What is the Modern Thriller Paradigm?

[JackBludis]

I have finally figured out that TV science fiction, vampires, and other woo-stuff has shaped the modern thriller.

1. You don't have to wait very long for something to happen--it will, no matter how far-fetched
2. Nothing is as it seems.
3. Someone or several characters will not be who he or has been earlier in the story.
4. What the story started out about is not necessarily what it will finish up about.

It was pretty much the paradigm for "24," which was only this /\ much more believable than vampires. Maybe not even that much because just about everyone stayed awake for 24 hours.

Comments? Additions? Rebuttal? Other paradigms?
 

[I. J. Parker]

Why is it that I get only a blank page?

[Richard Sanders]

I.J.--copy this and paste it into your url header:
http://www.theonion.com/articles/entire-precinct-made-up-of-loose-c...

It's hilarious

John--interesting what you said about YA fiction. I wonder if the enduring taste for the unreal is part of the extended-adolescence phenomenon. I've got three nieces in their early 20s and they sure don't have the life experience I had in my early 20s. Then again, when i was in my early 20s (during the early 1970s), my generation was also accused of going through an extended adolescence. Come to think of it, there was also a lot of fantasy being consumed then. Half the people I knew were reading Lord of the Rings. Maybe there's hope.

[I. J. Parker]

Thanks, but I still just get the Onion page with no text. Maybe you have to be a subscriber.

[Richard Sanders]

No sub necessary. Might be a faulty link. How's this?

http://www.theonion.com/articles/entire-precinct-made-up-of-loose-
cannons%2C2306

[Richard Sanders]

Or search The Onion or Google for
Entire Precinct Made Up Of Loose Cannons

[I. J. Parker]

Nope. Still get only a blank page. They said I broke the Internet.

[JackBludis]

So the guys on "The Badge" were real?

[Christopher Valen]

Leave it to the Onion to put the TV detective genre in perspective. Thanks for the hilarious link, John. I have to start reading the Onion again.

[Grant McKenzie]

I like to think of it as The Princess Bride effect: Tell a great story, but leave out the boring parts ;-)

[I. J. Parker]

I doubt that works. I have a novel featuring Mesmer. It's still unsold.

[John McFetridge]

I'd like to read a novel featurin Mesmer. Here is a hard-boiled private eye novel that features a mystery around a manuscript written by Mesmer: Wild Thing (of course, Mike will tell you it didn't sell many copies).

[I. J. Parker]

Bless you. :)