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I managed to turn the blank page of episode 6 into a page with half a scene on it, but only had 45 minutes to work today as there was a Halloween event at the pub. That half scene was fun to write though and I am hopeful that this one is just going to trip off the fingers when I get down to it on Monday. This might be my last time writing for these characters and after all the stress and heartache of the first five episodes (both in the story and in writing it) I am looking forward to doing one where things are a bit brighter for everyone.
It may not be the last ever episode (though I think it will be) but I had fun echoing the very first episode with this first scene (not that anyone will notice). And that will only be a cool thing to do if we don’t do any more. I felt a bit complacent today, like it’s all in the bag now, in spite of having to write a whole episode by Tuesday. But the feeling of having one script left to do is much less intimidating than having six left, especially when you have a fair idea of what the plot is going to be. One of the secrets of writing (or doing anything complicated) is to break it down into manageable and achievable tiny goals and get them done one by one, rather than getting overwhelmed by the magnitude of the entire task. I am really shit at doing this. I continue to be overwhelmed until I realise that I am about to die (or be humiliated or let other people down) and so have to do something.
I wish I was different.
It’s not fair that you’re not allowed to swap lives with more efficient/better looking/cleverer people. I guess if we could everyone would just keep swapping into the life of the same few people and no one would be able to enjoy it. Current system is probably best, but it’s not fair that some people get to be more efficient/better looking and cleverer all the time. And I’d like to have a word with God about why he made me this way. Curse you God…...
The village pub is under new management and they’re keen to be a hub for the village, which is great. Today they organised some Halloween stuff for the kids today. We did some pumpkin carving and biscuit decoration and a scavenger hunt and made some potions our of jelly, shaving foam and pumpkin innards. No one did anything funny enough to be in the sitcom. Sometimes I wonder why I even bothered having a family.
Having seen the actor Fisher Stevens in Succession, I had surprised my wife by pointing out that he had played the Indian character in Short Circuit. In hindsight that was a controversial casting as Stevens is white (and
Stevens has expressed regret about the role). Having made this connection though we thought we’d quite like to see the film again and it is quite a world where watching Succession leads to watching Short Circuit. The kids weren’t hugely into the film, but I mainly enjoyed it. Stevens’ character has some depth and isn’t an embarrassing stereotype. There’s a bit where Steve Guttenburg asks him where he comes from, where he reveals his ancestors came from Pittsburgh, which goes some way to satirising racist attitudes (you know, if it wasn’t delivered by a white man in make-up). Though it’s very difficult not to judge it by today’s (correct) standards and wish that this role had been played by an Indian actor. There are actually a fair surprising jokes about boners and the like, which don’t seem appropriate for a kids’ film and the robot seems to be sexually attracted to Ally Sheedy at one point which doesn’t really make sense (if humans were attracted to the robot then that would be more realistic). The kids got bored (or possibly offended by the brown face, the stupid woke little bastards) and we didn’t see the end. There was a point where we realised it was just the adults watching the kids’ film whilst the kids played with Duplo, which is probably apt. This was nostalgia for us, rather than entertainment for them.
