Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-28398720-20160729043114/@comment-28398720-20160801014629

the first-time showrunner charted a new course after receiving a note from network president Mark Pedowitz. “I said, ‘Do not make what people perceive to be a CW-type show,’ ” Pedowitz remembers. “‘Make the version you want to make — the darker, grittier version.’ ” And that’s what Rothenberg did. In the fifth episode, he killed off hundreds of characters — and then twisted the knife by revealing they had been sacrificed for nothing. “Mark called and was like, ‘Amazing episode! You can go darker,’ ” Rothenberg says, laughing. “I said, ‘Mark! How much darker can you get?’ ” --link