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Day 9 Assignments
Reply to post your assignment.
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4 Replies
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Lois Presents Non-Stop Intrigue
I learned that this would be a much more effective process if I had a partner or even a team working with me. I need somebody to bounce ideas with.
I also learned that I didn’t have enough material in season 2, so I combined 2 and 3 and made a new season 5
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Lisa Presents Non-stop Intrigue
What I learned doing this assignment is to be patient with myself and not try to rush through.
I added more details to some of the episode descriptions, and even came up with some ideas to add into the episodes when I write them. I also rewrote some things to have setups and payoffs, which made my bible more intriguing. I feel like I need to add some character maps to add more storylines to each of my episodes, so I’m going to add that to my framework, so then I could use it to add more depth to my episodes when I write them.
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Module 2 Lesson 9
<div>Griff’s Elevated Intrigue</div><div>
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What I learned doing this assignment: Separating the wheat from the chaff is as much a part of the process as wordsmithing. I did as much deleting of unnecessary prolixity as I did additional exposition as I went through the Bible line-by-line.
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Title: THE LAST STRAW
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Genre: Dramatic Series
Format: I hour Episodic
Concept
Two teenage brothers discover their mother has gone missing. To find her they must counter bureaucracy and survive life on the street to follow clues into dangerous and unknown territory.
World of the Show
Suburbia. As experienced by two single parents trying to do their best with some challenging teens and young adults.
Unique Sub-worlds
· The social services and foster care system
· The splintered homeless community and Southwest border encampments.
· The migrant world of Coyotes, Border Patrol, and abusive labor.
· A corrupt and violent immigration system.
Summary
How do two completely opposite teen brothers navigate adolescence with no father at home and a distracted single mother who is trying to forge a new career?
Brothers Randy and Todd are separated by only two years, but they are light-years apart in personality. Randy is small, athletic, and angry while his younger brother Todd, artistic and big for his age, is constantly being misidentified and the older of the two, leading to Randy’s incessant bullying of his “little” brother.
Single mom Stephanie is tired of shilling vanity products to young mothers, thinly disguised as a parental advice column. While she bids for more serious assignments at her magazine, Randy and Todd are constantly at each other’s throats and failing at school, putting Stephanie on notice that their messy home life needs some attention.
When the neighbor’s troubled daughter (and Randy’s crush), Marcey, drops a tantalizing scandal in her lap, Stephanie must find a way to pursue the story while keeping county social services from putting the unmanageable boys in foster care.
Pressures boil over and lead to a huge argument that spills into the street and brings out the neighbors and the cops. The next morning finds things settled down, except that both Stephanie and Marcey have gone missing.
Randy and Todd are shocked and puzzled – did Stephanie finally have enough and run away? Has she been abducted? What does Marcey have to do with it? In order to find out, the boys are going to have to elude foster care and stay together. Then what? Hit the road to find out what became of their mom, that’s what!
Main Characters
Stephanie Sherwood: Single mother doing her best to raise two challenging teen boys while trying to break into investigative journalism.
Randy Sherwood: Seventeen, compact, and angry. He remembers just enough about his estranged father to miss him in his life. He relentlessly bullies his younger but bigger brother, Todd. Has a big crush on the neighbor’s daughter, Marcey.
Todd Sherwood: Fifteen but looks twenty-something. A big kid who seems slow-witted until he has something to say. He is secretly accepting martial arts tips from the neighbor as a way of defending himself from Randy.
Brad Collins: The nerdy music teacher across the street used to be a famous rock star. He keeps a low profile, trying to do the best he can for daughter Marcey. Brad blames his former celebrity avatar for the drug overdose of Marcey’s mother.
Marcey Collins: Twenty, fierce and fit, Marcey pretends to be an aimless party girl to protect her father from worrying about the real danger of leaving supplies in the desert for migrants crossing into Arizona.
Supporting Characters:
Harmony: Marcey’s best friend and partner in crime (and love.)
