Basic Trope: A tailing character isn't particularly subtle about it.
- Straight: Mark is being tailed by Talia. She wears sunglasses and black clothes, and frequently looks into her binoculars while reporting what she sees to her superiors. Mark doesn't notice her.
- Exaggerated: Talia is always a few feet away from Mark, recording everything he does with a huge bug that flashes and beeps loudly, plus she's often getting into screaming matches with her superiors about what's going on. He still doesn't notice her.
- Downplayed: Talia's outfit is slightly out of the ordinary. If Mark turned around now and then, he'd notice her eventually.
- Justified:
- Talia is trying to intimidate Mark.
- Mark has two tails. Talia is there to distract Mark from her more subtle colleague.
- Talia doesn't want to reveal her knowledge about surveillance, which would give her away as an intelligence operative.
- Mark is a known dangerous criminal who, for whatever reason, the police can't just outright arrest. So instead, they send Talia to obviously follow Mark everywhere he goes so he knows that he will get arrested if he tries anything.
- Inverted: A group of diverse tails in various clothing cycle on and off of Mark so it never seems like he's really being followed. This doesn't stop him from somehow spotting every single tail immediately.
- Subverted: Mark notices the suspicious woman in black clothes, and asks her if she thinks he's an idiot.
- Double Subverted: Talia turns out to be a decoy, and the real tail is Sally... who's equally unsubtle and goes unnoticed.
- Parodied:
- When Mark notices her, Talia introduces herself as a spy sent to tail him.
- Talia wears a T-shirt that says "I AM A TAIL".
- Talia wears a huge raccoon tail for no reason.
- Talia follows Mark into the men's bathroom. Mark finds it embarrassing and kicks her out, but goes back to not noticing her once he has finished his business.
- Zig Zagged:
- Averted:
- Talia is a subtle tail.
- Talia the unsubtle tail is immediately noticed by everyone.
- Enforced: The writers originally planned to use a subtle tail, but it got changed because the executives thought viewers would be confused.
- Lampshaded: Talia cackles, "Isn't it funny just how easy it is to tail people without being noticed?"
- Invoked: Sean the spy sends out two tails: an obvious one that he knows Mark will probably notice, and a subtle one he's reasonably sure will go unnoticed.
- Exploited:
- Defied:
- Discussed: "Can't I wear something else than this black coat? I don't want Mark to notice me."
- Conversed: "Another espionage series where it's obvious that the so-called spies don't know anything about surveillance and counter-surveillance."
Go back to Incredibly Obvious Tail here, and ignore the men in black five feet behind you.
