealed
6. When Diane is told about the Stream, she doesn’t believe any of it and wants to it see for herself.
7. The Ocean of Souls appears to be Heaven, but instead is a cage for the human soul.
8. Cronus’s relationship with humans is complicated.
9. Cronus’s concubine is a female human that Cronus took from the human workers as a teenager. In the original story she serves Cronus. Consider changing to make her relationship with Cronus more complex. She realizes that she is Cronus’s weakness and is able to manipulate him. She is also able to influence his decisions towards the other humans (sparing their lives and influencing the type of skins they are put in). She has a major role in the story when Michael meets her. She plays both sides and walks a fine line in betraying both humans and Cronus.
10. Thomas, our resident technical genius from MIT (Who designs all of the professor’s inventions and devices) ends up being shot and killed during the part of the story where he and Diane are attempting to preserve Michael’s body and allude the police.
11. The Alchemist/sorcerer from the 15th century. The Alchemist turns out to be one of a contributor’s to the onset of the Dark Ages. An agent of darkness and evil, he resides in a monastery where he is pursuing the dark arts and has found a way to encapsulate souls of his victims into creatures that do his bidding. When a local lord sends his sons and army to vanquish him, they find he is no mortal human, but a creation of his own making. When he is finally defeated, he is cast into the void that leads to the city of seals prior in the empire of Cronus. The aliens find parts of the sorcerer and reassemble him. Later, he becomes Cronus’s advisor and a connection to the evil that lies beneath the seals.
12. The “Aliens” arrive a hundred years before the birth of Cronus. They arrive on the planet to investigate an unusual emanation of power from the seals (That are buried at this time). As they investigate the power source, they discover unusual features and writings on the seals that causes them to immediately try and evacuate. They discover that they can’t escape and are trapped on the planet. Later (Years-decades) one of the human specimens is impregnated by one of the aliens. Cronus (A hybrid alien/human) is born.
13. The Ocean of Souls is a temporary holding where new souls go when they arrive on the planet. This was created by Cronus and the sorcerer. What Cronus doesn’t realize is the power that resides within the Ocean of Souls…and ALL of it…is bad for him. Michael, at the end of the season, will come to understand the power of the Ocean of Souls and how he could use it to destroy Cronus.
14. Davidson, is a human captive (called an “Old Skin” because he still has his original human skin) who is an informant on the humans, reporting directly to Cronus. Davidson tries to get out of the informant business by pleading with Cronus that everyone knows his face. Ironically, Cronus’s solution is to kill Davidson and re-skin him with an artificial skin. The process is painful.
15. Josh Manning, FBI agent, was one of the agencies that the professor contacted when he had figured out what was causing the No-Birth crisis. Of course, they thought the professor was wacko. Now, when the strange death of Michael crosses state lines, and the professor’s name comes up, they discover data that shows that the professor was working a method to disconnect the human soul from the body.
16. Marcus is the father of Cronus’s concubine. Marcus is the leader of a secret militant group against Cronus. It is not obvious if Marcus is using her as an informant on Cronus.
Ones that work well for the show:
1. Michael’s stockbroker friend throws him under the bus by turning witness against Michael when he’s arrested for insider-trading charges.
2. Michael’s relationship with his dead brother. Originally, the relationship was straight forward with his brother. He loved his brother but couldn’t save him from the horror of war. His brother killed himself. This was brainstormed and changed so that Michael was more involved with his brother and may have helped him get the drugs that he OD’d on. It’s ironic that his family holds him responsible for the death of a brother that he loved so much and did so much for.
3. Michael’s wife is a stay at home mom but in the progress of the story, she makes decisions that have us giving her a second-serious look. She takes charge of keeping Michael’s body preserved so he can return and even volunteers to test the professor’s new procedure for astral traveling to the planet and the Ocean of Souls to search for Michael.
4. Situations between Michael and his father become more intense and dramatic because his father blames him for Johnny’s suicide. Michael begins to believe the story that he’s responsible.
5. Professor Darlington’s motivations – We added some secrets and past events to the Professor’s past that will cause him to act irrational. The Professor lost his wife years earlier and is using his research and knowledge of souls to find his wife once again.
6. Be careful what you ask for, Diane. When Diane is taken into the astral plane to see the Stream, she gets too close and a passing soul (An old man) latches onto her, pulling her into the stream. The others must come to her rescue to pull her out.
7. The Ocean of Souls was a new development and becomes a holding tank for souls when they are initially taken from Earth. This is where the Professor finds his wife, who believes she is in Heaven. How ironic it is that when the Professor figures out all the technical complications of disconnecting the soul from the body to chase his wife to Heaven, he ends up in a fabricated world (Ocean of Souls) at a party his wife has thrown where the song “I’m in Heaven” is playing.
8. Cronus despises humans, but yet keeps human concubines because he’s infatuated by female humans.
9. Cronus’s concubine becomes integral to the story because of her closeness to Cronus.
10. Thomas, the engineer, by being killed (and ironically sent into the astral plane) ends up in the Ocean of Souls and on the planet as a result of this, making him more integral to the story, and a possible ally to Michael.
