So the police came and caught me as I was standing over the body with the bloody knife in my hand. I tried to tell them I was innocent but all they could see was the fear in my eyes...
TWENTY-FOUR HOURS EARLIER....
This whole set-up is beginning to bug me. I've lost count of the number of television shows that I've seen that start out with something dramatic/unexpected happening to the protagonist and then fade out with the words TWENTY-FOUR (or FORTY-EIGHT, or THIRTY-SIX) HOURS EARLIER...as we begin to have the story unfold in a flashback.
"Let's start off with Hightower holding a gun to Jane?", or "Why don't we begin with Mac Taylor bound and hooded in a deserted location?" "Oh! Oh! How about we open with a bomb strapped to Chin?" "Sure, that'll hook them! Then we can go back and explain what happened!" Give me a break. It's gotten so bad that after only a few seconds into a program, my wife and I will turn to each other and say, "Twenty-four hours earlier.." Sure enough, that's what happens. We haven't been wrong yet.
There's nothing the matter with this approach, per se, but Sweet Holy Jesus, enough is enough. It feels as if every screenwriter and show runner in Hollywood is working from the exact same playbook. I used put up with this approach in Richard Prather's Shell Scott novels when I was a teenager and enjoyed them, but Prather didn't put out ten new novels in two weeks.
The whole deal is wearing thin, guys. But then again, why should I be expecting originality and creativity from Hollywood? End of rant.
Nice rant and I, too, am tiring of such sfuff. All the shows mentioned I watch as well and do the same thing you mentioned. I am on the verge of opting out.
ReplyDeleteI had recorded last week's NCIS: LA and watched it last night, Randy. G-g-g-rrrrrr. (By the way, I guessed wrong. I said, "SEVENTY-TWO HOURS EARLIER"; what they said was, "THREE DAYS EARLIER." Double G-g-g-rrrrrr!
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