by Neil Landau
MK: Always. It’s hard sometimes to pull all your stories through and sometimes we do it to better success than others. The finale being called, “Reckoning,” makes a lot of sense for everybody. I feel like we’re returning with an episode called, “Bound,” and it’s very cool for me to be able to start with that word which I was thinking about over hiatus. How they’re all bound together. I’m stuck with them too. You can choose your friends or your husband and wife—the people that you bind yourself to, but you can’t choose your father and your mother. And, you’re still bound to them. So, for me, starting with a theme is very helpful. We don’t always start with theme. Sometimes it eludes us, you realize what it is when you’re breaking story and then you have to retrofit a lot of things. Of course, even with the best laid plans, I reserve the right to change my mind. And often do.
NL: In terms of cliffhangers, you’ve got your A, B, C stories on theme—are there any rules about cliffhangers on Revenge? For example, do they always need to end on an A story or on Emily?
MK: Generally, you want Emily to be the A story, but sometimes we throw in those surprising moments that you didn’t realize were coming—those are the sideswipes I was talking about. If you’re earning each mini-cliffhanger, then generally they’re on the A or the B story. But, at the end of the finale of season 1, the mother being alive was not something that was germane to anything we were doing in season 1. We weren’t leading up to that moment in a way that anybody could say, “Well, this is all logical, and we knew we were getting to the mother here.” So, that cliffhanger was in the sideswipe category.
NL: It was the one thing that was not never discussed. What about in terms of cliffhangers for each episode: revealing a new nugget of information and trying to take us to a new emotional or vulnerable place within each one? Is that something where you’re saying consciously, “We have to reveal another piece to the puzzle in each episode”?
MK: I’m not a big fan of spinning wheels and I don’t like retread or withholding because you don’t want to repeat yourself. I think that for me I like to throw down the answers to questions a lot quicker than probably most networks and writers are comfortable doing because it’s scary and traditionally you want to draw that out. Twenty-two episodes—that’s a real challenge—I feel like we’ve already told two giant seasons. The end of season 1 should have been Victoria whispering into Daniel’s [Joshua Bowman] ear, “Don’t say a word,” after there’s a murder on the beach—that would have been the logical [way to end it]. Then, we told another season after that, and now we’re on to seasons 3 and 4.
But, it’s fun and challenging, and I’ve got some smart people around me— from the actors to the writers to the directors—it’s a group effort. I’m not afraid anymore. I think I would have been. That was the cool thing coming into this season because now that I’ve done it, I know that it’s possible— and I know that we can do it again. So, I’m not coming from a place of fear anymore—maybe that will end up hurting me more than helping, but for now, I think just taking that leap of faith and knowing that you can’t know every answer. You have to be open to things you weren’t expecting. Sometimes the characters surprise you or the writers’ room surprises you— and things that you wanted to do turn out to be things that you don’t do which unravels something down the road that you wanted to do. So you have to find a new avenue to get there, but for me that’s exciting and that’s the process that keeps me coming back. That’s my cliffhanger.
20
Designate an Expertise
All series feature a variety of characters with different personalities and skill-sets. This is done to create conflict, illustrate multiple points of view, and help the audience differentiate characters. This dynamic is probably most prevalent in series involving cops, feds, spies, antihero criminals, doctors, and lawyers.1 Let’s examine these specialists in various genres.
Law Enforcement
In Person of Interest, Harold Finch (Michael Emerson) is a computer genius who invents an incredible surveillance machine that can predict acts of violence. He recruits former CIA field operative John Reese (Jim Caviezel) to help him stop the violent acts before they happen.
Castle works in a similar vein. Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion) is a famous crime novelist with a vivid imagination, while his partner Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) is an experienced New York City detective who believes in the simplest explanation. Even though the show is grounded in reality, Castle’s insane theories and outside-the-box thinking help the team solve their weekly mystery.
