Movie tv and tv cliches that annoy you

My Best Friend's Wedding, the sing-a-long thing you mentioned. Those younger people are not going to know all the words to "I say a little prayer".

In scary movies no one ever turns lights on. Hear a noise? Let's go downstairs in the dark house. Even in scenes they are supposed to be cooking the kitchen is so dark no one could cook in it.

I know it's supposed to create suspense but it's so unrealistic.

"Let's go downstairs in the dark house."

While wearing our skimpiest tank tops

The other one is running upstairs or down into a basement when being chased instead of out the door or through a window.

I know it's done to facilitate multiple takes but the "quick release" gift wrapping where the box and its lid are individually wrapped drives me insane.

That's every scene in every Scream movie R4.

R2 Thank you for your correct use and spelling of “supposed”. You deserve a good blow job.

Scenes in any thriller or horror movie where the bad guy/monster gets beaten up or shot a bunch of times and you think he's dead.....but then he turns out to be alive, and the hero has to kill him again!

Ordinary teens who talk like 50-year-old comedy writers who went to Harvard

I keep seeing people closing their laptops abruptly without going through the ritual I do of turning off the computer safely. also people seem to have 24/7 wifi and no problem connecting to the net.

Women carrying purses / handbags that are obviously empty. I realize you don't want to weigh down your character, but when I see a deflated purse, it takes me out of the moment. Put some bubble wrap or something in there!

Drinking a glass of water with your meal. Conversely, taking pills without water or something to drink.

A new male character shows up to antagonise one of the main female characters. He riles her up, she gets so angry, they do really awful things to each other... and then suddenly realise they love each other.

You could write comedies of people doing the opposite of these clichés.

Parking spot in front of restaurant: Circling around the block forever and ever.

Swallowing pills without water: Searching around for something to drink, still managing to get the pill stuck sideways in your throat.

Two People Meet and Don't Get Along: They hash things out and decide it's not worth the hassle.

Empty / deflated purse: Purse full of all kinds of useless crap: used Kleenex, all the crap from George Costanza's wallet, etc.

Ordering "a beer" at a bar. Leaving a restaurant without touching your food, asking for a go box, or paying your bill.

Coming home from grocery shopping and having that damn celery stalk sticking up out of the bag.

Not really a cliché, but people in bars sipping on supposedly cold drinks. No condensation on the glasses.

the slow motion walk of the protagonists to camera. This has been done to death.

some TV interview ones:

the person being interviewed is looking to the side and not to the camera.

jerky or floating camerawork.

jump cuts and zoom ins.

cut that shit and keep it simple!

oh another one is showing us the camera, lighting and boom set up before the interview. why do we need to see this?!

The blind person whose other senses are heightened.

A blind person who wants to feel someone's face.

I had a good friend who was blind. Through her, I met another person who was completely blind. They both said they'd never want to touch someone's face (as a way of "seeing" that person).

Evil geniuses and villains in general listening to opera or classical music. And the music is almost always something that would be covered very early in the "So you want to learn about..." Opera/Classical Music for Dummies guidebook.

I just watched Training Day recently and the before final scene when Ethan Hawke gets released from the vatos and comes back to kill Denzel Washington. He gets the living shit beat out if him and is literally on the hood of car when it crashes and yet he gets up like Jason Voorhes.

So many action thriller do this shit. But this shit really ticks me off because on other terms the movie really well done for its genre. The acting is incredible. They should have not made him get beat up so bad.

Some bimbo, like Julia Roberts (hooker), watching opera with tears in her eyes.

Dialogue cliche: "You just don't get it" or "You don't get it, do you?"

Big happy families celebrating every holiday together.

People enter their home or apartment and don’t lock the front door. WTF? Most of them don’t live in a small town where everyone knows each other.

In horror movies, the damsel in distress knocks down the killer with some object, then drops the object and runs away screaming. These people never finish the killer off, like beating him to death with a table lamp or something. She allows the killer to recover and he attacks again.

When someone is trying to escape in a car, the car won’t start. How convenient, since the car was working fine up until that point.

"I hate hospitals" (Who in the hell likes them?!)

Leafy greens hanging out of a grocery bag to indicate its groceries

Doris Day parking

Streets lit like a full moon is five feet above

In any movie set between the 30s and the early 60s, you always see a scene where a character goes to a party, dance, or nightclub and they're doing these ELABORATE swing dancing routines with flips, twirls, lifts, etc that even seasoned professionals could barely pull off

When two people are having an argument in a movie or TV show, I just wait for the line "What's THAT supposed to mean?" I've never said it myself or had it said to me, but it's a staple in drama.

[quote]Leafy greens hanging out of a grocery bag to indicate its groceries

If there are two bags, the other one will have a baguette sticking out. Because, again: Groceries.

This has a good list of cliched lines, including:

1. I was born ready.

2. Are you sitting down?

3. Let’s get out of here!

4. _____ my middle name.

5. Is that all you got? I’m just getting started.

6. Are you thinking what I’m thinking?

7. Don’t you die on me!

8. Tell my wife and kids I love them.

9. Breathe, dammit!

10. Cover me. I’m going in.

11. He’s standing right behind me, isn’t he?

12. No, no, no, no, NO! I’m not going. [Cut to them going.]

A woman who is sexually open always turning out to not really want to be that way but instead she's just guarding her heart from getting hurt again.

[quote] What's THAT supposed to mean?" I've never said it myself or had it said to me, but it's a staple in drama.

You have to grow up in a passive-aggressive family to hear and understand that question.

The way characters talking on the telephone abruptly hang up on each other without exchanging goodbyes.

On Trend

Maybe I've watched soaps or scripted dramas for too long, but when one character starts to really let someone have it, someone terrible who really deserves to get a wake-up call and cut down to size, the shitty person always stands there and listens to all of it, and it usually registers on their face to some degree that "Wow - This person yelling at me and calling me out has a point. Could I be a shitty person? Wow..."

Here in reality, Shitty People never listen. They either interrupt, laugh, throw out a comical insult that turns the crowd against the person trying to spit facts and hold them accountable....or they just WALK AWAY.

People who do bad things really don't care to be informed of it. They won't listen to you complain about them. They walk away. They don't give a fuck.

But in TV and movies, the Good Guy gets a full three minute monologue of comeuppance and the Bad Guy gets shamed. That so screwed with my expectations, let me tell you.

Or even the way characters always turn to the lead character and notice, with supernatural ability, that something is *slightly off* with the lead character, and then say, with astounding concern "Hey....! Are you alright? Talk to me....!!"

Puh-lease. Here in the real world, people don't give a SHIT if your entire family just died, or you just got cancer, or your house got robbed, or you just are worried about whether or not your romantic partner is a good match...they sincerely don't care. They're too busy dramatizing their own damn selves and their own damn problems.

Even the people you work with every day could seriously care less if you are depressed or disappointed or feeling off. But magically, on TV suddenly every coworker is really a "family member" who "loves" you deep down inside, even if they seemingly poke fun of you.

Nobody really wants to hear about every little sad negative feeling you're having. But in movie and tv land, your problems are SUPER FASCINATING, if you're a lead character. There are no less than four other characters watching your face for any sign of sadness, eager to jump in and show concern and support.

I deeply hate that kind of writing. I hated how Sookie was deeply invested in Lorelai's problems...I hated how the Sex girls all gave a shit about whatever BS problems Carrie was having, as if they fucking mattered.

And the "you're the STRONGEST PERSON I've EVER MET...!" back-pats? Oh fuck offfffff. So cliche.

“ A Christmas Carol” starring the cast of every Holiday sitcom ever made.

A person who has been abused through bigoted language turns around and gives the bigot a big dressing down in front of other people who slowly start to clap and side with the person who is abused.

In real life, the target of the abuse is told by the onlookers: "Why do you have to make such a fuss? Just ignore it. That person has x number of reasons why they are that way and you should consider that."

Some of these have already been covered but:

No tears when crying.

Popular old songs played with the characters spontaneously dancing to it. Or worse, using a familiar, emotional song in the background to supplement shitty writing in order to evoke the right mood for a scene. Or even worse, multiple popular song snippets used to cover for a weak script.

People drinking beer and the bottle is obviously empty, or it’s obviously water in the bottle.

A blatantly empty purse being carried around (Golden Girls).

Formerly fat characters who skimmed down and never gained any weight again, but are obsessed with food and constantly overeating (Too many shows to count, but NBC had several).

Dead mom, Dad has to care for the kid or kids, or Mom died and Dad is on his own because his only child, usually a daughter, is heading off to college.

[quote]People enter their home or apartment and don’t lock the front door. WTF?

Equally, characters who throw open their front door at the slightest knock, even when they know there is a serial killer loose in the neighborhood or their evil uncle just escaped from prison. Frequently this character is the lead cop/detective or his/her wife. Has nobody heard of a security screen door or an eyehole?

[quote]Equally, characters who throw open their front door at the slightest knock, even when they know there is a serial killer loose in the neighborhood or their evil uncle just escaped from prison.

And most of the time they assume it's someone else, and they're in midsentence while throwing open the door. Then they get the icepick, or whatever.

Weepy wife/girlfriend who feels neglected because of the main character's work/project/obsession, and inevitably says "If you walk out that door, I won't be here when you get back," or words to similar effect. The Devil Wears Prada gave us a male version.

This isn’t really a cliché but the current obsession with dark rooms. Forget which UK detective show I was watching the other day but the ME and DCI were walking through a crime scene, looking for evidence…with not a single light turned on. It was so maddening.

R18

Or the group walking slowly in a V shape (like geese when they fly in formation).

Also, R46, that the detective always goes to the place likeliest to disclose the scariest result (horrible murder scene and/or the killer) by him/herself and at night. I know that the UK and the Nordic countries have a lot of dark, but wouldn't you think you'd save up your casual solo investigation of the creepiest crime scenes for daytime?

Another thing, in Nordic noirs in particular -- that everyone lives in bungalows with vast windows and no curtains, despite the fact that their day job is hunting vindictive killers who might want to attack themselves or their families.

I hate it when someone goes to check a victim's pulse, looks up dramatically to another character and shakes their head "no." Just say "the fucker's dead" or something.

Characters disfigured in fires getting really good plastic surgery.

If the weapon you are firing (at a sideways angle for maximum accuracy) runs out of ammunition, throw it at your assailant's head to stop him.

Unattractive, large women…I’m talking Lens Dunham-level large and-or unattractive*, getting hit on. It’s unrealistic as hell. My research for this includes my sister and all her friends who fall in this category - they’re all dried-up spinsters and joke how invisible they are to men. Even southern blue collar men.

*Not Chrissy “NOT WITHOUT MY SNACK PURSE!” Metz-level large. That’s a whole “nother category.

Cars flying thru the air but there are still engine revving sounds. Plus squealing wheels on dirt roads. Multi-car accidents in which at least one car flips.

This is a mostly a cliche that is/was on soap operas-I used to get annoyed with the storylines of widows getting remarried and the new husbands adopt their kids and the kids rarely or barely acknowledge their deceased biological fathers. Best example was Kevin and Joey on One Life to Live. Barely acknowledged their deceased father Joe Riley and licked ass to their adoptive grandfather Asa. This cliche has popped in other types of TV shows and sometimes movies.

[quote]I keep seeing people closing their laptops abruptly without going through the ritual I do of turning off the computer safely. also people seem to have 24/7 wifi and no problem connecting to the net.

I think it's you, or your laptop, R10. No special ritual is required: walk away and it goes to sleep on its own at whatever time interval I specified; close it abruptly and I get a password prompt when I open it again, and then everything opens exactly where I left off.

The future is now.

There is a related TV/film habit that's a discrepancy to my eye: characters always abruptly closing their laptops when someone enters the room, whether they were doing something fishy or not. Just switch to another tab if you are looking at porn, or the current real estate estimate of the worth of your patents' house that you're visiting, of Data lounge. There's rarely a need to slam shut your laptop when someone enters the room.

The amount of Jews

RE The above mention of people not locking their front doors, what about when they enter and don't close the door behind them because the camera is following.

I saw a refreshing variation on the chase scene where someone creates obstacles like cardboard boxes for the chaser. This one was in a hospital and the chased spilled a container of surgery guts on the floor which was effective in stopping the chaser as it oozed everywhere.

Kids in comedies who have the intellectual maturity and wit of a Harvard graduate.

When characters make plans to have dinner together they NEVER say what time to meet.

Grocery bags characters carry are always brown paper and ALWAYS have a bunch of celery sticking out the top, and often a baguette.

Bitchy fags.

when there is a texting exchange the texters reply straight away unlike people who don't have their phones readily available to text or are busy doing something else.

The line NEVER spoken by a male character: “I’m coming with you!”

2 blehs. 1. kissing someone who has just smoked a cigarette. 2. people who don't clean their teeth after eating a meal.

Two people waking up "the morning after." You know they're both crusty with halitosis. Yet they're talking into each other's faces and the woman still has makeup on.

Dates made without locations or times.

"Do you want to have dinner tomorrow night?"

"Sure, that sounds great."

"Terrific. See you then!"

"I'll have a beer! No specific brand, just a beer!"

