A Matter of Perspective

Abstract

Der Artikel diskutiert wie die Netflix-Serien Jessica Jones, Stranger Things, Dark and The Rain nicht nur dadurch Angst erzeugen, dass sie Suspense aufweisen, sondern indem sie asymmetrische Beobachterperspektiven und Wissensstände zwischen den Figuren sowie den Figuren und den RezipientInnen duch standardisierte filmästhetische Frames wie z. B. die Kameraperspektive etablieren. Es soll gezeigt werden, dass die Serien diese weit verbreiteten Frames neu encodieren und kritisch auf gouvernmentale Überwachung, die Funktion von Mediennetzwerken, Atomenergie und die Methoden der Pharmaindustrie verweisen. This article discusses how the Netflix series Jessica Jones, Stranger Things, Dark and The Rain evoke fear not only by creating suspense but also in a deeper sense by establishing asymmetrical view perspectives and knowledge levels among the figures and between the figures and the audience and how stereotypical film aesthetical frames contribute to this process (e. g. special camera perspectives). It shall be shown that these already widespread frames are newly encoded and used to point critically towards governmental surveillance systems, media networks, atomic energy and the methods of pharma industries.1 1 Theoretical Framework Examining fear or surveying the current research situation on fear is difficult as long as it is not clarified if fear is really the term to choose, viz. which concept or phenomenon is precisely meant. We have to ask why not talking of or analysing fright, panic, anxiety, angst etc.? All the more we have to differentiate whether fear is acted out on the fictional or the metafictional level or whether fear is discussed in fiction or caused by fiction in us spectators – and these oppositions are not exactly the same as metafictional negotiations do not include or evoke a || 1 Teil des Forschungsprojekts I 5049-G (SFB 1472 ‚Transformationen des Populären‘) gefördert vom Wissenschaftsfonds (FWF). 108 | Maren Lickhardt certain effect per se. Especially in the latter case, it seems evident to focus on suspense, although we have to keep in mind that suspense does not necessarily equate with fear, because it describes an abeyance on the basis of a previously raised expectation in a very general sense – so much for the etymology (Borringo 1980: 41–48; Bálint, Kuijpers & Doicaru 2017: 178–180). Though Alfred Hitchcock, the master of suspense, connects suspense with thrill, viz. the expectation of a shocking event. Let us suppose that there is a bomb underneath this table between us. Nothing happens, and then all of a sudden, “Boom!“ [...] The public is surprised, but prior to this surprise, it has seen an absolutely ordinary scene [...]. Now, let us take a suspense situation. The bomb is underneath the table and the public knows it [...]. The audience is longing to warn the characters on the screen. [...] In the first case we have given the public fifteen seconds of surprise [...]. In the second we have provided them with fifteen minutes of suspense. The conclusion is that whenever possible the public must be informed (Hitchcock 1995: