Untitled Plagues Project, TV Series: One-Sheet
Series Overview:
A limited, 10-episode anthology series setting each of the Ten Plagues of the Hebrew Bible within present day America, from NYC to Alaska.
By turns horrifying, by turns funny, the plagues are interpreted freely, with a dash of the surreal.
No prophet or god, but each plague the consequence of violent passions and desperate need.
Each standalone episode builds on the next, with glimpses of earlier characters later in the series. Like the plagues of the Old Testament, the series comes to a terrifying climax.
Humans are the plague of the earth.
Episode Loglines:
Plague I, Water Into Blood: 45-year-old Debra, desperate to conceive a child, discovers her 14-year-old stepdaughter is pregnant; a bloody tale of mothers and daughters, midlife crises and teenaged angst, set in a mixed-race family during lockdown in Brooklyn.
Plague II, Frogs: In the still-ravaged bayous of the post-Katrina South, an out-of-work fisherman with a habit of date rape discovers the hideous effect of ingesting a three-legged frog upon his own most prized appendage.
Plague III, Gnats and Lice: In the spirit of the structure of La Ronde, four rich, celebrity couples in LA pursue secret infidelities— dishonesty abounds, but bedbugs don’t lie.
Plague IV, Wild Animals: A sweet-natured pit bull born in a puppy mill turns from loving pet to dog-fighting killer when dubbed Cerberus, Guardian of Hell…or at least Detroit.
Plague V, Pestilence of Livestock: A Lynchian journey inside the dissolving brain of a woman with CJD, the disease linked to Mad Cow: the brain as the Battle of Hastings, it’s war in there.
Plague VI, Boils: The warming Arctic sea is “aboil” as a reclusive climate scientist bonds with a shaggy, starving polar bear, whom he grows to view as a noble confessor.
Plague VII, Hail and Fire: An airplane explodes over the High Plains, an act of terrorism, no bodies found; hailstorm rains down the ice-encased eyes of the passengers, viewed by a little girl who, upon “eye contact,” lives their memories, including the bomber’s.
Plague VIII, Locusts: An insufferable, narcissistic but celebrated writer only manages to complete a manuscript every 17 years, utterly decimating his relationships in the process.
Plague IX, Darkness for Three Days: The Seattle winter is always dark, but under strange, thick cloud cover, there’s darkness for days, during which all the girls and women of childbearing age on an outlying isle rush outdoors and stand, entranced, screaming and keening.
Plague X, Death of the Firstborn Son: NYC: A Black boy suffering from Cotard’s, a condition where one believes one is dead, gets into an “altercation” with police and is brutally killed; civil protest erupts and legions of youth demonstrate— walking straight at the police and national guard as ones already dead.
About the Creator
Series creator/writer Elena Zucker is an award-winning playwright and director. Her screenplay The Weathergirl was optioned by a Sundance Festival alum. She collaborates often with Little y. Elena lives in New York and teaches at the Stella Adler Studio.
Copyright, Elena Zucker, WGA