Agent Vaughan: Keeping an eye on Marcey, suspects her of illegally aiding immigrants.
Morgan Blackledge: The estranged father of Randy and Todd. He’s been in the Amazon looking for the ingredients to patent new drugs.
Maria: A young migrant who is saved from death when she finds the supplies left by Marcey and Harmony.
El Jefe: Mexican drug kingpin with aspirations to save the world (his way.)
Environmental Characters:
School counselors; social workers; police officers and detectives; foster parents; homeless/houseless tricksters and angels; human traffickers; border patrol agents; Coyotes; drug smugglers.
12 Episodes
Pilot: “Form Follows Dysfunction”
Stephanie is jolted awake after falling asleep at her keyboard late the previous night. She has overslept again and must get her two boys to school. She manages to get them in the car in a cyclone of last-minute cajoling.
Rushing to class to avoid another tardy, the boys collide with some of the seniors. One of the lettermen is impressed at the solid wall that Todd presents, while Randy scurries off before they can bully him.
Returning home to work on her now-past deadline, Stephanie is distracted by the neighbor’s party animal daughter, just coming in from another long night out.
Just when she thinks she can settle down to work, the school calls – the boys have got into another “incident” and she must come down and meet with the Vice Principal, who wants to set up a home inspection schedule to check on the boy’s welfare.
Episode Two: “Snot Sucker”
As Stephanie pushes her editor for better writing assignments, she is increasingly distracted on the home front. Randy and Todd voice their frustrations about getting to school on time and Stephanie’s erratic housekeeping. They feel like they need to take matters into their own hands.
Stephanie turns in her parenting columns despite feeling like a shill for manufacturers of products like The Snot Sucker. Stephanie lets her own cynicism creep into the advice column and one of her pieces gets some harsh pushback from readers.
Todd suggests that he and Randy start getting up early and walking to school to not rely on Mom. That would require Randy getting out of bed. Early.
Stephanie threatens to quit if her more serious submissions are not going to be considered. Her editor, calling her bluff observes, “And who will that inconvenience?”
Episode Three: “Life Isn’t Fair”
Randy takes his bullying of Todd to a new level after failing to impress Marcey with his basketball moves. To add insult to injury, he can’t do much damage beating up on Todd due to his “little” brother’s size and density, and it just serves to further aggravate Stephanie.
Stephanie tries to improve her role at home with some inspired meal preparation. She can’t go far from the computer, however, and ends up trying to parboil her laptop.
Marcey attempts to pacify Brad but is still reluctant to come clean about her true desert adventures and her real relationship with Harmony. Brad deals with his frustration in the usual way, turning his amplifier up to “11” and blasting out some of the old Hell Toupee tunes.
Getting to school on their own isn’t working out any better than relying on Stephanie, and soon the school counselors are on the phone about serial tardiness and threatening a home visit.
Episode Four: “Gimme The Ball, Gimme The Ball, Gimme…”
Randy’s passion is sports. He spends much of his time shooting hoops in his backyard on a broken-down backstop. He almost never misses a shot.
He keeps going out for various sports but the bigger guys just can’t get beyond his small size. He frequently takes out his frustrations by beating up on his far bigger little brother, Todd.
The senior lettermen enjoy picking on Randy, but he’s usually too fast for them to get ahold of him.
When the lettermen follow Randy and Todd to the local Quik Mart, Randy is ready to fight. They show no interest in him, however, and he thinks they want to pick on Todd. Instead, they try to recruit Todd for football. Randy goes ballistic.
Episode Five: “Martha Stewart You Ain’t”
Todd, signing up for a Home Economics class in cooking, tries to keep it quiet because he knows what Randy will do if he finds out. But when report cards come out Randy not only finds out about the cooking class but that Todd is a straight-A student. If Todd thought Randy’s teasing was bad before …
Todd starts preparing lunches for himself and Randy. Stephanie is impressed, grateful, even. Randy reacts predictable, teasing Todd for being an overeater. But when he samples the delicious lunch and, later, the dinner Todd prepares for the family, he is at a loss for both words and punches.
