Illusion

My sister is holding a contest about pitching a television show, and I thought it sounded really fun!

The genre is sci-fi/drama/romance and probably a little bit of comedy here and there.

The basic story is: Rachel is an old lady who works at her local food mart under an android manager. She's always been a quirky girl with weird tastes and an extremely low level of global functioning. She still acts and dresses very young due to her low level of functioning. She's been in and out of mental institutions her whole life due to her agoraphobia and has never worked consistently for more than four months at a time. At the age of fifty, she's finally stable enough to live with her older brother and find work as a cashier. Because she has spent almost her entire life indoors and tucked away from other people, she has never been in love, and doesn't understand other people very well. She consistently fantasizes about her android boss even though it has become illegal in recent times to date androids due to the dwindling human population. There is even talk of dismantling androids altogether and a current debate going around about the ethics of such a decision. On Paris' part (the android), he is now programmed to say no to and report humans who ask him out. Rachel wrestles throughout the series with romantic feelings toward Paris and wanting to ask him out despite any legal implications. She thinks he likes her too, but she can never tell whether it's real because she gets reality confused with her fantasies about him.

Aimed demographic: It's mostly geared toward adult women who have experienced similar psychosis as Rachel, or just have similar personalities (withdrawn, shy, nerdy, etc.). People who are like Rachel usually have pretty similar traits: Shy, nerdy, and extremely imaginative and brilliant in their own way, and we rarely see women like this in media because Hollywood is too busy pushing the strong, independent, basically-a-man type of woman. But, hopefully just by being a good show it would draw in a broad audience as well. I'd kind of want it to be a very emotional and visceral story disguised as a corny romance. Something that sucks you in by seemingly being very typical and familiar, but pulls the wool over your eyes by being thoughtful and emotional instead.

Character names and ages: Rachel (our main lady, age 52), Paris (the android, manufactured twenty years ago, however, he thinks and looks like a thirty-year-old), Rachel's brother (Peter, 56), Peter's wife (Angela, 50), and Farah (Rachel's coworker, 26).

Occupation of characters:

Rachel is a cashier

Paris used to work as an escort at a now defunct android escort service, but was reprogrammed and re-purposed to be a manager at the food mart. He still retains the features of an escort model, of course; including big eyes and big pupils (coldly calculated to appeal to foolish humans XD).

Peter is a lawyer.

Angela is a housewife.

and Farah is also a cashier.

My inspiration for the show was a couple of different things: First is that I always find it funny that androids in sci-fi tend to be super-sexy female ones who the male audience wants to date--which is absolutely fine--but where's my story about the super-sexy male android for the 2% of the female audience who would want to date one? XD Another inspiration is just how cold and distant I feel humanity is slowly getting. You can be in a conversation with someone and they won't take their eyes off their computer or phone. Rachel is someone who embodies this and has always rejected humanity in favor of technology while being tucked safely away in her parents' house in the past.

Why do I think this show would appeal to people? Well, it's kind of a unique idea, for one, which Hollywood is starved for. For another, I see very few TV shows or movies that treat individuals with mental illness with respect or even great understanding. They're almost always portrayed as  psychopathic murderers or worse XD. I think it would be informative and interesting for the public to enjoy a show that portrays mental illness accurately and respectfully, and it would also really appeal to people who understand what it's like to be someone like Rachel. Rarely are good aspects of individuals with mental illnesses shown and it'd be nice to have a show that portrays the good aspects of people with mental illness (creative, deeply emotional, interesting, deep thinkers, etc.)  I think it'd also appeal to weird women like myself, too, who find weird things like the Salarians from Mass Effect attractive, nyahaha.

 I'll shut up now. Haha I always get so carried away with story ideas!