— Bob-a-job-alog-a-roonie

Set in Hong Kong with international locations as well…

Cop 1: Young, handsome, Chinese Hong Konger. Famous for taking down mobsters. Investigating a mysterious local mob leader. Flashy and tech-savvy

Cop 2: Anglo Englishman, with Chinese wife and daughter. Retired spy living in China. Investigating an international terrorist/spy, based in China. Old school detective type

2 and his daughter are in Hong Kong, have intel that Bad Guy is having a meeting there.

1 and his boss, and older woman, have intel that the mob boss is having a meeting – they want to discover who he is.

They cross paths at the hotel where the suspect is meant to be. They realise they are after the same person. They realise he is a big deal, with mysterious motive and plans. 1 and 2 don’t get on at all (Lethal Weapon etc). 2’s daughter is a fan of 1. And 2 takes a shining to 1’s boss.

Example of their different ways. There is a shoot out, and a bad guy stops shooting for a moment. 2 says he is reloading. 1 says he is on his phone.

Tone is serious. It is about the old and the new. Old romance versus Tinder. Old China versus Hong Kong. Old police interview methods versus tech spy equipment

What’s the bad guy up to? Contaminating export products, made to look like Japan did it, as revenge for China’s failing economy?
Funding Russian extremists with a common anti-West goal?
Regime change in China through destabilising terrorist acts?
All 3?

Ensemble TV shows work best when there is a character you identify with. Friends did this clinically, it was almost impossible not to identify with one of the characters. Seinfeld did the same, but with far more subtlety, and maybe by accident.

So it is not something special to identify with a character.

Still, two from shows I have watched in bulk in recent months are extra fitting.

Mark Corrigan in Peepshow. Mark is responsible and intelligent but also socially awkward and despondent. He has a love of history, especially ancient history. He pursues a series of other women… wondering whether each could be “the one”

Bertram Gilfoyle in Silicon Valley. He is a self-described LaVeyan Satanist, and bears an upside-down cross tattoo on his right arm. His persona is an apathetic badass programmer that has libertarian tendencies. To say he is odd is an understatement.

Them two, combined. Me. 🙂

This is a bit naughty, a super-hero squad idea that mashes 2 major trends in filmed entertainment of recent times – super heroes and autistic folk.

I figure it could be pitched at Seth Rogen, as it could be slotted in alongside Preacher.

A group of high functioning  autistic pre-teen kids go on a charity trip to China.

When visiting a Panda Zoo they get exposed to a chemical designed to get the pandas to have sex more often.

When they become teens the kids each discover that when they get sexually aroused they have a super power. All the powers are variations on the same theme – heightened senses. Each kid tends to have a more heightened sense, such as sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste and psychic. Possibly they are each trained to focus on one more than others?

Initially to use their powers, they need to arouse themselves to trigger it. With time they can just think of an image or situation from their wank bank.
Sex becomes a tricky proposition, as they become highly sensitised, and distracted.

They are all over the USA, but slowly find each other and become Panda Squad. They have a variety of cultural backgrounds. And, yeah, they are autistic. Take clues from Atypical

US soldiers used for enhanced muscle experiments

One African American soldier escapes. Lives off-grid semi-homeless. Donates to sperm bank for cash

Kids inherit DNA. Muscular strength.

All kids same teen age. All are siblings as in Luke and Leia. They are all black or part-black. This could be exaggerated a little for social commentary.

Some hide it / Some are sports stars / Some are criminals

Call themselves Strong Bros before a sister arrives.

Yes very similar to Orphan Black. But less complicated!

The stories revolve around being a minority or differently abled. As teens. And having to team up with people just like you. When you want to be a loner.
And the two very different teams working together.
And rage, anger, love, and a focus on what the outliers of society get up to.

The Prisoner, from the 60s, is one of my all time favourite TV shows, and very prescient. However it has numerous flaws, including the stupid suffocating balloon.

