Reader George

I remember a plot point in season 5 of Mad Men was Don's daughter having her period. That's it, she just had her period.

Season 6 was better, but for a while there Mad Men just sat in neutral.

I mean, let's be real: Mad Men has nothing on Breaking Bad. It's overhyped. Writing's decent, but I don't find Don a persuasive character - hell, he bored me until the season 6 finale. That speech in the boardroom was when he finally clicked for me. With BB and MM ending, AMC's only really got Walking Dead and Hell on Wheels...and Walking Dead really needs to atone for the horror that was the Season 3 finale.

I love both BB and MM. I think they represent some of the best TV of the last 25 years. And I'm not an easy lay. I hate a lot of "hot" shows.

It likely comes down to a matter of personal taste but IMO if used sparingly all things polarizing (cuts, grammar/spelling, camera directions, asides, etc) should not pull a reader out of the story. If they do the story simply isn’t working for that reader. NOTHING pulls me out of a great story.

Gotta agree, nazardo. All this "pulled me out of the story" stuff just means you didn't like the story. If you're reading Chinatown and see a "smash cut" or a misspelling and are "pulled out of the story" I'd be inclined to think one of your elementary school teachers didn't do their job.

I will add one caveat: the first 10 pages. I can totally understand this stuff impeding someone from getting into the story in the first place, especially if they have read 1000+ scripts and have an itchy trigger finger.

Once the original showrunner left everything fell apart.

Yeah, Walking Dead already has strolled into that original-showrunner-gone quagmire.

@George The second season was great for napping through!

Love the setting and the mood. I'd watch Colin Farrell fold laundry. I think it was clunky with some of the character introductions, but will get better with a few more episodes.

I saw this coming a mile off. Season One was often great, but also frustrating, so it was overhyped from the start. But when I heard there were four leads, it indicated a certain lack of focus.

Episode one was tedious. Hoping it gets better...

I think Eisenberg was a big issue as well. He's a good actor but was miscast as Atlas. I'm assuming this was his attempt at breaking type but I was never quite sold on it.

I thought Eisenberg was great in The Social Network and Zombieland but at the same time it's hard for me to imagine him playing anything (well) outside of those types of characters.

NYSM was OK to me. Wouldn't call it horrible. Yeah, there's some major suspension of disbelief. But everyone in my theater seemed to be enjoying it so I went along for the ride.

Hate to put you back in the middle, but... a new one is due with better graphics, soon. Optimized for the new OS platforms - Yosemite and iOS 8.

But if your eyes don't experience fatigue due to the quality of the graphics, (like, mine do) then the current models should suffice. And I can read them on my 5s phone with an app called "Weekend Read". The crisp layout and the ability to alter the background help immensely.

Thanks, Z. I'm familiar with Weekend Read but don't have any iOS products yet.

Dreamhost is good, I found Internap to be faster

Thanks, Ax, I'll check them out. RC if I go with SiteGround I'll be sure to use your ref link.

Awesome. Thanks.

I can't honestly call a show original and innovative when it's basically a ripoff of the central plan and twists of FIGHT CLUB. I'd say Sam Esmail has MAJOR BALLS for music queuing WHERE IS MY MIND in the final minutes of Episode 9. That was like a giant f**k you to the audience. If the season finale or season 2 doesn't live up to those first nine episodes, the BACKLASH will destroy that show.

ya hear that mr. robot. when you not special anymore, nobody watchy you. you'll be yesterday's news.

I wouldn't rank this anywhere near Breaking Bad. And the whole "Luke I'm your father"/"Ewww I'm your sister"/figment of his imagination stuff is not original/groundbreaking. Again, loved the concept, weakening execution.

Very cool! Good investment, George! :-)

damn that keyboard is sexy, geekin out over here peepin the pics on amazon. might have to cop one myself

The Sculpt looks flimsy but it's a meaty keyboard. Always been a fan of the ergonomic keyboards. Still adapting to its formfactor but thus far a Thumbs Up.

Okay... BPL I have Chelsea repeating. The NFL I got the Bears. STOP LAUGHING!

Ah, haven't followed the EPL in a while but Go Gunners!

What's your favorite music to CRUSH scripts to?!!

Especially since Orange/ Black just came out. Sense8 is now firmly on the backburner while I work my way through Orange.

I went through it. It didn't get going until halfway through and I wasn't a huge fan of the ending. With everything else out there, I don't think it's worth the time commitment. Unfortunately I have to say the same for the new season of OITNB too. I was not a fan of what happened in the newest season. At all.

