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Some ideas for my mystery web series - please, critique them!

F

Future_Screen

I told you that I’m planning a mystery web series á la X-files. And I got many ideas by asking the question “What would never happen?”. Yep! So, easy.
But so easy it sounds, so easy it can be shit. I want to ask you, which the following ideas do you like and why? How can I make them better? Or do you have an idea?

Idea #1: The Greek gods are real (the idea no. 1 can be also for world-building.)
Idea #2: A vampire spreads terror in a town.
Idea #3: Someone controls bee swarms and kills people with them
Idea #4: A protagonist is attacked by hellhounds, but nobody is believing him. (comment on no.1)
Idea #5: An App makes your wishes come true.
Idea #6: Witches are real
Idea #7: A protagonist is trapped in a video game, which is controlled by an A.I. (*cough* Tron: Legacy just with real-life elements *cough*)
Idea #8: A werewolf spreads terror in a town
Idea #9: Daemon (the Greek equal to demons) are running a cinema company and brainwashes their visitor.
Idea #10: The boss, of the protagonist, gets a new secretary (who acts perfectly like a normal person), who is secretly an A.I.

P.S.: If you ask for “Aliens”, I didn’t have an idea without sounding cheesy.
 
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Future_Screen said:
I told you that I’m planning a mystery web series á la X-files. And I got many ideas by asking the question “What would never happen?”. Yep! So, easy.
But so easy it sounds, so easy it can be shit. I want to ask you, which the following ideas do you like and why? How can I make them better? Or do you have an idea?

Idea #1: The Greek gods are real (the idea no. 1 can be also for world-building.)
Idea #2: A vampire spreads terror in a town.
Idea #3: Someone controls bee swarms and kills people with them
Idea #4: A protagonist is attacked by hellhounds, but nobody is believing him. (comment on no.1)
Idea #5: An App makes your wishes come true.
Idea #6: Witches are real
Idea #7: A protagonist is trapped in a video game, which is controlled by an A.I. (*cough* Tron: Legacy just with real-life elements *cough*)
Idea #8: A werewolf spreads terror in a town
Idea #9: Daemon (the Greek equal to demons) are running a cinema company and brainwashes their visitor.
Idea #10: The boss, of the protagonist, gets a new secretary (who acts perfectly like a normal person), who is secretly an A.I.
Click to expand...
What you have here is a terrific Anthology Series. Rather than write a series á la "X Files" you have
a series á la "Twilight Zone", "The Outer Limits", "Black Mirror", "Tales of the Unexpected", "Alfred
Hitchcock Presents", "Amazing Stories", "Night Gallery"... I could go on; there is a long history of
these types of series. Both Netflix and Amazon Prime are keeping this grand tradition alive today.

Writing each of these ideas into a 30 to 50 page script not only would be great experience, but
you will have all 10 episodes of your web series. You could then offer the scripts to directors;
here in indietalk or in your own school.

Each one of these ideas has great potential. You have some good ideas here. I sure wish you
would write a couple of scripts. I would be interested in directing Idea #5 or Idea #10.
 
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I liked the bees and the cinema.

The beekeeper can even have his own brand of honey called Killer Honey.
 
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Umm.... First off, NICE WORK! :thumbsup:

These are all great ideas, and good on you for getting in there and getting started.

I'll have to second directorik and say that you may be better served by making it an Anthology series. Just as cool if not cooler than a sit-horror (is that a genre?), and definitely easier to write. You can always write them as an anthology first, and then write a thread that ties them together later if you really feel the need to.

My personal $.02 is that you should make the werewolf story the thread that actually somehow ties a few (like, 2 or three) of the stories together, but you don't really figure that out until the last story in the supposed "trilogy". Until then you can think it's a maniac, or another creature, or whatever. Perhaps the werewolf is also responsible for the bees, or is a witch, etc.
George R.R. Martin wrote an awesome short called "the Skin Trade" about a multi-generational werewolf family, and it's worth reading. No real reason for suggesting this other than I just think werewolves are cool, basically.
 
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#1 Cliche, last years in Hollywood we see all the time that Greek Gods are real.
#2 Stay away from vampires, they are for kids :P
#3 Could be a great horror movie.
#5 and #7 Could be great movies.

Don't name what you want to write, just start writing it. You might see that instead of an episode, it has to become a 2 hours movie.
 
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Future_Screen said:
I told you that I’m planning a mystery web series á la X-files. And I got many ideas by asking the question “What would never happen?”. Yep! So, easy.
But so easy it sounds, so easy it can be shit. I want to ask you, which the following ideas do you like and why? How can I make them better? Or do you have an idea?


Idea #7: A protagonist is trapped in a video game, which is controlled by an A.I. (*cough* Tron: Legacy just with real-life elements *cough*)
Click to expand...

Or perhaps something withFrankenstein's monster type things. GMO mosquitoes have red eyes, but what if a modification to a more dangerous animal has dastardly consequences?
 
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