Randy is not the only one who begins to see Todd through a different lens – Stephanie realizes she has been overlooking Todd’s creative side. Just when things seem like they are improving Todd makes some lunches for Marcey and Harmony to take to the desert. Her gratitude toward Todd sends Randy into a tantrum.
Episode Six: “Whatever Became of Crash Damitch?”
Randy’s bullying causes Todd to seek out Brad as a kind of surrogate father. Brad has some eccentric interests, among them martial arts and firearms. Brad thinks some aikido training might be the remedy Todd needs to get Randy off his back.
Brad struggles to find satisfaction in his teaching when all his young students seem to want to do is mimic YouTube videos. As a guitarist, Brad didn’t come up as a shredder and is not impressed by it. He wants his students to study music, not just tricks and techniques.
Stephanie is concerned about the amount of time Todd has been spending with Brad, thinking that Marcey is probably a bad influence. Meanwhile, it is Randy that has developed a crush on Marcey.
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Episode Seven: “Cul-de-sac Diplomacy”
The mysterious Agent Vaughan continues to stake out the cul-de-sac, to the chagrin of both Stephanie and Brad. Brad thinks the narcs are about to come down on Marcey and Stephanie thinks it has something to do with her boys and their troublemaking.
The more Stephanie lurks around the more defensive Marcey becomes, telling to leave Agent Vaughan alone and to back off. Tensions flare as everyone starts to feel examined under a microscope.
Agent Vaughan won’t back off and won’t be exposed, either, preferring to keep the pressure on and see what boils over.
Stephanie finds out that anonymous tips have been phoned in that she is creating an unwholesome atmosphere at home by entertaining men when the boys are home. This complete fabrication nevertheless makes her situation with the county counselors worse.
Episode Eight: “ …And Your Enemies Closer.”
On the day of the home inspection, things couldn’t go worse – the boys get into a fight just before the social worker is due and Stephanie’s editor calls with bad news.
Trying to put the best face possible on it, they almost squeak through the interview when Agent Vaughan shows up at the door, pretending to be Stephanie’s boyfriend. He gets the reaction he expects from Randy and Todd, and Stephanie is warned that the report to the county is not going to be flattering.
To make matters worse, Marcey pulls up just as Agent Vaughan is leaving, and confronts him about spying on her. Agent Vaughan is bemused, pleased with the results of his agitprop.
Episode Nine: “Do You Know Who I Used To Be?”
Brad’s biggest fear is that Marcey will end up like her mother, a drug addict who overdosed. He doesn’t know that her party lifestyle is an act and that his daughter is far more serious and formidable than he thinks. His efforts to reign her in fail.
Marcey realizes Brad is worried about her, but her party girl charade allows her to disappear into the desert with Harmony, where they leave supplies for migrants crossing the border illegally. It is dangerous but also risks being prosecuted by the Border Patrol if she is caught.
All the while, Brad’s past is tugging at him, and he discovers that the other members of the old band are planning to attend a nostalgic Rock convention in Las Vegas.
During Stephanie’s prying into Marcey’s activities, she becomes aware of Brad’s celebrity past. Has Stephanie stumbled onto a story that could turn her career around?
Episode Ten: “The Border Crossed Us.”
Stephanie pays unwanted interest in Marcey and Harmony packing the SUV with water and supplies. She is skeptical that all this is for parties out in the desert.
Convinced that Marcey is sitting on a tinderbox that she can exploit, Stephanie decides to interview the mysterious man who has been staking out Brad’s house because she assumes he holds the key to what Marcey is up to.
Randy and Todd’s friction becomes more pronounced until Todd applies an Aikido move that completely surprises his brother. Randy begins to regard Todd in another light.
Stephanie confers with Brad and gets the whole background about the drug overdose death of Marcey’s mother and her Hispanic heritage.
Marcey does her best to be elusive, but Stephanie is determined to get a scoop out of it, thinking there’s some scandal to be exploited. Following Marcey and Harmony out to the desert, she inadvertently leads the Border Patrol to the girls.
