Winners & Losers | Chaos vs. Courage

There’s a popular screenwriting book called, Save the Cat. It provides a beat sheet for screenwriters to follow when drafting their scripts. It’s great. The title, Save the Cat, is a reminder that all characters must be redeemable in some small way. Imagine an opening scene in which a guy is robbing a bank. He’s masked up, armed. He’s waving his gun in the terrified faces of the unsuspecting bank customers. People are screaming.

As he dashes out of the bank, he spots a cat scurrying along the sidewalk, about to cut into traffic on the busy street.

Without a second thought, he scoops the poor cat up just in the nick of time. The idea is that he might be a violent criminal, but he saved the cat. All is not lost with this one.

The book gives a better example, for sure. But the point is that characters — like all real-life, non-fiction humans — are more than just the sum of their crimes. I’ve always approached my work with that core belief — whether I’m working on a show about the history of the White House or about illegal fisheries in the Pacific.

But as footage continues to flood social media showing ICE agents with total disregard for the humans they encounter, I’m finding it harder and harder to imagine anything redeemable about them.

The agent who murdered Renee Good pulled the trigger and then called her a fucking bitch. I don’t really care where that kind of rage comes from. It’s inhuman.

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Since I’ve been writing this column, the Losers have stood out like sore thumbs. They are the grifters, the frauds, the people who exert their overwhelming power on those far less powerful than they. But lately, the Losers have become caricatures of themselves and their villainy.

It’s the Overton Window of being a shit person. Once you’re complicit in crimes against humanity, against your own neighbors, there’s just no going back.

This week’s Loser is the cartoony-ist of cartoon characters, and our Winner is someone who said something we’ve all been thinking.

Stephen Miller, Loser

Here’s a guy who could be in this column every week and I would never run out of things to say about him. ...