![]()
I grew up on Mad Magazine and Calvin & Hobbes and Star Trek and the Simpsons and I learned that entertainment can reveal the human condition while also satirizing it and placing it in unfamiliar scenarios, because the truth shines through no matter the context it's put in. I grew up on music too, and I learned that the best way to get an emotional response is to write about things that evoke the strongest emotions in yourself. And when I grew up I saw shows like Girls and Master of None and I learned that TV is absolutely the best place to convey what life is REALLY like and the realities of being young in a world that has changed faster than at any point in history and yet is home to the realities that have been common to people throughout history. And then I got the opportunity to make a show of my own and I put all of that together and the best name for it was peopleWatching.
![]()
And I wrote a bunch of young characters who are all secretly half me and half fiction and who embody the kind of fundamental contradictions that we all have but are so often simplified in the shows we watch— characters like the musician who has fright everywhere except the stage, and the pervy feminist cool nerd, and the right-wing progressive girl, and the stripper with the 180 IQ who doesn't do it for the money, she just likes being naked in front of people even though she hates being objectified, and even if those characters aren't literally realistic they say something about the world in their descriptions.
And I tried to say something about what it's like to be a person by presenting those characters in self-contained stories that each explore a single idea using dialogue-heavy scenes that still find ways to be visually dynamic...
![]()
And I wrote an episode about how depression is like an entity that keeps tricking you into self-hatred because that's how it feels to me, and I wrote an episode about a guy struggling to write to his favorite teacher because that's what I was doing at the time, and I wrote an episode about a woman hoping there's some kind of scientifically derived afterlife in the future because she can't deal with all the tragedy and death in the world, and I wrote it because that was the way I felt all throughout 2016 and I needed to process those feelings and as an artist the best raw material to work with is whatever you feel strongest about. It's an infinitely deep well too—trying to explain what it's like to be a person is easily the world's longest conversation...
I also wrote an episode about a Non-Religious Confessional Booth where people confess their inner secrets and then discover that they're nowhere near as alone or different as they think they are, and I wrote it because to me that's what art IS—it's being yourself and then showing the world and then being stunned when a bunch of people put their hands up and say, “hey, me too!” All the better when you can do that using tight narratives with satisfying endings, and distinctive characters that give it all an emotional core, and the limitless potential of animation that allows for the kind of variety that would otherwise be impossible.
![]()
I grew up learning that the package you put your message in is super important—almost as important as having a message to begin with, and having that message be something that draws parallels between people instead of dividing them.
That's the other thing I've learned— that one of the best things that art can do is to make people feel less alone, and to do that all you need is to tell the truth— even just your personal truth— regardless of the context. Even if it's a 10-minute cartoon with swearing and time travelers and jokes about having no money.
You can say a lot in 10 minutes, and have fun doing it— that's what I'd want people to learn from peopleWatching.
Thanks for reading,
![]()
Winston Rowntree,
Summer 2017
Toronto
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()