At its heart, the writing galls me and drives my ongoing frustration. It's unrepresentative of what was broken in the writers' room (most of the time without the head writer). This was the result of massive rewriting that the writers of their episodes didn't even have a say in. As a consequence, characters constantly do things and make decisions that I find confusing, unmotivated by their backstories, and ultimately uncompelling. In fact, tomorrow I am sharing a detailed breakdown of the pilot script that was greenlit and what ultimately showed up on screens - an episode which is, as I describe it, a MasterClass on how not to make good TV. I suppose I just wish I could go back in time and find a different partner, almost any other head writer in fact, to work on this series. I think it wouldn't resulted in a show that almost the entire writers' room skipped watching in its entirety.
Did this teach you anything about how many fucks you have to give to make a job worthwhile? There are certain writers for hire who don’t give any fucks at all, and good for them, they get the job done and they get paid. There are others - like you, I’d guess - who pour all of themselves into a project and give all the fucks in the world. But by giving all those fucks, you open yourself up to all kinds of shit when things get shitty. So for every job there’s a balance between the number of fucks it takes to keep you writing (in Dracula’s case, writing all the way up to the season finale), and the number of fucks you have to give up, to protect yourself from the shit. My question is: How many fucks?
I do pour myself into my work, so I have many, many, many fucks to give. But I've discovered there's a cap to those fucks. The number is different depending on how personal a project is to me. Did I originate it? Am I the creator, but I'm doing so with someone else's idea/world? Is it a film/TV script, a novel, or a comic book? I've recently staffed on someone else's series for the first time, supporting a friend of mine who is the star of it, and I discovered I genuinely loved every minute of it. My fucks ceiling was very low there, because I was servicing someone else's vision, and so I never came close to hitting it. Instead, I reveled in the whole thing, just getting to write for my friend and, more so, work with such talented people I could help do what they had to do with whatever tools I had in my own creative toolbox. Not sure if this answers your question entirely...but the number is varied and I rarely hit it these days, thankfully. "DRACULA" taught me how to make better decisions upfront about whom I work with.
Thank you so much for answering my question. I really appreciate it. I am deeply saddened and disgusted by what you want through, with Dracula 2013, to have your intentions for the story completely turn on it’s head like that, is truly terrible and be nothing like you imagined even worst. I find the head writer and mr smiley’s actions and behaviour unbelievable. They should have respected you and your fellow writers work and even more so the work of Bran Stoker, because no one would be here within him. I saw the interview with Harley Peyton, what a nice person he is and I am glad you had him in your corner. I have a friend like that at work. We have each other backs and fight each other corners.
This whole Dracula experience you had, has really opened my eyes as a hobby writer to the inner workings of it all and how it can go terribly wrong. Take your time to digest my comments and take in the meaning, it is very important, even more so after what you went through. You may not feel you can take credit for it, but you can. It has been life changing for me and I wish I could have been part of your writer’s room. I will be forever gratefully.
I have to say this about Let there be light. I have never saw such a beautiful love scene as that between Mina and Alexander. It was also play beautifully by JRM and Jessica de Gouw. Try to watch Dracula again and this time let JRM’S Dracula take you on his journey and the journey of Mina and Alexander’s love story. See it through their eyes this time.
Good question. I'm very proud of the actors we cast, who delivered outstanding performances. While I don't agree with the decisions that were made about tone (which I find unintentionally campy rather than intentionally so (something I enjoy)), the direction is quite often extraordinary, especially as the series progresses. That said, I stopped watching the series after Episode 4. Its upward trajectory could've crash-landed in the next episode.
Hi Tracey, still working on getting to your earlier comment. It was long, and so a lot to digest. As to your question here, my answer is a resounding no. The final episode bears my name, but bears almost no resemblance to what I wrote. All the parts are there, but then changes were made for no reason I can discern, and those changes were all inexplicable to me. I've only seen the episode once, when I live-tweeted it for fans, and I will be happy to never think about it again after this month. My confusion at it is so extreme that when the writer-producers (including me) met with NBC to discuss the episode, NBC asked us what comes next in Season 2. The head writer looked at me to answer, which I suspect is because he had never bothered to ask me what was next or probably even why he was having characters do the things he was ultimately doing to them against my will. By this point, I wanted no part of the narrative train wreck he had turned my series into and bluntly answered with some version of, "So many changes have been made, I couldn't begin to explain what's going to happen. You should try." From my recollection, he didn't have an answer. As for what I had planned for Seasons 2 and 3, again, my series arc has very little to do with most of Season 1. To be clear, while a very large percentage of Season 1 is the story, at least in broad strokes, I set out to write, the rest isn't just different...but opposite to my intentions. There was almost an active effort, or so it felt, to undermine the original story and make it into something else. Harley Peyton alludes to this at length in my conversation with him last week: https://colehaddon.substack.com/p/looking-back-at-the-soul-sucking. Consequently, my series arc now exists as part of a parallel dimension's storyline that involves a TV series I actually watched rather than abandoned after Episode 4. Again, I am hugely grateful that so many people love this TV series, such as yourself, and what happened to me and my story and the work of so many other writers and craftsman should not impact that enjoyment at all. These stories largely exist for other writers and artists for educational purposes.
If you could change one thing about the show that we saw what would it be?
