Victory Soap v. 2.0

There's this show on Discovery Health called "Mystery Diagnosis." It features people who've come down with mysterious symptoms that a battery of doctors can't figure out until much sleuthing of obscure ailments comes up with the arcane and/or ordinary explanation of what is wrong with the person, and they are cured or at least successfully treated. For one of those icky bodily-fluid-obsessed plus weepy victims things the show isn't bad, but there is one disturbing gimmick I wish they'd dispense with. I speak of the frequent use of the Single Eyeball Closeup. There will be a perfectly ordinary interview scene going on -- either of a doctor, a patient, or a relative -- and then suddenly, for no reason, the camera will zoom in on one of the interviewee's eyeballs until the entire thing fills the screen and you can count the individual eyelashes and sometimes even the mites that live in the dead skin cells and makeup, depending on the size of your tv screen. There you are, watching a Concerned Doctor or Fearful Patient discourse on symptoms and causes, when suddenly: EYEBALL. The first time I saw this I actually drew back in my seat.

I submit that this technique serves no purpose other than to confuse and possibly disgust the viewer, and to transform whoever is being interviewed from an ordinary person into some sort of gelloid, spike-encircled monster. Perhaps the technique is supposed to bring us "closer" to the emotions being experienced by the person in focus (for instance, when they are all weepy), but closing in on one eye like that negates the emotions being expressed. All you see is a giant eyeball, rolling around like the Eye of Sauron. So stop it.