11. The Alchemist. This can work well for the story line. The Alchemist is searching for the same thing as the professor; a way to disconnect the soul from the human body and create servants to do his bidding as well as a possible weapon. The Alchemist becomes the main engineer behind Cronus’s devices and machines (The Stream) that are capable of capturing and transporting the human soul.
12. The “Aliens” changes to the story shows the irony of how one powerful species suddenly becomes the prey and the springboard for a new and evil species.
13. The Ocean of Souls (a very new addition to the story that materialized during the digging into the layers) ties in an interesting layer to my story and adds a new world where characters can interface.
14. Davidson, the traitor/informant, adds more suspense as he tries to thwart Michael’s mission. I suspect that Davidson may redeem himself at some point.
15. Josh Manning, FBI agent, creates additional tension as he pursues the Professor, believing that he may have unleashed a deadly virus on mankind.
16. Marcus will recruit Michael to help lead the skins against Cronus. When Cronus gets word that Marcus may be the key to finding Michael (By this time, Michael has become a threat to Cronus) Cronus cuts a deal with Marcus to free his daughter (The concubine) in exchange for Michael. Marcus will betray Michael and put the coup against Cronus.
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This reply was modified 2 years, 7 months ago by Jack Young.
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This reply was modified 2 years, 7 months ago by
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Cathryn Atkinson Creating Irony!
What I learned doing this assignment is how irony, like twists, are attractive to viewers minds and keep them following a story.
ASSIGNMENT 1: MR ROBOT
Irony in season two, episode one:
Elliot the protagonist is working with Wellick the antagonist to bring down Evilcorp.
Elliot wants to save the world and Wellick only cares about himself.
Elliot reverts to Mr Robot internally, when his father was an abusive person.
Elliot is back at his mother’s, who abused him, to keep safe and on track – “She’s the strictest person I know”. Better the devil you know.
The hacker is without a computer – he tries to keep his life in a day-to-day loop of repetition.
The revolutionary is journalling as the economy is collapsing, and tech is failing across the country.
A Smart House is stupid.
Darlene uses a rich person’s house to hide out as a revolutionary.ASSIGNMENT 2: RUN ANGELITA
Ironic situations that work well for the show.
Situational irony
1) Cartel money siphoned by Moneda via Luis comes from violence, drugs, is used to build lives after it is stolen.
2) The warden of the migrant youth detention centre Mac is meant to guard migrant children and teens, but instead he watches them for the cartel and gets pulled into helping Moneda track Angelita.
3) The migrant system is meant to keep America secure, but fails on many levels by rewarding violence, putting pressure on the desperate.
4) The US government fears the cost of the migrants but spends billions on a carceral system, and doesn’t change foreign policies and relationships with dictators and corrupt governments that lead to people fleeing their homes for the “peace and freedom” of America.Character irony
1) Spoiled rich kid Angelita ends up a migrant with the people whose lives have been made harder because of the actions of the cartel.
– When she gets money, she decides to help them.
3) Dario is told to find Angelita and kill her, but he wants to rescue and protect her.
4) Ambitious Veronica writes Angelita and Chance’s story in an attempt at getting out of her dead-end town to a national journalism job, and then becomes part of the story.
5) Angelita and Chance drive across America to find the safety of Angelita’s mother, but when they get there Angelita finds out it is the most dangerous place.
7) Angelita tries to connect with her BFF back home. BFF betrays her to the cartel. -
George Petersen CREATING IRONY!
What I learned doing this assignment is creating irony can be fun
Ferrandini the bloodthirsty Assassin who dreams of being the one to tear the President’s beating heart out of his chest is also a gentle, tender lover in bed
Ferrandini the caring barber will just as soon cut your throat if he finds out you’re a Yank
Franklin the spy posing as a Ruthless, Cutthroat Businessman is also Pinkerton the devoted family man who is the father of two sons
Miss Dixie the spy posing as a firecracker socialite is also Kate, a shy widow who pines for her lost husband
The lucky one to draw the red ballot will be the one to kill the President, unaware that seven others are just as lucky, having also drawn red ballots
Kate agrees to a wedding date the day after the assassination, knowing full well that she will be in Washington with the President at that time
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Assignment #11:
Paula’s Creating Irony
What I learned doing this assignment is that irony is necessary to a really interesting and bingeworthy script. The Gossip Girl episode #9 is packed with irony and exposes the hypocrisy behind many nuclear families. In my show, I was surprised to find there were so many ironic situations and characters, but it was difficult to decide which were priorities for moving the show forward.
Assignment 1: Irony in ‘Gossip Girl’, Season 1, Episode 9
Irony shows up in a myriad of ways in the entire series, and especially in this episode, where the whole American idea of Thanksgiving is turned on its ear.
In three families, rather than togetherness, there is divisiveness, rather than joy there is sorrow, and rather than love, there is jealousy and competition.
