Spoiler Alert
I’m no genius – but it is very rare that I am surprised by either a movie or TV show.

You know a few years ago when shows would advertise their special twists: stay tuned because the last five minutes will leave you blah…

I usually guess what happens pretty early on. Deeps and I like to compete with our guesses.

Me: The senator is gay.
Deeps: The senator is gay and his wife did it.
Me: The senator is gay, his wife did it but he will take the blame because he’d rather people think he was a murderer than gay.

Me: The wife is being framed.
Deeps: The wife is framing the husband, by making it look like he’s framing her.

Part of it is simply a means of applying Ebert’s rule about the economy of characters. But most often it is simply applying the guest star rule: Andrew McCarthy is guest starring this week? I’m pretty sure he did it.

But the best is when you’re not sure who did it and it is very early in the show, and you can just look at someone who should have been innocuous but got like 3 seconds more camera time than they should have. It’s like when the camera flashes to the phone before it rings. Dun-dun-duh!

We saw a preview for M. Night’s latest a few weeks ago.

Our friend Peaches declared that the movie was a must-see for him. We talked about the movie and what the twist might be.

I suggested that the movie’s inherent lameness couldn’t actually survive under the weight of a twist. Peaches suggested the man makes good movies. Deeps tried to stay out of it.

Me: I can’t believe you want to see this.
Peaches: I think it’ll be good.
Me: But probably not.
Peaches: It could be good.
Me: Did you ever think that the twist will be that you’ll smarten up and not see the movie?
Peaches: You’re cruel.
Deeps: But she’s probably not wrong.