Episode Eleven: “Land of Opportunity”
Maria tries to tough out the poor conditions at the labor camp because she needs to send money home to her family in Mexico. It becomes clear to her that the bosses play the workers off against one another.
Maria may be small, but she is no pushover. When she stands up to bullying the bosses punish the other workers and turn them against her,
In the fields, Maria tries to get help for a pregnant girl who has collapsed with asthma. She begs for transportation to take the girl to a clinic. The bosses are in no hurry to help out, and the girl dies.
Episode Twelve: “Take A Number
Stephanie, trying to make a deadline, is late to pick up the boys from school. They decide to walk over to the Quick Mart, and Todd shows off some of the moves he learned from Brad. A passing squad car sees two boys fighting and the cops pick them up.
Stephanie loses it, not so much angry at the boys as with herself and the situation. But the boys don’t see it that way. Shouting and accusations spill over and the boys and Stephanie all threaten to run away from home.
Marcey, already on edge with Stephanie’s prying into her business, gets into the act, taking the boys’ side. The argument spills out into the street and attracts the neighbors and the cops.
Late that night things eventually settle down and everyone goes to bed.
In the morning Stephanie and Marcey are both missing.
Five Seasons
Season 1: Running Away From Home
Stephanie Sherwood is the harassed single parent of two teenage boys. She struggles to keep up with deadlines at the magazine for which she writes a parental advice column. Life at home is hectic, and Stephanie must keep her boys, Randy and Todd, from killing each other. After a big argument, Stephanie disappears. The boys are absorbed into Foster Care and separated.
Season 2: Where Did Mom Go? – The boys break out of foster care and team up to find their mother. They are unprepared to deal with street life as they try to follow some tantalizing leads left by Marcey and Harmony.
Season 3: Who Is This Dad Guy, Anyway? – Life on the road for Randy and Todd doesn’t last very long before they are found and given into the care of a father they haven’t seen in years and who Todd barely knows. Morgan, however, is a swashbuckling character who is up for the chase, and the search for Stephanie continues with renewed energy.
Season 4: Bring Mom Home or Bust – Stephanie and Marcey are reunited but fall into the hands of the Cartel. Marcey re-focuses Stephanie’s story from Border Patrol abuse to the plight of migrants working without health care while being exposed to toxic chemicals.
Season 5: All is Forgiven. – Stephanie and Marcey convince El Jefe to fund the conversion of Brad’s tour bus into a mobile clinic for migrants in exchange for a white-wash job in Stephanie’s story. Maria comes to work in the mobile clinic.
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I have learned that this is an ongoing assignment, to keep developing the tv pitch bible and making it more intriguing. I started off with a few simple changes and need to continually look at this with more depth to really make this a great marketing tool!
I have also made a graph for the circle of characters which I will include in the pitch as well.
TITLE: ANTIPODES GENRE: Historical Drama FORMAT: 1 Hour
CONCEPT: England 1830’s where two LGBTQ people’s stories play out.
A middle-class horse trainer turns into a bad ass to find the whereabouts of her missing lover. Her secret is that she is a closeted lesbian and in love with her maid. She discovers her true grit and leaves no stone unturned as she slowly delves into the criminal underworld to find answers.
A weak aristocratic gentleman comes to terms with his true self when his lover is arrested for “crimes of an unnatural act”. He hides his homosexuality from his overbearing father but discovers his back bone to re-unite with his lover, a common sailor.
WORLD: The divided social structure of 1830’s England from the upper crust of the aristocracy, to hard working middle class society, to the working class and down to the seedy underworld of criminals. Covering the legal journey of convicted criminals from being arrested to jail time/being locked up in a ship hulk, to the court trials at the Old Bailey and being sentenced to several years hard labour. Then facing the trials and tribulations of the lengthy ships voyage whilst being transported. Facing the unknown and arduous life in new colonies of Australia.
