This is one of the 3 propositions that I wrote for Metricminds after they explained what they wanted to do and it is the one they chose. After this initial draft we developed the main characters in the series, we drafted a very high level arc for the first season and wrote the full script for the first episode.
John lives in Amsterdam. He arrived here after spending an hour staring at the departure board at Chicago O’Hare airport where he let the airline schedule dictate his destination. Amsterdam was the first direct flight he could hop on, along with the 2 luggage he hastily put together as his wife’s lover and best friend attempted to burp an explanation. Well they were in love and they meant to tell him, but they failed, they were afraid he would take it the wrong way. The wrong way? That he sure did. They wanted to talk and he decided to leave.
John left the house with his spinner luggage, he took both swimming suits and jumpers. Now he was ready for anything! He hopped in a taxi, phoned his company HR to inform them that Ed Mitchell was fired, effective immediately and asked the driver to take him to the airport. There he phoned his accountant, sold part of his company shares and pocketed enough money to take a year sabbatical.
John hadn’t needed to sold shares to be rich enough he’d never have to really work, but it was the gesture. He never had to cook, or clean or wonder what would happen if… because he inherited a family fortune and a business. In Amsterdam he could date anyone he wanted because he was the rich american yet he could love no one because he knew the champagne was all they were interested in. As the weeks went by, he realized he had no idea what he wanted to do or who he wanted to do it with. His whole life had been decided for him by his parents, now dead, and his wife who had lived a double if not triple life for years and was just pumping him for money. He had never made a single decision for himself, even deciding where to live had been delegated to the flights schedule. John was a 35 years old lost boy with no idea where to start.
We see him tell that story to Adam, a young barista who -viewers and clients can tell- has heard it many times again as he serves John his decaf double macchiato, oat milk with extra foam – please.
So it is sitting here, at his usual corner café that John has an epiphany when someone on the other side of the window gets robbed. For no apparent reason, he suddenly feels like he could be a hero and he starts running after the vandal. They run through the city and at one turn he thinks he loses the guy but sees him again, same jacket, same size, same pair of jeans, it’s him with a black cap and a chilled gait to disguise himself. Haha! This will not fool our John!
He runs faster (and totally out of breath) towards the guy who is about to enter a black van in front of a bank, John tackles the thief and we hear sirens blaring. The man on the ground turns and John realizes it’s not at all the right person, he starts to apologize profusely but the man on the ground injects him with a serum, throws the needle into a manhole and tells him “Don’t trust anyone”.
The black van leaves and escapes the policemen. John is still laying flat on the poor guy with the black cap when policemen from all sides run towards them to cuff the guy.
A beautiful blond woman comes to John and helps him up, she asks his name. John Parker he answers haggard, looking around at all the activity. She’s a journalist and she will change his life.
At the café Adam watches a news flash: “Detective John Parker has just apprehended one of the most wanted hacker in Europe.” Interpol has been after him for months and he was about to escape again if John hadn’t caught him.
It is definitely not the thief who attacked the old lady, although he does wear the same jacket.
John is declared on national television as the American private detective who solved the case. Policemen come and shake his hand and thank him while they put the hacker in their car.
John is back at the café and everybody applauds including Adam who is the only one who knows what happened was a big clumsy mistake.
John gets drunk and sick and Adam who is a criminology student who works out a lot (and does all sorts of martial arts) takes care of him and walks the poor John back home. John has hallucinations of cases he read in the newspaper and knows instantly how they could be solved, as well as famous cases of history. He blabbers this to Adam who is first fascinated and then worried as he sees his friend literally overheat and shut down. He decides to watch over him for the night.
John’s phone rings, it goes to the answering machine and someone records their first case request.
In the next episodes, Adam whom we will get to know along with Amsterdam trans community, will develop as the muscle support to the naive yet extraordinary brain that John will be. He is still the same guy as he was when he arrived but he’s developing fascinating cognitive abilities, due to the serum he was injected with. This new power however has a funny underside, John can’t take too much stress or excitement or else he falls asleep instantly and that’s when Adam has to save him from impossible situations. Together they will solve cases as well as face a bigger enemy, the owners of the serum that was injected to John and that the hacker hid there. Both will come back as the overarching threat.
Amélie Beaudroit 
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