This shows in Dan’s family, when Lilly, Rafael’s former girlfriend, shows up at the dinner where his wife is; none of the three have told their children about the old affair nor about the rivalry between Lilly and Allison. The kids are shocked at the revelation, and rather than sit at the table, leave to go eat dinner elsewhere.
Another irony is that Serena’s younger brother Joe, who was in a mental hospital after a suicide attempt, now looks truly happy sitting with his family, seemingly relieved that the family’s secrets have finally been revealed.
In Nate’s family, Nate finds his father unconscious on Thanksgiving, and he has to be rushed to the hospital after consuming alcohol and pills. Nate and his mother argue, and Nate spends Thanksgiving telling his father he needs to get help, while he is recovering in the hospital. Another irony about this family is that the kid is more insightful and responsible than the parents. He sees his father’s frustration because his rich wife provides everything for him and basically emasculates him.
And he sees how his father escapes from any responsibility for his bad habits, even blaming the stash of coke on his son.
The third family disaster on Thanksgiving is Blair’s. Her socialite mother hadn’t told her that her father wasn’t coming to dinner until the actual dinner, and Blair got so upset that she left the table and gorged on pie, called Serena to rescue her and also went out. Another irony in the family at the holiday is that the mother always posed as a social butterfly, inviting many people for the dinner, but in the end, is alone in her kitchen holding divorce papers from her husband, who has run off with a young man.
The last irony shown in the episode is revealed in the flashbacks to the previous Thanksgiving, where the families were actually together and seemed like they were celebrating a traditional Thanksgiving; but when we compare the two years, we see that in the former one, each family member was harboring secrets and resentments, and they only seemed to be having a pleasant time. The second one was a lot more painful for the members, but also a lot more real.
Assignment 2:
20 Examples of Irony in My Show.
1). One is that Tess seems to be a hard-boiled and stoic FBI agent, but that she falls hard for Tony, which leads her to behave opposite to what she normally does, and indeed, may end up with her destroying herself and getting fired.
2). John seems to be best friends with Tony with no ulterior motive, a very passive follower, but we find out that he really wants more power in the ring and also wants Tony. (sexual preference)
3). Tony pretends to like Tess, which is an unlikely choice of love interest for him, but Tess finds this beguiling and thinks he is sincere. He’s only doing it so he can manipulate her and make more money.
*4). Tony is a dangerous man who carries a gun and gets violent, but Tess refuses to see this as she is blinded by her attraction to him. She may be in danger herself. This is ironic because she has carried a gun throughout her entire career and should know danger when she sees it.
5). Bianca seems like a brainless woman, obsessed with her appearance and gossip, but she is really a savvy thief who is ripping off the company she represents. All her friends know it, as they profit from it too.
*6). Tony is on the surface this heartless thug dealer, but his main interest is to get back to his mother in the Dominican Republic. He is a good son who consistently sends her money.
7). Tess hides the fact that she is married, because she wants to end up with Tony.
8). Randy, Tess’ husband seems to totally take her for granted and is passionless with her until he finds out about Tony, and then gets possessive and jealous.
*9). Tess seems to be laser-focused on getting a promotion and pleasing her boss, but as her involvement with the gang progresses, she cares less and less about that, even leans or at least thinks about sabotaging the entire raid.
10). Bianca presents herself as a beautiful, exotic woman, but without the make up and bling and tight clothes, she is an aging, plain looking 30-something.
11). Bianca ridicules Tess because of her appearance, and style, but she is secretly afraid that she will win Tony with her intelligence and business-savvy.
*12). John seems like a meek guy who doesn’t have any issue with Tess. But as the story progresses, we see a great rivalry developing there, and he viciously gossips about her, to try to jockey for position with Tony.
13). John is a coward, but he fantasizes about taking over the drug ring, deposing Tony, but he doesn’t have the backbone to do it.
*14). A tutor for high school students is a far cry from being an FBI agent or a criminal.
15). John’s cover is Tony’s follower and best friend, but he hides his sexual obsession and need for him in a different way!
*16). Kids’ families see Tess as a good influence, when she turns out to be a part of the drug ring and a saboteur.
17). There is little communication between Randy and Tess, until Tess starts to behave abnormally, changes her pattern of being a passive wife.
*18). In the beginning, Tess seems (as a tutor) passionless and dull, but as character and plot layers are revealed, we see that she is instead, a veteran and obviously brilliant FBI Agent, feels lust for Tony, and is acting in her marriage,
and these different identities seem completely different from the surface one.
*19). Randy shows up at the drug bust and gets shot. We have also never seen this side of him; formerly he presented as a workaholic misogynistic husband, very set in his ways and his behavior toward Tess.
*20). Question: Will Tess change so much that she actually ends up sabotaging the raid, shooting another agent, watches her husband get shot, and runs away with Tony? THAT would be ironic.
The situation/character ironies that have an asterisk are the most interesting.
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Madeleine Vessel’s Creating Irony!
