One Mississippi - Pilot Outline

Very interesting and somber pilot. The writing is great and there's plenty to learn from this one. Good example of a show with a strong lead character in a very realistic world. Feels like the beginning of an indie movie almost. This is a tone we'd like to hit in a show at some point, so this is definitely worth revisiting. 

Written by Diablo Cody & Tig Notaro

1. RADIO STATION: Tig tells a story about where she grew up in the south.
2. LAX: Tig goes into a bathroom. Then another. She’s squatting in line. She seems exasperated. We’re wondering why.
3. AT THE GATE: Tig sits down before she boards. The flight attendant needs her to get up. Tig knows she has to but she really doesn’t wanna get on this plane. Tig references that she’s sick.
4. NOTE: Already there’s a big question and a mystery and that keeps me wanting to read. A couple actually: why REALLY doesn’t she wanna go, and what is the sickness she referenced? 
5. AIRPORT ARRIVALS: She is at her destination. Her brother REMY picks her cup and her step dad BILL is in the back seat. We learn that she had both breasts removed. 
6. CAR, CONTINUOUS: Tig asks how mom is. We learn mom is getting taken life support and that’s why Tig came down. 
7. GOOD ACTION LINE: Bill leans forward stiffly and answers with a lack of emotion. 
8. MOOD: They create it so quickly and so believably. 
9. CAR, MOVING: They’re on the way to the hospital. An upbeat song comes on. Bill turns it off.
10. NICE WAY TO ESTABLISH PLACE: We see a sign that says: WELCOME TO BAY ST.LUCILLE, * MISSISSIPPI. It’s a beautiful area: huge trees, gorgeous beaches, old historic homes.
11. HOSPITAL ROOM: Nurse pull the plugs. Very real. Very sad. Very human moment.
12. HOSPITAL ROOM, LATER: Bill says he has to feed the cat. Remy says he’ll drive. Tig obviously thinks it’s ridiculous, they are at the hospital with her dying mom. She stays there.
13. AMAZING ACTION LINE: Caroline’s breathing is strained. Tig stands beside her, * holding her hand. Remy is reading a magazine and Bill looks * at his comatose wife. They’ve never been around each other * without Caroline’s vibrant conversation to bind the moments.
14. HOSPITAL ROOM, LATER: Tig calls a nurse in. She’s wondering when one of these gasps will be her mom’s last. Nurse says “this is your mother?”
15. FLASHBACK TO BACKYARD: Caroling being a mom to young Tig. Just a quarter page.
16. FLASHBACK IS WRITTEN IN ITALICS: This is a great technique. The italics somehow have the energy and look of a flashback and it’s such a quick and clean transition that way.
17. BACK TO HOSPITAL: Nurse says it might a while before the mom dies.
18. HOSPITAL ROOM - DUSK: Tig calls the nurse again. Asks another question. It’s very hard for her to watch her mother like this. 
19. HOSPITAL - NIGHT: Caroline dies. The nurse comes in. Tig asks “What do I do now?”
20. FANTASY: Tig imagines leaving with her mom in tow, happy as can be.
21. BACK TO HOSPITAL ROOM: Tig is told she’s free to go home. 
22. HOSPITAL HALLWAY: Tig wanders, disoriented. She can’t figure out how to leave.
23. HOSPITAL - NIGHT: Nurse helps Tig into a waiting cab.
24. IN THE CAB: Tig tells cabby her mother died. Cabby freaks out, he hasn’t had a mom since he was 15. He begins driving erratically. 
25. EXT. CAB, CONTINUOUS - Cabby swings wildly into a convenience store parking lot.
26. INSIDE THE CAB: Tig watches the driver stomp through the store.Then he comes back and offers her a snowball. Tig reveals she can’t eat anything because of her condition.
27. HOUSE, ESTABLISHING, SUNRISE: We see Caroline and Bll’s house.
28. GREAT LINE: There’s a single light on inside, but it’s dark otherwise.
29. IN THE HOUSE: Tig enters. Talks to a vision of her mom. Walks upstairs.
30. HOUSE, MORNING: Tig with Bill and Remy. They ask about the death and apologize for not making it back. Ti’g’s phone rings and it’s brooke.
31. HOUSE, MUD ROOM: Tig on the phone call. Her partner Brooke came into town b/c of the death even though Tig said not to. Tig says she’ll go pick Brooke up.
32. GARAGE: Tig and Bill survey her mom’s basically new BMW. Bill wonders if she can drive… He knows she’s very ill. 
33. HIGHWAY: Sick Tig in her mom’s slick car. Alone but for her mom’s effects, reminds that she was here so recently.l
34. AIRPORT PICKUP: Tig greets Brooke. Brooke complains about work and cries b/c she doesn’t know where she stands with Tig. Tig is dry and sarcastic. We realize she doesn’t really want Brooke here.
35. NOTE: Brook's complaints are a great example of 'dumping in.' She's bitching to Tig about stuff that's WAY less serious than what Tig is going through. (You're supposed to comfort in, and dump out, to be a considerate person.) 
    
