Over the Garden Wall: Episode 3 Analysis

Episode 3: “Schoolhouse Follies”

I’ve been analysing Over the Garden Wall using Dan Harmon‘s 8 step structure, based on the observations and theories of Joseph Campbell. Most simple the steps are:

(1)You, (2) Need, (3) Go, (4) Search, (5) Find, (6) Take (cost), (7) Return, (8) Change

Wirt’s arc:

1. You, Wirt
2. Need to prove that you aren’t spineless
3. Go – the ongoing hike to Adelaide of the Pasture halts when Greg wanders off…
4. Search for Greg
5. Find – Wirt finds a school and an opportunity to take revenge on Bea for calling him spineless.
6. Take orders from Miss Langtree, Greg, Mr Langtree – everyone except Bea
7. Return to the status quo – Wirt is still inclined to do as he’s told, but…
8. Change – has demonstrated that he is not spineless

Greg’s arc:

1. You, Greg
2. Need to “have fun, change the world and make it a better place”
3. Go to a local school for animals, but stay outside playing “old cat”
4. Search for fun, sweetness and old cats.
5. Find – Greg finds a gorilla, molasses and music.
6. Take – Greg takes molasses and shares it out and sings. He incurs the wrath of Mr Langtree (cost). Later he steals Mr Langtree’s musical instruments.
7. Return to the status quo. Jimmy Brown is back and Greg is still all about fun.
8. Change – Greg had a plan that worked – a benefit concert!

 

Thoughts: The physical objective of the episode is clear “Go to Adelaide”; Greg sings a jolly song about it at the opening, but this is derailed when Greg wanders off, having acquired a new, more pressing need: to make the world a better, more fun place. Meanwhile, Wirt needs to prove he isn’t “a pathetic push over who relies on others to make all his decisions”.

Once again Wirt allows Greg wander off, and seems unconcerned about his safety. This is a major theme in the series: Wirt blames Greg for all their problems, but he is responsible because he repeatedly fails in his duty of care for his younger sibling.

We see Greg’s primary personality traits too: Living for the moment, with positive intentions but no common sense. However, there is growth in this episode as Greg successfully organises and leads a benefit concert to save the school.

Greg had his own objectives this time, which Wirt took no part in. Wirt almost skipped step 4, search, altogether while Greg searched hard for fun, sweetness, music and old cats.

Note: When one character goes light on the steps, or skips them, we need another character to bolster the structure.

Wirt proves that he is strong willed but at no point does he shed his inclination to do as he’s told. He enjoys being directed by Miss Langtree, and states at one point that maybe he’ll never give it up. Greg orders him out of the bedroom window, and he cheerfully complies. The next day, at the benefit concert, it is Mr Langtree’s command to “do something” that causes Wirt to lunge at the gorilla and save the day.

The episode ends with Bea telling Wirt to tie his shoelace – and he follows that direction too.

 

Over the Garden Wall: Episode 2 Analysis

Episode 2: “Hard Times at the Huskin’ Bee”

(1)You, (2) Need, (3) Go, (4) Search, (5) Find, (6) Take (cost), (7) Return, (8) Change

1. You, Wirt, are lost in the Unknown with your little brother, Greg, his pet frog and new ally, Bea the bluebird
2. Need help to find a way home
3. Go to Pottsfield (rejecting Bea’s suggestion: Adelaide of the Pasture)
4. Search for people – the village is deserted
5. Find a population of creepy pumpkin-heads, cost: their freedom! For a few hours of manual labour – until a more sinister purpose is suspected; are they digging their own graves?
6. Take – their freedom; Bea picks the locks.
7. Return to their main objective, find a way home
8. Change – Wirt changes his mind about Adelaide of the Pasture; maybe she can help.

Thoughts: The cost has shifted from step 6 to step 5, and although the pumpkin people turn out not to have murderous intentions, the escape is still a key point in this story.

This episode is a miniature of the whole series. It says “they’re trapped in a strange place, but they will escape after putting in some hard work”.

Remember the Aristotolean Tryptich? Discussed here in terms of public presentations:

“Tell them what you are going to say, say it and tell them what you said.”

This episode shows us the entire story: The macro level, series sized problem is that they are stuck in the Unknown, so the micro level, episode 2 problem is that they are stuck in Pottsfield. In both cases the solution is work – specifically team work.

Know now that YOU really are Wirt, that’s how protagonists in movies, TV and literature work. You read Pride and Prejudice; YOU are Elizabeth. You watch Lethal Weapon; YOU are Riggs. You watch Over the Garden Wall; you ARE Wirt. So Episode 2 is speaking to the audience, and to Wirt as one and the same entity. It is the episode in which GOD (Patrick McHale, creator of the OtGW Universe) shows you, Wirt, that you will get out of Unknown, but you must be patient, you must work hard, and you must work together as a team. And yes, God McHale says, it will be a creepy, beautiful and mysterious experience. People who seem menacing, may not be… and we have to suppose that the opposite may also be true (more about that in later episodes).