Doing this assignment, I learned what irony is and how to create it through characters and situations. I was surprised to find so many places in my story idea where irony already exists.
ASSIGNMENT 1: SUPERNATURAL
On the character level, the irony I’ve already discovered in SUPERNATURAL is one of conflicting values.
Sam, who is always rebelling, running away, and wanting something different for himself than what his father and brother want for him, always drops what he’s doing to help them because they are his FAMILY. It constantly comes down to the conflict between the love of self and the love of the other.
1. Sam is hitchhiking when he runs across a female hitchhiker. She’s instantly scared of him. When a van with a shady-looking driver stops and picks only her up, we must wonder why she wouldn’t be more afraid of the van driver than of Sam. Sam actually looks wholesome.
2. Later, Sam meets the girl again. Buy now, she’s jettisoned the van driver. When he asks her why she’s going to California, she describes for him a family life almost identical to his own in that neither of them want to be told what to do even by good and loving parents. They rejoice together that they are living their own lives, not the lives their parents would have for them.
3 Then, on the phone, Dean tells Sam, he should live his own life. “You know what you want. Go after it… I admire you for that.” Sam doesn’t quite know how to react to what Dean has said. How can he rebel when Dean is telling him to do what he wants?
4 Later, when Sam can’t get Dean to answer his phone, Sam abandons his journey to California to find his brother. He tells the girl, “He’s my family.”
5 At the same time, Dean and a young woman are about to be sacrificed to a pagan god by town members, even though she is a family member of those doing the sacrificing. For those conducting the ritual sacrifice, it is more loving to sacrifice one member for the greater good than to risk themselves to save one.
On the situational level, the irony is this: In order to get X, they must give up Y.
ASSIGNMENT 2: My Show
Situations or Character Components that can go opposite to create irony:
1. To the people in San Francisco’s Russian community, Zhora is a Russian language translator, whom they go to for help. Actually he is undercover as an FBI informant in the community to ferret out Russian organized crime members. He is spying on his own.
2. Sophie has lived her whole life trying to maintain her new identity and her assigned place in witness protection. But to find out who harmed Zhora and killed Falisa and bring them to justice, she will need to break every rule in the witness protection book.
3. Bill’s job is to handle Zhora and to keep Sophie and Zhora safe. But every step he takes following after Sophie, the more likely he is to be exposed and cause an international incident with Russia.
4. Bill is still looking for his wife’s killer. This could develop into a choice of in order to get X, he must give up Y.
5. Bill enters Russia as a member of Interpol and an expert on organized crime, hiding his true identity as an F.B.I Agent, in order to keep Sophie safe. The situation appears to be X, but it is really Y.
6. Sophie goes to Moscow as a visiting art expert, but really she is there to find stolen paintings and a killer. The situation appears to be X, but it is really Y.
7. On the surface, Vitaly is an Russian art enthusiast who has donated considerable money to Sophie’s Russian exhibition. But actually, he is an art thief who is using her to find more stolen paintings. The situation appears to be X, but it is really Y.
8. Olivia is Sophie’s best friend, but unbeknownst to Sophie, Olivia is having a secret affair with Vitaly and helping him to move stolen paintings into the U.S. The situation appears to be X, but it is really Y.
9. Sophie’s estranged mother, who did not defect with Zhora and Sophie, wants to see her daughter and apologize. She will need to give up X (her prestigious position in Russia) to get Y (Back her relationship with her daughter).
10. The painting Sophie saves from being stolen turns about to have been stolen from her family during the Bolshevik Revolution.
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Eric Humble’s Creating Irony!
What I learned doing this assignment is: how powerful a scene/character/plot can become when irony is added to it. For this assignment, I started by listing ideas that already had an inherent irony to them, then brainstormed ways to accentuate the irony. It lead me down some interesting pathways, some of which I’ll use, some I probably won’t, and some which are very scene-specific, which may not be the most useful right now so I’ll likely table those so that I don’t get locked into any specific ideas or scenes at this point. But everything I was able to create in this lesson had an added power to it just by juxtaposing the opposites that showed up.
ASSIGNMENT 1: Mr. Robot
IRONY:
Darlene expresses her love for Elliot by constantly berating and being mean to him.
Elliot is motivated to do Mr. Robot’s hack in order to avenge his father’s death… not realizing
that Mr. Robot is his father.
Elliot has a love/hate relationship with Mr. Robot… not realizing that Mr. Robot is himself.
Elliot does all the heavy lifting to make the hack happen, only to realize he’s created a
Frankenstein’s monster with the movement he’s created, and he now has to stop it.
Tyrell seduces the CTO’s wife to the roof with the intention of having sex and blackmailing her…
only to murder her when he gets carried away.
Tyrell does everything he does to satisfy his ambitious wife, only to have her declare that he’s
dead to her unless he fixes the mess he’s created… while in the hospital with the birth of
their child.
Elliot finally confesses to his psychiatrist that he has hacked her privacy and everyone else’s in
order to move his therapy forward… which calls his future with her into question when
she is appalled by what he’s done.
