Working As A Showrunner Has

I Was Never That Kid Who Grew Up In New York And Was Always At The Arthouse Watching Important Films. I Was The Kid Who Grew Up In The Midwest Where There Weren't Any Art Films, And I Watched Tv. And That Was Really The Medium That Affected Me And That I Fell In Love With.

Nothing Makes Me Happier Than To Have A Smart Person Tell Me Why The Show Is Smart, Especially If I Didn't Intend That. I Tend To Be A Very Instinctual Writer, And I Don't Plot Shows Out Like, "this Is My Thesis And This Is How I'm Going To Subtly Sneak My Thesis Into This Episode." I Just Approach It From, "we Know These Characters Well, Here Are The Situations That They're In, Now How Would They Behave? What Would The Consequences Be?" And It's Always Fun To See How People Interpret That And Dissect It Afterward, And Make Me And The Other Writers Seem Probably Smarter Than We Really Are.

I've Spent A Lot Of Time Thinking About What The Audience Would Want. That's My Job, Is To Anticipate Ahead Of The Audience.

There Are Story-room Sessions Where You Think About The Big Picture, Like A Novel, But Once You Have Certain Things In Place, You Have To Treat Each Episode Like An Hour Of Tv, And Think That Maybe This Will Be The Only Episode That Anyone Will Ever Watch. You Want To Have Some Sort Of Beginning, Middle, And End To The Episode, Even If You Have Storylines That Are Carrying Over. You Still Want It To Feel Like A Cohesive Hour Of Entertainment. And You Can't Think About Both At The Same Time.

Tv Is Just Such A Fast-moving Medium That You Do What You Can Do, And What You Can't Do, You Don't Worry About Too Much.