[ SECRET POST #5823 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #5823 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 10 secrets from Secret Submission Post #833.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

01. https://i.imgur.com/yA4ZLhH.png

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, sometimes I get the feeling that a producer has sat through the edit with a stopwatch and gone "we've gone seven point three minutes without an action scene, so we need one here" or "now is where we need to have the secondary hero pull a betrayal even though they've shown no sign beforehand, for the twist scene". It isn't fun at this point.

[(Anonymous)]

The screenwriting "manual" Always Save The Cat is, unfortunately, still around.

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, it seems like they read about Spielberg and Lucas deciding that Raiders of the Lost Ark had to have an action beat once per page and decided to copy that...without bothering to write the framework to hang that story on.

[(Anonymous)]

Sadly agree. A lot of movies feel like they're constructed around Big Action Sequences which get the lion's share of the budget and focus. Stuff like characterization, overall plot, writing and pacing are a lower priority, IMO.

[tabaqui]

Jeez, this. And Big Action Sequences are SO BORING.

[meadowphoenix]

There's definitely a race to the most efficiently profitable media and I don't like it either. Everything happening with HBO is gross. Apple is doing interesting stuff, even if I think it's extremely sketchy for these tech companies to start owning/being media companies.

[(Anonymous)]

+1

really what it comes down to

[(Anonymous)]

so many ZOMGTWISTS! and SHOCKREVEALS! now feel like they're designed solely to get a reaction out of the audience (because social media buzz is the currency now), instead of the characters

[(Anonymous)]

Another problem I have is I am old and have read a bunch of stories by O. Henry, so a lot of the time the SHOCKING TWIST just makes me think,"Huh. An attempt at an O. Henry ending." Which doesn't make it seem fresh or unexpected-- especially when I find myself predicting it.

[rosehiptea]

It's not just shows and movies. I feel like every single mystery novel these days is marketed as having a "shocking" twist ending. Of course I don't want it to be obvious from the beginning who did it (unless it's supposed to be) but I'd rather they put more effort into the rest of the writing and less into blowing my mind with their "shocking" twist which often isn't that great anyway.

[(Anonymous)]

"Shocking" twists are nowhere near as satisfying as the ones that give you an "aha!" moment, anyway. This whole idea that you have to blindside people just leads to empty contrivances.

[(Anonymous)]

Have to agree. It's like we've gotten to a point where they're trying to put a twist on a twist on a twist, and you just get this gibberish writing where the thing someone might be expected to feel has to be contradicted, and the first thing they say about what's going on has to be proved false, and also all the following assertions (from all characters involved in a scene), and the writers hope to be disorienting enough that whatever they eventually choose for a story-direction will be considered smart and people will go with it. And I'm like, "no." Witty dialog has its place, but not at the expense of creating or communicating solid characterizations. Or interesting stories that the writers actually committed to.

I think at some point (when it wasn't this common) someone made money by doing the verbal equivalent of having their characters throw a lot of spaghetti at the wall, and different parts stuck for different people. And that promoted a lot of arguing then in fandom, also, because the characters canonically said a lot of mutually contradictory things. But at this point ... it just feels like we're stuck in a multi-canon crossover with the absurdist play, The Bald Soprano.

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah TBRH I noticed this when I tried getting into a couple Kdramas on Netflix recently.

I'm always surprised that the show I'm watching is a mystery show, usually involves at least one murder/mysterious death.

And then I heard that the new Wednesday also is built around a mystery.

And it's like, so this the peak of prestige TV or whatever the fuck we're calling the entertainment industry now? Every show is more or less a cop procedure dressed up as not that.

[rosehiptea]

I think the mystery suits Wednesday due to the nature of the show. It’s not the best writing or the greatest mystery ever but I kind of see why they wanted it.

As for Kdramas I’ve been watching almost nothing else (except Wednesday) for over three months. (Still not that many of them as I don’t do a lot of binge-watching.) And one thing that seems to happen (just my opinion) is that a lot of them are romances (or at least a lot of the ones that end up on streaming services in the US) but they have to have other elements because it’s hard to make a romantic comedy last for sixteen hours. I’m not saying that to insult them - I enjoy the heck out of them and I usually even enjoy the mystery aspects (or whatever other serious plot point they’ve putting in). But I think that may be part of why mystery elements are showing up. Then again maybe we’re not watching the same shows and I’m not really talking about the same thing.