A Bad Case of Manufactured Suspense
One of the few shows I watch every week is Lost. It kind of sucks this season, but I already have the season pass in iTunes so I watch every episode if only so I’m not wasting money. The most current episode “Tricia Tanaka Is Dead” had about the worst case of manufactured suspense I’ve ever seen in a show.
Manufactured Suspense is the term I use to describe an event in a TV show or movie that attempts to be suspenseful but, well, isn’t. You can tell it’s supposed to be suspenseful from the music, acting and editing, but if you spend more than a few seconds thinking about it, you soon realize that there’s nothing really happening.
Last week’s Lost is about Hurley finding a tipped-over VW van (complete with Dharma Initiative badge) in the jungle, and trying to convince the other castaways to help him fix it and get it running again. Finding that the battery is stone-dead, Hurley decides to get the VW started by pushing it down a hill and popping the clutch. Fair enough. The “danger” is that at the end of the hill is a pile of big rocks, which will smash the car up unless Hurley steers away in time.
But think about this scenario a second. The danger can be easily dodged by steering the van in the other direction, that’s all. Steering the van doesn’t require that the engine be running. So… what difference does it make whether the engine starts or not? None at all.
So Jin and Sawyer push the van down the hill, and complete with dramatic music and editing, it rolls towards the rocks. Needless to say, Hurley doesn’t pop the clutch until he’s almost exactly at the rocks, and of course after the engine starts he steers the van away from danger and saves the day.
To the creators of Lost: I like to think the castaways aren’t so retarded that they believe you can’t steer a car without the engine running. Please stop insulting my intelligence and theirs.
