Winning Time, the new HBO series about the genesis of the Lakers dynasty, begins in the waiting room of a doctor’s office:

There’s a young woman reading U.S. News magazine. Saddam Hussein is on the cover. There’s a young boy playing Gameboy. Brook Shields is on tv giving an interview. Two nurses are speaking behind the counter:

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“Is he still in there?”

“Room 12.”

“There’s a photographer in front,” says one. “They want to let him out the back. Just to make sure nobody sees him.”

“Okay,” says the other, “thanks.” She walks away, towards the examination rooms.

Inside a room we see Magic Johnson. He’s quiet and calm, waiting.

“Earvin,” says a voice. It’s his manager. He’s standing with the nurse.

Magic looks up. “Right,” he smiles, “right on.” He walks out of the room, towards the back. People look up at him as he passes. Magic smiles at everyone. They leave and get in the car. His manager starts the engine and backs up. Then he stops. He stops the car and begins to cry. Suddenly he’s sobbing, bent over the steering wheel, wailing.

Magic doesn’t say anything. He sits there, quiet and calm, waiting.

The screen goes black.

This is how the show starts.

This is what we see before even the opening credits. When the episode’s director, Adam McKay, was asked why he started the series with something so heavy, he said:

“I mean, it goes back to my initial read of the pilot script,” he said, “right away, I was in it; right away, I knew this wasn’t gonna be just fun times and alley-oops. I was immediately engaged,” he said. “And it’s actually classical storytelling in the sense that, you know, if you started a story with the king falling dead off his throne—”

This ‘classical storytelling’ technique actually has a name:

In Medias Res, Latin for “in the midst of things.”

In Medias Res drops the audience into a problem, a climactic moment, an argument or a fight, a revelation, an integral event involving the main character. This does two things:

1) It creates tension, drama.
2) It begs the questions: How? Why?

In other words, it makes the audience curious — and as a storyteller, the sooner you do this, the more likely people will stick around to listen.

Look for In Medias Res, and you’ll see it everywhere:

The Iliad begins in the throes of the Trojan War.
Saving Private Ryan begins amid the horrors of Omaha Beach.
Breaking Bad opens with Walter White under the unforgiving New Mexico sun in only his underwear.

And Winning Time starts with Magic Johnson’s HIV diagnosis, leaving the audience starved for context and details, curious.

Now what if:

Your next sales email started In Medias Res, with a concise, vivid depiction of your prospect’s problem? Something she understood, deeply, and felt, deeply. And then what if you promised to make it go away? Quickly, too. Easily, too.

Now add credibility to your claim.

Instant engagement.

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