Season 1: Author's Notes

That Other Flock

This is a transcript of the audio of the author’s notes. I decided to record my thoughts and then give you a transcript. Season 2 begins next week!!

Hi, this is Steve Thomas, and I am recording for you the author's notes for Flock season one, That Other Flock.

First, I'll just say thank you for whoever has made it through this journey of season one. If you read a part of one episode or read them all, I'm grateful. I never really expected to do what I did, but it was a path I wanted to follow, so I appreciate that.

There are spoilers ahead. I'm going to talk about season one, so if you haven't read those episodes and don't want to have the surprises spoiled, go find the index.

I'll record this and then do a transcript. Exactly the opposite of what I typically do, which is when I write in my head and all the words are there and then I get into recording the audio and I think, "Oh man, I can't say that word very well." If you're one of the audio listeners, which I was shocked to find out people actually do listen to that audio, I really appreciate you tolerating my terrible character acting.

I want to say that I just recently learned that the painter Rembrandt painted himself into many of his paintings. And certainly, characters of the Flock and the plot and some of the moments that happen there have elements of me in them. That's one of the awkward and liberating things to writing stuff like this. Each character is some of me, certainly some places I'm aware of, and certainly some things that my therapist would probably be able to spot that I haven't.

That Other Flock began with an intention to practice writing short scenes. I've been playing with a novel and wanted to see if I could write shorter works. And that coincided with visiting a church here in the DFW area. Somewhat of a mega church and sitting on the next to back row and realizing that the people on the back row were having an entirely different experience than the people at the front of the church. That began kind of a bit of a journey in my head. Before I left that service, the opening line of the series was clear. In fact, I wrote it in my notes after I had already written a few things about what was happening in the back row of this church. So this idea of someone saying, "I can't go to church unless I'm a little bit drunk," just came out of nowhere. That's really where this began.

I've always been fascinated by outsiders. Even when I've been an insider at an organization, a church or a company or whatever, I always felt like an outsider. Some kind of damage in me. That Other Flock is this idea of examining the outsiders’ experience in a great big, or as the character Brian would say, shiny mega church.

And then the church scene... there in the church kitchen. I'm a boomer, so I grew up on Cheers and Gilligan's Island and some of those kind of shows. It was intriguing to me to have one location for the series. It's not quite a character as some better creators have done, but the church kitchen, while not really described, is where it all happens. Things wouldn't happen if they weren't in the basement of that church kitchen.

One of my buddies said that these episodes are a little bit like the Righteous Gemstones and an AA meeting. I hadn't thought about that, but there's some similarities. I wrote this fairly PG-ish, PG13, maybe R depending on your ratings. That was not difficult choice. I've discovered that, funny, even pretty devout Christians sometimes don't always keep their languages perfectly clean as my mom would have preferred. And so I just decided I was going to do it for real. I know I offended or turned off some of the potential audience, but that's okay because I'm not trying to write anything that's really sweet or out in the public all that much anyway.

Let’s talk about the characters.

The narrator started out as just an observer that could be the narrative voice. I actually never planned to name him. It was one of the many, many things that I discovered in about episode three, "Okay, that plan's not going to work." The personhood of the narrator, who we learn is named Charles or Charlie in his second life. Charlie is somebody who certainly has this grief and addiction and anger and avoidance and faith and failure and still a heart for ministry or heart for people.

I find that interesting. And if you know some of my story, you know I've got several of those things in my life. I was intrigued by him, and I was intrigued by some of the things that as I began thinking about my life as I deal with the realities that come along. For instance, his counting of doughnuts, I have found myself under very stressful times doing weird counting of things like that. So that became something that the narrator was doing, even though originally, I had thought that was going to be something that Tommy did. In one of the early episodes, Tommy does something similar. Again, I'm going to go back and fix some of the continuity and character issues, as well as proof and tighten everything up a little bit when I get going on editing.

Our narrator is a guy who has experienced something difficult. I picture him probably in his mid 40s and is just somebody who used to be in the big-time ministry world, was one of the mega church pastors who the realities of his life pushed him away from what he had been doing.

Tommy, our poor ankle monitor-wearing philosophy expert...I've been intrigued by ankle monitors, and then I read something several months ago that the state doesn't provide those, that that's something you have to provide. That just blew my mind and that became an element in one of the stories.

And then his death. George RR Martin produces incredible fiction and he's pretty ruthless about killing characters. I realized that this Flock was going to be more than just one story then I definitely had to knock off one of the characters that I loved. I was totally freaked out by what an emotional experience that was for me, even reading the audio for that episode. But such is life, right? And so, we lost that voice and he'll be remembered. Tommy's back story, I didn't get a chance to unfold that, but I had fun creating the whys of his illness and his trouble with the law. You'll just have to see if any of that ever pops out in season two.

The character Toby who the narrator nicknamed Jelly before he knew any names, was patterned after maybe three different people that I've known. I was intrigued by him as not only the surprise that he is a trust fund baby, not in a good relationship with his family, but he is a trust fund baby, and he's the awkward truth teller. Tommy may have connected you with a philosophical or a biblical point of view, but Toby/Jelly, he's going to tell you the truth, and it's going to pop out in the sweetest possible way as he's slamming down another doughnut. He's a joyful person.

The character Brian/Ice originally was somebody different in my head, and as I was writing the first episode, he just changed. The goal of this character was someone who loves Jesus intensely and completely but struggles with sin. It's a pattern in some people I know, like my life. I'm not very satisfied with how I created him and how this has unfolded, but that's very much about who Brian/Ice is. He represents those of us that struggle with both sides of this life, the realities of sin, and then the fact that Jesus is real. Jesus is who he looks up to, even if he's not 100% clear about how that relationship works. And I find that to both be true and fascinating.

