Director's Notes: Episode 250 - Father Kevin
Added 2024-06-15 13:00:06 +0000 UTCGenerally speaking, I try to set aside about 300-500 words for the post-weather section. If I know it's going to be something big, I'll set aside 900 words. The total episode is generally around 2400-2600 words, so we're talking about a third of the episode after the weather in the most extreme cases.
In this episode, over half the word count comes after the weather. And I can't say exactly why it worked out that way, but usually my litmus test for an episode is just: does this feel right? And this is the structure that feels right.
I had the character of Cecil express one of my own pet peeves. A common misconception about the show is that the weather "fixes" the conflict of the episode. But that has, to my knowledge, never happened in an episode of Night Vale. What happens is that we move from the present tense of the first part of the episode to the past tense of the second half of the episode, allowing us to explain how the situation was resolved without having to have Cecil breathlessly narrating action as it happens. The weather plays an important structural role in the writing, but it does not solve a problem.
Except this time I was curious what would happen if we had no tense shift, if that harrowing present moment had no choice but to continue. And what happened is that half the episode continued post-weather.
We came up with the solution to the boy/Kevin situation very early on this storyline, during the first writers meeting that include Brie as our third full time Night Vale writer. It felt both emotionally right, and fit well with the intricate construction of time that Night Vale has become. The Mother Lauren stuff was a bit more of an improvisation. We knew she was coming to town, but it was a last minute call to turn her into a cosmic god. Good for Lauren. It's a real career move up, you know?
That's it for us until August. Love from Night Vale.
-Joseph Fink
Comments
Sorry for a long comment, but I have a lot of things to say about this season. First of all, I really enjoyed many of the non-plot episodes, especially the vampire one and Lost and Found. I also loved the idea and concept of Sister Cities, and I hope you find voice actors to do more of them in the future. It would be great to hear what kind of other strange towns exist in the world in the Night Vale universe! However, and I'm really sorry to say this, the main story of this season was a disappointment. The pacing was quite inconsistent, especially at the end with Lauren. Her attack didn't seem to have a motive, it felt inconsequential and happened so fast that there wasn't time to build stakes. She appeared out of nowhere, didn’t even mention the Smiling God while she was in town and left after the slightest resistance. The prominent characters (Cecil, Carlos and Tamika, mostly) didn't have any true agency about the situation until the very end, nor did the story have almost any consequences for them. What bothered me (and many others) the most was how Kevin seemed to endorse his clearly abusive father's behavior, and then became him. I'm sure the message isn't intentional, but it gives the impression of a cycle of abuse and victim blaming. Boy Kevin's whole motive was to not become his older self, so making him the same person at the end felt cruel. I know Kevin is a villain-ish character, but he’s one we as an audience have grown attached to, so his actions felt harmful. Plus, he got some amazing character development in The Mudstone Abyss, and what happened in this story contradicted much of that. And assuming the relationship between Kevin and Charles worked, Kevin already is a father, so making a big deal out of him being a parent felt unnecessary. I’m so sorry to sound this cynical, and I say this as someone who loves Night Vale and all its residents. This kind of comment is difficult to write without sounding rude, so please don't take it the wrong way. But the best part of this season were the episodes about Cecil’s family. I loved what you did with the symbolism about trees and owls. The themes and symbolism of Cecil not remembering Abby’s story were GREAT. I love how we got a lot of new information, but a lot was left for mystery as well. I hope this story continues, I can’t wait to know more about Cecil’s past and family. I hope you are doing well, and I wish you good luck with your future writing!
Uura Pohjola
2024-07-13 21:34:46 +0000 UTC. . . so Strex did fuck up Desert Bluffs' past then.
Maeve Hightower
2024-06-16 00:07:54 +0000 UTCKevin, oddly enough, doesn't seem like he would be an abusive parent. He tried to talk the kid out of this whole thing. And Desert Bluffs isn't Desert Bluffs Too/Two. So maybe it's not exactly a time loop? Honestly a time loop makes more sense than Night Vale's standard LOL
Maeve Hightower
2024-06-15 20:22:32 +0000 UTCit's still not up on youtube
Keri Kramer
2024-06-15 19:27:08 +0000 UTCi like the shift in how the weather was used, it was extremely cool and i hope it's something you all will use from time to time moving forward. i'm confused about kevin being his own dad now though, kevin has implied that his father was abusive, and i would assume that if kevin and charles were still together that charles would prevent that abuse from happening. are there any plans to bring charles back or to explore what might change between adult and boy kevins past?
Keri Kramer
2024-06-15 18:45:02 +0000 UTCsomething seems to have gone wrong with the publishing. we're working on it - joseph
Welcome to Night Vale
2024-06-15 15:54:05 +0000 UTCSame problem here. The episode is not yet available on the WTNV podcast feed.
Shawn Havery
2024-06-15 13:57:15 +0000 UTCThe episode and the transcript don't appear to have been posted anywhere yet 😅
Moon Flowers
2024-06-15 13:11:31 +0000 UTCis the episode up yet? i can't find it anywhere
Mary
2024-06-15 13:08:36 +0000 UTC