(Then I'll take two sips without even coming close to finishing it, throw a couple bucks on the table, then rush out of the door to go find the serial killer I'm chasing)

After having sex the heroine is miraculously able to exit the bed with the sheet perfectly wrapped around her. Also, having sex with the bra on.

The protagonist frantically trying to log in to a network to stop a doomsday device, turn off a security system, etc., then finally guessing the correct password at the last possible minute. Also: a user interface that looks like it was designed by Walmart.

R69, even more unrealistic. 12 year olds who can hack into sophisticated software systems in minutes.

Single people in their 20s living alone in two-story, 4-bedroom, 2-bath houses in upscale suburban neighborhoods.

R69, Also, Nobody ever shopping at Walmart unless it's to signify low class or low rent. Most Americans shop at Walmart from all socioeconomic backgrounds.

An office assistant with a spacious, beautifully appointed Manhattan apartment.

Characters on tv 📺 shows and movies NEVER drive regular cars . It has to be some unusual car to signify their individuality.

Why can’t the main character on a tv show drive a Toyota Camry?

A rinky dink colum writer living in NY and able to afford designer clothes and $400 shoes.

R74 I've noticed a lot of them manage to afford beautifully restored cars.

R75, now you know Carrie only dated rich men. Also all her friends were high income.

R76- Which is even more pretentious than driving a brand new Lexus or Mercedes.

Movies from the 30's have women walking around with a hanky in their hand but the things are huge like half a scarf.

Turning off the television immediately after a program is over.

All of the activity in the house conragates near a small sofa.

The black principle in any high school movie/show.

Friends that never get truly annoyed with each other & complain about it. IRL, four women (like on SATC) would have had temporary rifts and irritations, squabbles, at least.

Everyone eating in the living room out of to go containers.

Graveyard scenes of people talking to their deceased loved ones' graves. Most of the time it's corny and not really touching as the writers intend it to be.

[quote]All of the activity in the house conragates near a small sofa.

Oh, dear!

Houses and apartments so pristinely clean and organized, it’s almost like no one lives there and it’s a movie or TV set.

Never so much as a breakfast dish in the sink.

Unless the scene calls for somewhere slovenly, everything is neat and tidy with everything in its place.

[quote]The black principle in any high school movie/show.

Or the stern black female judge who doesn't have time for your bullshit.

[quote][R69], Also, Nobody ever shopping at Walmart unless it's to signify low class or low rent. Most Americans shop at Walmart from all socioeconomic backgrounds.

Not true in my experience, r72

R89, Goop pls go.

R10 this isn’t 1995. Wake up, moron!!

This one has been forever, and still happens:

The person struggling with couple bags of ‘groceries’ that are actually and obviously made up of styrofoam and crumpled newspaper.

These mostly in old TV shows and B movies, 1950s-1970s:

Quicksand. Really? Like any of us have ever heard or known of anyone done in by QUICKSAND. Every adventure/exotic/suspense movie and TV show had quicksand as often and as normal as getting a cup of coffee.

The camera shaking convulsively from left to right while the the actors unconvincingly attempt to respond to the fake earthquake/explosion/disaster.

The freeze frame at that concluded 1 million movies and TV shows until the late 80s.

But my all-time favorite, because I’m a big fan of cheesy 50s sci-fi movies, the closing image end title card:

THE END? Eeeeeeek!

Characters have sex in the middle of the day and just put their clothes back on and go out without washing. Eww.

Your point?

The lazy-assed use of phrases like "back there" in decades of scripts.

"I'm really proud of what you did back there." And yet, you can't seem to remember where you just fucking were.

A tough as nails detective/lawyer/judge who's ambivalent about children gets pregnant, plans on the abortion then runs out of the clinic because she can't go through with it. We're all relieved when she miscarries 10 minutes later.

Credit to Helen Mirren/ Jane Tennyson for being the only one to go through with it, that I recall.

The hard as nails, but sweet as a swisha nice white lady saving some inner city school.

[quote]Characters have sex in the middle of the day and just put their clothes back on and go out without washing. Eww.

Well, silky, how else do you carry their juice and stink with you for the rest 9f the day?

*silly

They only find out about a bomb an hour before its supposed to go off, and arrive with only minutes left on the always-present countdown clock.

Characters like R59 who are too self absorned to read a thread before spouting their MUST BE HEARD thought.

R88- Like a BLACK Judge Judy

R17- Like when a character is sobbing without any tears.

The tragic "Don't you die on me!!!!" death scene

The character in any war film who shows everyone a picture of his gal back home....then tragically dies

In the trailers for movies / TV shows, the protagonist shouts out any one of the following:

1. I must take care of my family!

2. I'm not leaving here without my daughter!

In movie and TV shows no one locks the door when they leave the house.

R88: This is HIGHLY unusual. But…I’ll allow it.

A character dies with their eyes open and another character closes them slowly always annoys me for some reason.

[quote]Characters have sex in the middle of the day and just put their clothes back on and go out without washing.

More ridiculously, they go back to their upmarket jobs or home to their spouses without washing. What, nobody's gonna notice?

I noticed that in the beginning of the Queer as Folk reboot. Yuck particularly after anal sex.

Not always a fan of reddit but this thread on cop show cliches is pretty good

obvious music cues like the piano accordion for Paris or the saxophone for a sex scene.

Re the quicksand one, there's a reason you rarely hear about anyone dying of it in life. Link for anyone who cares. The "still" in the title is misleading.

(OTOH, falling into a grain or sugar silo has a much scarier outlook, so don't do that.)

Getting amnesia.

And then suddenly getting your memory back all at once. When amnesia has gone on a while IRL it generally comes back gradually.

seeing things in flashback that you never saw in the first place, like yourself unless you happen to look in a mirror.

The line "I don't even know who you are anymore!"

“In a world where….”

"Jones, you're off the case!!!"

Divorced or workaholic father is seldom around to spend time with son (and possibly other offspring). Disaster strikes. Father spends the next 2 hours on screen surmounting ridiculously unbelievable challenges to save his son (and possibly other offspring) from highly unlikely situations resulting from earlier initial disaster. Father rescues son (and possibly other offspring) and they all live happily ever after, occasionally with his ex-wife (the mother of his son and possibly other offspring) because at some point during the plot, the ex-wife's current husband is killed during perilous after effects of the disaster.

Focusing entire subplot of shows on the travails of the protagonists whiny bitch teenage son or daughter. I immediately check out or fast forward when they do this. If I wanted to watch some bitchy 15 year old pout and wail because their parents won't let them see their boyfriend or girlfriend I would watch the cw.

When a drama show opens with an action sequence with a cliffhanger and then cuts to "24 hours earlier."

The fruit cart on the street that's overturned during a car chase.

[quote]This is a mostly a cliche that is/was on soap operas-I used to get annoyed with the storylines of widows getting remarried and the new husbands adopt their kids and the kids rarely or barely acknowledge their deceased biological fathers.

The flip side of this (also seen on soaps) is teen or fully grown children being way too into the idea of their long-separated parents getting together again. There was a funny example on Days of our Lives in the '90s. Roman Brady was brought back from the dead, and his and Marlena's teenage twins, Eric and Sami, got creepily overinvested in Mom and Dad getting back together. Suddenly they hated their stepfather, John, and were telling him to get lost...even though real Roman had only been in their lives very briefly, and they had been raised by the stepfather.

The worst offender for not only unoriginality, but the fact that NO ONE talks like this:

"But we've all been best friends forever!" - and the characters are like thirty-two years old.

ANYONE referring to their sister as "Sis", which even in white families NO ONE SAYS!

Pets or characters introduced that suddenly disappear and never mentioned again.

[quote] and possibly other offspring

😂😂

[quote] The flip side of this (also seen on soaps) is teen or fully grown children being way too into the idea of their long-separated parents getting together again. There was a funny example on Days of our Lives in the '90s. Roman Brady was brought back from the dead, and his and Marlena's teenage twins, Eric and Sami, got creepily overinvested in Mom and Dad getting back together. Suddenly they hated their stepfather, John, and were telling him to get lost...even though real Roman had only been in their lives very briefly, and they had been raised by the stepfather.

I couldn't stand those storylines. Another soap cliche that annoyed me is characters who were adopted suddenly meet one or two of their birth parents and basically shove the adoptive parents to the side even when the adoptive parents weren't villainous.

When people walk into their houses and say, "I'm home!"

Nobody does that.

I do.

[quote] Characters constantly quoting classic literature, philosophy, etc. to show how smart they are.

Which started, I think, with Dawson's Creek and all the supposed teenagers that all sounded like grad students and/or professors.

In reiterate teens now would be staring at their phones blankly saying "who's Shakespeare?" In vocal fry.

Getting amnesia because you bumped your head one time....then you bump your head AGAIN and your memory is magically restored

When a character thinks of something to say while they are drinking something and they put their index finger up and make the "mmmm:" sound that they have something important to say.

Honey, I'm too tired to eat. I'm just gonna go to bed.

Being tired does NOT negate being hungry

[quote]Being tired does NOT negate being hungry

It does for me.

Families that gather around the breakfast table on a weekday morning while mom makes pancakes, eggs, bacon, and juice, then everyone says, "I'm late. I have to go," without eating a bite.

Closing the front door after an upsetting conversation and then dramatically leaning against it (or better yet, sinking slowly to the floor).

When "smokers" make too much of a big deal out of being smokers. Gesturing with the hand that's holding the cigarette, talking while the cigarette's lodged between teeth, etc. Real smokers just smoke, not make a big deal out of it.

Lack of bjs given.

Swallowing tablets without water, dramatically throwing the head back, when water is available. Stubbing out a cigarette after one puff. Banging their hand - or head - on the car steering wheel to indicate frustration. Woman wandering around wearing one of her lover’s shirts after a night of passion

R133 had amnesia right now. He forgot he read that at r114.

R137 i was going to say that you could refrigerate the uneaten food which is often seen thrown away but I remember my mother always prepared a pile of toast for breakfast that no one else ate and she would end up throwing away.

I'm SO thirsty. May I have a glass of water?

The host fills a large glass up with some cool water.

The THIRSTY person has one small sip says a couple of sentences then leaves the premises.

The shower scene....crying in the shower..

Character has a couple drinks and by next episode is a raging alcoholic. Tragedy ensues and then AA meetings. Then they fall off the wagon. Hard!

People drink constantly but almost never appear buzzed or drunk.

If you are a character in a police procedural everyone you know even slightly will end up dead or in jail eventually.

Romantic scenes where two people kiss in the rain or declare their love for each other in the rain

Who the hell wants to stand out in the rain and get drenched?

Making a scene very quiet for a bit. What ever you do do not reach for your remote to turn up the sound because in a min they are going to blow your speakers out.

Delivering a baby scene in any place but a hospital, a cab, a workplace, blah blah blah. So boring and the girl huffing and puffing with the knees up scene while the person delivers a baby. So overdone.

Or how about when someone is driving a car and talking to the person in the seat next to them but does not look at traffic and instead looks at the person next to them while talking for long enough to put them both into a tree or a wall or...

R146- That sounds like an episode of Dallas with Sue Ellen.

R149 some of us are romantics.

Those CSI shows where (mainly female) investigators find the most gruesome accident/murder possible and then say a funny line. So a victim is there with his intestines hanging out and she's like to her partner, "You know, have you ever had some good menudo"?

In horror movies when the guy tells the girl to stay put, but then she always decides she'd better follow him.

R153, that reminds me of David Caruso on CSI: Miami

[quote] Or how about when someone is driving a car and talking to the person in the seat next to them but does not look at traffic and instead looks at the person next to them

Yeah, I hate that one.

[quote] Or how about when someone is driving a car and talking to the person in the seat next to them but does not look at traffic and instead looks at the person next to them

That and jerking the steering wheel back and forth so much that if they were on a real road you’d be swerving all over the place.

and its obvious the car is being towed so they aren't really driving.

when someone is being chased and they stop to hide and a cat walks by for them to step on.

someone is on the run but needs to go out in public and wears sunglasses which of course totally hides your identity.

^ but no one will ever recognize you as long as you have glasses on!

Protagonists who go into the bathroom only ever to wash their hands or stare in the mirror or both. No one ever has to pee?

Elevator rides that last just as long as the scene that needs to take place.

[quote]Kids in comedies who have the intellectual maturity and wit of a Harvard graduate.

My grandmother hated that. She said children can't possibly be wise, because wisdom comes with age/life experiences. Therefore, a fortysomething high school dropout will be wiser than a middle/high school genius. Or any ordinary child, for that matter.

[quote]when someone is being chased and they stop to hide and a cat walks by for them to step on.

I see that, and I raise you cellphones which never ring with a call or beep with a text unless (a) content of the call or text is perfectly timed and important to the plot, or (b) the baddies are going to hear the noise and uncover the chase-ee. This law remains true even if the character is a leading surgeon, lawyer or senior cop out in the field.

People are driving their car down a local street- not on a highway and yet EVERY single light is green. They never have to stop for a green light even the scene goes on for several minutes.

R162, or splash water on their face (I have never seen anyone do this in real life)

R167- When I get off the highway on a long trip and I'm use the bathroom I always splash water on my face to refresh myself.

Only because you’ve seen it in movies.

R169- No because it refreshes me. It makes me more alert.

It's LITERALLY the pause that refreshes.

