Singing Detective

At the begining of The Singing Detective last night I was having a little trouble understanding what was going on and it took me a few minutes to understand how the story was being told. I eventually caught on to what was happening and started to really enjoy and appreciate it. After our discussion in class today about the ways in which the story was being told I started to wonder if a non film major would enjoy the story as much. This is not to say that one has to be a film major to enjoy The Singing Detective, but it is to say that film majors have watched a lot of films and are familiar with the ways different stories are told and the modes and conventions with wich they are told. It dawned on me that the creators of The Singing Detective were taking a few pretty large risks by choosing to start the viewer out in such a state of confusion. I began to wonder whether or not I would have watched this show if I saw it on TV, or if i had comne into it half way through. Would I have understood what was going on? Would I have been able to catch up with what was happening? I’m really not sure, but I think that it is safe to say that the creators put a lot of faith in the audience’s ability to not only piece together what is happening and how the story is being told but also to wait out the early confusion and uncertainty in the plot.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *