In Praise of the Set Up

I've been thinking about how much I love a good set up since I watched Date Night a week or so ago. The set up on that movie was great. I totally believed Tina Fey and Steve Carrell as a couple trying to keep it all together and I totally related to their struggle. There are things from the first 15 minutes of that movie that keep coming back to me. Tina Fey has a recurring stress dream about having sex with three men at once? I totally get it. It would be so stressful to try to please that many men at once! And the whole thing with her night guard when they come back from their date? Absolutely priceless.

I'm not so sure about the rest of the movie because I watched it while I was making witch hat cookies for the booksigning and had to pay attention to sticking Hershey's kisses to Fudge Stripe cookies with canned frosting (only the best for my fans!). Okay. FIne. I managed to drag my gaze off my work when Mark Wahlberg was on screen without his shirt, but other than that I was being really industrious. It kind of fell apart for me after a while, though. Without the kisses and the frosting and the fudge stripes, I'm not sure it would have held my attention.

I've read a few books where the set up was great, but didn't quite carry that promise through. Sock is one I can think of. Also the Yiddish Policeman's Union. The shtick made them charming at the beginning, but then got burdensome by the end. I might have finished both of them if I could have made cookies while I read them, but no suck luck.

How about you guys? Any books or movies where the set up rocked, but then lost you? And is a good set up enough for you? Will it carry you through to the end?