My biggest pet peeve is characters' endurance of pain. It cheapens the effect of every fight scene for me. A fight scene would be so much more effective for the viewer if even the slightest injury actually hurt a character. In movies people get shot multiple times in their muscles at best, skull at worst. They get stabbed, not paper cuts, stabbed deep! They get beaten up with metal pipes. But they barely seem to feel any of that. They jump out of fourth floor windows. They just get up and go home to discuss the matter in a reflective scene before moving on to the next battle.

I feel like I want to go home when I just bump my head on a door post. But no, not these heroes. I get it; they are stronger and more muscular than I am. Didn’t know that muscle mass also suppresses pain. Can you imagine you get an actual wine bottle over your head or you jump out of a closed (!) window?

r162, I've seen uncountable hours of Brits, over 700 centuries drinking tea and not a single one of them asks for the loo. Just once I'd like to see how some of they got in and out of those outfits.

^ Makes perfect sense to me for US TV and movies. Not sure about British shows, but ordinary US TV- or movie homes, don't have a toilet. Bathrooms, yes, but never a toilet.

R163, you stupid Fag. Have you ever seen The Departed.

I have two.

1) On crime/investigation shows they can take a grainy photo and blow up to a crystal clear image to find the suspect or a specific clue.

2) You see this a lot now in TVs shows. A white character will have a group of friends, one will be black, one will be Asian, and one will be Hispanic. Or they live in a lily white suburban neighborhood and they have the black neighbors, the Asian neighbors, and the Hispanic neighbors.

I'm not saying this never happens in real life, but it has become a TV cliché. It's like the multi-racial street gang trope expanded.

Characters who walk blindly into the street. Because I know exactly what’s going to happen next:

This occurred on movie and tv dramas up until the mid 1960's or so-

OPERATOR, GET ME THE POLICE!

When characters move to the country from a big city:

"You hear that?"

"I don't hear anything."

"Exactly."

R75 if I recall, she was constantly broke and in credit card debt and whoring herself out to make ends meet.

[quote]The hard as nails, but sweet as a swisha nice white lady saving some inner city school.

White (mainly liberal) women with a white savior complex is a real thing.

DANGEROUS MINDS, FREDOM WRITERS, and MUSIC OF THE HEART were based on true stories.

[quote]You see this a lot now in TVs shows. A white character will have a group of friends, one will be black, one will be Asian, and one will be Hispanic. Or they live in a lily white suburban neighborhood and they have the black neighbors, the Asian neighbors, and the Hispanic neighbors.

It really is funny. Every single neighborhood in the US is a rainbow of diversity.

Not a single upscale suburban neighborhood, for example, is ever 90% white and 10% Asian/Indian, as many are in reality.

[quote]Turning off the television immediately after a program is over.

The thing I hate is when they turn it off *before* it’s over. They’ll be watching a breaking news report about the [insert plot] and then instead of watching the whole thing, someone angrily clicks it off midway through the report, and no one minds. In real life you’d be like, hey! Asshole! I was watching that!

The ugly nerdy guy/girl who turns into a heartthrob by taking their glasses off/letting their hair down.

This kind of goes along with Clark Kent syndrome.

We're in mortal danger - I know, let's have sex!

This one always seems to be written by people who don't have much sex themselves, and just think: "Oh yeah, if I were going to die, I know what I'd want to do - heh, heh - I'd have sex!"

Actual cases of people being in situations like that show that people will generally do either one of two things: get extremely panicked, or become preternaturally calm, but not go around fucking whoever.

Two people wake up in the morning and immediately start having sex, without brushing their teeth first or having to pee or take a dump.

Then when they're finished, the woman wraps the bedsheet around her when she gets out of bed. Really? He just fucked you silly and now you're suddenly shy about him seeing you naked?

The geeky character comes home from school (or the library) weighed down by a dozen books that teeter dangerously above their head.

coughing is a death sentence

sneeze mean someone is getting really sick, but probably make it.

Vomit means pregnancy

But fainting is nothing too serious, just a regular reaction to bad news.

R184- There was an episode of MASH like that- Hot Lips and Hawkeye were stranded in a war zone and they end up FUCKING.

God, that's ridiculous, R188, haha!

Stephen King loves putting this scenario in his novels too.

[quote] My biggest pet peeve is characters' endurance of pain. It cheapens the effect of every fight scene for me. A fight scene would be so much more effective for the viewer if even the slightest injury actually hurt a character.

A DL poster wrote about getting attacked and surviving. (Maybe in the Scariest Thing That Ever Happened to You thread.) The poster said that the adrenaline rush prevented him/her from feeling pain until after the attack. It makes sense that your survival mode kicks in, allows you to fight back rather than crumple to the ground in pain (only to be easily finished off dead by the aggressor).

The all too frequent use of divorced couples or frenemies discovering they actually live one another playfully dance badly and all alone, at the beach or at home or some place where dancing would not normally occur. Smiles and romance blossom.

R181, sometimes it's the opposite. I've seen plenty of shows and movies set in, say, New York or Philadelphia or San Francisco or D.C. where 90% of the people are white and gays don't exist

The show Monk was the worst, apparently no gays or Asians live in San Francisco

R192- The later seasons of The Doris Day Show set in San Francisco - No Gays or Asians

Skinny tiny bitches beating up the muscle guys.

Going back to your small hometown for the holidays and falling back in love with your high school sweetheart

Offices and hospitals that are dimly lit, especially at night. My office doesn’t dim the lights for night flight. Churches that are always open with a fully robed choir practicing, and about a thousand burning candles, just in case.

Women who find the sound of a baby crying adorable.

screeching chalk on a blackboard to get classes attention. I don't think I ever had a teacher do that.

- Nobody has ANY other friends or acquaintances beyond the show's cast.

- Nobody watches TV or plays video games. - Ok, I kinda get this one. There wouldn't be any drama if they actually watched TV like ordinary Joe and Jane.

- Everybody is always perfectly dressed. But we never see anybody shopping for all these wardrobe items.

- Historic movies and shows have interior (and often exterior too) that is only from that specific period. If you watch a show that plays in the 1920s, everything is Art Deco. If you watch a show playing in the 80s, nothing is from the 60s or 70s. The buildings or furniture would be from that period only, nothing older. It's like there was nothing before the story started.

[quote]Going back to your small hometown for the holidays and falling back in love with your high school sweetheart

[quote]—Every Hallmark Movie Ever

lol I'm not a huge Amy Schumer fan, but I love that her sketch show did this parody on that stupid trope.

Is it called "anachronistic" when fashions are completely wrong for the era depicted? I always notice it most in 1960s and '70s movies, because the women always have the huge hairdos of that era, no matter what time frame the film is set in.

R195- and the male leads ALWAYS look gay

Gay couples:

In dramas, they're always (for a lack of a better term) straight presenting and more often than not interracial.

In comedies... fa... laming for comedic effect.

R201- For instance it bugged THE SHIT OUT OF ME to see Scott Baio aka Chachi had his late 1970's disco hair even though on Happy Days it was supposed to be 1959.

[quote] Is it called "anachronistic" when fashions are completely wrong for the era depicted? I always notice it most in 1960s and '70s movies, because the women always have the huge hairdos of that era, no matter what time frame the film is set in.

I don't think R199 is complaining about anachronisms. I think he/she is complaining about *everything* on set being from the exact same time period. In real life, you'll have a mixture of things that you'll see: an old car, a current car, lots of old-fashioned stuff in Grandma's house, a lady with an old-fashioned hairdo, a lady with a current hairdo, etc.

Anachronistic would be seeing an iPhone (as a prop) in a movie that predates the iPhone.

Movies and TV shows always get it wrong with period pieces, very true. There are always people who are a decade, two decades behind the current styles in any given time period. Things set in the 1920s, for example, show every woman in flapper fashions. There were many women in the 1920s who wouldn't have looked out of place in the Victorian Era.

Something set in the 1980s has everyone in the styles of the 80s, i.e. big poofy hair, shoulder pads, etc. Yet in the 80s there were lots of people who were still in the styles of the 70s and 60s. I distinctly remember many women in the 80s who still had long straight hair parted in the middle or Farrah Fawcett perms, and some middle-aged or older women who were still rocking the 60s Jackie Kennedy bouffant hairdos. That's just one example.

A character answers the phone. Another character says, "Turn on the news, quick!" The character does so. And a story about whatever is relevant to the movie's plot is just beginning.

R181, along the same lines, GREY'S ANATOMY is a total fantasy with all those black doctors/surgeons.

Especially in Seattle, where Asians are the biggest minority group at 16%.

Blacks are only 6% of the population. Hispanic/Latinos are also around 6%.

I watched the first 10 seasons, until 'Christina Yang' (the only Asian in the cast/hospital) left and was replaced with yet another black doctor.

In real life, the doctors would be white and Asian/Indian. The nurses would be white with some black/Hispanic women. The black/Hispanic men would be the custodians.

I'm waiting for them to remake TWISTER with a cast of blacks, whites, Asians, Latinos and a woman as the leader.

In real life, 99.9% of storm chasers are white (and male) and the men are always the leaders.

A historical era movie with modern music.

Stunt casting

[quote]The later seasons of The Doris Day Show set in San Francisco - No Gays or Asians

Not exactly true. In the last season, there was a clearly gay couple living in Doris's building. They were kind of featured in at least one episode.

R210 Which is why I hated The Greatest Showman and Moulin Rouge.

In gay romcoms and dramas, two dudes take an initial dislike to each other. But eventually express their surprise mutual attraction by sudden, violent open-mouth kissing while slamming up against the wall or breakable furniture.

(Latest example: Netflix Barcelona-set SMILEY).

At the end of the movie, the frantic dash of the main character to the airport/station to finally declare his love to the person leaving. Oh no, he’s just a few seconds too late - look, their plane/train/bus is slowly pulling away. But wait! The object of their love had a change of heart and didn’t board the plane/train/bus after all!

R215, And sometimes he realizes he likes Cameron D. better.

The main character only carries one piece of carry-on luggage for their trip home, but over 10 days, always has a new outfit, hat, gloves, shoes, boots, etc...

The DLers who complain about diversity because it's "unrealistic" never complain about the fact that 70% of Americans are overweight while the vast majority of actors are thin.

My pussy is wet. Thread over.

Soap operas are bad for this. There are only 2 restaurants in the whole city. Usually a coffee shop/bistro and then a fancy place where all the parties take place. And characters always run into each other at the coffee shop because where else would you got to get a take out coffee, right? Certainly not 1 of 100 Starbucks. And the fancy place always has a singer.

Also favored by soaps is random people new to town being invited to stay at someone's house indefinitely.

Although it's not a verbal, spoken cliche, I don't get the basis for having conversations where one person in a one on one conversant situation turns away from the other and says their lines with their back to the other person.

I understand that it's done for purposes of camera angle change and closeups and maybe drama, but it's ridiculous in that it's just not "real" and it's something that is distracting.

R222 what do you mean by its' not "real"?

Building on what (210) said, "A historical era movie with modern..."... hairstyles.

In a most perplexing and wrong-headed example, Julie Christie's hairstyle in Dr. Zhivago.

By "not real(istic) there is this explanation: Is it normal for people who are standing and in a one on one, face-to-face conversation whereby one of them suddenly turns away from the other one and the conversation continues with one of them no longer facing the other person but rather perhaps standing next to a piece of nearby furniture?

Such a move in tv or film is usually done so as to give a camera closeup of the face of the one who turned away.

That's great for getting a possibly dramatic closeup but it's not based on how people in a one on one conversation position themselves.

Eating Chinese food with chopsticks straight out of white takeout boxes.

R224 Or Barbara Streisand in Funny Girl.

Having a character look at a wall mirror, then punching or spitting on it.

Senior citizen parents are usually very stereotypical. When both parents are shown, one of them is the grumpy one, the other one is the nurturing. Either way, they are both screwed up. At best they serve as comic relief with some old-people antics, or they are making the main character's life miserable since childhood. They are always responsible for the main character's misery. If one parent is already dead and never shown, the surviving spouse is typically of the nurturing kind, dispensing great advise to everybody on the show.

What you hardly ever see is a senior citizen parent with their own life. Cruel, funny or nurturing - their life always revolves around the suffering child.

Please, pardon my comment for being off-topic. The Golden Girls, to me, were the elderly Charlie’s Angels.

Teenager characters whose pop culture references are 25 years out of date.

^ But age appropriate for the 30-year old portraying the teenager.

r218 you type fat

So unlike everyone else on here R233.

Female scientists are hot young chicks with big tits, high heels and short skirts. Male scientists are Toby Jones and Oliver Platt.

... and if the hot female scientist is too hot, they tone it down with a big-framed glasses.

Casting actors and actresses who are clearly dumb as pigshit and have no professional bearing in high-intelligence professions that require a certain amount of professional presentation. Offhand, I can think of Katie Holmes as the star Assistant District Attorney of a major metropolitan city (Gotham) in Batman Begins and Matthew McConaughey as a NASA scientist in Interstellar.

"I'm Dr. Monica DeMonaco, the neurosurgeon assigned to this case."

How dare you, R237!

Or just live in a house full of women R35.

Protagonist sees bad guys enter the room.

Protagonist (to friend, lover, colleague or spouse): “We have to get out of here. RIGHT NOW.”

