Directors Notes: 184 – The Fog (Patreon)

I hadn’t written a guest part in a while. And I also haven’t written a part for Meg Bashwiner in quite a long time either. That’s the entire impetus for this episode.

On the surface, that doesn’t sound super exciting or intellectually complex, but idk, inspiration isn’t the easiest thing to pin down. Sometimes my worst work comes from really detailed concepts and world-building, complete with full outlines and character bios; and my best work comes from something as insipid as “what if conflict!?”

One challenge I wanted to put forth in this episode, though, was character development. Deb, the sentient patch of haze, usually just pops on, reads a fake ad, belittles Cecil, and then fucks right off. It’s funny and weird, but maybe we could start playing around a little bit more with what their relationship is actually like.

Cecil has occasional interns and producers, but Deb is the only real constant at his job. Of course there’s Khoshekh, but he’s stuck floating in the bathroom all the time. Plus, he’s a cat. And there’s Station Management, but his relationship to them is like my relationship to tornadoes. I hope I don’t see them, and if I do, I’m hiding till they’re gone. But Deb is a regular co-worker. The only regular co-worker Cecil has. So surely they must be friends, right?

It’s only a 24-minute episode, so it’s not like I built out a complex universe for Deb and her fellow sentient patches of haze, but here are a few things I enjoyed playing with: 1) even though she’s made entirely of moist air, she still has to shower and dress every day; 2) she’s pansexual and ethically non-monogamous just like any reasonable being; and 3) she has a pet sneeze. This last point got me thinking about the idea that any patch of moist air, from a sneeze to a fart to the steam from your boiling pasta, could have some level of sentience. Are sneezes like cats? Are coughs like rats? I’m not sure yet. I’ll get on that. (I probably won’t).

Anyway, the end result is that I get Meg and Cecil dialoging, and that’s really all I ever want in life is those two playing back and forth, because they’re very funny together.

-Jeffrey Cranor
March 15, 2021