As we open onto episode five of ONLY MURDERS, something unusual happens: suddenly we hear from a new character, the mysterious Tie Dye guy, who narrates as he stalks Mabel.
At first, this choice is a little jarring. Only the 1st episode featured individual narration. But then each of the three following eps did focus in particular way on one of the three characters. And there was narration going on all along in the recording of the podcast itself.
But most importantly, the set up and style of the narration follow the exactly format of the three leads in the pilot--it happens at the opening, and involves our mysterious Tie Dye Guy talking to us about some aspect of living in New York City, which ends up being a way of talking about something personally significant to him--in this case, Mabel herself.
So rather than seeming like a random turn, the choice seems to signal that we're introducing a new co-lead.
Which, as it turns out, is not correct. Tie Dye Guy, aka Oscar, is certainly important in episode 105 and has a role to play going forward. But that's it. He'll come and go, just like Charles' Jan. In fact the twist on the narrative technique (episode 105 is in fact called "Twist") establishes a new pattern, in which each new episode is narrated by someone else that is now significant to the case--Detective Williams; Theo Dimas; Sam the new super fan. It expands our notion of the universe of the show--dramatically, once we get to Sam and the other Arconiacs. It becomes a new part of the game of the show, if you will; you enter into the next episode wondering who's POV you're going to get now.
And that change creates a break in the storytelling. The first four episodes were in a sense Act One--and they take us through the opening moves of the team's investigation, right to the moment the men realize Mabel is involved and now everything has changed for them. The next five are Act Two, with the additional voices signaling that things are getting more and more complicated, unpredictable and bigger in scale. And the finale, which I'm going to guess is going to feature either Tim Kono speaking from the dead, his murderer, the 3 leads again, or, maybe, Cinda Canning, is going to offer us some sense of resolution--which if I had to guess will also expand the universe of the show that much farther. (I'm two eps from the end, by the way.)
Tomorrow I'm going to talk about Theo's silent episode, ep 107, which is not only the purest and finest iteration of the Act Two narrative strategy but just one of the best TV episodes any of us are going to watch this year. Where episodes like 105 lay the track for having other characters speak, 107 is absolutely Theo's episode, and it's kind of a masterpiece.
But today I just wanted to highlight the show's choice to take a pre-existing technique of the show and repurpose it. It's not something you see a lot of shows do With every single move we make in a pilot, we establish a grammar for the show, a storytelling language. Generally shows then use that grammar to tell their stories. THE WIRE pilot has things going on amidst the cops and the dealers and politics of various kinds and conversation about America. (Wow that's oversimplified.) And then that's the show. THE SOPRANOS involves mob stuff and Tony's family and Jersey and also dreams and anxiety attacks. And then that's the show.
It's the rare show that will do more than that with the grammar it's built, especially in season one. You don't want to confuse the audience or make them unhappy. But ONLY MURDERS shows it can work, in fact it can add whole new layers to the story. You just have to make sure that it also connects back enough to its original "usage" that it's clear this is still the same show.
Rereading a pilot of your own, what are the rules or the language you implicit set up for your story? What might be some ways you could play with those rules down the line?