The friend, lover, colleague or spouse (usually a woman): “Why? I’m not going anywhere with you…until you explain!!!”

The blood oath! This should require an immediate trip to the ER, but to TV and movie characters it’s just a wince and an ouch.

Fathers who are so stupid they fall for any lame idea that comes along. Meanwhile the family lives in a big house an average person cannot afford but some how the 'stupid' father could.

Oh Martin you're home. Dinner is ready

Oh great , I'm starving.

He sits down at the dinner table and she put a nice plate of food in front of him. He takes one bite and then the dialogue begins - he talks for ten minutes about this n that without putting any more food in his mouth.

I'm leaving you and the person takes items from the top drawer of a dresser and puts them in a small suitcase and says, I'll send for the rest of my things.

A person arrives to find someone unconscious or perhaps dead and screams out "Somebody help me!!" rather than the person actually doing something themselves.

[quote]Casting actors and actresses who are clearly dumb as pigshit and have no professional bearing in high-intelligence professions that require a certain amount of professional presentation. Offhand, I can think of Katie Holmes as the star Assistant District Attorney of a major metropolitan city (Gotham) in Batman Begins and Matthew McConaughey as a NASA scientist in Interstellar.

Yeah, that one goes back a long way. Paul Newman never seemed dumb, and he was fine for occupations like attorney or politician or successful businessman, but in Hitchcock's Torn Curtain, he's cast as a rocket scientist. There's a scene in which he argues about very technical matters with an older, German or Austrian colleague. They're picking apart each other's conclusions, writing and erasing formulae on a chalkboard, etc. The other guy is PERFECT casting. Paul...looks handsome.

Career Women - pre 1980's - were always bitches/lesbians/sexually repressed.

R248 that's true to real life, though. Generally.

The driven career woman who can have it all is a fantasy.

I seem to recall I once played a neurosurgeon. I must've had my glasses on at that audition.

The bimbos cast as scientists is one of my pet peeves. A job that would normally be filled by a middle-aged woman is played by a 25 year old hs dropout with implants who sounds like a bimbo too.

Car trouble in horror movies. The car always works just fine until the one moment the characters need it the most, and then it won't start.

Movies set in, say, the 19th century where the actors all have gym bodies

Haha..watching this one right now. Someone gets a bit of a cough or feels a bit sock. Next episode they're in ICU in a coma.

A chase scene has an extra who looks just like the person being chased from behind. The chaser finds them, turns them around, and is disappointed.

^Donald Sutherland had a whole different type of disappointment in his case!

Snow falling in the background but not on the speaking characters.

post-modern style where characters are in the sea and water drops appear on the camera lens to remind us that it is action being filmed.

[quote]The black principle in any high school movie/show.

[quote]Or the stern black female judge who doesn't have time for your bullshit.

And anytime sitcom characters go to the hospital, they always have to deal with the Sassy Black Nurse who rolls her eyes and mutters "mmm hmm" at them. Hilarious!

R259 - that "sassy black character" was such a staple of comedies about 20 years ago. My friends and I would make fun of it even back then.

speaking of hospitals, the emergency room desk person with the bad attitude is tiresome. yes its a stressful job but in real life you wouldn't be kept on if you were repeatedly rude to patients.

^Ahh but R261, that person always has a heart of gold deep down too, remember?

Speaking of clichés.

Costumes and sets with a 1980s color palette for a story set in the1960's.

The multi-racial street gangs, usually the leader is a blonde, blue-eyed white guy who looks like a Viking.

R263, you mean Dirty Dancing, huh? I finally watched that recently and couldn't stop laughing at how 80s everything looked when it was meant to be 1963. It was like they barely tried!

Dirty Dancing was set in the early 60s but couldn't have looked more 1987. Jennifer Grey's spiral perm and Patrick Swayze's mullet were just the tip of the iceberg. All that's missing from this photo is a can of Diet Coke and a pack of Marlboro Lights.

Hahaha, R266. There is NOTHING 1963 about that photo! Still cracks me up!

R266- The British are FAR better at having their characters in movies and tv shows look period appropriate in term of hair and clothing.

R268 Oh, really? This is Susannah York in THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN (1969) which takes place in 1940.

Also Brit Cecil Beaton gave his My Fair Lady chorus girls Cleopatra eye make-ups.

R270 not to mention, Audrey's beehive hairdo at the ball.

The calls are coming from inside the house!!!

When the phone rings with no equal amount of time for it not to ring.

Cop makes a quick U-turn after receiving a call or text. Why are they never going in the right direction?

The 100mph car chase through the streets of Manhattan without ever encountering gridlock.

Dialog that constantly references character names or places. I know it's done to allow the audience to identify characters and understand the plot but no one speaks like that in real life. "How are you, Bob?" "I'm doing great, Steve."

R276, or characters referring to each other by their full names.

"Of course I'll marry you, Aloysius Reynolds!"

R276/R277 just on that, the one that annoys me is in comedies where a famous person turns up as themselves, and the characters always make a big deal of saying their full name, like: "Oh my god! Hello... [italic]Meryl Streep[/italic]!"

We know it's Meryl Streep and no one would talk like that!

I forgot the term for it but it's hilarious in soaps when they do background character catch up for new/returning viewers in nearly every dialogue. For example, "Ashley's never gotten over Blake's disappearance. How would you feel if your husband vanished with your inheritance from your father's steel mill when you were 8 months pregnant?

Pregnant woman on tv show NEVER fails to say- I can feel the baby kicking.

On EVERY tv show - at least in the past

You're drunk!

I'm going to make you a big pot of STRONG BLACK COFFEE.

as if giving them a major dose of caffeine makes said person any less drunk

The leading lady is filmed in soft focus but the leading man is not except when he gets in her shot.

^ Did you just watch a Streisand film? :-)

Finding an open parking space directly in front of the courthouse, the store, the victim's apartment --wherever they need to be. PLUS, they never have to parallel park.

R284- Not just that there's always a spot available for them- they are able to park there legally. When they come out of the building an hour or hours later their car has not been towed or ticketed.

In any thriller, there's always a scene where the cops break into the suspect's home and find a scrapbook or box filled with newspaper articles relevant to the case they're investigating

Happens on TV crime shows, too

or a wall covered in photos, some taken with a telephoto lens.

R287- You're talking about Roger the photographer who became OBESSESSED with Lucy Ewing Cooper.

[quote]I forgot the term for it but it's hilarious in soaps when they do background character catch up for new/returning viewers in nearly every dialogue..

R279 do you mean 'exposition'?

R197- Jerry you wanna pick HA up?

Her accent is TOO authentic ( that's a compliment)

[quote] Career Women - pre 1980's - were always bitches/lesbians/sexually repressed.

What?

Going through a box of family mementos in the attic, and having touching memories. This can only happen in an attic.

If nobody has lived in a house for a while, the screen door has to swing in the wind.

R289 it might be exposition but I was thinking of a different term that fits this type of device more accurately. Backtelling maybe?

[quote]Going through a box of family mementos in the attic, and having touching memories. This can only happen in an attic.

R92 Sometimes this happens in the deceased's childhood bedroom which has been left untouched since their untimely death.

Great thread, OP - thank you!

Can also be a basement.

Speaking of basements, no one ever had a rec room down there. It's always super creepy and untouched for +50 years.

R289 No, it's called exposition.

^^meant for R294

[quote]The black principle in any high school movie/show.

Oh, dear, but also did you ever watch Strangers With Candy, featuring Principal Blackman?

1.) when ordinary people’s homes are constantly spotless. I think I first noticed this in “Sleepless in Seattle.” Even with a cleaning person it’s not like regular homes gleam round the clock.

2.) when elementary school plays have superbly designed, very elaborate sets and costumes, as if funds are limitless and everyone’s mom can sew. Sometimes little kids in the movie’s school play are flown in via harnesses, like in “Stepmom.” Jebus, paralysis and a lawsuit just waiting to happen!

Roger Ebert called "yes" the most difficult word in the English language. No matter how fluently a foreign-born movie character speaks English, he will have to resort to his own language's equivalent of "yes."

You scrape the remnants of your dinner directly off the plate onto the kitchen floor so your two dogs can have a little treat. Even when Richard Blumenthal and Susan Bysiewicz are your dinner guests.

Richard and Susan are lovely people.

You know that former CT governor John Rowland was an abusive alcoholic, and his wife Patty Rowland was routinely rushed to the ER at Hartford Hospital after John's drunken beatings regularly in the 1990s.

Oh?

NO ONE says this in real life-

There was in episode on QAF where Ted is talking to Michael. He asks Michael a question and Michael responds by shrugging his shoulders and saying

Beats me

I've seen this SO many times.

Man- I'm VERY thirsty may I have a glass of water ( a woman hands him a large glass of water)

He takes ONE sip then starts his dialogue and doesn't drink ANY more water for the rest of the scene.

When I'm dying of thirst I will drink the entire glass of water LICKETY SPLIT.

People meet for lunch or dinner. Sometimes just two, sometimes a full on banquet. And nobody eats. Some may move their fork around in a salad. And here and there the fork may even come close to the mouth. But nobody eats. Probably not a cliché so much, more a technical necessity. But watch out for it. Some actors have hilarious maneuvers around the food in order to not ingest one little bite.

TVs in diners/bars always play news channels. They seem to be on mute until a news report containing an important piece of information for the leading lady/man (who is dining in the aformentioned place) comes on; then the TV sound magically comes alive and drowns out all the other noise in the place, naturally attracting the attention of the lead character.

Law & Order specific cliche - the police are questioning me at my place of work but I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing AS IF I’M NOT BEING QUESTIONED BY THE MOTHER FUCKING POLICE!

John Mulaney does a bit about the guys who keep stacking crates while being questioned by the police on Law and Order

I think that can be to express passive-aggressive contempt. I'm not going to stop what I'm doing just to talk to you because you are not important.

R311 - the bar tender always agrees to turn it up or change the channel to the news. I'd like it if once they refused to do so.

the long queue to the women's bathroom in a venue. why do women have to use the bathroom so much?

R316 Yes, in real life but how often in TV or movies?

there's the sassy woman saying I ain't waiting in this line and goes to the men's room instead.

^ Many women do this in real life, at least here in L.A.

Writers with pride don't live in L.A.

[quote]Writers with pride don't live in L.A.

If they don't have a trust fund and connections they live in LA.

R190 I sustained a really bad dog bite recently (honestly, it was my fault) and the pain kicked it hours later. And it made me dizzy, it was so bad. So yes, adrenaline.

When asked how they want their hair cut someone tells the hairdresser, Surprise Me. And when they see the results, they love it, though it usually looks like shit.

R322 Hope you are recovering and not in pain.

[quote]IRL, four women (like on SATC) would have had temporary rifts and irritations, squabbles, at least.

They did have some pretty serious and well-done arguments. I remember Miranda just going OFF on Carrie for starting up with Big again, calling her weak and pathetic. Carrie retaliated that Miranda was a judgmental bitch who threw Steve aside the moment she found anything wrong with him. And Samantha and Charlotte had a thrown-down over Samantha's constant graphic sex talk. But everything would usually be smoothed over by the end of the half hour, in classic sitcom fashion.

There was an episode of Family- Kate has made a beautiful cake for dessert. Doug has to much work to do after dinner, Buddy has some Lesbian things to attend to and Willie says no too-he usually eats everything in site. FAKE

If my mother made a lovely cake for dessert we would gobble it up- ONLY if we were sick would we say no to dessert. It's not like they had to make a train( no trains to make in Southern California) or a plane or catch a movie.

I remember that episode. Kate had a slice.

Wandering around the woods looking for someone and calling out his/her name every three seconds

pausing to have a sincere moment in a chase movie. I just wanted you to know that I love you. Yes,, yes, we've got to go!

An out of control dog who scampers through the door, tracking mud, snow etc.

Person #1 has something to confess to Person #2, who also has something to say.

Person #1 lets Person #2 go first.

Person #2 inadvertently says something that makes Person #1 not want to spill his/her guts anymore.

When Person #2 is done, s/he usually says "What is it you wanted to say?"

Person #1 then says something lame like, "I... I was wondering what you wanted to have for dinner?"

Person #2 is never suspicious of why Person #1 is acting so strangely.

Hurriedly exiting a vehicle without closing the door or turning off the headlights

R331 should create a new thread about cliché phrases that unveils lazy writing in TV and movies.

A couple fights. The woman tells the man, "Get out!"

Both turn and walk away from each other. Then just before the woman is about to close the door, she pauses, calls out, "Wait!"

The man turns around and looks at her silently.

"I...I didn't mean it," she says.

R327- Hardly surprising , considering that she was quite plump-ish.

[quote] Hurriedly exiting a vehicle without closing the door or turning off the headlights

Hurriedly entering a vehicle and shooting out into the roadway without looking left and right for traffic.

Wet streets but ONLY the street. I recently watched an episode of CSI:Miami. The scene was on a bridge. The sidewalk was dry as was the handrail on the bridge. Only the roadway was wet.

Everyone who has unexpected company just happens to have made a fresh pot of coffee. They sometimes have cookies or cake to go with it that just came out of oven.

Guns that appear to never run out of bullets. They fire fifty shots and never need to reload. However, with that one last bullet, they are able to kill the bad guy.

