I was watching Bull, Michael Weatherly’s new show, on TV tonight. It’s a great show by the way. Anyway, I realized why the actor who plays Chunk Palmer, Bull’s ex-NFL, gay, fashion adviser, looked familiar. He’s Chris Jackson, the actor who played George Washington in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hit Broadway musical, Hamilton. I have to say, the man has got incredible range as an actor. I hope they make a film of Hamilton. Otherwise it is likely to be years before we get to see it out here in the boondocks.
I don’t watch much TV these days. I try to watch a British mystery on Sunday afternoon and we watch several British game shows on You Tube when we can. But Tuesday night I spend three hours in front of the TV set. I still write my blog post, it just gets pushed back to ten o’clock. I watch NCIS, Bull, and NCIS: New Orleans. They are well written, well acted, and each tell a bigger story than any individual episode can account for.
I’m learning the craft of writing by pushing myself to write. I write little sketches sometimes here in my blog. I participate in NaNoWriMo. But what I aspire to is to write a bigger story. A series with heart and a broad story like the shows that I watch on Tuesday night. My show won’t be about federal agents or jury consultants. It will probably be urban fantasy if I can pull it off. But I will have shows like the various Star Trek franchises, the Star Gate franchises, and the NCIS franchises to thank for teaching me what good story telling is all about.
I want to push the medium to new places that it hasn’t been before but I’ll be flattered if someone should happen to say that a show that I create reminds them of one of these shows that has inspired me.
Sweet dreams, don’t forget to tell the ones you love that you love them, and most important of all, be kind.