One of\u00a0the\u00a0great things about television is obviously\u00a0the\u00a0length of\u00a0the\u00a0form\u00a0and\u00a0the\u00a0serialization of\u00a0the\u00a0story. If you begin to lay track correctly in hour\u00a0one\u00a0then by\u00a0the\u00a0time you get to hour six \u2014 with some careful planning, a little luck\u00a0and\u00a0a sh*t load of will \u2014 you might just land\u00a0on\u00a0a series of back to back heater scenes: consequence, payoff, consequence, payoff. We felt as we were writing \u201cDear Henry\u201d that we\u2019d somehow landed in that hallowed space where\u00a0the\u00a0beats had an internal logic\u00a0and\u00a0inevitability in how\u00a0they\u2019d unspool. It would be trite to say\u00a0they wrote\u00a0themselves, but\u00a0they practically demanded of us that\u00a0they unfold this way. It felt urgent\u00a0on\u00a0the\u00a0page, we wrote it super fast\u00a0and\u00a0we were excited as it came out \u2014 all good signs. Five hours of place setting of Tender Vs SternCo is done. Infantry is in position. Battle commences.<\/p>\n
Now in Season 4 of our show, we felt we should continue to find ways to surprise ourselves\u00a0and\u00a0the\u00a0audience. We\u2019d never used Voice Over before. It allows for a sort of summative omniscience that can refract, emphasize or subvert certain scenes,\u00a0and\u00a0we really enjoyed carefully placing each piece in\u00a0the\u00a0script\u00a0and\u00a0cut. We felt by Episode 6 it was high time we got under\u00a0the\u00a0skin of\u00a0the\u00a0season\u2019s main enigma: Whitney Halberstram (played at a beautifully haunting remove by Max Minghella.) It was important to us that we didn\u2019t give\u00a0the\u00a0audience a key to his consciousness, but rather a performance of his consciousness. That is where\u00a0the\u00a0device of\u00a0the\u00a0confessional letter came in. You think you\u2019re hearing an inner monologue \u2014 a window\u00a0on\u00a0his soul \u2014\u00a0but really it\u2019s dense, pretentious, supercilious \u2014 an overwrought performance of intellectual prowess. Whitney\u2019s deceit\u00a0and\u00a0the\u00a0construction of his identity partly hinges\u00a0on\u00a0his verbal dexterity: he hides behind language. Eric correctly diagnoses this in\u00a0the\u00a0episode: \u201cI\u2019m falling into his trap. More\u00a0and\u00a0more words.\u201d We wanted\u00a0the\u00a0viewer to think\u00a0they\u2019re getting honest testimony but it\u2019s just another of Whitney\u2019s tricks.<\/p>\n
Harper calls Whitney a \u201cconstruction.\u201d He is made up of stuff he\u2019s observed\u00a0and\u00a0read\u00a0and\u00a0his felicity with language is part of\u00a0the\u00a0mask of competence that gets people to believe he\u2019s more capable \u2014\u00a0and\u00a0from higher stock \u2014 than he really is. It was important for us to demonstrate that in this episode, which is why we put him\u00a0on\u00a0the\u00a0back foot with\u00a0the\u00a0knife between his teeth \u2014 a good jumping off point for any screenplay \u2014\u00a0and\u00a0why we had his story hinge\u00a0on\u00a0two hyper-verbal performances that he needed to \u201cwin.\u201d First with Tony Day at breakfast, second with Eric Tao\u00a0on\u00a0CNN. It felt like a really fun, revelatory reversal to us to have\u00a0the\u00a0shadowy, string-puller Whitney be forced front\u00a0and\u00a0center\u00a0and\u00a0for\u00a0the\u00a0audience to realize that\u00a0there was a shadier string-puller above him. That seems to be\u00a0the\u00a0rule of our universe after four seasons:\u00a0there\u2019s always a higher kingdom,\u00a0there\u2019s always someone more powerful.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We were excited to hand\u00a0this script over to our brilliant collaborators\u00a0and\u00a0we were right to be. Luke Snellin directed with ferocious love\u00a0and\u00a0ambition\u00a0and\u00a0it was edited very sharply by Simon Smith.\u00a0The\u00a0cast explode\u00a0onto screen\u00a0and\u00a0have never been better. It moves through its set pieces with relentless intensity but somehow every new crescendo of plot\u00a0and\u00a0emotion seems additive, while still finding time for less bombastic grace notes like Henry\u00a0and\u00a0Whitney\u2019s come-down\u00a0on\u00a0the\u00a0embankment at dawn, Harper\u00a0and\u00a0Whitney\u2019s nocturnal phone call (serial killer finally calls\u00a0the\u00a0lead investigator trope)\u00a0and\u00a0Eric\u00a0and\u00a0Harper\u2019s bureaucratic goodbye. We were very conscious of writing Eric\u2019s exit\u00a0and\u00a0wanted to give\u00a0the\u00a0character a compromised heroic moment: his head-to-head with Whitney\u00a0on\u00a0CNN was something we had pinned to\u00a0the\u00a0writer\u2019s room wall for some time. Everyone loves Network and\u00a0people laying bare\u00a0their soul down\u00a0the\u00a0barrel of a camera, that was our small tribute to\u00a0the\u00a0trope. Ken Leung is a master of his craft. Nathan Micay wrote some huge new cues which we\u2019d return to in later episodes.\u00a0The\u00a0score for Harper\u2019s Alpha Conference speech is a booming highlight.<\/p>\n
\u201cDear Henry\u201d now feels to us like a high point of\u00a0Industry. It grabs your throat, your gut\u00a0and\u00a0your heart\u00a0and\u00a0it\u2019s hard to tell which\u00a0one it\u2019s squeezing hardest.<\/p>\n
Konrad Kay and Mickey Down<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of\u00a0the\u00a0great things about television is obviously\u00a0the\u00a0length of\u00a0the\u00a0form\u00a0and\u00a0the\u00a0serialization of\u00a0the\u00a0story. If you begin to lay track correctly in hour\u00a0one\u00a0then…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":504060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[265],"tags":[218957,10756,18,117,173825,19,4286,17,169149,87462,141816,156852,209941,141817,156853,128,70447,218958],"class_list":["post-504059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-dear-henry","tag-directorial-debut","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-henry-muck","tag-ie","tag-industry","tag-ireland","tag-kay","tag-ken-leung","tag-konrad-kay","tag-marisa-abela","tag-max-minghella","tag-mickey-down","tag-miriam-petche","tag-tv","tag-whitney","tag-whitney-halberstram"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}