SUMMARY: Harriet Wright a middle-class horse trainer wakes one morning to find her maid hasn’t turned up from her day off. She leaves no stone unturned to find her, which leads her to the criminal underworld. To gain the trust of the underworld boss she must partake in crime. Will they give her answers of the whereabouts of her maid Rosie? Can she trust them or is she being used? Harriet becomes a pants wearing law breaker when committing scandalous crimes for the underworld boss. Can she keep her dark secret that Rosie her maid is her lover from her doting mother? Harriet is a woman of action and will go to the ends of the earth to be with her one true love.
Elliot Otto Edwards an aristocratic gentleman narrowly escapes being arrested when he and his lover Richard spend the night in a Molly House. His lover, a common sailor is arrested for “crimes of an unnatural act”. Elliot becomes a recluse and hits the bottle not knowing what to do about his circumstances. Eventually he comes out to his sister and finds the courage to rescue his lover. Will he forfeit his heritage and wealth to be with the love of his life or sacrifice his happiness to fulfil his father’s wishes, to continue the family blood-line?
Both Harriet and Elliot have a chance meeting when in London and discover they have common ground. The two decide to work together to find their lovers and venture into a marriage of convenience, which surprises both their families. Rosie has been arrested along with her sister Tilly for being in possession of stolen clothing and are about to be shipped off to Australia for 7 years hard labour. Richard on the
other hand is held up in a ship hulk prior to his court appearance. He manages to avoid the noose and is sentenced to 10 years hard labour in Australia.
The voyage for all three convicts is perilous with sickness, unwanted pregnancy and sailing through severe storms and death. Their lovers Harriet and Elliot find out only too late that the ship has sailed for the Antipodes. What will they do? Will they make the dramatic decision to set sail after Rosie and Richard or live a fake unfulfilled life together just to make their families happy?
CHARACTER DESCRIPTIONS:
HARRIET WRIGHT
A. Role in the show: Heroine, Lover/daughter
B. Unique Purpose / Expertise: Adventurer/horse trainer C. Moral Issue: falls in love with her maid
D. Unpredictable: a woman of action, defiant
E. Empathetic: Hard working, lonerIntriguing Layers
A. Hidden Agendas: leaves no stone unturned to find her lover
B. Competition: Hard on herself
C. Conspiracy: with criminal underworld
D. Secrets: lesbian in love with her maid
E. Deception: hides both her love life and criminal activities from her mother
F. Wound: hates her father for abandoning her when a small child
G. Secret Identity: wears a disguise when carrying out crimes for the underworld criminalsEmotional Depth
A. Hope: to find her lover & live a happy life/Fear: her mother will find out she is a lesbian and part time criminal
B. Want: to be happy & successful / Need: the love of Rosie
C. Base Negative Emotion: fearful/ Public Mask: She is in control
D. Weaknesses: lack of belief in herself
E. Triggers: doesn’t like to be threatened (hates cruelty to animals)
F. Coping Mechanism: fights back, lashes out With Criminals: she goes bold.ELLIOT OTTO EDWARDS
A. Role in the show: reluctant hero/lover/son/brother
B. Unique Purpose / Expertise: seeks out his lover/expert swordsman
C. Moral Issue: falls in love with common sailor
D. Unpredictable: He comes to his senses/discovers a backbone
E. Empathetic: he leaves his heritage/wealth behind to find true happiness with RichardIntriguing Layers
A. Hidden Agendas:? His sexuality is a secret, but perhaps he hopes to have a fake marriage but doesn’t know who with yet
B. Competition: competes for fathers love?C. Conspiracy: with Harriet to seek out person who told authorities to raid “Molly House”