The wet streets at night happens due to how dry streets show up on camera. Wet streets reflect light, I guess, whereas dry streets just look like a black hole. Not sure why the street would be wet in a day scene, though.

People who just show up unannounced at somebody's home. Most people IRL wouldn't show up at the homes of their closest friends without texting or calling first.

[quote]R337 Guns that appear to never run out of bullets. They fire fifty shots and never need to reload. However, with that one last bullet, they are able to kill the bad guy.

What about shoot outs where everyone’s a terrible shot, and just keeps rolling around and flying through the air forever?

I thought these were professionals!

A character being so emotionally overwhelmed that they vomit or dry heave. I re-watched Carol the other night and it has this trope, as does Tár, another Cate Blanchett movie.

"New York City" looks an awful lot like Toronto. "Los Angeles" looks an awful lot like Vancouver.

Generic City, USA also strangely resembles Toronto!

What the filmmakers consider hot" shit holes" are sepia (India, Mexico, Afghanistan, etc) they never use it on other hot places California , Arizona, Hawaii o Santorini

The hiding and feeling you are safe but no fake-out. Just saw one where someone was hiding behind a tree as being pursued, the chaser got to the tree then got distracted and walked away. We thought the hero was safe but when he got up he turned around to find the chaser standing in front of him.

A heavily pregnant woman arrives at a hospital emergency room and all the nurses run to help her. In real life she would be handed forms and told to wait her turn.

R334 yes and no. Yes the orange filter to signify shit holes. But there was at least 10 year span of so many movies and series being orange filtered, no "shit hole" required.

Here is a classic:

characters who are working class or impoverished young professionals, depicted in lifestyles that are just not gritty enough. They do this because grit and financial hardship are not the focus of the narratives, often feel good.

Someone helping the protagonist is attacked by the killer and presumed dead but they recover just in time to save the protagonist when we think they are doomed. Locations like cliffs and rooftops add to the climactic drama.

The What's all this? scene. The husband has prepared a lavish dinner to make up for being an asshole beforehand. Sometimes it is played for comedy because the food is awful.

If being chased in a hospital all you need do is put on a white coat and everyone will assume you are a doctor and you can go anywhere.

The sassy gay friend. RuPaul watching, brunch-going, every thing about him brassy and garish, hysterical, always in a fucking hurry, slinger of one-liners and harsh retorts, overly coifed and dressed like a fucking clown, and utterly useless.

The young black woman friend, prettier than any model, smarter than any department head at a prestigious university, with the fireworks display of hair and a beautiful horn rimmed glasses and perfect clothes, always the one to give the perfect summation of any situation, her perfection absolute.

In short, side characters who needn't have been there if they are going to be so poorly developed and one-dimensional.

Janeane explains it better than I could in this clip from Reality Bites.

When someone is being chased down the street, the person turns into an alleyway and then watches as the people chasing him run past -- as if they did not see him make the turn, because they weren't that far behind.

Cars do that too.

R352 - could you give an example of the "perfect young black woman friend" trope? Thanks in advance.

Crusty yet benign white male police superintendent to (female and/or BAME-cast) cop leading the investigation, running out of patience and pressured by higher-ups:

"Alright, I'm giving you just 24 more hours to finish this."

Crusty, fat, plain-looking FEMALE male police superintendent. Every new BBC series.

People ending phone calls by just hanging up. No one ever says bye. They just hang up like lunatics.

How quickly the police work and how many resources they have.

R352- Her perfection absolute

That's such a datalounge/gay thing to say

and I approve 👍

[quote] People ending phone calls by just hanging up. No one ever says bye.

I watched a scene similar to that in an old episode of Dallas the other day. Jamie is in a fight with Sue Ellen. They're in a downtown restaurant. Jamie hands back car keys for a car that Sue Ellen gave her. Jamie says 'I don't want to have anything to do with you anymore, and I don't want your stupid car either.' Throws the car key on the table and storms off. And I thought: Well, could she at least tell Sue Ellen where she parked that damn car? How is Sue Ellen ever gonna find it?

I love concise writing but sometimes I wish they didn't throw out basic common sense.

r356, I'm not 352, but I'll answer. It's a genre. This is every LMN movie with a title like , Deadly Deception, Nightmare Nanny or The Stalker Next Door. In these movies, the biggest plot twist is that the killer is blonde. IF there is a black person, they are always good people, you can borrow their car and leave your kids with them while you have your Deadly Affair (which they wisely, warned you of). At work, she will cover for you and take long lunches to hear about your problems and have none of her own. Plus, she often has a friend who is a lawyer or detective or professor that lends expertise and she will never fuck your husband or betray you. "Girl, you know I have your back". We all do and It comforts us.

My husband loves these for easy English and lots of white boy eye candy.

Computers work flawlessly, and at lightning speed, to reveal the data on every possible suspect nation-wide with just a few key strokes.

^ And passwords are always cracked easily by everyone.

In old movies, whenever anybody buys something in a department store the salesclerk asks if they want it "sent." They don't ask the address. Hell, they don't even ask for payment. They just whip out an order pad like that's supposed to tell them something. It's so weird. And it's in so many old movies. And do these stores have armies of delivery people? Because it's like Amazon.

R356:

The article linked describes "The 'Black Best Friend' in Film," a broader description than mine, but with essential overlap. And R362 captures something of a trope in horror films.

I was thinking more of rom-coms with an all white cast but for one character who might have been conceived color-blind but for the fact the she has no faults. The white best friends are all portrayed as flawed, but the black best friend is often flawless, beautiful, smart, competent, supportive, effortlessly chic, and without a hint of ego, vanity, or other negative trait. She's the perfectly perfect character in that she's free of fuck ups, wild ambition,, dim-wittedness, and vanity. She never puts a foot wrong, she's beautiful, she does all the right things -- not the worst depiction at all, but one without any nuance or possibilty of surprise.

When were black friends usually portrayed as perfect or chic? More like the sassy, finger-waving sistah who always says stuff like "You go, girlfriend!"

r365 Such a thing did exist, albeit, not as smooth as film.... but most transactions in modern films are streamlined as well.

if you were curious, you'd have to look at the evolution of shopping... in particular, catalogue shopping (many people ordered from the sears catalogue but often picked up at a convenience like mom and pop shop) to the inevitable mailing list (as the postal service became better organized and expanded), commission earning (the creation of a sales force), affiliate marketing, etc before the expanse of chain and department stores.

Also, keep in mind in the years you required an operator to make a call to the early days of the phone directory.. it was quite easy to find out where someone lived -

So a phone number was more trackable than a social security number was at the time... for identification (address), billing, etc.. as a "public" utility. Otherwise, they maintained ordering and picking up from a local store (many which still operated by payment plan. though not as simple as walking in off the street, and the same was true of department stores in major cities to some extent. Sort of building up both social and financial equity, trust, that you become an established customer. Obviously, all this was highly prone to fraud and since it was essentially operating on p.o.d. and credit, debt.... comparatively, more people were getting into debt comparable to young people and the problems of payday loan biz today. Or perhaps for this crowd, anyone that ordered cds by mail.)

😴 It's going to be [italic] The Best Christmas Ever ! ! !

R356 - I was thinking of Octavia Spencer in The Shape of Water who helps Sally Hawkins.

The flawless black character is a new 'woke' trope, isn't it?

Same as the flawless female lead.

I see those two a lot in recent films.

A woman pukes. Is it flu? Food poisoning? No, she’s pregnant, because that’s the only time women puke.

Cough cough, into a handkerchief, which must of course be white. Camera close-up on the spot of bright red blood. IRL coughing up a bit of blood is common if you’ve been coughing a lot & your throat is irritated. If you’re on a movie it can only mean one thing: TB, which is always fatal in film.

Oh, yeah. If someone coughs in a movie, they're almost surely going to die. It's almost as sure a thing as a cop or soldier announcing early in the movie that he only has [short amount of time] left before he can [enjoy his retirement / go home].

In Major crimes, a spinoff of The Closer, they have a "diverse by secretary" cast, but they go straight to all the cliches and stereotypes; The Latino is hot blooded and passionate, the Asian is nerdy and smart, the Irish is a drunk (recovering in AA), the Italian is married 5 times and comic relief. The black lady looks better than most models and is always perfect. In The Closer, is almost the same cast, but the black person was a guy, handsome and always righteous.

The protagonist gets advice from a smiling stranger whose smile disappears when the protagonist exits.

The hero notices a mysterious man staring at him from across the street.

Suddenly, a bus drives by, momentarily blocking the hero's view.

Once it passes, the other man has vanished.

[quote]Finding an open parking space directly in front of the courthouse, the store, the victim's apartment --wherever they need to be.

Also known as Doris Day parking.

'Oh, my god! That's not my dead daughter in her Red Riding Hood cape, it's a maniacal, murdering dwarf in a Red Riding Hood cape terrorizing Venice!'

When the sister/brother/child/girlfriend/boyfriend/spouse/mother/best-friend of the protagonist dies suddenly or under somewhat clouded circumstances, the protagonist will encounter one living, breathing person on the street, walking along briskly just ahead of them, who is the dead ringer. From behind. Or so it seemed. Except it wasn't. It never is.

Period movies where everything that is associated with that period happens in the span of that film even if it occurs over a short period of time. I see this alot in movies that are supposed to take place in the 80's-Madonna looks, Deloreans, Rubik's Cubes, Benatar hair, Teddy Ruxpin's, Choose Life Shirts-if it screams that decade-throw it in!

I've noticed that things set in the first half of the 90s have everyone in grunge wear. I was in high school at that time and most kids were still dressing like 80s preppies.

R371 is just looking for an excuse to rant against "wokeness" and black people

You'll see plenty of action movies where the lead is a white guy who has no flaws and is the coolest, toughest guy around (even if he's played by a 5'7" actor)

R374, most people on TV are pretty and handsome. So why are you complaining about good looking black people?

No matter how long somebody is tied up and held captive in a basement or some shack in the woods, they never have to piss or shit.

Gay men playing straight leading roles.

Sitting up waking from a nightmare.

Extra points where you wake up twice since the first one is a fake-out.

Movies where the mother beats her daughter with a wire hanger and then says-

NO WIRE HANGERS

EVER!

[quote]I see this alot

Oh, DEAR!

Often shortly after a couple gets married the husband says something like "I love you, Mrs. (his last name)" and the wife replies with something like "I love you too, Mr. (his last name)."

Brushing your hair back while stopping a jet plane from taking off

Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman

an alternative to the I didn't mean it mentioned above. Someone chases after the person they had told to get out. They yell I didn't mean it. But the other person doesn't come back so the chaser repeats I didn't mean it to themselves in sad regret.

Food scenes. I understand why no one eats the food after long takes and for continuity, but it instantly takes me out of the story for a bit to watch no one really eat food.

Another thing I noticed in a few Christmas movies or shows with Thanksgiving episodes, they will bring out the turkey or main dish. Instead of people focusing on the food, getting ready to pray, or just dig in, actors will have plot driven sidebar conversations or tender moments. You will notice everyone is talking as well and that perfect turkey and food is largely ignored. In real life, no one ignores a table full of hot fresh food, especially after you've been waiting half a day for said feast. People would be inching to dig in.

Don't even get me started on arguments causing people to just storm off before eating dinner, usually during a Thanksgiving TV episode. Gossip Girl was the worst at this. They had an episode where everyone was upset with everyone and one by one left the dinner table on Thanksgiving. No one goes back to eat or worry about the food. Suddenly, everyone's appetite is just gone? Fuck out of here with that nonsense.

I've seen families argue like cats and dogs over the holidays, but when the food comes out, the knives are put away because food calms people.

Breakfast has to the most abused movie and TV. Again, moms are making grand feasts only for their family to eat one piece of toast before running off to work or school. I think this is getting a little better as of late because showing disheveled moms struggling to juggle it all has been in style for the past 20 odd years.

Everyone applauds when a fancy dessert is brought out at a dinner party.

[quote] In real life, no one ignores a table full of hot fresh food,

Boy, you ain’t lyin about that.

r60 I was just watching that horrible move "Killers" (2010) with Ashton Kutcher and . He plays an undercover CIA agent who runs into "gorgeous" Katherine Heigl while she's vacationing on the French Riviera (of course) with her parents. She's stammering and he's suave. Ashton's character asks her out to dinner. She accepts, He said to meet him at a restaurant at sunset.

Now, I may not be used to sunset dinner dates on the French Riviera, but I was confused what time that would be. Minutes before it sets? An hour before it sets?

Katherine's character arrives and it's still bright as hell out. Then Ashton's character apologizes for being late. I'm still confused because the sun isn't about to set. Just horrible film making in a cliche movie that killed two movie careers so it was worth whose ever money went up in smoke making that crap.

R395. Only in movies do Americans talk like that. In real life meet me at sunset, someone would be like wtf. What are we in ancient Egypt.

I think it's been mentioned, but I will say it again: Finish your goddamn drinks, people!

Do not order, have a stupid inane conversation with the idiot next to you, and then leave that poor little gin-and-tonic untouched and unloved.

Drink it, bitch! Then you may flounce!

[quote]Now, I may not be used to sunset dinner dates on the French Riviera, but I was confused what time that would be. Minutes before it sets? An hour before it sets?

