Review: MANIFEST

​MANIFEST - Great Premise vs. Sustainable Series. Script analysis.

​- Know the answer to the overarching question.
- Have a plan.
- Don't answer questions with new rules that contradict rules that have already been established.
- Be aware of redundancies in dialogue because if the writers don't know the answers, the characters spend a lot of time asking why or how and answering with only theories. Should those theories now be rules?
- When dealing with science fiction or supernatural/fantasy elements, adding more because they are cool effects convolutes the rules.
- Solve the problem quickly (within the first season. If the season is more than 12 episodes long, solve it by mid-season). Then how does the series continue? By complicating the answer with new information or problems. By the time the series ends, we shouldn't still be solving/ convoluting the original problem. However, it should all be organically connected.
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MANIFEST sets up then breaks rules, sets up rules that don't pay off, and becomes very formulaic in dialogue because it's obvious no one, not the characters or writers - no one knows WTF happened with flight 828.

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AUTHOR

Shannan E. Johnson is a former creative executive at The Syfy Channel turned CEO + Head Consultant of The Professional Pen, a script consultancy that develops screenwriters from idea to pitch to become more confident storytellers ready for a professional screenwriting career, and consults with scripted development teams at entertainment companies to streamline their notes process to get to pre-production more efficiently.