To get clarity on his relationship with Darlene and to discover anything else he may have
“forgotten,” Elliot’s next hacking victim is himself.
Elliot has a fear of social interaction and suffers from crippling loneliness… yet he has a million
nonstop opinions about society and how to fix it without ever interacting with it.
Mr. Robot is fatherly to Elliot… yet throws him off the pier.
ASSIGNMENT 2:
CONCEPT 1:
Jude needs to cure his patients but he wants to be financially secure… at a level that only Big Pharma kickbacks can provide him.
His patient’s involvement in his clinical trial is in jeopardy because the Pharma company and his insurance are denying him life-saving meds that allow him to be here. Infuriated, Jude wants to quit the kickbacks he gets from them… only to learn he can’t afford any element of his life.
Dres wants to confront the cabal who killed her mother to get revenge but needs to stay hidden from them.
Dres is on the run and hiding from the assassins when she overhears one of them refer to the way a previous target, referred to by code name, was caught and killed… and realizes it was her mom. She starts pursuing the assassin and approaches him to con him out of info… and gets the next name up on the chain.
Marks is one of the most powerful CEOs in the world but is derided and in trouble in his role within the cabal.
Marks makes a decision in a board meeting then watches as global markets are affected by it. Then he goes to the cabal where he is chastized by the leader and everyone is in disarray because of his failure to kill Dres. He pacifies them by fabricating a deal with a tech company that will profit them all.
Catherine heads an organization taking on Big Pharma for treating people inhumanely… then kills a man in self-defense and has to dispose of the body and cover up the crime.
Catherine chastises Marks and the lawyers for the Pharma company because of the inhumane way they’ve allowed her client to suffer with an opioid addiction… then kills a man and has to hire someone to hack him up and bury the pieces in different places throughout the city.
The man isn’t fully dead, wakes up and surprises them. They have to finish him off more brutally than before.
The cabal’s mission is to kill immortals.
Immortals can only be killed by unnatural means: murder, war, accidents. The cabal is dedicated to using these means to keep diseases incurable “for the good of society.”
Jude, a doctor seeking cures for the sick, has to hurt or kill in order to keep Dres safe from her pursuers.
In order to get information out of one of the cabal’s agents, Jude abducts him and injects him with a smallpox sample he was carrying to work to test out on a cure.
Marks is targeting his mentor, the cabal Leader.
Marks appears reverent, obedient, and idolizing of his mentor. But he’s plotting to kill him and take his place.
Dres confides in Catherine with the truth about her immortality. Catherine acts like she doesn’t believe it. In truth, Catherine is also immortal—and is a century older than Dres.
Dres shows her a history timeline in a museum… tells her details about a historical figure a hundred years ago… whom she knew. Catherine dismisses her as crazy until Dres storms off. Then Catherine glances at another historical figure from a hundred years prior…. And corrects the caption because she know more him.
Jude needs to ingratiate himself into the Big Pharma company in order to gain executive access to the resources he needs. To do this, he must destroy the research he’s been working on which just developed an effective medicine to slow cancer.
Dres acts like a well-to-do tech CEO. She is actually homeless and a con artist.
Jude takes Dres everywhere he knows that are totally safe… but the cabal attacks her at each location.
Dres is safest within the completely unsafe homeless/criminal underworld she lives in.
Jude rides the subway to work everyday empathizing with every one he sees—wondering what their medical secrets are—but after he becomes a target of the cabal views the passengers with suspicion.
Jude finally has good news about Catherine’s prognosis… only to have the cabal show up inside his house and threaten to kill her unless he reveals where Drea is.
Jude finally secures Drea’s DNA and the tests results come back—he can make a cure out of this… but comes home to find the cabal inside his house with guns on the unsuspecting Catherine; they’ll kill her unless he gives Dres, the source of the cure, to them.
In order to avoid being chased, Jude and Dres need to keep on the move.
Someone is always shadowing Jude. Same with Dres. They can only meet by moving in random patterns throughout the city… based on an algorithm Jude has developed showing that by random chance, they’ll run into each other seventy percent of the time.
Jude is a cancer researcher whose wife has incurable cancer.
He’s just made a breakthrough in this kind of cancer only for Catherine to contract an inoperable tumor immune from the treatment he just developed.
Jude and Catherine have no secrets. He knows her past relationship while at Oxford in her 20s. She knows he receives money from private Pharma corporations for his research. But these are half-truths… she was at Oxford seventy years ago because she’s immortal. He makes more from the kickbacks than from his prestigious research position.
Jude gets a job at the company Catherine is trying to take down with her business.
Catherine is trying to take down the only Pharma company who could manufacture the potential cure.
Jude gets Dres’s sample and starts manufacturing a beta version of the medicine… when Catherine files a motion that freezes all production until the case is heard in court, which will ruin everything he’s made.
Jude gets a job to use the tracking system, not realizing his new boss Marks is head of the cabal trying to track him to Dres.
