I really liked Givans’ squad in this script. Their support of Givans emulated that of a second family for him and the bond between them is extremely strong. The fact that his squad was willing to take action against the street violence and the gang members involved in the shooting on page 29, indicated just how far they were willing to go to avenge the death of a child as well as how far they might go for those closest to them.
Which made their determination to aid Givans on his quest that much more believable. I liked the support Givans got from non-Army friends, Mr. Jackson and Denise. Denise, in particular was my favorite secondary character in this script because she brings a nice objective voice …show more content…
Jackson, who seemed to have a history in the service. Did his father have him keep it a secret as well? Moreover, what about Givans’ mother, was she sworn to secrecy? If Givans were unaware of his father’s existence until his death, then this would seem more …show more content…
However, the characters in this script, particularly the main characters, did not effectively hold my interest on the message being presented in this script due to a lack of depth and three-dimensional relatability.
The main antagonist, Tatianna, for example, is tactless and lacks emotional objectives, which makes her character one-dimensional. The same can be said about Givans who still seems like a passive bystander in the script after 30 pages. What are Givans motivations? What is he passionate about?
Givans’ squad emulates more determination and anger than he does in the second act. Yet, his father has just died. From the beginning to the end, Givans’ character does not appear to exhibit any high or low emotional beats, which means he lacks a character arc.
Moreover, the dialogue and description lines are full of past tense exposition and word-for-word accounts of the decisions or actions the characters have made. The final confrontation between Tatianna, Givans, and Kane starting on page 100 for instance; the characters spend more time explaining their actions up until this point, then they do reacting. Since all these details were shown earlier in the script, why does the writer have the characters explain it