{"id":19469,"date":"2024-03-27T20:20:08","date_gmt":"2024-03-28T00:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=19469"},"modified":"2024-03-27T20:20:08","modified_gmt":"2024-03-28T00:20:08","slug":"superfluous-is-suspicious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=19469","title":{"rendered":"Superfluous is suspicious"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Raymond Burr as Perry Mason, and Barbara Hale as Della Street, in Perry Mason<\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Just yesterday I was talking<\/strong> to someone about recent reports that the most popular content on video streaming services is old, not new entertainment. This article from Screenrant<\/a> lists 7 suggested reasons for this phenomenon. All of them may have validity, but I wonder if there might be one more \u2013 the fact that the older the show, the less woke it\u2019s likely to be. The less likely it will be to try to stuff some fashionable new moral imperative down the viewer\u2019s throat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my own case, I\u2019ve been spending my evenings of late with Amazon Prime, working my way through the Perry Mason<\/a><\/em> series (1957-1966). There\u2019s some irony in this \u2013 next to Lawrence Welk, there was no show I hated more than Perry Mason when I was a kid. I found it dull \u2013 few fisticuffs or gunfights, and half the show was people blabbing in a courtroom. But my mother loved it. Today, there\u2019s almost nothing on television I enjoy watching more than Perry Mason<\/em>. I guess that means that \u2013 despite all appearances \u2013 I may have matured a little.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Something else that\u2019s changed about me is that I\u2019ve become a writer. Therefore, I watch for plot mechanisms. And I\u2019ve noticed something \u2013 something that\u2019s probably been obvious to more perceptive viewers for a long time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve figured out how to guess whodunnit in a lot of the episodes \u2013 not all of them, but many.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watch for the superfluous character.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The thing to bear in mind is that \u2013 especially in television \u2013 especially in the old days \u2013 budgets were tight. The revision process in script development often involved finding ways to cut locations (if you can find a way to repeat shooting locations and sets you can save a lot of money) and cut characters (speaking actors are an expense. Make two characters into one whenever you can.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So if you\u2019re watching an episode of an old series like Perry Mason<\/em> (or Murder She Wrote<\/em>, or Columbo<\/em>, etc.), and you notice a character who has lines (not a non-speaking extra) but seems to be there for no other reason than to make conversation, they\u2019re not there by accident. If you can think of no other reason for the producers to pay them, they\u2019re probably the murderer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This goes double if the superfluous character is a familiar actor whom you\u2019re used to seeing in bigger roles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Written fiction is easier. You can deploy a cast of thousands at no additional cost.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just yesterday I was talking to someone about recent reports that the most popular content on video streaming services is old, not new entertainment. This article from Screenrant lists 7 suggested reasons for this phenomenon. All of them may have validity, but I wonder if there might be one more \u2013 the fact that the … Continue reading Superfluous is suspicious<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1,17],"tags":[4989,2747],"class_list":["post-19469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-writing","tag-perry-mason","tag-television"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19469"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19469\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19470,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19469\/revisions\/19470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}