Random things that bug you in movies and TV

[Professor Moriarty]

On sitcoms when the husband forgets the wife's birthday or wedding anniversary.

It's been done to death.

[Midvillian1322]

this is part of why it's so fun that Jackie Chan would act like punching people hurts-- because sometimes it does. it's hard to think of many other famous action movie stars who acknowledge this in their films.

Lol true i always liked jackie chan, i know some people like more brutal fight choreography but i appreciate his more fun and creative style.




I also hate the cliche of the token black guy. You want a diverse cast go for it but dont wedge a random black guy in and pretend that counts.

[Vinsanity]

That the high school sweethearts have to get married and they are soulmates. Worst.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

This has probably been mentioned, but, how about sitcoms that have "serious" episodes. That sort of 180 annoys me.

[Osiris-Rex]

This has probably been mentioned, but, how about sitcoms that have "serious" episodes. That sort of 180 annoys me.

Or get all serious in the final episode like finding out that Dan died of a heart attack and the whole last year was just something Roseanne made up.

Or where you find out in the final episode the whole series was just the imagination of an autistic child like in the ending of St. Elsewhere.

[t hedge coke]

I'm sort of the opposite. I get tired of a show, easily, if every episode has a similar or exactly the same tone. I like a show, if it's going to run more than eight episodes, to start "taking risks," and doing serious episodes in a sitcom, scary episodes in a melodrama, wacky weird stuff in serious shows. Heck, do it inside of an episode, even.

The Dick Van Dyke Show could really shift it up and I find it much more rewatchable than many shows of its era for that. Taxi. Twin Peaks. Sometimes you have an opportunity to get really wacky and they should go for it. Sometimes, I want them to reach for the brass ring and cancer episode us. Hahahahahaserious^#*&ingthreatfullstop. Because, you have the audience cornered, by then.

That Roseanne thing... when would you ever have a chance to do that on tv, if not at the end of a long run and capping a season that had shifted things to so so different already? How do you have that opportunity and not pounce on it?

[JediMindTrick]

Watching cops or anyone on television rack a round into the chamber of a gun for dramatic effect as the implication is that they don't normally have a round there. Yet at other times they are able to draw and fire without loading the round. Or even worse as I saw in an episode of the X-Files once, Scully ran her gun dry which causes the slide to lock back (if your not familiar with guns suffice it to say the gun will look very odd in this position) after which she then kept shooting at bad guys even though the the gun was clearly empty.

[JediMindTrick]

Seeing ridiculous legal stuff on TV by cops or lawyers.

On TV cops always have to read you your rights after an arrest and I've actually seen TV shows where cases get thrown out because rights weren't read. In reality the Miranda warning is rarely given by cops because its only required if the cops intend to interrogate you after an arrest or after you clearly are being detained and not free to leave. Usually by the time the arrest is made there aren't going to be any more interviews so Miranda isn't read plus the reality is cops don't want bad guys to shut up because they tend to run their mouths way too much (to the bane of their defense attorneys) and as long as the cops aren't soliciting the statements they are all admissable, with or without Miranda. . . . . a good real life example I saw once where a defense attorney basically just had to hang his head because he knew his defense was now gone was of a guy arrested for DUI who on in car video camera spent the whole trip to jail saying how sorry he was, how he knew he had too much to drink and shouldn't have drove, etc all while the cop driving said nothing.

Or seeing cops / prosecutors / defense attorneys act like search warrants are required for searches. The reality is that they are only required in instances where consent isn't given or where there isn't a case law built in exception to the 4th amendment. The reality is that about 99.9% of searches are done legally without a warrant either through consent or through some exception such as plain view or search of a vehicle for evidence related to the crime the person was arrested for (for example cops can search your car for anything drug or alcohol related if you get arrested for DUI and no warrant is needed and because drugs are small that means they search everything). There are many other exceptions to the warrant requirement.

