How do you feel when you work out something in a story/movie/TV show before the “big reveal?” Do you feel proud of yourself for putting something together or cheated because something was obvious and yet the writers danced around it like it was a big mystery? Take for example this week’s episode of The Closer. Brenda and her partner have a reporter and his cameraman in the back seat of the car on a ridealong. The reporter has a couple of addresses he’d like to check out as part of his story. When they get to the second address, a hail of bullets perforates the car, killing one person and wounding another.
Jump ahead to the squad room, where the crackerjack crimesolvers are filling a whiteboard with a list of names of people who might have a reason to want to kill Deputy Chief Brenda. (We’re going to need a bigger board, they jest.) It was obvious to me from the get-go that the chief wasn’t the target, and her visit to the impound lot where one of her detectives was inserting trajectory rods into the bullet holes only confirmed what I suspected. But why did none of the other cops suggest it? Dramatic tension, presumably, but c’mon—it was as plain as day that all the bullet holes were in the back door.
Otherwise a decent episode. Liked her parents. I met Frances Sternhagen on the set of The Mist earlier this year. Neat lady. I also watched Eureka last night. Another case of an experiment that shouldn’t have caused any problems getting amplified by someone else’s experiment and wreaking havoc on things. Where’s OSHA when all this stuff’s going on?
Finished up my Storytellers Unplugged essay to post tomorrow morning. I’ll be recording the podcast version in a couple of hours at my “home studio” (= PC + microphone + editing software). My topic is the value of critique groups.
It’s only 79° at the moment, and raining, thanks to TS Erin. Today’s high is a mere 87°, which is about 15° lower than yesterday’s. What a relief.
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