Do commercials add suspense?

[Fire Marshall Bill]

I was originally gonna name this "Do commercials make TV better?" and elaborate, but there's too many people who don't read the OP and reply with assumptions.

And no, obviously toothpaste, cars, and tampons don't add suspense to a TV show they have nothing to do with. That's not how I mean the question.

Anyways, I'm watching the season finale of one of the shows I keep up with. It's recorded on my DVR, which is fairly new for me, and as I'm getting near the end I find myself not so into the show as I normally would be. It's not like I didn't enjoy it. I really wanted to know how it was gonna play out. But I just didn't seem so on the edge of my seat as I normally would be. Then I thought, well I don't have to wait on the damn commercials anymore. That instantly made me think back. When I watched great episodes of various shows before I got really into the plot and then BAM! commercial and I'm like damnit, I wanna know what's gonna happen, but I have to wait on the commercial. Then I sit there waiting for them to end so I can find out where the shows going next. And obviously this repeats til the shows over.

Now with a DVR it's like, oh a commercial, well let me fast forward and the only thing I have to worry about is accidentally going to far and having to rewind. It's not like the actual show is degraded, but the suspense is for me it seems and it's kind of depressing. I don't wanna watch commercials I don't have to, but I don't want to change the affect of the show on me. Weird I know.

Anyone else ever experience this?

 

[FitFinlay4Life]

We don't have anything close to the amount of adverts that y'all do. In fact programs on the BBC have no adverts so an hour long american show takes 40 minutes. The laugh is that when I'm watching the US shows, it is SO obvious when there is ment to be an ad break. I think this is a combined effort, the program feels more suspenseful and you are less likely to run for the bog or a drink in case you'll miss the mini payoff so the ads get watched. I spent 2 months in the states last year and I've to be completely honest, the only thing that aggravated me more than the continual ad breaks was the editing of movies playing at a time that kids should be in bed.

 

[The Brain]

I have the exact opposite opinion. When I watch a show, depending on the show, I like to get lost in it and the commercial kills the momentum. For example, I never saw LOST until last summer. My sister got me into it and we watched all five seasons on dvd over the course of a few months. Then when season six started we watched it as it was airing on ABC. I hated getting inturrupted by commercials. I also hated waiting a week for the next episode. I had a much better time watching them commercial free on dvd. If I'm watching something like The Big Bang Theory I don't really care, but for shows like LOST and 24 commercial free is much better in my opinion.

 

[Fire Marshall Bill]

the only thing that aggravated me more than the continual ad breaks was the editing of movies playing at a time that kids should be in bed.

The ads we're used to over here, but I feel you on the editing of shows/movies when it's obvious kids are in bed.

Brain, don't you think that you hate having to wait to watch more, be it by commercial or the week between shows, is because you wanna know what's gonna happen next, thereby building the suspense? Just sounds like it.

 

[The Brain]

The ads we're used to over here, but I feel you on the editing of shows/movies when it's obvious kids are in bed.

Brain, don't you think that you hate having to wait to watch more, be it by commercial or the week between shows, is because you wanna know what's gonna happen next, thereby building the suspense? Just sounds like it.

I understand what you mean by suspense. I see how it works in the case of waiting for the next show. The problem is in a show like LOST I am trying to lose myself in it. I'm using my imagination to get caught up in it. Then at a pivotal point in the show I suddenly have Flo the Progressive lady yelling at me about auto insurance discounts. Like I said it just kills the momentum. It's not really a problem as I'm obviously used to it. We've all put up with commercials our whole lives. I just prefer not to if given the choice.

 

[Fire Marshall Bill]

I understand what you mean by suspense. I see how it works in the case of waiting for the next show. The problem is in a show like LOST I am trying to lose myself in it. I'm using my imagination to get caught up in it. Then at a pivotal point in the show I suddenly have Flo the Progressive lady yelling at me about auto insurance discounts. Like I said it just kills the momentum. It's not really a problem as I'm obviously used to it. We've all put up with commercials our whole lives. I just prefer not to if given the choice.

Spot on with the comment. I guess now that I read your comment it becomes clear to me that that's why shows do it in the first place. To make you wanna see more. One of my favorite shows, NCIS, enhances that by having the black and white scenes right before commercials when I just wanna see more. Then I get to see Flo "get carried away" again. I wish she'd get carried away off the edge of a cliff next time. Commercials have always been the reason I find what else is on TV. That way I can watch something else I like for a few minutes while not caring that I miss large chunks. If I wanna see the whole show that's why I got the DVR in the first place

 

[FitFinlay4Life]

Commercials have always been the reason I find what else is on TV. That way I can watch something else I like for a few minutes while not caring that I miss large chunks. If I wanna see the whole show that's why I got the DVR in the first place

Yes!!!!!! The other reason for despising adverts, instead of getting into watching one program - an ad break hits, you flick, see something else good and end up half watching two (and occasionally more) shows!

 

[Attitude]

I'm split. Now on one hand I don't care all that much because I get a break to go do something else such as get a drink or go to the restroom.

But then as The Brain said when your into something suspensful like LOST I really don't want to see all the commercials and could pretty much do without. I felt the same way during the LOST series finale. I was irritated whenever they broke to commercial.

But here is where I contradict myself. Sometimes commercials make you more anxious to want to see it. When they do that break and leave you with what just happened my thoughts just go crazy as to what's going to happen next. So I sit there and try to figure out what's going to happen when commercial break ends and the show's back.

EDIT:By the way anybody reading this should go and check out my thread "Next to be inducted into the Rock Hall of Fame," in the Music section. I'm being selfish and trying to get people to read the thread.

 

[Mitch Henessey]

Yeah, I'm one of those people who can't stand commercials. As The Brain said, commercials can really, really kill the momentum. I'll never forget how excited I was during the series finale of Lost, but the commercials kept driving me crazy. I remember when Locke/smoke monster and Jack were about to fight. I was literally on the edge of my seat, and just as they were about to clash.......the commercials start! I definitely enjoy a show more when there's no commercials, because I like to watch a show with no interruption. The only time I'm okay with commercials is during the Super Bowl, and that's mainly because we get to see a lot of cool stuff. Super Bowl commercials are the best of the best, so I can tolerate them for that one night.

 

[The Mark of Zur-En-Arrh]

Hate commercials. Ya know over here in the UK when Lost was still being aired, on occassion they'd actually have commercials BEFORE the opening credits. Can you believe that? The episode hasn't been on 2 minutes and they've already cut to a break.

In some instances they're good, and obviously if you've sat down to watch a re-run of 'The Godfather' which you know will take 3 hours, then ad breaks are essential so you can go use the toilet or get a snack etc. But in the age of DVR, you don't need ad breaks for that. I would much rather they do what they do on the Movie channels on Sky over here.

Say it's 8:00 and you sit down to watch, i don't know, The Dark Knight (yeah, yeah, typical MoZEA, i know) It's 2 and a half hours approximately. So that finishes at 10:30. They'll then have 30 minutes worth of adverts before the next film starts at 11:00. Why can't they do that on every channel?