I was watching Young & the Restless today (don't laugh -- it's a habit from college days I can't break :-).
Well, for months, a big secret has been kept, regarding one of the characters. The audience has been aware of the secret, but many of the characters had not been. This tension, regarding the secret, has been building and building. And finally, when The Big Reveal came today? We (the audience) didn't even get to SEE it. That's right. We weren't shown that scene at all. It was entirely skipped over. Instead, all we saw was the aftermath of the revelation. Characters discussing the secret with each other after the fact.
The audience was completely deprived of that moment when the two main characters found out the secret. We didn't get to witness their expressions, their shock, their dialogue, none of it.
How frustrating! How anticlimactic! I do think the writers had a purpose -- to be creative, to think outside the box, to move away from the predictable. But in doing so, they deprived the audience of the pay-off. Of MONTHS waiting to see.....this scene. And we didn't get to see it.
As writers, I think it's great to be creative, to handle things in a new way. But sometimes, the basics are necessary. Sometimes, the expected is exactly what the audience wants. What they've been waiting and waiting for. And if it doesn't meet their expectations (or worse, it's not shown to them at all!), they will be disappointed.
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