9 SHOW CREATORS/WRITERS WHO WE ABSOLUTELY LOVE

Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag, Crashing, Killing Eve S1)

What we enjoy the most about Waller-Bridge's writing, perhaps, is her ability to pen the exact chaos of the mind and its experience. Her writing, even in places where characters take a dramatic moment to speak about an internal insecurity, seems so disarmingly natural that you forget you are watching fiction. In Waller-Bridge's world, the dialogues overlap, thoughts intrude, punchlines land with an enchanting suddenness. It is a rare quality to be able to draw from the madness of our internal lives with such meticulous dedication.

Raj and DK (Family Man, Farzi)

It is perhaps a strange comparison, but Raj and DK's ability to observe the situational comedy of ordinary lives almost reminds me of RK Narayan and RK Laxman's portrait of common men. There's a precise, contained humour in their work. Characters live double lives, sometimes submissive, sometimes superhero-like. Even when their dual lives are unravelled, Raj and DK bind the narrative together to present a complete life. And in each moment, you are invested in finding out what happens next.

Larry David (Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm)

Larry David is one of the most influential voices in comedy, as he's not only responsible for singlehandedly shaping two different eras of comedy television through his shows Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm, but he's also indirectly responsible for shaping modern popculture through these shows. Larry David is the Godfather of contemporary comedy. He's the inventor and everyone else has just been borrowing from him in one way or the other. His comedy may not be for everyone because of how honest but apathetic it can be, but there hasn't been a sharper observer of modern society than Larry, whose part fascination and part denunciation towards it is deliciously fun to watch.

Vince Gilligan (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul)

Vince Gilligan changed television forever when he made Breaking Bad, and then he did the unthinkable and made a prequel to it that was actually good, if not better, by casting two of the most popular comedy actors in dramatic parts. Spin-off shows haven't had very good luck for most great shows in the past, and yet Gilligan had the courage and self-belief to create Better Call Saul from the skeleton of Breaking Bad, yet giving it its own distinct tone and writing style. These are shows that have been deeply influential for me as a writer, and this inspiration spills over in almost everything that I try to write. Nobody has possibly used the TV medium so adeptly to their advantage as Gilligan, who devours the liberty that offers in order to combine his interests in human morality &

character-building.

Michael Schur (The Office, Parks & Rec, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Good Place, Master Of None)

Um, yeah.... that list is kind of crazy. You may not even know this yet but Mose from The Office is the creator/co-creator of some of your favourite comedies in the past 2 decades. Along with Greg Daniels, he's responsible for making an adaptation that greatly outlived the legacy of the original British show. But it's his work on the shows that followed, where he found and developed his own voice and then supported his colleagues as they were starting their own shows, that made him one of the most important and influential voices in modern sitcom TV.

Zoya Akhtar & Reema Kagti (Made in Heaven)

This duo sieves through appearances and finds the humanity within. You would expect writing like that to be overwhelmingly philosophical yet, their cinematic prose is rooted, seeing people as people. Made in Heaven's dual narrative structure - episodic glimpses into other lives and a longer evolution of one character - is by no means simple or straightforward. But the writing progresses so organically that the shifts become seamless. When you are jerked into the harsh realities of polished lives, you are given time to form your understanding of it. The narrative never instructs you to have neat judgements, freeing you instead.

Craig Mazin (Chernobyl, The Last of Us)

Mazin interweaves the morbid and the poetic with a stunning grace. Both Chernobyl and The Last of Us contain uncomfortable portions of body horror, and yet, that never overwhelms the tenderness of the more humane moments of the show. In both the shows, the horror-ridden wastelands of abandoned cities are both psychological and geographical. The Last of Us in particular, co-written with Neil Druckmann, captures the meaning of survival on both levels - the primitive it is about finding food, about self-defence and violence. Yet so much of it is dreamlike, bitious, such as Ellie wanting to reach the moon.

Mike Flanagan (The Haunting Series, Midnight Mass)

Neither one of the books that Flanagan has adapted for The Haunting Series surrender easily to visual adaptation. They contain a horror so internal, so embedded in the mindscape that it is nearly impossible to present them with their exquisite eeriness on screen. But Flanagan dedicates himself to finding the truth of human experience in the metaphor that Gothic horror is. His cinematic world is peopled with characters ridden by guilt, or fear, and somehow held together by hope and love. Watching his work is like discovering a theory of horror.

Baran bo Odar & Jantje Friese (Dark, 1899)

What this couple/writing-pair understands about sci-fi better than anyone else, is that like any other show, it can't be devoid of emotion. Most genre shows focus too much on the science/fantasy part of it and forget that no storytelling is complete without emotional depth. The sci-fi elements of Dark and 1899 definitely blow your mind, but it's the strong emotional core of these shows that continuously offer moments of shock, despair and disbelief. Their writing is restrained but captivating, slowly & gradually unraveling itself to eventually give you a story so deeply layered that you can't help but be in awe of them.