Great series come up with new scenarios and settings for each season that brilliantly continue the Compelling Crisis but with higher stakes, a new setting and a unique threat.

External and Internal Goal:

strong sense of place, time and tone, and an expression of the central theme of the series.

Show us who we will be following for 100 hours, in an active, unique way that says something about this person and their current, or soon-to-be, place in the world.

a shocking yet inevitable turn

Establish a Framing Device: Establish how this story will be told, the glue that holds it together.

No matter how clever or outlandish your scenario, it will not be compelling to an audience without characters we can invest in and root for.

Keep in mind that a “premise pilot” may not utilize the Week-to-Week engine of subsequent episodes.

You can only reinvent the form once you know the form. Once you know the past, you can create the future: