Chapter 357: American TV Series

Chapter 357: Chapter 357: American TV Series

It was already eleven o’clock at night when she arrived at her parents’ home.

The car pulled up in front of the familiar courtyard. A warm yellow light was still glowing in a second-floor window, like a lighthouse in the darkness.

Irene pushed open the car door, and just as she reached the entrance, the door swung open.

Her mother, Eleanor, was wearing soft loungewear, a look of pleasant surprise on her face. "My little Irene, why are you back so suddenly?"

"Mom," Irene’s eyes grew warm. She stepped forward to hug her mother, burying her face in her shoulder and soaking in the familiar warmth and scent. "I just finished filming, and I didn’t want to be alone in Santa Monica, so I wanted to come see you and Dad."

Eleanor gently patted her back, her tone full of affection. "Silly child, why didn’t you tell me in advance that you were done filming? I could have prepared your favorite pineapple pie."

She led Irene into the house. The television in the living room was still on, playing Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, a series her mother had worked on as a screenwriter. The flames in the fireplace danced, making the whole house warm and cozy.

"Where’s Dad?" Irene looked around, but she didn’t see her father.

"Your father is getting older and can’t stay up late, so he’s already asleep." Eleanor poured her a cup of hot milk and handed it to her. "Drink something warm quickly. Your lips are purple from the cold. You must have suffered quite a bit during such a long shoot, right?"

Irene held the warm milk, sitting on the sofa by the fireplace as the warmth spread from her fingertips throughout her entire body.

She nodded and said softly, "It was indeed quite tough, but being able to shoot a project like this is also a form of training for my skills." She didn’t dwell on the topic, not wanting to worry her mother, and turned her eyes to the television. "By the way, Mom, is that the TV series you worked on as a screenwriter?"

Eleanor: "That’s right, this is Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 5. It mainly focuses on the process of the New York Police Department’s Special Victims Unit solving sex crimes, involving issues of protecting vulnerable groups. I was mainly involved in the content related to the kidnapping cases of pregnant women."

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit could be considered an evergreen of American television. The series is based on real cases, presenting a narrative arc of detectives dealing with suspects, covering social issues like domestic violence and sexual assault, and exploring the realistic dilemmas within legal proceedings.

Irene had watched a few seasons in her past life, but she had mostly forgotten the plot. After all, she had watched far too many crime dramas like this — from Europe, America, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea. Even many dramas from the mainland had similar plots.

Moreover, although this show had won an Emmy Award, compared to the other content in Irene’s mind, her impression of this show was only average.

Irene: "Mom, I’ve always been curious. You’ve worked as both a film screenwriter and a TV scriptwriter. What exactly is the difference between working in American television and film?"

Eleanor smiled. "The difference between the two is huge. They are simply two completely different creative ecosystems. Take Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, which I worked on, for example. Its creative model is a typical industrial system of American TV, with the core being the ’writers’ room system.’ It’s not just me writing alone, but a collective collaboration of a writing team of over a dozen people."

She explained to Irene as she recalled: "We have a ’showrunner’ who is both the head writer and the executive producer. They are responsible for controlling the story direction and stylistic tone of the entire show, as well as managing the team, liaising with the TV station, and coordinating the budget. They are the true core.

For example, the main arc of this season, which is about the issue of protecting the rights and interests of teenagers, was the general direction proposed by the showrunner first.

Then, our writers’ room held meetings for a whole week to break this general direction down into individual cases, which were then assigned to each person to write the scripts for their respective episodes."

Irene listened intently. This matched what she already knew, which was also the reason why she hadn’t started her career with television.

American TV series operate on a model of filming while writing, especially weekly dramas. Screenwriters write the first three episodes and the pilot. The TV station then decides whether to renew the entire season based on the ratings and audience feedback of the pilot.

Although the production cost of a TV series is much lower than that of a film, once the content of the first three episodes fails to attract viewers, all the preliminary preparation work goes down the drain. It’s no easier than making a film.

And even if the first three episodes are successful and the show is renewed, after each episode airs, the production team still needs to pay attention to audience comments, social media discussions, and ratings data to adjust the subsequent plot.

In Irene’s view, the level of complexity in the work was far greater than that of shooting a film.

Irene: "Mom, have you ever encountered a situation where you had to temporarily modify the script due to external reasons?"

Eleanor: "Of course. A female victim character I wrote previously had a particularly good audience response, so the showrunner decided to temporarily add more scenes for this character, making her a key witness in the subsequent episodes. I had to rewrite three episodes of the script overnight. This kind of situation should be hard to imagine in the film industry, right?"

Irene nodded. "That’s for sure. At least in all the movies I’ve filmed, I’ve never encountered this kind of situation."

Eleanor continued to explain gently: "The writing team for American TV series has a clear hierarchy. There are senior writers responsible for core creative ideas, regular writers who write specific scenes, and story editors specifically tasked with gathering information and providing case prototypes.

Unlike film screenwriters, who mostly complete a script individually or in small groups — even if there are revisions, it’s one-way: A finishes writing and passes it to B for revisions, B finishes and passes it to the coordinator for finalization — there is rarely such frequent collective collision between them."

Irene was thoughtful. If she wanted to produce a TV series, it seemed she would first have to establish an editorial team.

Irene: "I suppose the power structure of TV series and films is also different, right? When I shoot films, the director has the most say. How the script is ultimately presented is basically up to the director. In American TV series, is the screenwriter’s power greater?"

"You could say that." Eleanor nodded. "Films are ’director-centric,’ but American TV series are essentially ’producer-centric,’ and this producer is often the head writer.

For a long-running show like Law & Order, it has gone through several directors, and a new director might be swapped in every two episodes, but the writing team and the showrunner remain fixed, which is why the style and narrative logic of the entire show can remain consistent.

Directors in American TV series are more like ’executive directors,’ responsible for translating the text of the script into visuals, and rarely can they change the core plot. This is completely different from the control you have as a film director."

No wonder almost no director in Hollywood can blossom in both the film and television circles simultaneously. Even if a director becomes famous initially by shooting TV series, once they get the opportunity to shoot a film, they will abandon the television circle without hesitation.

And those who have been mingling in the film circle from the beginning would never be desperate enough to shoot TV, unless they weren’t doing well.