Abstract
The article conducts a comparative analysis of a feature film (Open your Eyes) and two TV serials (Westworld and Dark) in order to find out how well the narrative complexity characteristic of puzzle plots may work in long-running formats. Given the core constituents of the puzzle effect ‒ disorientation, confusion, and lack of knowledge ‒ the biggest challenge for its viability in a TV serial is the extra-long running time. Both Westworld and Dark prevent audience frustration by already providing partial resolutions before the season ends, and by establishing supplementary attractions of a more classical and easy-to-grasp nature, such as future-oriented suspense-questions, or entertaining intrigues and machinations involving the whole cast of protagonists. Even in the larger structure of the TV serial, puzzle elements may, then, play an important role. However, spectators’ capacities to unravel convoluted plotlines have their limits, and the final revelation of what really happened may only satisfy if the entanglements are not overly construed. Due to these high demands, puzzle plots in TV serials will likely remain a niche phenomenon.
Highlights
Definitions and Concepts1So-called “puzzle films” have been very successful in the last three decades and have attracted considerable critical and academic attention
2 I use the term “TV serial” for shows whose stories span whole seasons. In his introduction to Puzzle Films: Complex Storytelling in Contemporary Cinema, Warren Buckland, editor of that volume, defines the puzzle plot as follows: “A puzzle plot is intricate in the sense that the arrangement of events is not just complex, but complicated and perplexing, the events are not interwoven, but entangled. [...] This volume unites them [the puzzle films] on the basis of their shared storytelling complexity. [...] [T]he majority of [...] puzzle films are distinct in that they break the boundaries of the classical, unified mimetic plot
Puzzle Plots and Narrative Complexity. Applying these definitions to the subject of this article, how can we clarify the connection between narrative complexity and the puzzle plot, especially the kind that occurs in feature films? Puzzle films, I would say, form a subgroup of the broader class of complex films
Summary
-called “puzzle films” have been very successful in the last three decades and have attracted considerable critical and academic attention. Before embarking on this analysis, some preliminary considerations about how to define narrative complexity in general and the puzzle plot in particular may be in order. With its fictional universes full of real or apparent contradictions, inconsistencies and paradoxes, and/or its multiple entangling plotlines, complex narration makes comprehension more difficult, especially in the initial phase of a work in which we expect to be enlightened by expository information. This is, a general statement, and it needs differentiation. The perception of an already complex story may be further obscured by an unconventional rendering of its information
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