D. Secrets: homosexual, comes out to sister
E. Deception He & Harriet fake marriageF. Wound: Father cruel to him when a child
G. Secret Identity: lives a double life (can be quite feminine (bottom)Emotional Depth
A. Hope to find Richard/keep his wealthy &inheritance Fear: father will find out
B. Want the love of Richard / Need: love and validation
C. Base Negative Emotion fear/shame/ Public Mask: Proud straight English Gent D. Weaknesses: Alcohol/sex
E. Triggers: father pushes his buttons
F. Coping Mechanism: tends to shut down, hide, cry, seclusion, inaction, gets drunkROSIE COTTON
A. Role in the show: Lover/Maid/Sister
B. Unique Purpose gets caught in a crime set up by her sister. She is caught with stolen clothing.
Expertise: happy go lucky/good person
C. Moral Issue: she doesn’t doubt her lesbianism yet hates criminal activities/sister D. Unpredictable: decides to keep child after being raped on-board ship
E. Empathetic: Bad things happen to her, yet she remains a good personIntriguing Layers
A. Hidden Agendas:? She is fairly open
B. Competition: her sister is the jealous one
C. Conspiracy:
D. Secrets: in love with her mistress
E. Deception: ”fake boyfriend”
F. Wound: left on streets as youngster
G. Secret Identity: She was a Child pick pocket with sister TillyEmotional Depth
A. Hope to live a happy life/ Fear: poverty/unhappy
B. Want to be liked/ Need: the love of her mistress
C. Base Negative Emotion: unsettled / Public Mask: happy go lucky
D. Weaknesses: low self esteem
E. Triggers: Sisters taunting, stress of going back to having nothing/ losing her job F. Coping Mechanism: Denial, ignore it, pretend it didn’t happenRICHARD SMITH
A. Role in the show: Common Sailor/Lover
B. Unique Purpose: transported to Australia for “crimes of an unnatural act” Expertise: Cockswain/Helmsman
C. Moral Issue: falls in love with a rich Gent
D. Unpredictable: manages to steer ship through storm whilst on voyage/becomes heroE. Empathetic: hard life/ decent person
Intriguing Layers
A. Hidden Agendas: his homosexuality
B. Competition: overtly masculine with his mates (a top)
C. Conspiracy:?
D. Secrets: his sexuality/gay friends
E. Deception: over compensates his masculinity for being gay. F. Wound: misses his mother as she died when young
G. Secret Identity: Hides his homosexuality?Emotional Depth
A. Hope good life / Fear: found out for being gay
B. Want to be rich &popular / Need: to be loved
C. Base Negative Emotion fear. Public Mask: butch bravado D. Weaknesses: Doubting himself/abilities
E. Triggers: doesn’t like to be teased
F. Coping Mechanism: uses his fists, fights backMINOR CHARACTERS/CHARACTER CIRCLE/RELATIONSHIPS
EPISODE DESCRIPTIONS:
Pilot #1
Hook/Intrigue: Harriet’s maid hasn’t turned up from her day off
Journey: Harriet leaves no stone unturned to find her
Challenge/Conflict: Both Harriet & Elliot hide their sexuality from their families
Action/Reaction: Elliot wallows in self doubt whilst Harriet scours the local town trying to find answers to Rosie’s whereabouts.
Cliff-hanger: FLASHBACKS: Rosie and Tily’s arrested, Elliot narrowly escapes while his lover is arrest having spent the night in a Molly House.
Episode #2
Hook/Intrigue: Harriet in her search for Rosie comes across Tily’s association with the criminal underworld.
Journey: Harriet continues to find Rosie
Challenge/Conflict: Harriet and Elliot both introduced to prospective partners.Action/Reaction: Elliot finally comes out to his younger sister, they both agree to keep it a secret from their father Oswald Edwards.
Episode #3
Cliff-hanger: Harriet must perform a crime in order to gain the trust of the criminal underworld boss.
Hook/Intrigue: Harriet does the crime on behalf of the underworld boss. She must rob one of the crime boss’s competitors and put an end to his corruption.
