Good Writing, Community, and Good Will Hunting

I follow a lot of screenwriters' blogs. I'm glad to learn from the experiences of those who are further along the path than I am.

Community is one of the shows on TV right now that's both entertaining and well-written. Jane Espenson has written a couple of recent posts describing how the writers make it work, which she explains is primarily based on exploring and writing from the specifics of who each character is. Here's her first post about it.

One of the distinctives of the character Abed is that he constantly references movies. Some of these are easy to recognize, and some are more obscure.

Here's a clip showing one from this week:



He confirms later in the show that it was a movie reference, but not to what. Imagine my pleasure last night when I was watching Good Will Hunting for the first time in years, and I heard this speech by Chuckie (played by Affleck):

Let me tell you what I do know. Every day I come to pick you up, and we go out drinking or whatever and we have a few laughs. But you know what the best part of my day is? The ten seconds before I knock on the door 'cause I let myself think I might get there, and you'd be gone. I'd knock on the door and you wouldn't be there. You'd just left.

Well played, Community writers and actors. You really make it work. It was a pretty amazing epiphany moment. And it makes the show that much cooler for referencing a Matt Damon film.

Thank you, Jane, for sharing your knowledge. And thank you, Community, for being good television in your genre.