Episode 6: L.A. Nites

L.A. Nites

The Dark Horse

Before we even begin, I want to first tell you that what comes next will be completely biased and all statements made here in no way reflect the opinions of anyone but the author. Leighann is the best character in the series. Don't ask me who comes second because ever other actor who played one of the other characters would be pissed. 

Okay, I'll tell you. 2nd place also goes to Leighann

Originally, we were talking about bringing Krysten, who plays Howie, back onto the show as her cousin, Leighann. She thought that this was an odd idea because as we confirmed in episode 3 she's definitely dead. I guess most people would think the same if they haven't seen Twin Peaks. If you haven't noticed there are some unintentional correlations between L.A. Nites and David Lynch's original series.

Actually they're just a co-incidence... 

If you haven't noticed the Twin Peaks correlations, now might be a good time to point some of them out. A dead girl that everyone cries about for the first part of the show, Erik, former slave to a QC department was quick to point out. Howie is our Laura Palmer.

Poor Laura... I mean, Howie....

Another one that people are quick to point out are the use of owls. Which although it wasn't our direct intention is for the same reason that David Lynch, J.K. Rowling and Walt Disney used owls in The Sword in the Stone. I don't want to give any spoilers but check out episode 9 and episode 10 (due out Thursday, 1.22.15) for more about the owls. Actually the first owl appears here on the show:

This is Roz's actual phone case

Before this we only knew that Leighann had a tattoo of an animal but we didn't know what it was or why she had it. Since we were writing it as we were filming it, we were able to incorporate elements like the actresses phone into the storyline. Flexibility like this also allowed us to cast Rozlyn Stanley as Leighann when it turned out that Krysten was not available for filming that week. The opening shots of this episode were shot to make the viewer wonder if Howie was, in fact, still alive.

Who is that?

I am glad that we ultimately went with another actress since it would have been unnecessarily confusing. What we initially wrote as a joke for Justin Phillips, the guy who thinks Leighann is Howie, becomes a much more poignant moment in Rozlyn's hands. I cast Justin Phillip in this scene because I worked with both him and Rozlyn in the previously mentioned dick-joke company. What we did there was cheesy, melodramatic murder mysteries far below the talent of these two actors. I wanted them to do something real to show off just how good they were.  This segment says everything about why they should work together in the future.

Vandiweasel says, "hey."

FYI, yhis episode is intentionally misleading. We wanted to give the impression of Leighann being an innocent, country girl who is unable to protect herself. However, once Rozlyn joined I knew that we could go further with her character. The twists and turns that change everything in episode 7 and onward, I knew could tackle. Leighann's ironic nature of being both good and evil would be a challenge to any actress but Rozlyn pulls it off with the same grace and poise that she does everything.