Jude sets an elaborate plan to break into the executive tech center housing the tracking system… unaware that Marx is at the system watching Jude’s tracking dot moving throughout the building toward him.
CONCEPT 2:
Darren is a straight-laced, by-the-book FBI Agent… who staged an armed robbery and shot an innocent in order to get the key evidence that started his investigation.
The kid he shot didn’t die… he’s in the hospital, looks to be making a full recovery as Darren looks after him…. Only to suddenly die. Darren is now guilty of murder.
Scoleri is a ruthless murderer and gangster who must help revitalize the poor community and become a hero in their eyes in order to secure the key votes.
The neighborhood he has to revitalize is one he’s spent twenty years economically depressing.
Eco is timid and bookish but now must act as head of the mob and make a major deal with a dangerous drug lord.
The real next-in-line was Scoleri’s son, then another in his family, on down the line—everyone making a joke about Eco being the last in line as “designated survivor”… when they’re all killed in a gas line explosion… leaving Eco as the real designated survivor.
Turns out, Eco engineered the explosion to get the coveted job he always claimed he didn’t want.
Rebecca is Darren’s high school sweetheart and true love… except she’s having an affair with Eco.
She offers to step down from Congress in order to leave DC so he can get away from all this. She’ll do anything for him—and has in the past. Then, after a heated exchange with Eco at a Congressional investigation, she has sex with him in the public restroom…
She met Eco years ago when considering divorce from Darren, and sparks had flown then. Eco advised her to stick with the marriage, but have an abortion for the baby Darren didn’t know she was pregnant with. He’s loomed large over their marriage without Darren ever realizing it.
Rebecca seems to have no secrets beyond the affair… but is actually a Russian spy manipulating the political landscape to get Scolari elected President.
Rebecca is a patriotic Congresswoman on a committee to investigate Russia spying on US elections as well as other international intelligence matters.
Darren joins the sitting President’s reelection campaign to help the President win and Scolari lose… except he’s also plotting the sitting President’s downfall for his role in crafting the law that let Scolari slip through Darren’s fingers.
He pitches an initiative to educate voters on the policies the president has created and enabled. To “sex up” some of them the public might be less aware of. But it’s a plan to highlight—and build the whole campaign around—the one that will be a National embarrassment when it turns out he let a mass murdering gangster escape justice to run for the highest office in the land.
Eco is a mob lawyer put in charge of the mob… but he has a secret habit of finding rats in the organization and helping them escape punishment.
Eco orders the lieutenants to find the rat… but he has already figured out who it is and helps him escape rather than punish directly.
Eco is a mob lawyer who knows all the secrets… yet is secretly an FBI informant.
He’s Bender’s and Darren’s key informant once they started moving up the ladder.
Scoleri scorns everyone from his regal perch… except a young, poor hustler who reminds him of himself at that age.
For all his ambition and need to win the party’s nomination, Scoleri jeopardizes his standing by blowing off a key fundraising event to help the kid out of a jam.
Mob boss has to become a better member of society while the FBI agent trying to catch him becomes a morally-bankrupt monster while entering the political realm.
Scoleri’s motto at the outset: If it doesn’t get it sustain power, it moves out of your way or you move it out of your way. This becomes Darren’s objective by the end.
Scoleri actually gives up power to help the kid… only to discover his generosity has given him a powerful grassroots following.
Bender campaigns and schemes to stay head of the Organized Crime division, only to get forced to be a mole to steal secrets and data for Eco.
Eco was Bender’s informant… now Eco uses Bender’s gambling addiction to make him the informant.
Scoleri is a feared ruler from the shadows in a crime empire… but while he’s immoral, he isn’t unethical.
He won’t betray an underworld ally, even when it’s an easy win to establish his campaign bona fides and not betraying him casts suspicion on his claims of being an honest businessman.
The Middle Eastern drug lord is a vicious, unpredictable killer who operates out of an ancient, tribal mentality.
But he appears to be meek, humble, very Western in his business ethos. When Eco first meets him, the deal looks to be easier than expected to engineer.
Rebecca and Eco enter into an affair.
They cross paths for the first time in years – and are in a screaming match during a hearing when her committee wants to speak with him about his dealings with the Middle Eastern drug lord.
Darren is moving in to arrest Scoleri and the whole mob… when the scene turns into a media frenzy as news gets out that Scoleri is running for president – and has raised more campaign money than any of the contenders of the party.
Darren’s tactical team is armed to the teeth… and Scoleri’s mob is armed to the teeth as well. This isn’t a surprise arrest – Scoleri and his crew are ready for war, with more mob lieutenants en route. Then suddenly, it’s a press conference, where Scoleri has to act calm and rational, and Darren and his team must stand down and back down.
Bender is driven to succeed but is a compulsive gambler, addicted to the riskiest moves available.
He loses huge at gambling the night before, straggles into work to discover he’s being reassigned and losing control of the case… and on top of that, he’s missed his daughter’s school pageant by staying at the casino all night… but instead of accepting the demotion gracefully, he bets large on the barest of rumors he learned from Eco as their informant… that a major Syrian drug lord is being courted by certain gangs. He bets that some sort of meeting is happening today… and when they surveil the place it does. He remains head of the unit.