Maybe just me, r395, but I'd say around an hour/half hour before. The sun sinking under the horizon of itself isn't necessarily all that interesting. It's a moment that passes quickly. It's the half hour before and after that appeal.

[quote]Just horrible film making in a cliche movie that killed two movie careers so it was worth whose ever money went up in smoke making that crap.

Day for night filming must really bug you.

r398 no person in their right mind would tell or accept a first date with a meetup time based on the sunset with no additional guidence. You say you'd arrive an hour before, that's great, but in movies or TV they should say, "Meet me an hour before sunset." But just saying meet me at sunset, would mean whatever time Google says the sun in setting in my location.

No one in real life talks like this unless addressing someone they routinely watch sunsets with.

Is someone fixated on sunsets? It seems.

I can't recall a single instance TV or film characters proposing to meet "at sunset" at a cliff side villa restaurant overlooking the Mediterranean ,- or anyplace for that matter. There's the occasional reference to "first light" or sunrise, but that's usually in outdoorsy settings: camping, cattle drives, the sort of odd situation where the reference is not so vague at all.

More broadly, you're right. People make plans on the phone and hang up leaving us with no one part of the conversation, "Great. Dinner Thursday night then. See you then."

It's not crazy to assume the other party may have said "Thursday night at Florian. At 9, let's say?" Or, no less realistically, that the details were ironed out later and confirmed, X having booked a table for 9.30 and Y having said "See you there."

If in the economy if film no one bothers to say goodbye, why do you expect a long conversation of one person looking up the exact time of sunset on Thursday, the other proposing the optimum time to be seated at a sunset worthy table, etc, etc?

There is nothing you can say or do that will ever break us apart. (But then after a confession) Get out.

You said you could forgive anything/ Anything but that.

ALL the Women wear 4 inch heels. And the ones who are cops have no problems chasing the bad guy with those 4 inch heels.

Going to sleep with perfect makeup still on. Waking up and still wearing that perfect makeup.

Getting up after sleeping all night and never needing the bathroom to pee first.

Music so loud in the background you can't hear anything the actors say.

The fat ugly guy always gets the beautiful Women. The fat ugly Woman stays single because she can't find anyone that wants her.

Saying the cliche "look" to start every sentence.

Going to a popular restaurant(reservations only) and giving the maitre d a twenty and immediately getting a table.

[quote]Getting up after sleeping all night and never needing the bathroom to pee first.

I don’t blame them for this though.

They don’t show BMs either thank god.

The couple who coo at the start of the story that they are so happy together foreshadows something or someone coming between them.

R392- FUCK OUTTA here with that nonsense.

That sounds Italian

Are you Italian?

Either way what you said is funny?

There was not meant to be a question mark at the end of the last sentence.

Endless gestures and fist bumps between two friends instead of a simple handshake.Does anyone actually do that in real in real life?

When the bad guy has the opportunity to kill the good guy but he stalls with lines like “oh boy, I’m going to enjoy this” thereby giving time for the good guy to get free or be rescued.

R408 Evrytime the bad guy could just kill the good guy or his girl, he gives a megalomaniac narrative and winds up biting him the ass

It's almost a plot device at this point.

Ha, funny you mentioned the sing alongs with young people all knowing the words to Motown music from 40 years before. The episode of Saved By the Bell where Slater's iguana or something dies and they sing "Artie Boy" to the tune of "Danny Boy", that always bugged the shit out of me that the Bayside teens would know that song.

Perfectly done hair. Women always have their hair perfectly curled and thick hair. In reality, no one, absolutely no one has their hair done every day. Even the Queen of England had her off days.

R411- I'm watching Dallas episodes 1981. Pamela tries to kill herself by jumping off the top of an office building. She's taken to a hospital for observation. The next day she returns to Southfork. She's laying in bed depressed still but wearing FULL makeup perfectly put on - even though she's in a deep depression.

r412 yeah, so many actresses mention the damage that constantly doing one's hair will cause. This is who so many actresses and models are balding and wear tracks/wigs (hello Kim K, JLO, Ariana Grande, and Nicole Kidman). It looks pretty on film and is aspirational to look perfect, but man would it cause lasting damage.

To R408's point, I remember some comedian years ago making a joke about how he never understood why the Joker, the Penguin, Catwoman, etc., whenever they would capture Batman and Robin, didn't just take out a gun and shoot them instead of stringing them up to all those crazy contraptions that they'd always just escape from by the start of next week's episode.

People waiting in cars always have the windows rolled down so you can see and hear the dialogue. Cop shows are notorious for this.

The uptight character gets high for the first time and does kooky things to loosen up.

When someone is being strangled they always try and get the hands away from their throat rather than fight back using their legs or use their hands to attack elsewhere like the eyes.

Not all of these are clichés, but they do annoy me,

-Modern UK accents used as the default for films set in antiquity outside the UK. Why? Wouldn’t an Italian accent be likely closer to Ancient Rome just by default? Part B is having several different regional UK accents in the same family. At least commit to one.

-The TV gift where the box lid with a big bow is wrapped separately from the base. This even includes separate but perfectly aligned ribbons, You just lift off and presto! We had a ‘tv gift’ Xmas exchange one year where all the gifts had to be wrapped that way. We set up little scenes when opening them like on tv. It was fun! Pain to wrap though.

-Someone screaming ‘the baby is crowing’ or ‘it’s crowning’ during a birth scene. We wait for it each time. 95% likelihood. Writers love the crown.

-Recent over-usage of the phrase ‘You got this!’. It’s everywhere as a lazy writing filler. Listen for it. On some shows, it’s so prevalent it could be a drinking game.

When a character shrugs his shoulders and says

Beats me

No one talks like that in real life. On QAF Michael says that in response to something Ted says to him while shrugging his shoulders.

[quote]I'm watching Dallas episodes 1981. Pamela tries to kill herself by jumping off the top of an office building

Dude! Spoiler alert!

In promos for TV show the announcer always says "All new!" Like part of it would be old?!

[quote]Evrytime the bad guy could just kill the good guy or his girl, he gives a megalomaniac narrative and winds up biting him the ass.

I really loved Chris and Snoop on The Wire, because every time they aimed a gun at someone and the victim started trying to bargain with them, instead of listening or giving him the rationale for their actions they just hit the trigger and got out the quicklime. As I recall they never said a word to anyone they were sent to kill.

In a chase movie: I'm slowing you down. Go on without me/ I'm not leaving you behind!

The shocked stare at an approaching threat, often used in a disaster movie. This can waste precious time better spent getting to safety. The stare can be shared between two people as well.

Someone climbs out of a tumbling car wreck with a minor cut to the forehead and messed up hair when in real life they would have broken major bones.

Two people with little time to spare before the killer or imminent disaster strikes decide right then and there to work out their issues instead of hightailing it to safety.

In the party scene the music that people have been dancing too suddenly stops when the drunken character decides to confront the protagonist with some home truths.

I can't deny my feelings any longer?/ In life you have to make sacrifices/ You're killing me!

A VERY stale cliche that was popular until the 1980's

Someone runs up to a taxi and gets in then says to the driver-

FOLLOW THAT CAR!

[quote]the music that people have been dancing too

Oh, dear!

This was in Spoiler Alert. Someone in a group excuses themselves for a private moment in another room and can be heard sobbing by the people left behind.

Two people are in danger,one of them pursued by the authorities for a crime he did not commit or perhaps both by a mad killer...

In the first case, one party conceals the presence of the pursued party - just on some instinct that this person they barely know is not a murderer wanted for a long strong of high crimes. "No officers, I haven't seen anyone by that description.."

In the second case they simple cower together in quiet wide-eyed terror until they hear the killer move away from them.

Immediately once the danger has passed -- and I mean passed by milliseconds-- they start speaking rather loudly to one another about what they must do next. No waiting for even 20 or 30 seconds or a fucking whisper, but talking at normal volumes, loudly even, as though Roger Thornhill and Eve Kendall couldn't be heard by the policeman who just left their Pullman train cabin in North by Northwest, or by the train porter.

No one ever exchanges fearful glances for even seconds, waiting until it may be safe to talk loudly with the police/porter/serial killer/monster only having moved passed the door by a split second All clear!

R427, right. The dj apparently knows the central characters and has a vested interest in their conflict resolution, lol.

Running through the airport, train, bus terminal to stop someone and reveal you are crazy in love with them.

All these professionals of every type, taking drugs with co-workers and fucking clients , no one ever has to wait for the dealer, or go to get cash and no one is ever the slightest bit nervous about getting fired or arrested or drug tested.

"We've talked about this!"

Workplaces where everyone loves each other and kisses hello and goodbye.

Cops who live in swanky city apartments. IRL, cops generally live in the furthest-flung suburbs imaginable, in heavily mortgaged stucco tract houses with boats in the driveway.

Entering a hotel room from the corridor, simply by turning the knob and walking in. No key, or annoying fumbling with the plastic card. Just waltz right in, which has never happened in the history of hotels.

[quote]IRL, cops generally live in the furthest-flung suburbs imaginable, in heavily mortgaged

Yup.

Constant cricket noises to indicate it’s nighttime.

Conversely, constant birds chirping to indicate daytime.

People acting acting like the bookworm chick with glasses isn't drop gorgeous with a perfectly symmetrical face just because she's the "nerdy girl". Yes I just recently watched She's All That. But so many 90, early aught teen films do this.

R441- CONSTANT NON STOP ringing of a phone to indicate a phone is ringing.

Someone on the "freeway" in New York or Chicago, or on the "expressway" in California

R444- In that movie Love And Death On Long Island

There was a faux pas- On of the characters says - Were going to drive up the coast.

NO ONE on the east coast says that and particularly on Long Island. That is a west coast and in particular a California thing to say. The writer or one of the writers of that movie is no doubt from California.

Cops in my area make more than a decent salary (lots of overtime opportunities). Not bad for guys with no college education. Also, a very good union and pension plan. A lot of them retire in their late 40s or early 50s (and then work another, security-type job). I won't say they live in swanky apartments, but they can afford to buy houses.

R11, same issue for me. It's also like the empty coffee cups or empty egg cartons being carried around. It's very obvious there's nothing in there, and most actors aren't Strasberg-trained, where they can learn to mimic the weight of a full coffee cup.

SueEllen- You we’re far better off with Dusty

Everybody eating there Chinese food with chopstix, even city cops and working class folks in a drama/thriller.

Not exactly a cliche, but I don’t get the point of whispered conversations when two characters are in a room ALONE and no one is nearby to overhear them.

[quote]Everybody eating there Chinese food with chopstix,

Oh, DEAR x2!

😂🤣

I was watching the first episode of Family (another DL thread inspired me!) and I noticed a line that I realized has been used countless times in TV shows and movies (or variations thereof) and every time I hear it I have the same reaction. The line is "we'll send for your things" after when Doug and Nancy were discussing her moving back home after her husband cheated on her.

When characters say that, what the hell do they mean. How do you "send" for somebody's "things"? WHO do you send?

This is akin to the old movie scenes in department stores when the clerk asks if the customer wants something "sent." Apparently there used to be a special army of "senders" who know where to take or pick up everything but I've never experienced this.

Being in a train and being startled by a passing one that whistles or honks.

R453 , In the context of Family, I'm guessing the "sender" is some erstwhile widowed or divorced friend of Kate's who she's taking advantage of under the guise of "helping her out". She goes over in her worn but clean station wagon, and packs up little Timmy's baby things and Nancy's preppy outfits. Ultimate discretion when she discovers Nancy's 'Joy of Sex' next to the 'Joy of Cooking.'

Kate gives her $10 for her troubles. Even during a gas crisis.

Being faced with an alien being that looks at the person in a seemingly unthreatening then suddenly lurches at them or screams like a banshee.

...unthreatening way...

Kate was so imperious, you’re probably right, R455.

Or she did use unemployed Willy as Buddy’s taxi service so maybe it was him! It just sounds so pretentious.

woman in bed with sheet wrapped around her cuddling with near naked spouse in bed

man wearing shorts in bed while woman is naked = he won't do nudity.

Apparently now straight women fuck with their bras on.

When in a classroom, the bell will always ring while the teacher is in the middle of a sentence. Despite the teacher still talking, all of the students will be getting up, rudely ignoring his or her words as if they instructors a stranger.

I’m reality, if the teacher still had one more thing to say, they get students to sit and listen before being dismissed, bell be damned. This has been used in almost every TV or movie with a classroom scene.

R461- ALL the time when the girls on Sex And The City were fucking.

R462, IKR, even in ghetto schools everybody wouldn't just walk out and leave. My high school didn't have bells. Lower east side stand up.

Vivien with an E - Another World

R464 this kills me even with schools that take place in posh prep schools. There is no way some top of the line private school lets student disrespect their teacher by just walking out as they are speaking.

Also, where the hell are the rushing off too?

The protagonist is separated from his wife and child but when the wife sees his heroic efforts in the disaster situation when it is news on TV she rushes to his side to try again.

Female cops/ FBI agents that weigh 88 pounds.

Most comedies rely on comedy of errors with characters being dumb as rocks to an extent. And all characters simply ignoring obvious shit to make the plot flow.

Black men in drag.