At its heart, the writing galls me and drives my ongoing frustration. It's unrepresentative of what was broken in the writers' room (most of the time without the head writer). This was the result of massive rewriting that the writers of their episodes didn't even have a say in. As a consequence, characters constantly do things and make decisions that I find confusing, unmotivated by their backstories, and ultimately uncompelling. In fact, tomorrow I am sharing a detailed breakdown of the pilot script that was greenlit and what ultimately showed up on screens - an episode which is, as I describe it, a MasterClass on how not to make good TV. I suppose I just wish I could go back in time and find a different partner, almost any other head writer in fact, to work on this series. I think it wouldn't resulted in a show that almost the entire writers' room skipped watching in its entirety.
Did this teach you anything about how many fucks you have to give to make a job worthwhile? There are certain writers for hire who don’t give any fucks at all, and good for them, they get the job done and they get paid. There are others - like you, I’d guess - who pour all of themselves into a project and give all the fucks in the world. But by giving all those fucks, you open yourself up to all kinds of shit when things get shitty. So for every job there’s a balance between the number of fucks it takes to keep you writing (in Dracula’s case, writing all the way up to the season finale), and the number of fucks you have to give up, to protect yourself from the shit. My question is: How many fucks?
I do pour myself into my work, so I have many, many, many fucks to give. But I've discovered there's a cap to those fucks. The number is different depending on how personal a project is to me. Did I originate it? Am I the creator, but I'm doing so with someone else's idea/world? Is it a film/TV script, a novel, or a comic book? I've recently staffed on someone else's series for the first time, supporting a friend of mine who is the star of it, and I discovered I genuinely loved every minute of it. My fucks ceiling was very low there, because I was servicing someone else's vision, and so I never came close to hitting it. Instead, I reveled in the whole thing, just getting to write for my friend and, more so, work with such talented people I could help do what they had to do with whatever tools I had in my own creative toolbox. Not sure if this answers your question entirely...but the number is varied and I rarely hit it these days, thankfully. "DRACULA" taught me how to make better decisions upfront about whom I work with.
Exactly the kind of answer I was hoping to provoke. But the correct answer is “seven.”
Pretty much, yeah.
Hi Cole,
Thank you so much for answering my question. I really appreciate it. I am deeply saddened and disgusted by what you want through, with Dracula 2013, to have your intentions for the story completely turn on it’s head like that, is truly terrible and be nothing like you imagined even worst. I find the head writer and mr smiley’s actions and behaviour unbelievable. They should have respected you and your fellow writers work and even more so the work of Bran Stoker, because no one would be here within him. I saw the interview with Harley Peyton, what a nice person he is and I am glad you had him in your corner. I have a friend like that at work. We have each other backs and fight each other corners.
This whole Dracula experience you had, has really opened my eyes as a hobby writer to the inner workings of it all and how it can go terribly wrong. Take your time to digest my comments and take in the meaning, it is very important, even more so after what you went through. You may not feel you can take credit for it, but you can. It has been life changing for me and I wish I could have been part of your writer’s room. I will be forever gratefully.
I have to say this about Let there be light. I have never saw such a beautiful love scene as that between Mina and Alexander. It was also play beautifully by JRM and Jessica de Gouw. Try to watch Dracula again and this time let JRM’S Dracula take you on his journey and the journey of Mina and Alexander’s love story. See it through their eyes this time.
Thanks, Tracey!
Given everything that you've described in these articles, is there anything about "DRACULA" that you do like?
Good question. I'm very proud of the actors we cast, who delivered outstanding performances. While I don't agree with the decisions that were made about tone (which I find unintentionally campy rather than intentionally so (something I enjoy)), the direction is quite often extraordinary, especially as the series progresses. That said, I stopped watching the series after Episode 4. Its upward trajectory could've crash-landed in the next episode.
Hi Cole, Did the last episode of Dracula satisfy you more than the first, was the ending what you wanted?
In my story, it was a great jumping off point. I learned that was no ending only a beginning.
What did you have planned for season 2 and 3?
Hi Tracey, still working on getting to your earlier comment. It was long, and so a lot to digest. As to your question here, my answer is a resounding no. The final episode bears my name, but bears almost no resemblance to what I wrote. All the parts are there, but then changes were made for no reason I can discern, and those changes were all inexplicable to me. I've only seen the episode once, when I live-tweeted it for fans, and I will be happy to never think about it again after this month. My confusion at it is so extreme that when the writer-producers (including me) met with NBC to discuss the episode, NBC asked us what comes next in Season 2. The head writer looked at me to answer, which I suspect is because he had never bothered to ask me what was next or probably even why he was having characters do the things he was ultimately doing to them against my will. By this point, I wanted no part of the narrative train wreck he had turned my series into and bluntly answered with some version of, "So many changes have been made, I couldn't begin to explain what's going to happen. You should try." From my recollection, he didn't have an answer. As for what I had planned for Seasons 2 and 3, again, my series arc has very little to do with most of Season 1. To be clear, while a very large percentage of Season 1 is the story, at least in broad strokes, I set out to write, the rest isn't just different...but opposite to my intentions. There was almost an active effort, or so it felt, to undermine the original story and make it into something else. Harley Peyton alludes to this at length in my conversation with him last week: https://colehaddon.substack.com/p/looking-back-at-the-soul-sucking. Consequently, my series arc now exists as part of a parallel dimension's storyline that involves a TV series I actually watched rather than abandoned after Episode 4. Again, I am hugely grateful that so many people love this TV series, such as yourself, and what happened to me and my story and the work of so many other writers and craftsman should not impact that enjoyment at all. These stories largely exist for other writers and artists for educational purposes.