Eco appears too weak to be a gangster… but this is his tactic to dominate the Middle Eastern drug lord. When he travels to the drug lord’s compound in Syria, surrounded by the drug lord’s private army, he calls in an airstrike that takes out everyone. He’s more ruthless even than Scoleri.
Scoleri warns Eco not to start any violence on their territory. Rebecca does the same, in her capacity in Congress. It appears he’s a sheepish man with no options, when he turns the tables, uses a private air force to kill everyone and bypasses making a deal by simply stealing all the drugs and giving the drug lord’s connections a choice: join us or die.
Alternate idea: Eco gets hold of a nuclear bomb. The drug lord’s original threat: You work for me now. Get out of line and tomorrow there is no Scoleri mob. Eco now counters: I own you and everyone who works for or with you. Anyone steps out of line… and tomorrow there is Syria.
Alternate idea: to show his strength, Eco destroys the drug lord’s labs, poppy fields, etc… then demands the same quota as usual be met by next month or he’ll destroy what little remains of the drug lord’s life.
Darren approaches everything by the book – incorruptible. But once on the campaign team as a low-level canvasser with the campaign chief of staff not even willing to listen to his ideas, Darren stages a sting operation to embroil the chief in a bribery scandal. The incorruptible G men has learned corruption from the best.
Darren tails the chief of staff and catches him taking a bribe… seems conflicted about whether or not to show the other heads of the campaign staff. Opts not to… until the chief himself confronts him and it comes out. The chief is ousted, Darren is held in esteem… then it’s revealed that Darren set the whole thing in motion to set him up.
Darren is watching over the recovery of the wounded kid and relentlessly questioning him about the robbery… but is trying to win his silence so no one (including the kid) will realize Darren is the one who shot him.
Darren interrogates the kid, whom he seems to have befriended—then chases someone suspicious who’s hanging around the hospital… the kid decides to clam up so as not to put himself in danger. Then it’s revealed Darren staged that—doesn’t want the kid talking to anyone.
Scoleri and Darren come face-to-face at a campaign event… and instead of squaring off, they enjoy each other’s company and respect each other’s deviousness so much that they spend the night drinking until dawn.
At their parting on the peaceful, empty Independence Mall, Scoleri orders his men to stand down… revealing three snipers who have had Darren in their sights the whole night. Darren similarly calls off the dogs, revealing he’s had a team of FBI agents who appeared to be annoying tourists shadowing them all night. They’ve never been alone.
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Leybe Díaz – Creating Irony!
What I learned doing this assignment is how irony can be created and how powerful its effect can be in making a story more engaging and fascinating!
ASSIGNMENT 1:
SCANDAL
Olivia Pope is the best fixer in Washington DC and she can’t fix her own life.
Olivia Pope & Associates is a firm of fixers, in which the fixers need fixing.
The President is the most powerful man of the free world and he can’t have the freedom nor the life he wants.
The First Lady Mellie, the most underestimated member of the team ends up saving the Presidency with America’s baby.
Olivia gives up love and happiness to continue being Olivia Pope.
The President is the ruler of the free world and yet he needs guidance from Olivia Pope, a DC fixer.
ASSIGNMENT 2:
The Home Aide
1- Emma takes a job as a home aide and ends up discovering the secrets the FBI is arduously after.
2- Flora was a ruthless, cold hearted, dark, Iron Lady who, after develops a rare case of dementia, becomes a loving, joyful, caring and emotional woman.
3- It took Flora to loose her memory to be happy, free and kind.
4- In order for Isaac to become the powerful man he’s become, he became a criminal.
5- Isaac secretly picks and brings Emma in as a tool to his evil plan against Flora and instead Emma becomes Flora’s savior.
6- An ordinary waitress who ends up being one of the nation’s top politicians and brings down a criminal ring down on her way to the top.
7- Flora’s own reflection in the mirror turns out to be the “person” she loves the most and whom she wants to spend the most time with.
8- Emma’s powerful gifted mind is also her burden.
9- Emma feels accepted for the first time in her life by Flora, a woman who has no memory.
10- Isaac presents himself as the most charming, humble, caring man and he’s a dangerous psychopath.
11- Emma seems like an ordinary, naive woman and she has extraordinary cognitive abilities.
12- The home visiting nurse who supervises Flora’s care is an FBI secret agent.
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Subject line: DQ’S Creating Irony!
What I learned doing this assignment is heightened awareness of irony.
Jessica Jones’ Irony
· Thanks to Kilgrave’s interference, Jones rescue of Hope ironically leads to the death of Hope’s parents and Hope’s own incarceration.
· Kilgrave forces Jessica to murder, ironically allowing her to break his control.
· Kilgrave wrecks Jessica’s life because he says he loves her. (Kilgrave enslaves and destroys many innocents because he is desperate for love and connection.)