"The chosen one": hundred of people have to die just to save one person. I'm not even talking about some kind of messiah/Keanu Reeves who must live to stop the Apocalypse, just some random girl like in Taken or the annoying constipated looking kid in "Stranger Things". Ridiculous.

R446 My brother-in-law is a cop and my sister runs a daycare from their house. They live a comfortable middle class lifestyle with their two daughters, who never want for anything. Both parents and the eldest (who's in high school) have a car. They have a nice house with two bedrooms (for each girl), two bathrooms (upstairs and downstairs), and a master bedroom/bathroom (for the parents). They also have an in-ground pool, which is not rare here in New England. Everyone always knows someone (friend or relative) with a swimming pool.

Any long term character that gets shot is hit in the shoulder area; doesn't bleed much & appears in the following scenes with nothing more than a big bandage & an arm sling

The bad guy (SOA, Peaky Blinders, etc) marries Girl of His Dreams with promises that "He'll Go Straight - No More Funny Business!" which lasts one, maybe two episodes. Girl of Dreams is furious, so of course, but she is killed off due to Bad Guy's dirty dealings. Bad Guy feels very guilty until he finds someone else (end of the season, maybe next season)

A single male regular character falls in love with a guest star female character who is terminally ill and hides it from him. When he finds out they marry and soon thereafter she dies in his arms. This was a common storyline in tv dramas of the late 60s/70s.

Every church is Catholic or Anglican, so every clergy is a priest wearing a cassock or collar.

^^^ That cliche popped up in '90s shows like Baywatch and the TV show version of Highlander. On Baywatch, Mitch dated or married some Australian lifeguard dying of cancer and on Higlander, Methos married someone woman with a terminal illness.

R443 Also a phone will ring as long as the plot requires. Even 2 mins with no voice mail or operator.

I just saw it today and reminds me...A character mortally wounded, but survives. Really, someone puts a sword through your back to front and missed every organ and you are bleeding out and yet survive.

There's always an episode where the father gets an important high paying new job across the country and the rest of the family doesn't want to move. Then he turns down the job (and somehow doesn't seethe with resentment the rest of the series).

The protagonist makes multiple romantic dates in a single evening. Madcap chaos ensues!

Oh, that one is so boring!!! Nobody has ever made that trope funny. (I wrote 'tripe' the first time and nearly left it.)

Someone having an extra ticket to something. Did they buy it hoping they'd snag a date at the last minute and were prepared to take the loss if they didn't?

[quote]There's always an episode where the father gets an important high paying new job across the country and the rest of the family doesn't want to move. Then he turns down the job (and somehow doesn't seethe with resentment the rest of the series).

That was the main plot of the Judy Garland film MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS.

Women patting the back of their hair when being seeing an attractive man.

My absolute pet peeve is people phoning each other and neither says "hi" or "bye". To me, it seemed almost an exclusive English and American thing so I once innocently asked a native speaker whether you guys just hang up on each other to end a concersation. (Of course, he laughed at me - I'm always happy to entertain!) In the meantime, it's a tv trope where I come from as well. I guess it adds pace.

Nowadays, when people have smartphone which identify the caller, I'm more tolerant of that last one if they're in a work situation (such as cops or doctors) and a regular colleague is calling with news. Most people would still say good-bye, but I can see where you'd look at the ID and just say "What've you got?" without preliminaries in that situation.

Of course, when people are making social calls and they haven't already spoken to the person a minute before, you'd still say Hi and Bye.

Walking backwards or turning around to face another character in the middle of a sidewalk

The sound of flies buzzing just before a character finds a dead body

Churches open to the public 24/7

Cooking spaghetti or making a tomato sauce and asking for someone to taste it.

^ with the caution: Careful it's hot! Duh.

Nobody on soaps ever lock their doors. Especially not when a maniacal killer is after them.

People who leave long winded voicemail. Who even makes a phone call nowadays?

People knowing where someone is when they've gone AWOL.

Late to the party but...

-Friends who immediately drop everything and look terrified and devastated for the lead character when something big happens in their life, like a breakup or losing a job or an illness. Here in reality, friends - if they're even there to witness it - will mostly be thinking "shit I'm glad it's not me" and have a "poor dear" face on, at most. Only on television shows about single women do 14 friends and loved ones individually pep talk the leading gal because Mr Perfect just dumped her or cheated or whatever. The amount of caring and sticking up for the leading lady on TV is ridiculous.

-The Black Best Friend. I know that's an old one, but holy shit was it popular in the 90s and onwards. Great that AA people got roles, but awful that it was always hand-holding the white people.

-The Karma. Bad guys and gals on TV always get their asses kicked by karma, and usually are publicly humiliated too for good measure. I have yet to see that ever happen in real life. But on tv shows, if a man cheats, there will be a monologue in a restaurant delivered with gusto by the heroine. And then everyone will clap. Oy.

-In mystery or detective shows, characters (witnesses in particular) always retain weird information about other people's lives and routines that most of us would never in a billion years retain. Hell, most of my friends don't know my birth date or full name, but on a TV show it's "Oh, she ALWAYS ate a muffin with cream cheese while reading the New York Times at the coffee shop across the street from my apartment from 715 to 8am, every Thursday. But when I looked out my window and saw that she wasn't there, I knew something had to be wrong, so I called the cops!"

In more recent cop shows, the cops are always driving conspicuous cars or SUVs. Brand new Challengers, Jeeps, and even Cadillacs. In the 70's and 80's, they would at get an beat up car from police impound to look like they belonged.

When cops are doing surveillance, they are the only car on the street and parked under a street light.

[quote] But on tv shows, if a man cheats, there will be a monologue in a restaurant delivered with gusto by the heroine.

Unfortunately, this also applies to doctors.

When at a restaurant they just throw money on the table and leave or when paying the cashier they never receive change back.

A side character quickly befriends protagonist and manipulates them into believing all their loved ones are lying to them.

Why would you trust someone you just met fifteen minutes ago?

Let’s face it, Dorothy…r497 is limited.

I truly, deeply, massively hate the "You want ME to be your Maid of Honor!?! Oh MY GOD...I...I don't know what to SAY....!" bullshit, with the fanning of the tears. Christ Almighty.

Honey, if you were a real girl in the real world, you'd be saying "sure, but also...maybe your sister would want to be there for you like that?" because you know some sister or other person will be angry to be passed-over, and ALSO, you know you'll have to plan shit and put up with the bride's ME ME ME moments...

It's literally a nothing "honor" and more annoying than special in the end. So you stand on the side of the bride in some pictures. Whatever. Nobody cares.

Why TV shows and movies make it sound like such a shock and such a OMG moment is beyond me. People usually see it coming and it's not a big deal. Nice, sure, but not as huge as giving someone a cheque for a million dollars and a spare kidney.

r499 despite all the bullshit maid of honors go through today, it is the apex of a female's friendship, especially those that have been friends for years. Brides don't take that job lightly because it will make the current pecking order of all other friendships very clear. A sister can make the maid of honor decision easier or harder depending on the situation.

So most smart women know it's a shit job, but it has the word maid in it so no one should expect roses. If the other person is truly your best friend or high up on your list, then you can ride out the drama and ego till the wedding is over.

But with entire trips for the bachelorette party, maybe an engagement party, fittings, and a pre-wedding sleepover, there is a lot of trust a bride puts on their maid of honors. it's a big fucking deal.

Exactly. If you want a clearer picture, I suggest you rent the cassette of BRIDESMAIDS.

In teen movies, the kids always seem to have time to do everything. The girls will show up to school in an outfit that must have taken a lot of thought to put together, their hair is completely done, their make-up is on point, and they even had time to go to the local diner to hang out and get some breakfast before school starts at 8am. Oh, and they don’t at all appeared rush. Did they wake up at 2am?

Diners are usually open before 8am.

My local diners all open at 5am.

I think you missed his point, r503.

R503, I understand that, but how many high school students have time to go to them before school starts, and be there looking their best without appearing the least bit rushed? When I was in high school, all I had time for was a quick shower and a quick bite before racing off to school, hoping to make it on time so I wouldn’t get detention.

I hate how Catholic characters are always so devout. You see this a lot on Law & Order. There’s always the obligatory Catholic character who says, “I’m Catholic. I don’t use birth control.” Really? The Law & Order detectives just happened to run into that 0.001% of Catholics under 30 who live in Manhattan and are so devout they don’t use contraception.

And while we’re on this subject, I hate how nuns in movies and shows are always in habits. Nuns haven’t worn habits since the 1960s.

Whenever anybody opens a website, the website design from 2003.

The one that always annoys me is when there’s a scene in a high school classroom, and the bell rings ending the class period, the teacher always has to yell out the homework assignment as the students are leaving: “Remember to read chapters 3 and 4 because we’re going to have a quiz tomorrow!”

The teacher can never just say nothing and just turn around and start wiping the board clean.

I also hate that they always have teachers and administrators address each other formerly: “Miss Johnson, may I have word with you?” “I told you, Mr. Brown, I’m not teaching summer school.”

When I was in high school, all the teachers and administrators called each other by their first names.

Continuing with the high school theme, there’s also the teacher who has to come across as being deeply philosophical and intellectual in his or her lectures: “I believe it was James Joyce who once said….”

And then the camera pans across the students’ faces, showing them all paying close attention and in total awe at what the teacher is blabbering on about.

r500

...except it isn't. It isn't at all the apex, at least in my experience observing the dance. It's usually this awkwardly hype-up honor bestowed upon someone who promptly begin to question just *how* close they really are to the bride, and within 3 years of the wedding, the bride and her MOH and bridesmaids usually don't even keep in touch anymore.

It's MEDIA that trumps up this idea that someone telling another woman "would you be my Maid of Honor?" is equivalent to proposing lifetime BFF status to her. Having a role in a wedding means nothing. If anything, the pressure that it creates only tests the fragility of the relationship and gives rise to hidden resentments ("Yeah, I also found the catering at the bridal party a little...lacking. But she tried!")

It's all total bullshit, like PROM. Holy Shit is Prom a big fat NOTHING. Man oh man. It's a bunch of High Schoolers about to graduate who get their parents forking over money for tuxes and dresses and limos all so they can stand there awkwardly taking pictures and "dancing" and "having fun" as teachers hover and supervise them to stop any booze and/or sneaky sex from happening. And then? They promptly graduate and all stop seeing each other over the summer because College means new friends.

Seriously movies and TV overdo the Prom and Wedding shit to such a degree, we here in the real world start to believe they *MUST* be important events just because we saw them portrayed that on our screens.

From my perspective, anyway.

*portrayed that way

R511 you sound so bitter. Almost resentful.

[quote]When I was in high school, all the teachers and administrators called each other by their first names.

R509 Including in front of students? Did you attend an alternative school?

Maybe I am r513

Honestly, I grew up thinking weddings were these magical events and every little gesture held such meaning. Same with Prom. So Important!! But...I was wrong.

It's all meaningless gloss. I'm not bitter exactly, just sorry for my younger self that I bought into what TV and film sold me as "Major Life Events!" when they really weren't.

People turn their weddings into mini film shoots and it's...it's crazy. The DJs and the speeches and the bride and groom games and and and and more more more more....it's exhausting. And banal.

The best wedding I went to have vows lasting a total of 2 minutes, no best man/MOH stuff...and it was simple. A catering affair on someone's estate, simple and fun and no putting on airs.

I blame TV and movies for gassing up these real-life events to mythic proportions, which we are now trying to aspire to. It's so stupid.

[quote]Honestly, I grew up thinking weddings were these magical events and every little gesture held such meaning. Same with Prom. So Important!! But...I was wrong.

You can still be homecoming queen. It'll just be a different kind of home.

R511, Reddit has numerous wedding related threads. Start with the Bridezillas one. You’ll see how nutty people really are.

Weddings in which the bride picks all of the female leads of the show to be her bridesmaids…even though they haven’t been particularly close up to that point.

Two rough-and-tumble thugs having an intense debate (between gunfights and/or administering beatings) over the best way to prepare Cornish game hens or whether “Gilligan’s Island” was a tragicomic update of Homer’s “The Odyssey.”

[quote] But with entire trips for the bachelorette party, maybe an engagement party, fittings, and a pre-wedding sleepover, there is a lot of trust a bride puts on their maid of honors. it's a big fucking deal.

Trust the bridesmaids to do what? Show up for all of these events? Rearrange their own lives for all of these events? Pay their own pay through all of these events? It's a big deal for the bride, maybe.

The hard-as-nails authority figure asks an underling how long it will take him to get some difficult task done. The underling, nervous, stammers out an estimate. The hard-as-nails authority figure gives him half that time. (Example: "F-four hours, Sir!" "You've got two!")

That's not a fiction cliche, R521, that's happening ten times a day in every real-life office in the land.

So is its counterpart, "We can do this with the budget we've got, or we can do that. Which is the higher priority?" "I WANT BOTH!"

Between them, these explain what is wrong with most of the products and services in the world today.

The serviceman or woman on leave always wearing sunglasses as if they are still in a sundried country. And to show how cool they are.

The servicewoman who can defeat a group of men in a bar brawl because of her self-defense training and who we also suspect is a lesbian cos they are tough.

White characters in period pieces, especially when the story is set in Europe.

