JOSHUA AVERY & VINCE STRAUSS.

If I were to reduce the plot of the entire series down to a single concise sentence, I'd probably end up with something like: An unlikely friendship develops between two neighbors: Joshua Avery, a young Mormon bishop, and Vince Strauss, a seemingly single man who chain-smokes at the end of his driveway. We've taken a little heat in the comments sections of our recent press over starting with two seemingly predictable stereotypes, and so I wanted to start our character introductions with the first two characters that you're going to meet in the opening minute of the pilot episode.

On the issue of opening with two easily recognizable stereotypes, and I'm bringing this up because I understand where the argument is based, there's some concern out there that Todd and I are unoriginal hacks unable to see past the obvious memes that Mormon characters should be clean-cut, while their non-Mormon counterparts should be scrubby-looking smokers. And if that's who these characters were at the end of the episode, that would be true - We'd be right there elbow-to-elbow with the hack storytellers that have driven LDS film into the ground.

I think I mentioned a long time back, months probably, that one of my goals was to slowly peel back the layers of my characters lives, letting you peek inside their pasts and futures, so that as you got to know them you'd be able to understand how (and more importantly why) they were making the decisions in the way that they were. I think I said, 'I want to give you every opportunity to judge these characters, and then beg you to withhold judgment.' And because of this, there's a reason why we begin with stereotypes. Look around your wards and neighborhoods, and you'll internally begin to segregate people off into groups: Mormon vs. non-Mormon. Then you'll subdivide those groups: Active vs. inactive Mormons. And so on and so on. Right? And how often have you been wrong?

I think we have to admit that, despite the 'Visitors Welcome' signs outside every LDS chapel, there are enough stories out there of Mormon parents who won't let their children play with the non-Mormon kids in the neighborhood, to simultaneously paint us (fairly or unfairly, you decide) as a ground that is only reluctantly inclusive of others. Furthermore, the media has used issues like Prop 8 to further the cultural meme that we're an exclusive, almost xenophobic bunch. And is that who we are?

Opening with stereotypes lets the audience recognize certain characteristics immediately so that they think they know these people. It gives us all a ground level understanding, in visual terms, of who these people are. Then, I'm going to spend the next 45-50 minutes convincing you that you were wrong. Peek inside Joshua's life, and you'll see that his wife is making him sleep on the couch. Listen in on Vince's phone calls and you understand that he's moved to town ahead of his family to settle in to a house and job before moving his family to town. And that added information, completely changes our initial reactions to these two men when we met them in the first minutes of the pilot episode. I hope.

As these stories evolve, it's my hope that you'll want to go back to earlier episodes to watch certain scenes again. Todd and I have done an extensive amount of planning well beyond these initial episodes so that they develop slowly over time. You're going to see things in the first episode that a year from now, maybe two years from now, will completely change.

We've done that planning, quite simply, because that's the kind of TV we've loved to watch. I'm in the middle of the second season of Lost right now, because the last season finale changed the entire series. Similarly, as I watched the last scene of The Shield, I couldn't believe how perfectly (seven years later, mind you) that scene tied into the pilot episode. Were you to sit down with either Todd or I (and here's my standing invitation) over lunch, we could pretty much chart out a five year plan for each of our dozen or so principle characters. And much of the groundwork for what's coming happens during the multiple cliffhangers that cap each of these first four episodes.

Getting back to these two men, Josh and Vince, the other reason I wanted to introduce them first is that they are both very much aspects of myself at different moments in my life. I've honestly spent about equal time in my life smoking at the end of my driveway as I have sitting in the chapel pews, and what I've realized at age 32 is that those two seemingly different guys that I've been would probably be great friends. I mean, they like the same movies and TV, they listen to the same music. And smoker or no, they both feel bad about going bald at 21.

Now, I'm thinking that maybe I lost a few of you back there on that last paragraph (although, I'm hoping that I didn't) as my admission that I've been a smoker probably planted a few seeds of distrust over my true intentions and capability in telling an LDS story. Did it? A little? But, see? That's the point. But, I'm telling you this because these two individuals that I have been have passed information back and forth, and my active Mormon years have taught me as many invaluable life lessons as my inactive years, and both have led me to this story about a young bishop that doesn't always have all the answers and this honest desire to explore some of the cultural and social issues that surround our everyday lives as members of the Mormon church.

In so many ways, I see Vince and Joshua as equal partners. Both have the same desires: They want to be good fathers, good neighbors, good men, etc. There's no reason for one to undermine the other by pointing out the perceived inconsistencies of his belief system, or for the other to make an issue out of unhealthy habits. And that's what I've loved about writing the scenes with these two guys standing at the edges of their property talking... They've just learned to be friends over these four episodes without judging each other.