Journey: Elliot decides to rescue Richard, Harriet gets more involved with the criminal underworld
Challenge/Conflict: Oswald is outrage at his son’s lack of interest in the family bloodline/heritage/estate. Harriet’s mother, Mrs. Wright curious about her daughter’s curious change in behaviour
Action/Reaction: Elliot decides to find his lover
Cliff-hanger: Harriet receives 5 dot tattoo on the back of her hand, a symbol she can be trusted by the criminal underworld. Harriet must break in to the legal records office to find information about Rosie
Episode #4
Hook/Intrigue: Rosie spends her day off with her sister Tilly.
Journey: Rosie and Tilly arrested by local constable and thrown into jail awaiting a trial. Elliot makes careful enquires about the raid on the Molly House.
Challenge/Conflict: Harriet can’t find any details of Rosie’s arrest, too many people on the books.
Action/Reaction: Tilly steels the clothing from a gentleman client and makes a quick escape, handing some of the items to her naive sister
Cliff-hanger: Harriet’s awkward date night where he forces her to give him a quick “hand job”.
Episode #5
Hook/Intrigue: Harriet finds the name of the jail where Rosie and Tily are being held.
Journey: Harriet makes plans to visit the prison, must make plans for someone to care for her horses/stables
Challenge/Conflict: Elliot’s awkward date night, she gives him a bad blow job in the orangery “a little less teeth”.
Action/Reaction: Harriet plans a highway robbery, is this something the criminal underworld has arranged or is she now going rogue?
Cliff-hanger: Harriet seeks revenge on her prospective future husband (arranged by her doting mother) by robbing him whilst he travels on a highway in his carriage
Episode #6
Hook/Intrigue: Harriet keeps both her criminal activities and sexuality from her mother.
Journey: Harriet loves her involvement with the criminal underworld and her popularity is rising within the ranks.
Challenge/Conflict: Elliot’s sister tries to soften the rift between her father and her brother by suggesting that perhaps he is better off being a bachelor. (she is married with a young son and a second child on the way)
Action/Reaction: Elliot tracks down Richards land lady at the Sailors digs and finds out he is awaiting a trial in a ships prison hulk. Murky character eaves drop on the conversation.
Cliff-hanger: Elliot receives a blackmail letter.
Episode #7
Hook/Intrigue: Harriet involved in more criminal activities Journey: Harriet misses her lover.
Challenge/Conflict: Elliot fights with his father, he says he is willing to give up his heritage/wealth and that everything should be passed onto his sister and her son.
Action/Reaction: Mrs. Wright very curious as to why her daughter is so determined to find their maid.
Cliff-hanger: Harriet comes out to her mother. Mrs. Wright is furious and starts to throw out her daughters’ belongings at the front door.
Episode #8
Hook/Intrigue: Mrs Wright may be coming ‘round to her daughters sexuality.
Journey: Harriet finally arrives at the prison only to find that she is too late. Rosie was carted off to London for her trial only a few days earlier.
Challenge/Conflict: Elliot must find the name of the prison hulk that Richard is being held.
Action/Reaction: Harriet extremely disappointed in missing her lover drowns her sorrows. Chance meeting with Elliot, he takes pity on the drunken Harriet and takes her to his club.
Cliff-hanger: Harriet and Elliot wind up in bed together, but it’s not what you think. The two discover they have common ground and decide to work together to find their lovers.
FIVE SEASONS DESCRIPTIONS: Season #1
England 1830’s. Harriet Wright a middle-class horse trainer turns bad ass in order to find the whereabouts of her missing lover. She leaves no stone unturned which leads her to the criminal underworld. To gain the trust of the criminal underworld boss she must partake in crime. Will they give her answers of the whereabouts of her maid? Can she trust them or is she being used? To protect her from the authorities she decides to dress as a man when working with the criminal underworld boss. She also has to hide both her sexuality and crimes from her doting mother.
When Harriet passes “the test” she is given a tattoo on the back of her right hand, 5 dots placed between her thumb. A “sign” she can be trusted. Elliot Otto Edwards an aristocratic gentleman comes to terms with his true self when his lover is arrested for “crimes of an unnatural act”. He becomes a recluse and hits the bottle not knowing what to do about his circumstances. Eventually he comes out to his sister and finds the courage to rescue his lover. We also see the back story of the lovers, how they met etc. and follow the crime/arrest of Tilly/Rosie and Richard.
