Blueprints: "The Americans"

Jorge continues to look at the pilot episodes for the Best Series contenders of this year’s Emmys. 

The Americans did a lot of things at once. It was a spy show, a family drama, a heavy exploration of the human psyche, a look into a broken marriage, and a workplace series, all neatly tied into one disguise-heavy package. That multi-tasking is what made it one of the greatest shows in the so-called New Golden Age of Television. 

The series premiered in 2013, and ended this spring after six seasons, so the pilot may be a bit removed from our collective memories. But let’s take a look at the very first sequence of the entire show, anyway. It immersed us immediately in the world of these people, no explanations given, and put us on high gear from the get-go...

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Blueprints: "GLOW"

As we steamroll towards Emmy season, Jorge will be diving into the pilot episodes for some of the Best Series nominees from now until the ceremony on September 17. This week, he steps into the ring for some gorgeous lady wrestling…

If a TV show has the Jenji Kohan seal (either as a creator or as an executive producer), there are several things you can expect from it: biting satire that effortlessly moves from dark comedy to emotional drama, a focus on female stories, and large ensembles.

GLOW, Netflix’s second big collaboration with Kohan after Orange Is the New Black (though here only in a producer capacity) is a perfect embodiment of these traits. Let’s take a look at how writer-creator’s for the hit comedy, Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch, introduce and establish the main characters that we will be following in this journey of self-empowerment and risky physical maneuvers...

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Blueprints: "Eighth Grade"

While we’re still caught in a wave of summer releases, Jorge takes a look at the script for what has become the indie comedy darling of the moment.

Capturing the essence of a teenager on screen is not easy. Since most screenwriters are decades removed from that time in their lives when they develop their scripts, the language and sentiment around it can feel removed or separate from reality. If this was true during the teen comedy heyday of the 80s, it’s even truer today, when the quickly evolving culture and technology make even a couple years’ difference a generational gap with young people...

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Blueprints: Emmy Nominees for Outstanding Writing in a Limited Series, Movie or Dramatic Special

Jorge has been taking a look at the Emmy history for this year’s writing nominees.  

Let’s take a look at the various shows that made up the six nominees for Writing in a Limited Series, TV Movie, or Dramatic Special. Even with the longest title in the writing categories, which aim to include made-for-TV films or broadcast theater performances, all of the nominees are from a limited series with multiple episodes (even Black Mirror, where every episode is self-contained, is part of a larger anthology). Some series submitted the entirety of their episodes, while others only a single standout episode (I ignore the specific rules, but I assume it has something to do with overall series length).

Since we’re huge fans of statistics here, let's take a look the elevator pitches and Emmy history stats after the jump…

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Blueprints: Emmy Nominees for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series

Jorge has been taking a look at the Emmy history for this year’s writing nominees. 

Let’s take a look at the four shows that made up the six nominees for Writing in a Comedy Series, the only writing category this year in which there were repeat nominations for the same show. Remember that, just as in the Directing categories, individual episodes are honored rather than overall series. For the fifth year in a row network shows were entirely shut out of the comedy writing category. (In fact network television was shut out of all three narrative writing category this year, only showing up in "Variety/Special"). Two newcomer shows and two established favorites got the comedy nominations; none of the shows have ever won for their writing.

Let's see the elevator pitches and the stats (we love a good round of statistics) after the jump... 

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