Alex and Nick discuss the goal and narrative impact of TV act breaks, also known as the structural core of every television episode ever. Why do shows have act breaks? What is the difference between an act break in comedy versus drama? What impact has the inflation of act breaks in shows had on TV stories? The Paper Team smashes to black... SHOWNOTES Content 1 - Introduction to act breaks (00:30) 2 - Act breaks and TV narrative (12:29) 3 - Inflation of act breaks and impact on pacing (18:28) 4 - Writing without acts (31:00) Takeaways & Resources (40:04) Links Format of Gunsmoke Over-the-top Content (OTT) Smash to Black - TV Tropes Coup de théâtre One Mississippi NBC's Seeso Julie Plec on Act Breaks Tom Fontana Resources "Basic TV Act Structure" - Excerpt from "Showrunners" by Tara Bennett "Cracking the Sitcom Code" - The Atlantic Special thanks to Jason J. Cohn for helping us edit this episode. If you enjoyed this episode (and others), please consider leaving us an iTunes review at paperteam.co/itunes! :) You can find Paper Team on Twitter: Alex - @TVCalling Nick - @_njwatson If you have any questions, comments or feedback, you can e-mail us: ask@paperteam.co