Adios, Cowboy – Arc 1 – Day 8

Tonight I’m giving you lucky people a tease of my review for episode four, Gateway Shuffle. In so much as I don’t want to get in the habit of doing this, I’m far too proud of this joke not to share it with the world. Also, a less-sleep deprived Adam might decide to cut it from the final build.

“…it would have been more meaningful than their attempt to single-handedly save Ganymede from an eco-terrorist bent on de-evolving the moon’s eight million residents into ape-people. Jesus fuck, what in the hell is this, the Super Mario Brothers movie?”

No progress yet on the Macross Missile side-quest from yesterday’s production diary. Today was one of those big days in the life of a cancer survivor where I had to get up at stupid o’clock to be prodded and scanned by the nice people who make sure my body hasn’t decided to resume production of rampant cells bent on killing me.

Here’s a cheerier thought, I don’t think I’ve shared my process on working through each episode.

Oh god, he’s talking about his “process.” Run, children, get out before his ego gets any bigger and blocks off the emergency exits.

Come on, it’s not that bad. Besides, if you’re the kind of person who reads the production diary on something like this, then you are probably interested in processes. It’s either that or you’re my man Blake reading this. What’s up, Blake?

The process is straightforward enough. I take a first watch of an episode and try to give it absolute focus and concentration. No Twitter. No Cambridge Analytica presents a data-harvesting forum for sharing cat pictures.

I try to make mental notes on the various beats where the plot moves. I try to recognize the throw-away references that might give me some insights into the episode. All the while I’m mapping out the dual-plots that drive each episode in a search for a resonant theme. Then I get up and do something else for at least eight hours in an effort to shunt the episode into the background processing of my brain.

Following that break, I do a second watch with my notebook at hand. This second screening comes with many pauses for reflection and note taking. The goal here is to avoid plot summary while building a rhetorical throughline to the episode. Once I’ve scribbled out a theme or two worth exploring, I sit down and write.

So far, each review is averaging about 1,000 words.

And that’s my process. Now that wasn’t so bad, was it?