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5 Screenwriting Takeaways: HBO Max's hilarious comedy 'The Other Two'

October 11, 2021

The Other Two is very adept at turning tragedy into comedy. In its second season, the half-hour comedy serves up both with a healthy side of pathos. In season one, audiences met Brooke and Cary Dudek (played by Heléne York and Drew Tarver respectivel...

5 Screenwriting Takeaways: 'The Many Saints of Newark' expands the 'Sopranos' universe

October 8, 2021

Who is Dickie Moltisanti? That’s the question that lies behind The Many Saints of Newark. The film's marketing describes it as "a Sopranos story," which is crucial to consider as the Sopranos universe begins what is likely to be an expansion. The hit...

5 Screenwriting Takeaways: Netflix's arresting and captivating 'Maid'

October 4, 2021

Maid is the long-awaited adaptation of Stephanie Land’s novel: "Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive". The show was brought to Netflix by a team of heavy hitters; TV veteran John Wells (ER and Southland) steered a production team ...

5 Screenwriting Takeaways: ‘The Eyes of Tammy Faye’ and the infamous rise and fall of a televangelist

October 1, 2021

When Tammy Faye was a young girl, she felt like an outcast. In a deeply religious family, she was the sole daughter of a divorced woman; her mother and stepfamily believed she would soil their name if she even stepped foot into church on Sundays. But...

5 Screenwriting Takeaways: The sharp satire of 'The Premise'

September 28, 2021

Television satire is rare. There’s the eyebrow-raising South Park, the always reliable SNL, and the genre-redefining The Office, but it doesn’t seem that streamers or networks often want to take the risk on new satire, rarely putting the faith in an ...

5 Screenwriting Takeaways: 'Kate' is a standout, relentless assassin

September 24, 2021

Some actors act badass but struggle to pull it off. Mary Elizabeth Winstead is a badass in Kate, a new action film by director Cedric Nicolas-Troyan and writer Umair Aleem.

5 Screenwriting Takeaways: 'The Voyeurs' re-examines erotic thrillers

September 20, 2021

The Voyeurs is possibly giving the erotic thriller a come-back. Roger Ebert used to call this kind of film the “rumpy-pumpy.” And there are indeed some pumps and bumps in this movie, as well as some unexpected turns (especially still in the midst of ...

5 Screenwriting Takeaways: 'Shang-Chi' and how to develop a Marvel origin story

September 17, 2021

Shaun is just a guy living in San Francisco who parks cars for a living and wanders through life with no direction. But Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is a Marvel movie, so that definitely won’t be the place he ends up. His character arc m...

5 Screenwriting Takeaways: ‘Clickbait’ is Netflix’s bingeable thriller

September 13, 2021

Clickbait has a huge hook: When a man is kidnapped in an East Bay town his kidnapping video goes viral. His captors make him hold up signs stating he abuses women and if the video reaches 5 million views, he will be killed. Adrien Grenier plays Nick ...