The alcoholic who suffers a trauma or even just a very frustrating event who then unexpectedly has a drink shoved in front of them or runs across a forgotten (ha!) bottle and they pour out a drink and then stare at it and rotate the glass in their hand slowly 180 degrees and back or swing it around just enough to get some gentle centrifugal force going and then pours it down the sink or throw it against a wall.

R526 Sticking with that theme, the alcoholic character who literally drinks himself into the gutter but who amazingly still has the body of some dude who works out 2 hours a day, 7 days a week.

This thread is incredible! I'm a writer, and sometimes you can't help but stumble into writing a cliche, especially in a genre like crime or suspense. Reading this thread has helped me avoid the most common ones. Thank you!

Protagonist overhears her new beau’s phone conversation. “I love you. I can’t wait to see you!” She assumes he has a mistress and storms off. He chases after her and clarifies he was speaking to his sister.

There’s always a “forgotten” bottle of vodka for the recovering alcoholic. They’ve been sober for 10+ years but, something goes wrong in their lives and they suddenly remember that bottle.

People who meet another person they know at a bar and say to the bartender, “I’ll have the same.” (1) how do you know what they’re drinking and, (2) how do you know you’ll like it. It’s usually a brown liquor so it could be whiskey, scotch, or bourbon.

There was one episode of L&O Mothership where a defendant’s counsel sends Jack McCoy a drink. He declined it and said something like “That’s bourbon and I’m drinking scotch.”

R528 - you may enjoy this.

I don't know if he did, r531, but I sure enjoyed it.

Thanks for posting it.

I hate how military guy always have to be “militarying.” They could be out of the service, living a civilian life back home, but they still have to be fit, overly butch, standing tall and saying things like “Yes, sir” all the time. I’ve known a lot of guys who’ve been in the military, including an ex-boyfriend who served in the Army, and unless they told you they had served, you would never know.

Every road hosed down with water.

Doesn't happen as frequently anymore, but our hero is following or chasing someone who jumps into a car. Our hero hops into a cab and shouts, "Follow that car!" and for some odd reason, the cab driver does. Including violating all sorts of traffic laws while doing so.

A Sex and the City episode had a joke about that when Samantha was trying to catch Richard cheating on her.

The snake fake-out. the protagonist finds a snake slowly crawling over their body in a forest or exotic location. We think the snake will bite but it just keeps moving and slithers away.

Whenever someone gets bitten by a snake, the first thing the other person does is to suck out the venom.

Popular trope in old westerns.

[quote] Doesn't happen as frequently anymore, but our hero is following or chasing someone who jumps into a car. Our hero hops into a cab and shouts, "Follow that car!" and for some odd reason, the cab driver does. Including violating all sorts of traffic laws while doing so.

This was so common in action films from the 80s and 90s.

And in “Babylon,” R538

when they make a guest stars into the perfect boyfriend or girlfriend for the lead. We know it won’t last because it’s a guest star, but they can’t help make them into the perfect match only to write them off without ever mentioning them again or breaking them up for the dumbest reasons.

But that same lead will handle 22 episodes and 4-7 years of bullshit from the other lead that they are destined to end up with at the end of the show. It’s so annoying.

Example: Coach, on New Girl, had the perfect girlfriend but the show didn’t have the budget to keep her so off she went.

[quote]Whenever someone gets bitten by a snake, the first thing the other person does is to suck out the venom.

Yeah, don't do this, people. It's medically discredited (like the rest of Babylon).

Two guys with weapons end up in a fist fight. Boring and unrealistic. I always get up use the toilet ot go to the kitchen.

The tedious back and forth about the duties of bridesmaids tells you a lot about who is on Datalounge these days.

Teenagers drinking black coffee. Every teen show, especially on The CW, make their high school characters into caffeine addicts. Yeah, teens drink a lot of caffeine, but more so Starbucks and such, not black coffee.

Another tired cliche, related to the first, ordering coffee. Too often shows will have two characters engage in dialogue while one steps up to a coffee shop counter. The person doesn't really acknowledge or speak to the barista, they just throw down some money, nod, and magically the barista just knows what they want off of a 10-30 item coffee menu. Or they don't seem to pay because they have a running tab that is never brought up.

Speaking of coffee, how about the OBVIOUS empty coffee cups people carry, especially on trays? They couldn't fill them up partially with water?!

The obligatory late-night takeout Chinese food at the office/police station. eaten out of the (way too many) cartons, as the guys (it's usually guys) talk at each other with their mouths full and make points by pointing their chopsticks at each other.

“Buddy” movies and series, when writers run out of ideas and have the two leads get into a knock down, drag out fight. They eventually come to their senses and don’t kill each other. Everything is back to normal again by the next scene or episode.

R547, the women always get salads but the men get greasy takeout.

I hate when characters don’t eat their food, especially after they made a big deal about being hungry or how perfect the restaurant is.

Or after cooking a feast. Bitch, sit down and eat.

Villains eating apples.

R87 I know people in real life who have perfectly put together houses 24/7. And no housekeepers.

Unless you live there, you can't know that. They may have tidied up because you were coming over.

Either way, it's definitely a trope and good for this list.

On soap operas, characters will change their clothes several times in one day, and they always make sure to look stylish. I guess when you’re going to the bayou to rescue Hope from the evil Stefano, you have to look your best.

A family breakfast consisting of eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, waffles, ham, and muffins on a weekday morning.

"I only lied to protect you!"

Absolutely every soap plot, ever.

Law & Order, the bad guys get caught, prosecuted and convicted, but in the last seconds of the episode, an "unexpected" twist in the case leaves the detectives in shock.

In TV shows from the mid to late 60's showing teens listening to or dancing to music, it's always some generic jazzy sounding song no teen would have been caught dead listening or dancing to.

In movies set in the 60's/70's now they don't even TRY to use long-hair wigs that look real.

And no one will eat it, R556. They'll either have an argument, or everyone has to run for the bus or out the door to the office without eating a bite.

After a fight, main characters don’t bother wiping the blood off their faces. And if they get shot in the arm or leg, you know they’re going to make it.

On Law & Order, whenever the detectives get injured, and their captain tells them to the hospital, they can never just shut up and go. They have to act all tough and say they’re fine and insist on continuing with the investigation.

Oh, and when the captain tells them to take some time off, in the next scene we see the detective still on the job, secretly working behind the captain’s back.

Elaborate hairstyles on women that would be very hard to do yourself.

I watch Chicago Fire as well as Med. There's a character on Chicago Fire who has a gorgeous head of wavy hair that is well past her shoulders. While watching an episode on On Demand yesterday, her hair was neatly braided into a crown around the back of her head and perfectly pinned. In some other episodes, her hair may be corn-rowed on the scalp and then fall into long braids.

I just watched Salt where Angelina Jolie dyed her hair black herself and it looked like a professional job. It didn't help that her original blonde hair looked like a wig in the first place.

[quote]Law & Order, the bad guys get caught, prosecuted and convicted, but in the last seconds of the episode, an "unexpected" twist in the case leaves the detectives in shock.

Ohmygawd, yes. I was on an episode of SVU a few years ago and I was the unexpected twist in the final minutes of the episode, leaving our series regulars in shock!

Dun- Dun!

R565 Okay, spill it. Which episode and what was your twist?

SVU? I'll pile on:

The sour, sanctimonious grimace of disgust permanently plastered on Hargitay's face as she grapples with the sexual horrors she encounters every day on the job, as well as Meloni's righteous rage as he lunges toward the perverts to beat them up, needing to be restrained -- but it's completely excusable because he just wants to clean up the world and rid it of all evil. Lesser perps just get a spitty dressing down by Meloni, who berates them and their heinous acts verbally with his nose and close-set a half-inch away from theirs. as they either cower or leer.

Meanwhile, the show is a very thinly veiled bit of sleazy salaciousness hiding under a disingenuous veneer of morality. "This man brutally raped that child, destroying her vagina, and then slammed her against a wall as he ejaculated all over her." But all okay because the vice squad is making faces and punching the bad guys.

I’ll pile on SVU too. Benson has to always, always, always believe the alleged rape victims. She can never keep an open-mind and be skeptical, which is what a police officer, I think, is supposed to do. The other detectives may have their doubts but not Olivia. In the end, it turns out Olivia was right all along.

They should do an episode with a George Santos-like character, who claims he was a rape victim. The other detectives will say that he is a known pathological liar and is making it all up. Olivia, however, will fight for him, insisting he is telling the truth. Evidence will emerge, supporting the theory that he’s lying, but then they’ll be a plot twist, where it turns out he was telling the truth all along; and Olivia, once again, was right.

R341 Another vote for the emotional vomiting! I get vomiting if you stumble upon a rotting corpse or something, but characters in movies and TV series barf copiously and violently upon hearing bad or upsetting news. I've never done that in my life, nor have I ever seen anybody else do that. Watching characters vomit explicitly does, however, trigger my reverse-peristalsis mechanism.

R569 Some people just vomit.

Trying to get a match or lighter to light. At the very last second it finally lights so they can kill the zombies, bees or whatever.

Cars running out of gas, usually in the middle of nowhere.

And don't lie to me because I'll know if you do.

There have been several mentions of phone-related things (not saying goodbye, ringing for a long time, extremely long voice messages), but here's one more: bad phone acting. When we're hearing only one side of a conversation, about eight times out of ten, the actor isn't taking pauses nearly long enough for the other person's questions or comments to fit into. "She wasn't there, Bob. [one-second pause] Well, no, I didn't look for her at the restaurant or the racetrack."

[quote]And don't lie to me because I'll know if you do.

Unless it's on Pokerface.

Another is when characters use the name of the person they're talking to, sometimes repeatedly, i.e. "You know, Mike, that's just not the case." When's the last time you used the name of a friend or acquaintance when talking to them? If you did, it might be taken as insulting.

To couple with r574 regarding phone usage:

The dialogue can be so stilted so the audience knows what the other person is saying to the character. For example:

"Hi. Is Paul there? Oh, he's not, huh? You say he went to the library? And then he's going to get his car fixed? OK, tell him I called."

When someone has to be sedated in a hospital it works immediately. In real life when I got sedated with a pain killer it took about 10 minutes to work. Maybe they didn't give me the hard stuff.

Sedated isn't the same thing as receiving pain meds. Some sedation is fairly and makes you feel detached or floating, and some puts you out. Many work nearly immediately if injected into a vein. Some pain meds do take a while to take full effect, and the experience is different for each person.

I agree with R577, and I would add that it's particularly galling when there is another person in the scene that the one on the phone could recount the information to after hanging up, which would still be expository but a lot more natural.

Shallow podcast cliche:

"On this episode we're going to double down..."

Cooking shows where you "go in with" every ingredient. Jamie Oliver is huge on it and it's spreading.

Please place your ingredients in the pan, people. Don't go in with them, it's distasteful.

The using someone's name in every sentence is a good one in old movies. In The Great Lie George Brent plays Pete and it's a great drinking game to take a swill every time his name is said. One time Mary Astor even says it twice in the same sentence. eg Pete, I've never seen this side of you, Pete.

R446, a lot of police departments do require college degrees. A lot of cops major in criminal justice or sociology.

I know we've had whole threads on this but I just saw a film with the example of a guy told he is out of a woman's league when his beauty and her plainness would seem to make the opposite true.

Now listen carefully. As opposed to listen carelessly?

People finding apartments on limited budgets and almost immediately after they move out their boyfriend/girlfriend/SO's place. I just watched ER S8 E3. Abby breaks up with Luka and moves out. She's a med student, mind you, who makes about $25-30k annually (if that). She miraculously found an apartment, paid the security deposit and first month's rent, and moved her stuff in.

Every character is a writer, or a wannabe working on a book.

When someone is watching an unseen movie on TV it is always Indians hollering or cars with sirens and gunfire.

Hurry up and eat before it gets cold when the food has just been served.

The pathologist is a sloppy fat guy who is wearing a novelty t-shirt. He's elbow deep in a mangled abdominal cavity and holding a sub sandwich with his free hand. Sometimes he's eating a hot dog.

That's similar to the person in the morgue doing an autopsy and eating a burger.

The Wacky Grandma.

Discussion or meeting goes horribly wrong, and 99% of the time someone has to remark upon leaving, “So that went well.”

Breakfast scene. Mom cooking pancakes (bonus if someone asks her why). Everyone is there except a teen. Mom calls out saying "Hurry up, we're going to be late." Teen shows up, grabs a piece of toast and says, "Sorry, don't have time, have to ___" Everyone else suddenly gets up and leaves as well, food goes uneaten. Mom is exasperated. I am utterly bored.

Ooooh, good one.

That hasn't been mentioned yet. Nope. Not even 4 or 5 times. Nuh uh.

When characters with zero experience start their own businesses. This used to happen on soaps all the time. Usually they were cosmetic businesses that became successful overnight.

Where one character will play with the other person's affections even tho they have no romantic feelings for them at all & it happens time after time but the viewer is supposed to buy into it = Terri/Larry on 3's C & Will/Jack on "Will & Grace".

Every gay man must sleep with a woman at least once to know they're gay, i.e. Will Truman

Marijuana has to always be shown in a positive light as being something really cool that everybody wants to partake in, regardless of whether it makes sense. You can never have a character say, “Not my thing” or “Thanks, but I’m good.”