Villain Cam and Victim Cam

[cimorene]

Villain Cam and Victim Cam is what I call it when the point of view shifts for very short sections to following either the villian or the victim in a crime or mystery story. (The technique's also used in fantasy and adventure of course - for example, the glimpses of Sauron and Saruman in LOTR.)

Every episode of CSI and every episode of Criminal Minds begins with a teaser scene. It's usually victim cam in CSI, and they're both pretty frequent in Criminal Minds. Criminal Minds also includes frequent short scenes with the villain/victim throughout the story. Poirot is rather like Criminal Minds in that way, although it's borderline - sometimes it's not just interludes, but a whole B-plot with a fixed viewpoint and a number of developed characters with their own storyline just as important as the investigators'.

Sherlock Holmes never makes use of it at all in written canon, but Granada added some to their film versions.

Full disclosure: I'm one of those people who is against POV switching, and the more of it there is, the worse in my view, so that just one is ideal, back-and-forth with two principals is perfectly all right though not just as one would wish, and every additional viewpoint character after that point is an increasingly serious detriment to my judgment of the piece.

That said, I cannot deride villain cam and victim cam enough, and I really feel this is a separate issue from POV switching in itself. I can put up with it in adventure stories (the effect is to make it all rather more epic - armies are massing on both sides! Preparations are happening everywhere! This dude who is going to do battle with Aragorn is really super evil!), but in crime and mystery movies and television I absolutely despise them. I can't think of one single good thing that they have ever added to any show I've ever seen. In my opinion, they always serve merely to annoy, and in the case of mysteries, to cheat, pretty much: if the viewer isn't capable of following the story from the point of view of the investigation, but your plot concerns the investigation for its entire arc, then UR DOIN IT RONG.

[Poll #1120747]

Comments

[jennaria.livejournal.com]

Actually, the kind of POV switching that gets my goat? The kind that's used to ostensibly eliminate one of the suspects from contention -- because here he is, and he's obviously not thinking like the villain would be, right? -- only to later find out that the author tricked you. And not in a 'oh, man, when I go back and re-read, I can see the clues' kind of way, either. It's bad form.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, I hate that too. Poirot does it sometimes.