It could do with a major reimagining, while keeping the core aspects:

• everything is monitored
• lead is a hero spy
• they try to indoctrinate him
• he relentlessly tries to escape

Whether you stage it in Portmeirion again, or some isolated village, or a city suburb… you need a believable mechanism that stops him escaping. Wayward Pines had monsters. It can’t be a bloody balloon.

Ideas:

• an implant that doses you with heroin when you reach the perimeter
• Robocops
• demons or aliens – it would add a layer to things
• retinal implants that make you blind (when you reach the perimeter)
• incidents that play to your profile, like a woman in distress, or alluring temptations

Or everyone could just be conditioned using a combination of drugs in the water and propoganda

Or a multiple combination of the above, for an outlandish level of layers.

The tone could be incredulous exasperation. Ridiculously unbelievable but real.

And for an extra layer, people start dying, and people that the hero trust tell him it is a game of survivalism, dog eat dog, Battle Royale.

The propaganda could be made fun, with “Let’s Make X Great Again” catch-phrases, and guilty pleasure pop songs front and centre.

The original storyline needs to go. It shouldn’t be about politics, but rather are you part of society or not. Think your own mind, or not. Throw in big aspects of The Truman Show. And Big Brother.

Other ideas:

• No cash. Everyone uses a card that is tracked
• Only one type of phone / phone service. Run by a mysterious mega-corporation
• When he escapes to the next town/suburb, it is the same situation all over again
• No time. No news. How goods arrive is a mystery
• Everyone has a service job. There is no manufacture
• People worship a sigil that defines everything that is good
• Children are unusually bright
• People disappear when they turn 60

Actually, do a Stranger Things. Liberally steal from The Truman Show, Wayward Pines, Big Brother and The Prisoner.

Cast Matt Damon as the lead. He has done spy, and stranger in a strange land more the once.

Many things that we accept as belonging to a particular culture are imported.

Italy didn’t used to have tomatoes
Arabic numerals are actually Indian
India didn’t use to have chillis
England didn’t used to have curries
American hamburgers are from… Hamburg

I could go on. Such a show would be interesting and spark lively debate, but also it is a reminder of how everything is in flux, including culture and history.

An intelligence chief is ranting about his needs. He says we need:

someone who has a fleet mind and lots of muscles….

His subordinates take this as an order and recruit Nickel Hayes, a flawed but talented quarterback with  a 3rd-tier team.

Nick becomes a spy for hire, as long as it fits in with his football schedule. Every episode is a different city.

Nick has a model girlfriend, but his female un-model agent helper slowly becomes his best friend 😉

The Chief was forced/tricked/unassumingly made Nick a big budget operative.

Every case is different, because Nick is the big buck $$$ superstar case-solver. Murder, corruption, and so on [Mentalist but gutsier… shhhh]

Nick is ultimately a nice guy with quick wits and athletic skills.

Slowly Nick evolves into an intelligence operative, and slowly he falls for his helper agent.

Meanwhile, he is so pumped by his off-field activities that on-field he is on fire. His team rises and he becomes a celeb…

He is one part Johnny English, one part James Bond, one part [put famous good looking quarterback here, I am not American]

The show offers:

• a variety of USA locations – international in Season 2 when he becomes a kickboxer
• action befitting a fit football star
• morals befitting the ideal football star
• high life lived
• low-life of crimes investigated
• cleverly having Nick involved but never implicated – the key point of difference!
• PATRIOTISM
• an inside look into the training and dedication – too often we see heroes with perfect abs and no explanation of how they developed them. Lets see the hard work for a change…
• Nick’s family is not mentioned. Season 3 could involve a conspiracy to involve him because of X family reason (his Dad went AWOL for example)

A new Hart to Hart, a new Moonlighting, with the glitz of Vegas and the innocence of Joey from Friends.

FREE IDEA: Just credit me as a co-creator.

This is a case of “just watch”, but I guarantee it will cause a WTF? moment for most folk. Video can be seen here:
http://anthillonline.com/banksy