Leon, the Professor, it was like three or four episodes into this that I realized the weird Gilligan's Island connection, but the narrator nicknames Leon the Professor because of his mannerisms. I needed somebody of my generation, a Boomer, to throw some rocks at. And then also, I know about loss, and I know about living long enough that you begin to get on the other side of losses and the way life goes. I needed him to be somebody that knew that sadness and pain, but also had the wisdom on the other side and could be a voice of wisdom to some of the other characters.

The character Red/Eve is somebody that I actually saw. The young woman was Asian ethnicity. She had lovely, perfect, very pale skin and bright red lipstick. Physically as I've described Red or Eve, I actually know nothing about the person, it was just somebody that I saw. But then I was interested in her being a character with a deep secret and an element of betrayal for the group, but also someone who was wrestling with the fact that the way she made her money, her profession, was not what she wanted to do. I wanted to hint just a little bit that maybe she was a sex worker or maybe she was doing something in that line. I don't know whether anyone picked up on that hint, but she was always a media person who was trying to get the goods on our master pastor who appears in the last scene.

Betty appeared in my imagination fully formed. I mean, it's like I've always known her. I don't actually know anyone like Betty. But she's the glue that holds the group together. There's a den mother idea. I've seen other people, not just women, who seem to be adept and driven to connect and bring people together. I'm definitely not that person, but I'm intrigued by the way those people work. Betty is somebody that was a disappointment to her family and therefore a disappointment to her church community and the struggle that goes with that. So, another outsider.

And then Jared. I've had just a few glimpses into the megachurch world and worship leaders and all of that kind of thing in the big show. It's bizarre. Yeah, I have watched the Righteous Gemstones, so I know a little bit about the fiction of that, but also know about the truth of it. I wanted someone who was bright-eyed and innocent in terms of the way world works, and yet someone who could come and represent the joy and beauty of worship. So, Jared made an early appearance just for me to throw rocks at him. He's going to be around because he's got a year contract. You’ll encounter him in season two.

Our master pastor, who appears in person the last episode. It's important to me to at least attempt at revealing how someone can be in a situation like this pastor is and struggling with it. So, yeah, he's going to be in season two, and we'll learn a little bit more about him and his story and his part.

Those are the primary characters beyond the donuts. The donuts in my mind are always Dunkin' Donuts and the occasional breakfast burrito, because we all know how important that is to both Tommy and the rest of us.

I have a Bible degree. I had the opportunity to lead in church from a position of laity and then also as a pastor. I certainly don't agree with everything that the characters in the Flock say. That's not necessarily my theology. One of my favorite scenes I wrote was the scene of the 17 Deadly Sins. I love the idea of trying to really sort out, if you are wanting to start at the beginning, what does sin look like and why isn't there one list. And if it's such a problem, why is it not completely clear about all the sins? Why do we camp on some sins and not others? Anyway, the 17 Deadly Sins was one of the hilarious episodes that I really enjoyed writing.

Let's talk about alcohol a little bit. I got a little bit of, not blowback, but people saying, "Why are you writing about this guy who's drunk and is an ex-pastor and all of these things?" Part of it is that I see alcohol abuse in the church. It's like it's the okay drug. I'm not a teetotaler. I grew up completely tee totaling. There was no alcohol at my parents' house. I used alcohol socially, probably in all candor abused alcohol at one point. Thank you, COVID.

I could have just as easily written about lying or gluttony or envy or gossip or all the other acceptable sins in the church. I mean, it's a thing. And so, if season two unfolds the way I think it will, we'll have a chance to talk more about that and experience some of those things.

I talked about the plot and how it was very clear originally it was set for 12 episodes, but some of these scenes got bigger than I was expecting. The Eve Reveal took longer for me to unpack than I had anticipated. And so at 15 episodes, I was pretty happy with that. Didn't connect all the dots I wanted to, but I connected some.

Finally, I've been part of small groups, mostly around faith communities. What I've seen is that the very best groups, the ones that go deep and have genuine connections with the people involved, aren't always, or maybe aren't usually, the ones that were formally created. They're the ones that coalesce by accident. They're the ones that come together when we least expect it. And that's what I wanted for the Flock. These people who this mega church cares so little about that they just want them out of the way. They're in this basement church kitchen eating leftover doughnuts. They create a group, and I can get a little choked up about it because I find it magical, literally, that groups can form, and bonds can grow. As the Flock has done for each other, the group takes care of each other because that's what good humanity does. So, I wanted to tap into the alchemy of this, that part of the glory of being human is that as we drop our barriers and as we let people know a little bit about ourselves, then often that becomes reciprocal, and we can connect with each other.

Next season is taking shape. I think I have that in my head. I think I have a commitment from myself to churn out 15 more episodes. I really appreciate anyone who's made it through. I spent my life in marketing and public relations and fundraising, and so I've written a lot of fiction, but I have seldom written as much fiction that was mine. I've really enjoyed this and all the things I'm doing this time in my life of writing some stories that I find important. It's fascinating if anybody else finds it important. But that's not my main thing. My main thing is I'm going to put these stories in the world to see what, if I can say boldly, what God might do with it. If you're a part of that, I'm thankful. I'll say that one more time, I'm thankful.

Really appreciate you. Thank you so much. I'll see you next season, which we'll start the next week.

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Season Two begins next. Please share or tell someone who might appreciate That Other Flock.