Law enforcement shows often have main characters whose ethics clash. In the season 8 episode of Law & Order titled “Stalker,” police partners Lennie Briscoe (Jerry Orbach) and Rey Curtis (Benjamin Bratt) come out on opposite sides of the law while investigating a murder. Lennie commits perjury to ensure the killer will get justice, while good Catholic Rey is unwilling to back his partner up in court. Due to their conflict in morality, the killer almost goes free.
In The Shield, Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis) leads the corruptible Strike Team, and Captain David Aceveda (Benito Martinez) desperately wants to take down the renegade cops. However, more often than not, their interest is the same: catch the bad guy. In the pilot episode, the police frantically search for a missing girl whose junkie father sold her to a pedophile. And even though they have the pedophile in custody, he’s unwilling to talk. As the girl’s life hangs in the balance, Aceveda reluctantly unleashes Vic who mercilessly beats a confession out of the pedophile. As a result, the police find the little girl before she dies.
Law enforcement shows invariably have a scientific/technological geek as a sidekick who helps the main characters solve a case or complete a mission. In NCIS, there are actually two of these characters: Abby Sciuto (Pauley Perrette) is a gothic forensics specialist, and Timothy McGee (Sean Murray) is an MIT and Johns Hopkins grad who serves as tech specialist. However, some shows place this “geeky” character in one of the lead roles. In Bones, Dr. Temperance Brennan (Emily Deschanel) is a brilliant forensic anthropologist who lacks social grace, and she’s partnered with savvy FBI agent Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz).
The X-Files uses the common “skeptic versus believer” dynamic. FBI agent Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) believes in aliens and the paranormal, while his partner Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) is a doctor who believes in what can be empirically proven. Their opposing viewpoints help them solve their bizarre slate of cases.
In Elementary, “geeks” comprise both lead roles. Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) is an aloof police consultant with unparalleled deductive reasoning skills, and former surgeon and current “sober companion,” Dr. Joan Watson (Lucy Liu), assists him with her medical expertise. The police detectives on the show simply help them.
Criminals and Antiheroes
Shows that deal with illegal enterprises also have characters who specialize in certain areas. In Sons of Anarchy, motorcycle club president Clay Morrow (Ron Perlman) is valuable because of his relationship with the IRA, which supplies the club with guns. Bobby Munson (Mark Boone Junior) is a level-headed member of the club who handles the books. Tara Knowles (Maggie Siff), wife of main character Jax Teller (Charlie Hunnam), is a doctor who provides clandestine medical assistance to members of the club. Happy (David Labrava) and Tig (Kim Coates) are two of the more savage members of the club, willing to handle the jobs that are particularly despicable.
In Breaking Bad, Walter White (Bryan Cranston) is the expert meth cooker due to his chemistry background and Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul), an experienced but petty drug dealer, handles distribution. Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk), a low-rent attorney, serves as the “drug lawyer,” helping his clients launder money and evade capture. As the enterprise grows, Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks), a former Philly police officer and corporate security expert, switches allegiances and joins Walt’s side as “cleaner” and hit man— after Mike’s former crime kingpin boss, Gustavo “Gus” Fring (Giancarlo Esposito) is literally blown away. Walter�
��s wife Skyler (Anna Gunn), an experienced bookkeeper, handles the accounting. As the operation expands, cold and calculating corporate executive, Lydia Rodarte-Quayle (Laura Fraser), helps the team expand into a global operation—but only to save her own hide.
Doctors
Medical shows also have characters with various specialties. In Grey’s Anatomy, the doctors each have different specialties: cardiothoracic surgery, neurosurgery, orthopedic surgery, plastic surgery, trauma, pediatrics, and other areas. The characters are defined by their specialty. For example, over-achiever Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh) fights her cohorts for the privilege to work with the “cardio gods” on any and all interesting heart surgeries.
In Royal Pains, Hank Lawson (Mark Feuerstein) works as a concierge doctor in the Hamptons after being fired from a New York City hospital for tending to a poor patient in critical condition instead of a bigwig in stable condition who dies unexpectedly. In order for his new business to thrive, Hank needs the help of his business savvy younger brother Evan (Paul Costanzo) who serves as CFO and his highly competent physician’s assistant Divya (Reshma Shetty).
