amkean pronunciation

Instead of creating, I've been consuming, and one of the things I've been consuming is AMC's newest original drama, The Killing. I like the show.

Something interesting happened on last week's episode. Here's the scene: The detectives visit a mosque to look for a guy, and take off their shoes as they enter, putting the shoes in the cubbyholes provided. They don't make it very far into the mosque, however, and the mosque guys speaks to them while they're still next to the cubbyholes. After the speaking goes nowhere, they get their shoes again, and then you see the detective has a piece of paper with a clue written on it.

While watching this, I thought, "now where did she get the paper?" I would have continued wondering but for the magic of the DVR. She didn't get the clue from the guy they were talking to, so it must have come from the shoes. Sure enough, upon watching the scene again, I saw one mosque-goer amidst the several who were coming and going during the scene slip something into the detective's shoe.

This is a very interesting directing decision for me. Conventional visual storytelling dictates that you show the detail to call the audience's attention to it. Cut to the woman inserting the slip of paper, or the character switching out the real artifact for the fake, or linger on the door that was unfortunately left unlocked. Instead, The Killing had this scene where almost everyone watching would have missed the detail. Even if someone noticed the woman reaching into the cubbys, there's little indication besides the general area that it's the detective's shoes she's doing something with.

So you're faced with the audience saying, like I did, "where did that note come from?" So my question is, was this decision enabled by DVR technology? Did the director say "they can go back and look?" Generally, I prefer subtle, and I was pleased and excited when I went back and found my answer in the episode. But the DVR is nowhere near a universal technology, so it would seem...bold?...to put an essential detail (as opposed to something like an easter egg) somewhere where most everyone will miss it if they're not looking for it.

P.S. Upon reading online reviews of the episode, it seems as if everyone is just satisfied that somehow, in the course of 3 minutes, a note got slipped into the detective's shoe. One review mentions rewinding the scene, but all the others just move on. So maybe it's not so bold, but I sure was confused when the paper appeared in her hand.

Labels: tv