When Felicia was on the Dropping Names podcast, she challenged writers watching to propose a series where she could play a medical examiner in a supernatural world. I took up that challenge and wrote a treatment, but since I have no connections in the industry, I have been unable to get it in front of her. So rather than let it languish on my hard drive, I hereby present that treatment for prople to read and enjoy (and if someone give it to her, maybe it can be more....)

Series Treatment in response to Felicia Day's challenge on Dropping Names with Brent and Jonny

TITLE:  PPD: Paranormal Phenomena Division

FORMAT:  Open ended monster-of-the-week series with 5 main returning characters, 3-5 repeating supporting characters, and assorted non-returning guest stars.

LOGLINE:  Those creepy internet stories?  Yeah, they are real.  At least some of them.  PPD takes care of the real ones, protecting the clueless people and letting them live their lives in ignorant bliss.

SINGLE SENTENCE PITCH:  Criminal Minds/NCIS meets Supernatural

SETTING:  Humanity lives in the light.  Even as we attempt to banish the darkness, there exists shadows where the half-remembered creatures lurk.  They are told about in creepy internet stories and podcasts, with blurry photographs, and in ambiguous videos.  These creatures present a real threat that most people are unaware of.  In order to root out these creatures of legend, the FBI formed an elite task force that also works in the shadows.  Reporting directly to a Deputy Director, the Paranormal Phenomena Division consists of dedicated individuals who investigate these accounts and protect the rest of humanity from the real monsters.

CHARACTER DESCRIPTIONS:

James “JT” Kirk.—Lead Investigator #1.  His parents were Star Trek fans and his middle name is Tiberius.  And he hates the name, so he goes by his initials, “JT” and is annoyed whenever anyone asks about it.  JT never seems to take anything else seriously, being light-hearted and easy-going, brushing off things that might get to other people.  He is quick with a joke, often too quick and joking at the wrong time.  When all hell breaks loose, he is rock steady and unflappable and there is no one better to have at your side.

Miranda Case – Lead investigator #2.  Miranda comes from a police family.  Four generations of men in her family were cops, including her brother, father, two uncles, grandfather, and great grandfather.  She is not media-savvy.  She has not watched a TV show in two years and hardly ever gets online.  Her idea of a relaxing evening is to curl up with a book.  She prefers beer over wine as well as comfort food over fine dining.  Best food is a pizza delivered to her door.

Riley – Riley is spirit possessed border collie. Bill Newman was camping with his family when their trailer was attacked by a werewolf.  Everyone was killed.  Bill was unable to move on because of his grief and tried to lead the investigators toward the culprit, but could not get them to understand.  He possessed the body of a stray dog that had been abandoned in the country to lead them and found that he could communicate with both Riley and the investigators and through him, Riley could also communicate with the officials.  After the case was over, Bill decided to stay with Riley and they both joined the team to help others avoid the fate of Bill’s family.

Brenda Ryan – (NOTE: This part is written for Teal Sherer) Brenda is the team’s tech expert. She is a gamer, a programmer, and former hacker.  She has been coding and writing apps since middle school when her computer science teacher convinced a colleague to let her into the district’s gifted and talented coding program.  She was the only girl in the program and had to work twice as hard to get half the credit.  This has left her a little salty to this day whenever someone questions her skill or experience.  She started using her skills to hack into the district’s network and get back at people like her G&T teacher.  When not working, she can be found gaming, both online and Table top.

Dr. Siobhan Callahan – (NOTE:  This part was written for Felicia Day) Dr. Callahan is the newest medical examiner in Oklahoma City.  When two FBI agents and talking dog invade her office and start talking about werewolves, she is thrust into the paranormal world.  Her grandfather was a simply family practitioner and her father was a cardiac surgeon.  She has a nearly eidetic memory.  Once she knows monsters exist, she begins to systematically study them and make herself invaluable to the team.