Or seeing TV shows creating what is known as the CSI effect where DNA is expected on every case. DNA is only collected on about 0.01% of cases and only useful on a fraction of those yet juries are starting to act as if you don't have DNA then the case is no good. Oftentimes even if there is DNA that could have been collected so what? If you have a rape case that hinges on whether it was consensual or not the DNA is utterly irrelevant since the guy isn't denying the sex occurred, he's just arguing consent. Yet because of the CSI effect from TV people think that a rape kit and the associated DNA will somehow prove rape when thats actually very iffy. Even 100% consensual sex with an abundance of lube causes tearing and rips inside the vaginal walls of a woman which is why it becomes iffy unless there is other physical evidence like ligature marks (tied up), or major bruises like being beaten up, etc. Side note - this is one of the frustrations that many in law enforcement and prosecutor offices have over the whole "untested rape kit" crisis. Very often there is no reason to spend thousands having the kit tested since the suspect is already known and the case will hinge on who the jury believes more about consent.

If you can't tell I work in the legal field and I see these things way too much in real life. TV distorts reality a lot but too many people think the way it happens on TV is the way it happens in real life and many will even argue with you about it saying they know how it works because they saw it on TV (news flash, just because you may have watched every episode of Grey's Anatomy doesn't mean you have any actual idea how a real surgery is done).

[t hedge coke]

TV distorts reality a lot but too many people think the way it happens on TV is the way it happens in real life and many will even argue with you about it saying they know how it works because they saw it on TV (news flash, just because you may have watched every episode of Grey's Anatomy doesn't mean you have any actual idea how a real surgery is done).

That's the part that really bugs me. Less what's in the shows (that can), more the people who are sure because they've seen some tv shows, they're an expert in ____ field. Because House or Married With Children are vetted for careful realism in all things.

[t hedge coke]

"They have their own code of honor" = them actually being honorable or everyone respecting their "code."

I've never really seen this play out in the real world any further than "Trump speaks his own mind and I respect that" and even then, it's nowhere near universal. Once you add murders in...

But in entertainment, especially lazy entertainment, you can have a racist, murderous, sadistic monster but if they "have their own code of honor," everyone else acts as if they're really bound to this "code" and if it's totally understandable that they're a murderous, vile bag of feces because, well, they have a code and it's hard to live to a code.

It's especially weird for me when law enforcement plays along with them.

[DrNewGod]

"They have their own code of honor" = them actually being honorable or everyone respecting their "code."

That used to bug me until the deflowering moment where I realized that's actually the way that chivalry worked, and that the samurai and noble knights of old were essentially licensed thugs of a given class.

[Agent Z]

"They have their own code of honor" = them actually being honorable or everyone respecting their "code."

I've never really seen this play out in the real world any further than "Trump speaks his own mind and I respect that" and even then, it's nowhere near universal. Once you add murders in...

But in entertainment, especially lazy entertainment, you can have a racist, murderous, sadistic monster but if they "have their own code of honor," everyone else acts as if they're really bound to this "code" and if it's totally understandable that they're a murderous, vile bag of feces because, well, they have a code and it's hard to live to a code.

It's especially weird for me when law enforcement plays along with them.

Dr Doom and Namor from Marvel are two of the worst examples of this being done poorly.

[spacegoatpurrp]

I just hate when the plot calls for a "breaking news broadcast" to move the plot along and the tv is always automatically on the channel when that happens. Nobody just randomly has the TV on the news. Especially in bars or diners.

[t hedge coke]

That used to bug me until the deflowering moment where I realized that's actually the way that chivalry worked, and that the samurai and noble knights of old were essentially licensed thugs of a given class.

That's not their personal code, though. It's the societal code of the society they're living in.

[RobinFan4880]

I just hate when the plot calls for a "breaking news broadcast" to move the plot along and the tv is always automatically on the channel when that happens. Nobody just randomly has the TV on the news. Especially in bars or diners.

Untrue, at least in my experience.

The volume being up, now that's a totally different problem.