36. HOUSE: Tig and Brooke enter. Bill is cold and weird. He is giving Tig and Remy all of mom’s stuff b/c legally they’re not a family and he can’t keep it in the house any more b/c he’s their step dad.
37. SPARE BEDROOM, NIGHT; Brooke asks about Tig’s removed boobs. Tig is annoyed by it. They go to bed. Brooke does not understand the dynamics of grief at all. 
38. HOUSE, MORNING: Establishing. It’s morning in Bay St. Lucille.
39. BILL’S CAR: En route to the cemetery. Remy remembers picking strawberries along the tracks. 
40. TRACKS, FLASHBACK: Tig remembers. 
41. BILL’S CAR: Tig sees a coffee shop. Learns it’s Daddy John’s new place. 
42. NOTE: We don’t learn who daddy john is and they don’t busy themselves with that exposition. They raise questions AND ANSWER THEM LATER. Sometimes we forget that and try to make scenes do too much.
43. CEMETERY: Tig nervous for eulogy.
44. FUNERAL: We meet Tig’s biological father MICK and a few others, Daddy John among them. Tig is introduced to give the eulogy…
45. EULOGY: Tig is feeling deep loss. Talking about how she hasn’t called her mom back from last week. She was waiting until she got a minute. 
46. YACHT CLUB, ESTABLISHING
47. YACHT CLUB: Wake. Tig and Remy fill Brooke in on who everyone is.
48. YACHT CLUB, LATER: Bill says Tig can keep the mom’s stuff at the house and not in storage. He also says she can stay at the house as it’s sorted b/c she’s too sick to travel anyway. This is a warm moment, and we know b/c the script says “This is as warm as Bill gets. It’s a moment.”
49. NOTE: They just come out and say “It’s a moment.” No one misses shit like that if you make sure they don’t miss it. Too many scripts are afraid to call that stuff out. 
50. YACHT CLUB BALCONY: Vision of Caroline appears at Tig’s side. They joke around about how Bill eased up on something. Tig flashes back to…
51. YACHT CLUB BIRTHDAY PARTY: Super 8 footage of Tig as a child celebrating her birthday. We hear the audio of the voicemail that Tig didn’t listen to that her mom sent her last week on Tig’s birthday. 
52. BACK ON TIG, PRESENT DAY: Tig watches the (1) on her phone vanish. No new messages. Kids run by, having fun. Tig watches them disappear. 

LESSONS LEARNED: Ask questions in one scene and answer them later. Pack scripts like this with as many small and human moments as possible. Don’t be afraid to call things out when they happen, like “It’s a moment.” You can stick with one character if you just cut from one location to another, or even within rooms at that location, that gives an effective impression of the passage of time. If something is going to matter LATER, spend time on it up front making sure we pay attention. This script calls out how rigid bill is like 100 times before he finally gives a little at the end. That way we really see the growth and we don’t have to read between the lines at all.