Thanks, TB community. Your comments were spot on.

What was the advice he gave you, neo45?

I asked him about the pilot of Breaking Bad and how people reacted to it given how much description he put in the action, which I've always read is a big no no when writing a script, and he essentially told me that people don't care what rules you break so long as what you write is good. So, go crazy people! Just write good stuff.

Makes sense. I've heard that again and again from successful writers.

LOL, Manny. You nailed it.

Hiddleston and Cumberbatch I think could both fit the next bond. Personally though, I've always been a fan of Tom Hardy, him and Daniel Craig in Layer Cake, loved that movie. That's why I was happy when they first announced Craig would be the next Bond, because I've been a fan of his and Hardy's for a long time. So, I'd like to see Hardy give it a go now. He'd jazz bond up a bit. Wouldn't mind seeing Kathryn Bigelow give directing Bond a stab either. Whoever direct...

Or perhaps it's time for Emily Blunt as Bond. She'd kick ass.

Yes, I went. I believe it was the same one uploaded. Was pretty cool to see. Definitely think a script that's a little more "upbeat" is better suited for a live read though.

No substitute for hearing talented actors give words life, however unnerving for the writer.

And the event actually was reviewed: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/behind-screen/laff-mad-men-chozen-actors-711995.

Are you the AllduhWay team? That gets us to 14 and 2 have yet to renew. Gonna nag them again...

Yes, that would be me, George. ;-)

@Zoned Welcome aboard! And let me know if current draft time works for you -- tentative but it seems to be working for everyone thus far...

Grandma, you promised you'd stop posting on TB!

@Elliott, You're trying to reason with senile. Can't be done.

Senile would not have been the cure, but the week moves on, and now I get to do a bit of catching up with my pal, Saul.

Great script, great movie.

Nope. Nope.

It's one of my favorite movies. Great stuff. I actually just watched it again myself.

That's what Szell said.

ftfy.

No, it's not safe.

Actually what she said was, "That'll be $3,796, please." Time to ramp-up the freelance coverage again.

Not attacking you, just curious about your comment. If you didn't like "Ender's Game"; you didn't like it. But, it was as much like a video game as any other speculative genre-driven movie. Have a good 1, George.

No worries. For me it's a problem when the protag is physically detached from the action. There's no mano a mano and that makes for a boring action scene.

Valid points. It didn't give a catharsis that matched up with the earlier set-ups that hinted at a potentially strong, physical, climax. This would allow an audience to examine Ender's approach played out in "real" battle against a traditional warrior's approach. So, in that light, I can see how it would be a letdown; and from that standpoint, the mind-link resolution with the Philip K. Dick. wounded "Wub" creature would feel sublime. I liked it as a guilty ple...

RIP for sure.

RIP

My contribution to the wave of obits: http://bit.ly/stern-lessons

Called Dashing Through the Snow. It's about a mobster who kidnaps a detective's kid, and Santa helps the detective get his kid back.

Ugh. I love Scott Rosenberg, but...ugh.

Ugh, indeed! But, oh, will Santa save Christmas? Or does the kid? No, wait -- no spoilers!

Felt too much like a watered down Fight Club. But overall, I still enjoyed the season, especially the acting talent. And the music was outstanding.

I'm kind of amazed how blatant they were about the Fight Club-esque reveal of his father. They treated it like this big reveal even though most people probably figured it out after the first or second episode.

Felt like they should have just acknowledged that his dad was a hallucination from the get-go.

adlocke, that was true for most eps, especially early, but season finale a dud in that regard.

really i lost interest in it

When did you drop out? I thought it was solid, with few exceptions. Reminded me of Winter's Bone.

Just didn't engage me. I loved WINTER'S BONE.

What screenwriting software and what OS? Just to prepare myself for things to come...

@sbbn: Movie Outline 3.1, but Final Draft and Screenwriter also have the annoying authorizations. I actually got caught in an endless loop at the Final Draft site a few months back.

That's depressing to hear - I use Final Draft and haven't had problems yet (!) but it's never good to hear about problems like that.

It was only last week that I realised the dexter intro was a metaphor for his killing method.

I watched seasons 1 -5 marathon style and I didn't catch it immediately either sly. Oh, and season 6 may be the worst of the bunch, but it gets better again in 7.

Season 6 sucked. Ed James O totally wasted. Terrible writing. Characters all over the place.