Don't Encourage Us

A private jet pilot who flies the ultra-wealthy has a side gig: killing billionaires. That's the pitch. The question is — what kind of story does it become? In this Story Break, the hosts take one provocative concept and run it through four completely different genre frameworks, exposing how the same premise produces radically different stories depending on which creative decisions you make. The f...

We take a one-line concept and build it into a full series pitch over 45 minutes — characters, backstory, running gags, episode ideas, romance, soundtrack, and the format debate that could take it from web series to HBO. In this episode: The pitch: a sitcom about a sitcom — where the "dad" chases his castmates around set trying to be their actual father How a documentary-style format (think The Of...

In This Deep-Dive Analysis, We Deconstruct the Absurdity: The World's Worst Mother: Why Mom’s Level 10 Delusion was the single most unbelievable and narratively convenient element, and how her character was sacrificed because the script writers couldn't find a logical way to end her arc. Robot vs. Villain: The essential difference between Brandon Breyer (a one-note Terminator who chews forks) and...

Is the creature in Lights Out a ghost that hides in the dark or is it something much more unsettling? Creative professional Steve Franco joins to dig into what makes this 2016 horror film more than a simple monster movie. In this episode: Why a paper-thin concept became a surprisingly layered film The mental illness angle: is the creature a physical manifestation of depression? The vampire ghost t...