indian medium
Comedy Series - Script
An agnostic Indian-American inherits his grandmother’s Tarot shop in a small town and reluctantly starts treating people through psychology and modern medicine under the guise of fortune telling.
COLD OPEN
Dev is fired from his corporate psychiatrist job over an ethical dilemma that we’re not privy to. In a pricy NY apartment, he gets a call from Mom in surgery who says that he, as next of kin, has to take care of some family business. He groans.
ACT 1
And gets off a bus in Podunk, State ambiguous, outside a lone rundown desert strip mall, entirely inexplicably Indian themed, including the Good Karma tarot shop: crystals, incense, spices, and paintings surround a velvet throne and fortune table. In search of a WI-FI password, he visits Sarah next door, a white woman running a yoga studio and wellness podcast. They don’t get along but she blows him up so his grandma’s old customers start coming in: Old Woman, town Doctor, Gunslinger Gus, Teacher Tess, etc. He tells them off: I don’t work here, Signs point to no, Try again later. A sweating lawyer says Dev can keep the place rent-free or sell it for a large sum…Dev agrees to sell but the uncomfortable lawyer jets. Dev frustratedly has to stay the night, finding a secret door and loft in his shop. He looks through grandma’s things, including a diary in Hindi. An unknown assailant SMASHES the front window with a brick.
Act 2
Morning. Dev installs a security camera. Sarah livestreams: he’s staying! Not for long; he just wants to figure out which townsfolk did it before leaving. (This surveillance app AURAL syncs with the door, using AI to auto-assign people a unique chime as they enter/exit.)
He calls back the townspeople, offering a free session of whatever they used to do with grandma. His half-assed attempts at fortune ball-ing, tarot card reading, palm reading, etc. are fun and funny but we also learn more about the townsfolk, their problems and personalities. However, his failures to really connect leave them disappointed, and Dev with no real leads. Dev retrieves the BRICK from the parking lot dumpster: on one side is etched HELP.
Act 3
Dev and Sarah ride a horse into town since no cars are allowed: an Old West town that hasn’t aged. One building’s made of brick: the school, missing a brick. It’s also been boarded up. Sarah: Can’t have school shootings without school. Who’s running this town?
Dev returns to each townsperson, sincerely apologizing, wanting to get to the bottom of their problems, but uses the surveillance app data to gain an unethical edge, and offers veiled advice that may backfire.
All store clerks (Indian Diner Owner, Kama Sutra Sex Shop Midwestern Couple, Sarah, gym bro) drink and decompress around the tarot table, revealing to Dev that the town’s outskirts has various ethnically-themed strip malls; they compete to keep their spot at Diversity Fairs, making Dev their brownface ringer.
At the end, Dev simply translates his grandma’s diary with an app, finding something shocking. He storms into Church where Dick leads a Crypto for Christ pitch. Dev asks if Dick killed Dev’s grandma.
Dev is fired from his corporate psychiatrist job over an ethical dilemma that we’re not privy to. In a pricy NY apartment, he gets a call from Mom in surgery who says that he, as next of kin, has to take care of some family business. He groans.
ACT 1
And gets off a bus in Podunk, State ambiguous, outside a lone rundown desert strip mall, entirely inexplicably Indian themed, including the Good Karma tarot shop: crystals, incense, spices, and paintings surround a velvet throne and fortune table. In search of a WI-FI password, he visits Sarah next door, a white woman running a yoga studio and wellness podcast. They don’t get along but she blows him up so his grandma’s old customers start coming in: Old Woman, town Doctor, Gunslinger Gus, Teacher Tess, etc. He tells them off: I don’t work here, Signs point to no, Try again later. A sweating lawyer says Dev can keep the place rent-free or sell it for a large sum…Dev agrees to sell but the uncomfortable lawyer jets. Dev frustratedly has to stay the night, finding a secret door and loft in his shop. He looks through grandma’s things, including a diary in Hindi. An unknown assailant SMASHES the front window with a brick.
Act 2
Morning. Dev installs a security camera. Sarah livestreams: he’s staying! Not for long; he just wants to figure out which townsfolk did it before leaving. (This surveillance app AURAL syncs with the door, using AI to auto-assign people a unique chime as they enter/exit.)
He calls back the townspeople, offering a free session of whatever they used to do with grandma. His half-assed attempts at fortune ball-ing, tarot card reading, palm reading, etc. are fun and funny but we also learn more about the townsfolk, their problems and personalities. However, his failures to really connect leave them disappointed, and Dev with no real leads. Dev retrieves the BRICK from the parking lot dumpster: on one side is etched HELP.
Act 3
Dev and Sarah ride a horse into town since no cars are allowed: an Old West town that hasn’t aged. One building’s made of brick: the school, missing a brick. It’s also been boarded up. Sarah: Can’t have school shootings without school. Who’s running this town?
Dev returns to each townsperson, sincerely apologizing, wanting to get to the bottom of their problems, but uses the surveillance app data to gain an unethical edge, and offers veiled advice that may backfire.
All store clerks (Indian Diner Owner, Kama Sutra Sex Shop Midwestern Couple, Sarah, gym bro) drink and decompress around the tarot table, revealing to Dev that the town’s outskirts has various ethnically-themed strip malls; they compete to keep their spot at Diversity Fairs, making Dev their brownface ringer.
At the end, Dev simply translates his grandma’s diary with an app, finding something shocking. He storms into Church where Dick leads a Crypto for Christ pitch. Dev asks if Dick killed Dev’s grandma.
