Writers' blog - Episode 1
How do you write for a show like The Cult? In the first of the weekly blogs, Peter Cox talks about the research he and the writing team had to do before committing the ideas to paper...
So, here we are. Episode 1 has aired, and I've been asked to
begin a writer's blog for the show. David (the co-writer), Yvonne
(story editor), and I are hoping to post something after each
episode, giving some insights around the creation process, answer
any questions, and - you never know - give some hints about what's
really going on, and where we might be heading. So keep coming back
and taking a look over the next few weeks.
Seeing as this is the first installment, I'll keep things broad,
and talk a little about the conception of the show.
I don't mind admitting, right off the bat, the idea of writing a
series about a cult was exciting, but daunting.
How do you approach a series about a cult? How is it possible to
create myself or the audience to relate to people doing something
so far removed from our day to world? Certainly people are
fascinated by cults, but why? I can't answer for other people, but
the more I thought about it, my own interest stemmed from the
absolute extremes of belief and behavior that take place in them.
Jonestown, Heaven's Gate, Order of the Solar Temple, the Manson
Family, Waco - how do these things happen? How do people get to the
point of completely abandoning their old lives and connections to
family and friends, and doing something that most of us would see
(from the outside) as being insane? And how do we explore this
concept without being exploitative or simply tasteless?
The answer to all that was, quite simply, the hell of a lot of
research. The development team spent a massive number of hours
poring over books, articles, interviews with past and present cult
members. How did they become involved? Why did they stay?
What did they hope to get out of it?
For me, the more I read, something that became increasingly clear
was that these people wanted three things: 1 Love and acceptance.
2. The promise of a better world; a genuine desire to create the
perfect society, free from the pain and difficulties of modern
life. 3. Answers: Do we have a soul? Is there life after death; is
there more to the reality of the world than we have been led to
believe; is there a bigger truth out there to be discovered?
Ultimately, it's these three core ideas that became the themes of
the series.
If we're going to invest any time with the members of the Cult,
they can't be idiots, brainwashed zombies or acting too
illogically. Like most cult members, Ryan is a smart guy, so Edward
has to be strong and convincing: not just to the characters, but
also the audience. Ultimately, you want people to wonder: hell,
maybe Edward is actually right all along...
On the subject of character, when developing the characters, the
aim was to allow them to function in a way that would embody the
themes of the series. I guess that's kind of an obvious statement,
but it's the difference between the audience observing the themes
and stories of the show in a removed, outward way vs emotionally
living it through the eyes of the characters. I've already
suggested some of our big 'cultish' themes: family, loss, love,
life/death, the rational/mystery, physical/metaphysical, so as the
series goes on you'll see our characters directly confronted and
effected by these ideas, and hopefully, - the audience - will be
confronted and effected by them too.
As our main ep1 character, Michael's a pretty straight guy - a
lawyer - he tends to see everything as logical, rational. So
immediately, he's someone right out of his comfort zone when
seemingly illogical, mysterious things happen. However, he's not
the type of guy to let himself be carried along by the seas of
fate, without putting up a fight: he wants answers.
Edward is, in many ways, Michael's opposite, though the two share
many similarities: both are leaders, both are convincing talkers,
both believe strongly in what they're doing. They're equals. We
only catch a few glimpses of Edward in the first episode, but
quickly we get to understand him more, and what he believes in. The
vital thing to Edward is that he needed to be convincing. I don't
think anyone would be terribly interested in the idea of a 'generic
crazy cult leader' type character who ultimately had little
sensible motivation. So there was a lot of energy spent on giving
him a logical world view, making that view perceptive, intelligent
and convincing, and letting those reasons behind that view slowly
be uncovered through the arc of the series. So there's a bit of
Nietzsche, David Smail, Fritz Perls & Gandhi in Edward; as well
as a shade of the Jones/Koresh/Applewhite set.
So in many ways, these two characters embody the sorts of ideas
that attracted me when creating the series: namely, the chance to
explore an alternative view of the world that is real and
convincing; give our rational, logical world a shakeup, and suggest
maybe there is something much bigger out there that, for the
moment, we're only seeing a tiny part of...
This is the seed of where any Cult begins, and it's the seed of
what I hope people will find to be an idea worth exploring over the
next 12 episodes... (and hopefully beyond, because there's a whole
lot more to go than that...).
So there you have it. Hopefully not a too dry an explanation! If
there's any questions, pop them on the forum, and I'll we'll try to
answer them in the blog. Don't ask about plot spoilers though.
We're all sworn to secrecy.
If you have any questions for the writers, then submit them on our
message board here.