In Nip/Tuck, Sean McNamara (Dylan Walsh) and Christian Troy (Julian McMahon) are best friends and partners in a successful plastic surgery business in Miami. Ranked at opposite ends of the spectrum in medical school at the University of Miami (Sean at the top and Christian at the bottom), Sean is the more skilled surgeon, while Christian is more adept at being charming and growing their client base. Nevertheless, they begin each new client consultation with the same question: “Tell me what you don’t like about yourself?”
In House, M.D., Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) purposely surrounds himself with doctors who disagree with him in order to come up with different ideas and approaches to solving their weekly medical mystery. In season 4, House is forced to assemble a new team from a pool of 40 applicants. He disqualifies the applicants for a host of reasons, but he cuts one doctor in particular because he’s too similar in thought process and logic; House doesn’t believe blanket agreement is conducive to helping patients. This is the method to his madness—and genius.
In The Mindy Project, Mindy Kaling portrays Dr. Mindy Lahiri who runs a small ob/gyn practice with her fellow doctors, Dr. Danny Castellano (Chris Messina) and Dr. Jeremy Reed (Ed Weeks). They are constantly at odds with the “quack” midwives who work upstairs and start to lure clients away from them. It’s science versus naturopathy between the two practices until it reaches a personal level when the midwives steal Morgan (Ike Barinholtz), the hilarious and earnest, ex-convict nurse whom Dr. Mindy and her colleagues have come to depend on, but Dr. Danny fires for sending a letter to his ex-wife. They win him back by proving that he’s part of their “family.”
The Workplace: Execs, Lawyers, and Fixers
Teamwork and specialization applies to shows that center around an office. In Mad Men, each member of the Madison Avenue advertising firm has an important role to play. Don Draper (Jon Hamm) is the wizardly word-smith who (almost) always manages to pull off a magical campaign to the clients. Roger Sterling (John Slattery) is the gregarious partner who placates the big clients with frivolous nights on the town. Pete Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser) and Ken Cosgrove (Aaron Staton) are the young account men who prove their worth by bringing in new business. Harry Crane (Rich Sommer) makes himself invaluable by becoming an expert in television before it became essential. Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss) begins her rise from Don’s secretary to his protégé by providing a unique perspective on a lipstick product; and Joan Harris (Christina Hendricks) is the glue that holds the office together. She wrangles all of the secretaries, manages the books, and later leverages her feminine wiles into a full partnership at the firm.
In Scandal, political fixer Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) runs a D.C. crisis management firm. Her team of “gladiators in suits” includes lawyers, investigators, and a former CIA agent who works as her technology expert. Each is beholden to Olivia for rescuing them from a disreputable past incident, and since she helped them reinvent themselves, they’ll do anything for Olivia now. See also: Ray Donovan.
Legal shows often have firm employees who bring a special set of skills to the table. In Suits, Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht) is a brash partner in a top-tier New York City law firm who has a knack for anticipating his opponent’s move and coming up with a clever counterattack. Mike Ross (Patrick J. Adams), his young associate who secretly doesn’t have a law degree, is indispensable because of his eidetic memory and nonlinear thinking. Louis Litt (Rick Hoffman), a surly partner in the firm, proves his worth with fastidiousness and skillful forensic accounting. In addition to the lawyers, the secretaries and paralegals play a vital role. Harvey’s secretary Donna (Sarah Rafferty) is a trusted confidant who knows all of the firm’s secrets, and Rachel (Meghan Markle), the firm’s best paralegal, provides key research assistance.
In The Good Wife, Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies) is a junior associate who’s fifteen years older than her competition at a Chicago law firm. However, her wisdom and motherly compassion give her an edge over the callous social-climbing young lawyers in the firm. Also, her husband Peter (Chris Noth), in prison for corruption while serving as state’s attorney, is uniquely qualified to give her inside information on cases and police misconduct. The firm also has a valuable investigator, Kalinda Sharma (Archie Panjabi), known for her assertiveness and discretion.