Blythe’s Irony <Still hoping I come up with a title to replace “Blythe: Nightvision” that is as succinct and ironic and hook-encapsuling as “Breaking Bad.”>
1. This monster slayer is also the first of her breed of monsters.
2. These creatures hide – and hunt humanity – in plain sight.
3. Blythe’s mask — needs love and partnership / masks as a human who needs / trusts no one
4. Blythe behaves like an inhuman predator but her doomed love for her Creator Ian ironically stirs within her human frailty and emotion…. Empathy for the sisters she hunts and obsessive attraction to her Creator.
5. Similarly, Blythe claims no ties/relationship to any being, human or monster, but she does care deeply to be loved and respected (and protective) to small but important selection of characters.
6. Manipulated by her adversary/lover/creator Ian, Blythe functions as his most powerful weapon against her own agenda.
7. Ian’s pioneering strategy to use genetics to improve the human being condemn him to a life as a mass murderer/rapist/psychopath.
8. Ian’s manipulations put Blythe in constant jeopardy yet he cannot kill her.
9. Ian, Blythe and Alice James all hide fear of pain, weakness and losing control under powerful rage-driven destruction.
10. As teenagers, the women at Ian’s academy played clandestine games of “shark” in the pool after midnight – these nights, they play the same hunting game on a deadlier scale.
11. Both of Blythe’s most dangerous adversaries were first intimate with her as lovers.
Select the best character C and situational S
· This monster slayer is also the first of her breed of monsters. C
· These creatures hide – and hunt humanity – in plain sight. S
· Blythe’s mask — needs love and partnership / masks as a human who needs / trusts no one C
· Blythe behaves like an inhuman predator but her doomed love for her Creator Ian ironically stirs within her human frailty and emotion…. Empathy for the sisters she hunts and obsessive attraction to her Creator. S
· Similarly, Blythe claims no ties/relationship to any being, human or monster, but she does care deeply to be loved and respected (and protective) to small but important selection of characters. C
· Manipulated by her adversary/lover/creator Ian, Blythe functions as his most powerful weapon against her own agenda. S
· Ian’s pioneering strategy to use genetics to improve the human being condemn him to a life as a mass murderer/rapist/psychopath. C
· Ian’s manipulations put Blythe in constant jeopardy yet he cannot kill her. C
· Ian, Blythe and Alice James all hide fear of pain, weakness and losing control under powerful rage-driven destruction. C
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Rafal’s Creating Irony!
What I learned doing this assignment is to control the process of adding irony to characters which makes them both more profound and comical.
ASSIGNMENT 1: Big Little Lies
Renate’s – the most successful woman is getting ruined by her husband.
After Celeste’s abuser is dead his mother comes to help and abuses Celeste psychologically
Bonnie, whose life was the most orderly, becomes a murderer on impulse.
Being afraid that her daughter Abigail makes wrong choices Madeline loses her bond with her to Bonnie who becomes murderer and falls into depression.
Celeste, the woman that seems the most happy in the town is in fact in danger of being beaten to death by her beloved husband.
Jane escaping to Monterey from her past of being abused only finds her son being accused of abusing a schoolmate on the very first day of school.
ASSIGNMENT 2:
character irony
To live longer Arcadia has to deny and abandon the medical methods she used believed in all her life.
When Arcadia seems fully satisfied with her live and ready to die her grandson’s depression force her to review her life at making amends for all her sins.
Arcadia’s descendants replicate in their live all her errors that she was trying to hide from them through the whole her life.
Arcadia discovers scientific proves for what she believed is only imagination of her sick of cancer mind.
Situational irony
Arcadias beloved daughter becomes her main competitor and she cannot reveal it to her.
The Arcadia’s beloved and loving family is lying to her and awaiting her death.
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Eloise Healey’s Creating Irony!
What I learned doing this assignment is it’s worth adjusting my character profiles if it can help create more dramatic irony.
ASSIGNMENT 2 – NO MAN’S LAND
Emma wants to be free from the dominance of men, but in order to make her female-only settlement work, she must embody typical male domineering personality traits. Free from men = “masculine” behaviour.
Mary is the only woman amongst them who believes in real love, yet she is hoodwinked by James.
Mary presents as the innocent, but lies and ultimately commits the biggest betrayal of all.
A colony meant to represent “freedom” becomes all about control and power.
In order to be free of incarceration, James will act to incarcerate others.
James presents as the ultimate victim, but will turn out to be their biggest threat.
In order to “save” the settlement, Emma must lose every friendship she’s built.
The peace Emma craves is impossible in the community she has created.
Mary wants everyone to love her, only for her lies to bring her undone every time.
Ann backstabs Emma to gain control of the settlement, only for her original supports to backstab her in turn.
In order to solve feeling emasculated, James must win the trust of a community of women.
Sarah’s humanitarian focus will see her commit acts of extreme violence in the name of the greater good.
Emma’s desire for peace will see her kill a member of her own community in order to protect it in the greater world.
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