Season #2 Crime vs Law
Harriet uses her new-found skills and tracks down the culprit responsible for blackmailing Elliot. He comes to a gruesome end. She also finds the prison where Rosie is being held and the ship hulk where Richard is captive. In the meantime, Richard proposes a marriage of convenience with Harriet.
Harriet is now more popular with the criminal underworld than the main boss, who now plots to exterminate her for good. Will she accept Elliot’s hand in marriage, will the crime boss murder Harriet? Can she survive? We also see how Rosie/Tily cope with being arrested as well as Richard. Harriet/Elliot turn up to the prison/hulk having just missed their partners being transported to the court house a few days earlier.
Season #3 Prison/Hulks, Old Bailey
Harriet turns the tables and extinguishes the crime boss, she has now earned herself another tattoo to crown her glory. Both Harriet/Elliot attempt to track down their
lovers whilst shocking both their family’s with an announcement of marriage. Harriet has now proved herself as an individual not to be messed with.
We follow Rosie/Tily and their court case where they are both convicted for 7 years hard labour in Australia (Tily for robbery of clothing and being in possession of stolen clothing, Rosie for being in possession of stolen clothing. Richards court case, is more serious as death by hanging is the usual punishment for his crime but as he is such a fit/healthy strong young man his life is saved but sentenced to 10 yrs hard labour in Australia. Harriet/Elliot find themselves once again too late to rescue their lovers as they are already being transported to London Docks ready for transportation.
Season #4 Bound for the Antipodes
Focus has now shifted towards the lovers and Harriet/Elliot seem to be always one step behind. The ship has already sailed with their lovers on board. During the voyage Rosie/Tilly struggle with their sisterly relationship. Tilly once again comes to the rescue of Rosie when she decides to have sex with the sailors in order to save her younger sister. During the voyage Tilly becomes ill and one of the Sailors takes Rosie and makes her have sex with a young seaman (both are virgins). As Tilly’s health deteriorates Rosie makes amends with Tilly and thanks her for her love and protection ever since they were little street urchins. Tilly dies and her body tipped into the ocean.
Harriet/Elliot must decide what to do next? Are they ready to forsake their comfortable lives in order to re-unite with their lovers. Rosie becomes sea sick, or is it something more than that? During the journey there is a storm at sea, the Captain calls upon Richard to help steer the ship through the storm. Will they make it through?
Harriet feels more alive than she ever has with her new gained criminal activities however she misses the ship on which her lover Rosie has sailed away to Australia. Will she pursue her to the Antipodes or remain bereft for the rest of her life?
Season#5 The New Colonies/Australia
Life in the great open spaces of Australia. Richard now considered a hero, for saving the ship is given a smaller private dwelling rather than being shoved in with the great unwashed in prison. Rosie now heavily pregnant struggles without her sister. Harriet/Elliot decide to travel to the ends of the earth to be with their one true loves, despite conflict from their family’s. Will they find their lovers alive? How will they find them?
Brief look at the sea voyage of Harriet/Elliot in opposite conditions of their partners. (wealth/first class). Once in Melbourne they first track down Richard. Richard knows of the whereabouts of Rosie and warns them that he heard she was “not well”. They find Rosie with a young baby girl, in the most shocking condition. Elliot hires and architect and draws up plans to house them all. Rosie one day sees the Sailor that
made the young man have sex with her, Harriet takes her revenge out on him, kills him and dumps his body into the river. Criminal underworld from the U.K has transpired in this young city. Harriot/Elliot’s new home is set upon by thieves. Harriot confronts the burglars and upon showing them her “crown” tattoo, the felons apologise and make a hasty retreat.
Elliot suggest that Richard and Rosie marry for them to “properly all live together” under the one roof. Series ends with a second marriage and the four of them moving into a large resplendent home in the new city of Melbourne.
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