There are literal traps, of course — this is the series that gave Michelle Gomez , as well as the psychological baggage she’s been carrying around for years.
The show delights in wipe transitions a-go-go across the globe, a score that seems closer in its propulsively playful style to a Bernard Hermann than it does to a Bear McCreary, to say nothing of the show’s Saul Bass-inspired opening credits.
The large glass windows, which should offer a glamorous view of the Bangkok skyline, all bounce a reflection of Alex’s corpse back towards Cassie, wherever she finds herself in the suite.
“It was satisfying to me as a designer to be able to work with broken symmetries and reflection and refraction,” White said of the space.
You can see the same strong visual lines, labyrinthine and immense, in the layout of the cornfield Cary Grant is forced to run through in “North by Northwest” or, in an earlier moment, in how Hitchcock utilizes the design of the U.N.
Finding ways to use interiors to dramatize its hero’s interior life, creating spaces where it’s easy for characters to watch or be watched, is about as Hitchcock as it gets.
The show does James Stewart one better and turns its windows into portals through which Cassie watches herself freeze under interrogation by the FBI; light fixtures flash and flare out in key moments of distress.
“We definitely knew that we were going to have to be making changes throughout,” White said.
Television has the luxury of time on movies, even Hitchcock ones.
“We wanted to be able to let the audience see the way that she’d seen herself, which is sometimes hiding herself, sometimes looking at herself in a very idealized way, or vice versa,” White said.