Did Wirt get the message? Well… did you? On first viewing? I did not. Not on a conscious level – perhaps subconsciously the seeds were sewn. The message that the team should work together, stick together and never give up hope is key to the conclusion of the series.

Did Wirt learn that? You’ll find out in episode 10.

So to recap:

Episode 1 opened up the Macro level (series sized) story cycle – it takes a deep breath at step 4 “search” which will play out across episodes 2 to 9 . Episode 1 does conclude it’s own micro level (episode sized) story cycle, but the macro level cycle will not move past step 4 until the last episode, to close the series loop and leave the audience satisfied.

Episode 2 employs the first step of the Aristotolean Tryptich – Tell them what you’re going to tell them. It teaches us that we will get out in the end; our problems will be solved if we learn patience, work hard, value our team and trust the right people.

Next time I’ll look at Episode 3, in which we discuss the sweetness of potatoes and molasses. The finding of lost loves, and that doing as you’re told doesn’t have to be a problem as long as you choose who’s direction to follow, and you are courageous in how you follow those orders… or something like that.

Feel free to comment.

 

Over the Garden Wall: Story Structure in 8 Steps

I’m obsessed with story structure right now. Last week I stumbled upon Dan Harmon‘s Channel 101 website, where he describes a simple 8 step structure, based on the observations and theories of Joseph Campbell.

He pares it down to it’s most basic, thus:

1. You            – A character is in a zone of comfort
2. Need         – But they want something
3. Go              – They enter an unfamiliar situation
4. Search       – Adapt to it
5. Find           – Find what they wanted
6. Take           – Pay its price,
7. Return       – And go back to where they started
8. Change      – Changed and capable of changing the world

During the same week I watched Over the Garden Wall with my kids, and as it felt like a nicely structured series I wanted to apply these steps to each episode, to see if it rings true, and to better understand how I might apply the system to my own work. It was a useful exercise and I had a couple of revelations along the way.

Dan Harmon says a TV series uses this structure slightly differently to a movie, the latter of which has a solid end, the former, needing to string out it’s ending across several episodes. Go and read it.

Today let’s look at Episode 1

****SPOILERS FOLLOW****

Episode 1: “The Old Grist Mill”

(1)You, (2) Need, (3) Go, (4) Search, (5) Find, (6) Take (cost), (7) Return, (8) Change

1. You, Wirt, are lost in the forest with your goofy little brother, Greg.
2. Need to find a way out of the forest
3. Go to the woodsman’s mill
4. Search – The whole series is a search, the primary goal being “get out of the woods”. Episode specific searches: (a) Greg looks for his frog, (b) Wirt looks inwards to search his feelings of melancholy, laying himself out on a therapist-style couch, and perhaps and perhaps (c) they want to learn if the woodsman is friend or foe
5. Find – (a) Greg finds his frog, and a ferocious hound, (b) Wirt blames his brother for his woes, (c) the woodsman is an ally; he tries to defend them against the hound
6. Take – They fix the hound, but (cost) wreck the mill. The woodsman sends them away (cost). Wirt blames his brother, but takes advice: that he is responsible (psycological cost)
7. Return: They continue to seek a way home.

Thoughts:

This episode needs to introduce a number of key characters and concepts and so priority was given to beats 1, 2 and 3.

We might also consider that this episode hangs open at beat 4, so that all the episodes that follow are the search phase: The series objective being the search for a way home. The next 8 episodes are a piece of beat 4, each is broken into a subset of the same 8 steps.

This open sequence will be closed by the last episode which is light on steps 1 – 4 but works hard at step 5 – 8 to wrap things up.

Thus Episodes 1 and 10 are the frame for the entire series, each placing emphasis on their appropriate halves of the 8 step cycle. We’ll look at that again when we get there.

Nevertheless, there is complete 8 step cycle, in this episode, with a search for a missing frog, the found frog and the found monster dog, the taken advice (Wirt is responsible for his and his brother’s behaviour) and the cost of the woodsman’s support. The woodsman knows it, and we will learn by and by that Wirt needs to take responsibility for his own actions. This is the first direct look at Wirt’s psychological problems.

Next time I’ll look at Episode 2, and we will start to see how each episode explores Wirt’s moral (external) or psychological (internal) problems, in quirky ways, that I frankly didn’t notice the first time watching, as we were just too busy enjoying the wackiness of the world and it’s characters.

I hope that made sense! Feel free to comment.