Meaningless Details That Bug You

[Jim Kelly]

But I was saying that a lot of movies make the smoking look and sound attractive. There are different ways to record an action and make it appear cool or not cool. When I see ordinary people smoking in real life, a lot of them don't look attractive in the action. Everything in a movie is illusion--even if you film something to look realistic, you have to light it and shoot it in such a way that it looks realsitc to the audience. Something that is actually real, that is filmed without adornment, can look unreal to us because we've become used to an image that we percieve as realistic in film. Now when we look back at silent movies, they don't look right to our eye, because those were filmed with a different set of audience expectations. Directors don't just point the camera and roll sound to record an action and then present that to us. The job of a director is to interpret the action, through the medium of film, so when we see it we are always being given an intrepretation of reality, not reality itself.

[caj]

An oldie but goodie - The Waltons

It's strange how the show uses titles for the parents. John calls his parents 'Ma' and 'Pa'. Yet all seven kids refer to John and Olivia as 'Daddy' and 'Mama'. And the Narrator, who is John Boy as an adult calls them 'my Father' and 'my Mother'.

What's even more odd is that Olivia refers to her in-laws as 'Grandpa' and 'Grandma'. What did she call them before she had kids?

[Captain Smith]

No one every interrupts the action to go to the bathroom. Of course, Aquaman lives in his bathroom.

[MyriVerse]

An oldie but goodie - The Waltons

It's strange how the show uses titles for the parents. John calls his parents 'Ma' and 'Pa'. Yet all seven kids refer to John and Olivia as 'Daddy' and 'Mama'. And the Narrator, who is John Boy as an adult calls them 'my Father' and 'my Mother'.

What's even more odd is that Olivia refers to her in-laws as 'Grandpa' and 'Grandma'. What did she call them before she had kids?

Those differences just sound normal to me. Adults usually don't refer to their parents the same way they did when they were younger, and you don't use the same when speaking about them to others. My siblings and I each have different ways we refer to our parents.

No one every interrupts the action to go to the bathroom. Of course, Aquaman lives in his bathroom.

Yeah. And in my experience, adrenaline seems to adversely affect the need to use a bathroom.

[Indian Ink]

I know why they do it, but the fact in most shows 18 is the legal age of sexual consent. It's like giving me a poke saying, don't get lost in the story, you're watching television. Even worse than this is the 555 phone numbers.

[Indian Ink]

I paint in oils, so there may not be many here bugged by this. An artist is working at the easel and is interrupted. So he drapes his dust cloth from the easel top to put away the painting (and probably so viewers aren't distracted by the picture and listen to the actors) But he doesn't angle the easel forward first. Great, you've just put the cloth on top of the wet paint you plonker!

[Captain Smith]

Don't talk, shoot!

This afflicts most cop shows, Law and Order SVU is the worst. But all the Dragon Balls are like that - shut up and blast the dude before he yells and screams to a new power level

Stop waiting for your opponent to get up, so you can throw more haymakers. Kick him in the head. Stop throwing haymakers - learn how to hit.

Who builds the secret bases - no one picks up on the immense resources needed for large construction sites?

[Osiris-Rex]

I know why they do it, but the fact in most shows 18 is the legal age of sexual consent. It's like giving me a poke saying, don't get lost in the story, you're watching television. Even worse than this is the 555 phone numbers.

The 555 number is so people don't dial a real number and bother someone with that number. It would be all but impossible for the filmmaker to verify the number wasn't an actual number. So the phone companies set
aside the 555 just so filmmakers would have a fake number they could use in their movies.

[AJBopp]

Gun silencers that assume 100% of the noise from an explosion comes out the barrel, and the rest of the gun is completely soundproof.

[caj]

The layout of houses on tv or film sometimes drives me crazy. I respect Roseanne/The Conners and All In The Family because the layout of the houses makes perfect sense, but some others...

Golden Girls - you look out the back window where Rose's room should be and yet it's not there. Dorothy and Sophia's rooms would be inside the garage.

The Brady Bunch - been enjoying the renovation show where they had to admit that the layout made no sense. While Carol & Mike's room fit on top of the kitchen, both kids rooms, the jack/jill bathroom, and the attic would be floating on air.

The Jeffersons - all their bedrooms would be inside Mr. Bentley's apartment.

[Osiris-Rex]

The layout of houses on tv or film sometimes drives me crazy. I respect Roseanne/The Conners and All In The Family because the layout of the houses makes perfect sense, but some others...

Golden Girls - you look out the back window where Rose's room should be and yet it's not there. Dorothy and Sophia's rooms would be inside the garage.

The Brady Bunch - been enjoying the renovation show where they had to admit that the layout made no sense. While Carol & Mike's room fit on top of the kitchen, both kids rooms, the jack/jill bathroom, and the attic would be floating on air.

The Jeffersons - all their bedrooms would be inside Mr. Bentley's apartment.

On The Big Bang Theory why are there only two apartments on each floor? And why is one a large two bedroom apartment with a hallway leading to them and the bathroom. While the the other is a small apartment where
the living room leads to the bedroom leads to the bathroom. It has at least 5 floors so this must be a very skinny building. But from the scenes on the rooftop there seems to be room for several apartments on each floor.
The rooftop is much bigger than the area the two apartments seem to take up.

[stargazer01]

In the film National Lampoon's Vacation, when they finally arrive to the park and they go on the rides? Who operates them?? LOL, that always makes me role my eyes. Unless I'm missing something?

[Arsenal]

People looking at, reading & discussing a clearly blank piece of paper always bugs me.

[ChrisIII]

Showing people smoking doesn't necessarily mean the filmmakers are saying it's attractive. It's something people do. And films show things people...y'know...do.

I think it started to get cut back a lot in the 90's. The James Bond films, for example, used to feature a lot of smoking-he was smoking in his first scene, for instance. Apart from the Cuban cigars in Die Another Day it was cut out entirely from the Brosnan films.

Of course Bond still drinks a ton though.

[caj]

On The Big Bang Theory why are there only two apartments on each floor? And why is one a large two bedroom apartment with a hallway leading to them and the bathroom. While the the other is a small apartment where
the living room leads to the bedroom leads to the bathroom. It has at least 5 floors so this must be a very skinny building. But from the scenes on the rooftop there seems to be room for several apartments on each floor.
The rooftop is much bigger than the area the two apartments seem to take up.

Great points on all counts.

Mary Tyler Moore - a show that I have very few complaints about - from the inside, it always showed Rhoda's apartment being one flight up from Mary's apartment. Yet when you look at the outside of the house, Mary and Rhoda's apartments appear to be on the same floor. And speaking of Rhoda's tiny apartment, where was her bathroom supposed to be?