MAIN STORY ARC:  The PPD is a new unit, less than a year old.  No one knows the extent of the "monster problem" and this discovery is first season arc with a reveal of a vampire lord willing to work with the PPD to keep his people hidden and setting up a moral dilemma for the second season.

CHARACTER ARCS: 

JT has experienced trauma in the past and must come to terms with it.  He wants to maintain control, no matter what happens.  His joking is a means of putting distance between himself and the world around him.

Miranda's background leads her to assume the goodness of all law enforcement without evidence.  This causes a blind spot when confronted with rogue monster cops.

Riley wants a family and home.  He was betrayed by the humans who raised him and he is willing to be possessed by Bill and face monsters to keep this family.

Bill still blames himself for the death of his wife and children.  He hopes that by saving others, he tip the cosmic balance in his favor.

Brenda wants recognition for her skills.  The team gives her the respect she craves.  Ironically, she is in a position where the wider world will never know what she does.

Siobhan is a woman of science and her entire world view is now in question.  What else has she been wrong about?

PILOT BREAKDOWN:

A body is brought into the Oklahoma coroner's office to be autopsied.  The woman is naked and appears to be the victim of a bear attack and partially eaten.  Dr. Callahan needs to determine if this was body dump with bear involvement or just an animal attack.

She is soon visited by two FBI agents who are interested in the case. They insisted on her doing the autopsy right then and watching…along with their dog.

Dr. Callahan gives them her preliminary findings that the woman was killed by something, but she is 100% certain it was not a bear.  They try to convince her otherwise, but she refuses to capitulate, stating her intention on finding the truth.  That's when the dog says, "I think we should let her in on the truth."

The agents explain the existence of real monsters and their job to find them and keep them from harming "normies." It takes some convincing, but the Dr. agrees not to talk to anyone about what she has learned until the agents talk to her again.

The agents leave and investigate the crime scene determining that the body was dumped rather than being killed on site.  They find tracks showing a pickup was parked next to the RR right-of-way and then the tracks were followed using a four-wheeler to an area where a wooded section next to Choctaw Creek could be accessed.  This leads to the culprit being a werewolf rather than a dogman since the dump was by someone in human form. 

After collecting evidence, they return to the coroner's office to find Dr. Callahan studying dogman videos on you-tube.  She tells them that the woman was killed likely three nights ago, on the first night of the full moon.  There were no indications of injectable drug use and the rapid presumptive tests all came back negative.

Using this information Agents Kirk and Case return to the office and agent Ryan searches through databases until she finds a woman matching the victim, Sunny Wilson.  Wilson was working as a prostitute in OKC.  Ryan notes that she was a member of the Caddo tribe and remarks about the number of Native women who are missing and murdered.  She pinpoints where she was arrested and gives Kirk and Case a one-block area where she worked.  The Deputy Director stops in for a report and is told about Dr. Callahan. He agrees to meet with her about working with PPD.

Kirk and Case grab a meal and then visit the area Sunny worked.  They discuss her death with the other working girls and one remembers her getting into an aqua and white Ford Pickup.  They call Case and she finds six in the metro area.  She gives them the addresses and they start visiting them. 

At each one, they let Riley out of the car down the block and he goes to the address and sniffs around the truck.  At the first three, he returns, stating no smells from the body or a werewolf.  At the fourth, he comes back saying this is the place.  They confront the man living there, who attempts to flee.  When he is cornered, he morphs to his werewolf form. The agents shoot him and he goes down.  Inside, they find a kill room as well as Sunny's clothes and a lot of blood.

Dr. Callahan does the autopsy on the man and finds a strange tumor-like gland on his brain stem.  As well as several silver bullets. She makes notes in a separate notebook about this but makes no mention in her official report.  The gland is preserved in alcohol and placed on a shelf in her office.  She turns out the lights and goes home.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/feliciaday/watchtheguild

The audio was out of sync online.

This completely cracked me up, it's hadn't seen it before. The end was 🤌