I was reading an article that referenced one of Alfred Hitchcock's interviews about surprising the audience, and keeping them in suspense.
"We are now having a very innocent chat," said Hitchcock. "Let us suppose that there is a bomb underneath the table between us. Nothing happens, and then all of a sudden, 'Boom!' There is an explosion. The public is surprised, but prior to this surprise, it has seen an absolutely ordinary scene of no special consequence."
"Now, let us take a suspense situation," Hitchcock continued. "The bomb is underneath the table and the public knows it, probably because they have seen the anarchist place it there. The public is aware that the bomb is going to explode at one o'clock and there is a clock in the decor. The public can see that it is a quarter to one. In these conditions this innocuous conversation becomes fascinating because the public is participating in the scene. The audience is longing to warn the characters on the screen: 'You shouldn't be talking about such trivial matters. There's a bomb beneath you and it's about to explode!'"
"In the first case we have given the public 15 seconds of of surprise at the moment of the explosion. In the second we have provided them with 15 minutes of suspense. The conclusion is that whenever possible the audience must be informed."
I found that very interesting, especially in relation to Breaking Bad. So I got to wondering how this applied to other television shows, and how many other shows use mystery or suspense primarily. I don't watch many shows, so it wasn't a very long list. Spoilers abound:
LOST: More about surprise, with several variables undisclosed until the final season, and certain plot points dropped for lengths of time. Desmond reuniting with Penny
Breaking Bad: Suspense. We know Walt is teetering on the line from the very beginning when he decides to cook drugs. Plus, he's living on a drastically shortened clock.
Walking Dead: Hmmm... somewhere in-between. Surprise, because we don't know what's become of the rest of the world, or what other survivors are truly like, and these reveals are rather volatile. Suspense, around Seasons 3 and 4, with more of our antagonists being revealed gradually.
Heroes: Leaning toward suspense. Once the bad guys are outed, they're outed. We see a number of possible antagonists fraternizing with other protagonists. They're all living their lives independent of each other, unaware that a family member might be harassing or monitoring another main character.
Dexter: Suspense. Dexter is a serial killer, and we're waiting for him to mess up somewhere.
I was reading an article
that referenced one of Alfred Hitchcock's interviews about surprising the audience, and keeping them in suspense.
"Now, let us take a suspense situation," Hitchcock continued. "The bomb is underneath the table and the public knows it, probably because they have seen the anarchist place it there. The public is aware that the bomb is going to explode at one o'clock and there is a clock in the decor. The public can see that it is a quarter to one. In these conditions this innocuous conversation becomes fascinating because the public is participating in the scene. The audience is longing to warn the characters on the screen: 'You shouldn't be talking about such trivial matters. There's a bomb beneath you and it's about to explode!'"
"In the first case we have given the public 15 seconds of of surprise at the moment of the explosion. In the second we have provided them with 15 minutes of suspense. The conclusion is that whenever possible the audience must be informed."
I found that very interesting, especially in relation to Breaking Bad. So I got to wondering how this applied to other television shows, and how many other shows use mystery or suspense primarily. I don't watch many shows, so it wasn't a very long list. Spoilers abound:
LOST: More about surprise, with several variables undisclosed until the final season, and certain plot points dropped for lengths of time. Desmond reuniting with Penny
Breaking Bad: Suspense. We know Walt is teetering on the line from the very beginning when he decides to cook drugs. Plus, he's living on a drastically shortened clock.
Walking Dead: Hmmm... somewhere in-between. Surprise, because we don't know what's become of the rest of the world, or what other survivors are truly like, and these reveals are rather volatile. Suspense, around Seasons 3 and 4, with more of our antagonists being revealed gradually.
Heroes: Leaning toward suspense. Once the bad guys are outed, they're outed. We see a number of possible antagonists fraternizing with other protagonists. They're all living their lives independent of each other, unaware that a family member might be harassing or monitoring another main character.
Dexter: Suspense. Dexter is a serial killer, and we're waiting for him to mess up somewhere.
edited 28th Jul '14 8:25:39 AM by FOFD
Akira Toriyama (April 5 1955 - March 1, 2024).