In The Office, we meet the people we see at work everyday: Michael Scott (Steve Carell) as the Regional Manager of the Scranton office of the paper company Dunder-Mifflin. Over the years, we watch as salesmen Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) and Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) compete to see who can sell the most paper, but also to see who’s really Michael’s right-hand man and later to be his replacement. Until poetically in the final season, Dwight is finally named Regional Manager of Scranton and Jim and Pam (Jenna Fischer) begin their new life in Austin at the sports marketing company that Jim’s been working at part-time. In addition to sales, accounting, reception, and the warehouse are all represented in this funny, irreverent, mockumentary-style workplace satire.
Out of Their Element
Sometimes characters are forced out of their specialty, which often leads to near disaster. In 24, Chloe O’Brian (Mary Lynn Rajskub) is a skilled computer analyst for the counter-terrorist agency, CTU. She routinely helps Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) thwart terrorist attacks with her unmatched computer expertise. However, when she’s forced into the field out of desperation, the mission almost falls apart.
In The West Wing, each member of the president’s staff has a role to play. C. J. Cregg (Allison Janney) is the press secretary who deftly handles the White House reporters. On one occasion, Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford) is needed to brief the press. The briefing goes terribly awry when Josh’s sarcastic wit and cavalier answers causes a feeding frenzy amongst the reporters.
In The Wire, officer Roland “Prez” Pryzbylewski (Jim True-Frost) is an apathetic cop who’s practically useless. However, he finds his calling within the police department as an in-house investigator while working on a sprawling drug case. In season 3, Prez randomly finds himself out in the field while picking up food and responds to a radio call. He draws on a suspect and kills him, but being unfamiliar with working in the field, he fails to identify himself as a police officer. Tragically, the suspect he shoots and kills is an undercover police officer.
According to Glen Mazzara, former showrunner of The Walking Dead, “Great TV shows are about cool people doing cool shit.” Designating an expert is the very definition of this cool adage.
Interview: Janet Tamaro
Janet Tamaro Credits
Best known for:
Rizzoli & Isles (Creator/Executive Producer/Writer) 2010–2013
Trauma (Supervising Producer/Writer) 2009–2010
Bones (Supervising Producer/Writer) 2006–2008
Sleeper Cell (Producer/Writer) 2005
Emmy Nominated (Outstand
ing Miniseries) 2006
Lost (Writer) 2005
WGA Award Nominated (Dramatic Series) 2006
CSI: New York (Co-Producer/Writer) 2004
Line of Fire (Co-Producer/Writer) 2003–2004
NL: What were the most significant challenges you had in adapting the Rizzoli & Isles novels?
JT: This was massively challenging partly because of where my head was at the time: I didn’t want to do (another) adaptation. I’d just had HBO pass on an adaptation I’d written of a memoir, so I was licking my wounds on a staff gig and in the middle of writing a spec pilot (coincidentally set in law enforcement). I probably said, “I’m never doing another adaptation,” on the day the project that became Rizzoli & Isles walked in my door.
The long boring Hollywood story (trust me, I’m so un-Hollywood, I do my own laundry and vacuum when I’m anxious) is the following: I’d changed agents and I was a new client at CAA. My agent, Rob Kenneally, called (here’s more un-Hollywood—Rob and I first met when I coached his kid and my kid on a soccer team. I’m sure he thought I was that loud soccer mom coach lady before somebody told him I was also a writer). He wanted to set up a meeting with a man named Bill Haber, who’d read a play I’d written and wanted to meet me. Haber is a legend in Hollywood—one of CAA’s three original partners who started that beast. He’s an eccentric, brilliant, kooky man. He’d optioned one of Tess Gerritsen’s murder mysteries. Here’s the part that is only getting funny four years later: he didn’t know which of Tess’ seven books he’d optioned. In fact, no one could tell me—not even my agent. Bill is busy and important and a jet-setter and a man with more energy than me, which is a fuck of a lot.