Reasons to use "red herrings"?
I don't see any analytical literature about the usefulness of red herrings as a TV trope. What are some reasons to use them? I'm assuming there's more to it than just bored writers trying to amuse themselves to the detriment of the reader.
The one I can think of is - generally you build anticipation in a plot by making the viewer/reader subconsciously establish a pattern through repeated exposure to consistent cause and effect. Then to evoke a dramatic / emotional shock you mislead them by giving a cause that fails to provide the anticipated effect. Moreover, you leave the viewer anxious about the climax by sewing a seed of doubt that the effect is not a foregone conclusion.
Is this the basic intention? Or are their others?
Example: I create a highlights video of soccer matches where my favorite team keeps starting a match badly conceding goals, but always makes a comeback and wins each game. Then just as it's getting predictable, you throw a red herring in by showing highlights of a match where they fail to make a comeback and the viewer is jarred with disappointment. Subsequent match highlights will then keep the viewer on edge by not knowing which way the next one will go.
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I don't think you quite have the sense of what a red herring is. It really isn't a general plot device. It is more a specific technique in a puzzle kind of plot, such as a who-done-it mystery. It is something that suggest, and leads the reader to believe, that the gardener did it, when in fact it was the butler who it. The entire plot around the gardener is than the red herring. What you are describing seems to be more generally a technique of maintaining suspense of the will-they, won't they variety. There is no red herring involved in your treatment of the soccer matches.
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