# Are there any good, realistic fictional portrayals of your job? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 23, 2020, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-good-realistic-fictional-portrayals-of-your-job/848392 "2020-02-23T11:21:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TwoCarrotSnowman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/twocarrotsnowman/32/15879_2.png) [@TwoCarrotSnowman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwoCarrotSnowman)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2020, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-good-realistic-fictional-portrayals-of-your-job/848392/1 "2020-02-23T11:21:30Z")
We often hear about books, TV programs and movies which feature wildly unrealistic portrayals of… well, everything. We tend to notice those that get our own areas of expertise wrong. Common areas of complaint are depictions of law, the police, the military and IT. I’m interested in the opposite; have you ever seen a depiction of your own job (or hobby) in fiction, and thought “yeah, they got that right”? ---
**Author:** ![Tatterdemalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/43a26b/32.png) [@Tatterdemalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tatterdemalion)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2020, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-good-realistic-fictional-portrayals-of-your-job/848392/2 "2020-02-23T14:01:44Z")
Office Space. ---
**Author:** ![DinoR](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dinor/32/2821_2.png) [@DinoR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DinoR)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2020, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-good-realistic-fictional-portrayals-of-your-job/848392/3 "2020-02-23T15:43:58Z")
[Team Yankee](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34570.Team_Yankee) by Harold Coyle A tale of a tank heavy company team in WWIII. Coyle was an armor officer who had already commanded a company. It showed. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2020, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-good-realistic-fictional-portrayals-of-your-job/848392/4 "2020-02-23T15:57:42Z")
When I was in the military, “The Last Detail” was pretty accurate. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2020, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-good-realistic-fictional-portrayals-of-your-job/848392/5 "2020-02-23T16:06:27Z")
There’s a season of The Wire where one of the cops becomes a teacher. It was realistic enough that I was curled in the fetal position through a couple of episodes. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2020, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-good-realistic-fictional-portrayals-of-your-job/848392/6 "2020-02-23T16:10:51Z")
I’ve never seen an accurate portrayal of my work which is foreign aid. ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2020, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-good-realistic-fictional-portrayals-of-your-job/848392/7 "2020-02-23T16:45:11Z")
Not MY job, but one aspect of it. Michael Mann’s _ **Thief** _ included a very accurate depiction of how commercial burglar alarms work and how they are attacked or defeated by professional burglars. I was in the alarm and monitoring business for some years and I found very little about those scenes to criticize. (Unfortunately, the technologies depicted at that time are no longer much in use, so you’ll have to find a more recent and accurate movie to use as a primer.) I can contrast this with the ridiculous hijinks shown in most “heist” movies and the wildly inaccurate depictions of alarm systems. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2020, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-good-realistic-fictional-portrayals-of-your-job/848392/8 "2020-02-23T16:57:53Z")
I don’t think there’s an accurate portrayal of ANY job. Given that, _No Highway In the Sky_ was the only film I’ve ever seen where a (stress) engineer is the hero. They got the engineering wrong, though. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2020, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-good-realistic-fictional-portrayals-of-your-job/848392/9 "2020-02-23T17:05:16Z")
I’m not sure that my job (embedded controller design) has ever been seen in a movie. There are general “electronics” developers in movies (like, _Primer_), but none that really illustrate the steps that go into making a controller for something like, say, a microwave oven. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2020, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-good-realistic-fictional-portrayals-of-your-job/848392/10 "2020-02-23T17:07:44Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > I don’t think there’s an accurate portrayal of ANY job. Probably correct. Most jobs are too boring to make good drama. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2020, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-good-realistic-fictional-portrayals-of-your-job/848392/11 "2020-02-23T17:11:10Z")
Teacher - no, not that I have seen. Would love to see one if it exists. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2020, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-good-realistic-fictional-portrayals-of-your-job/848392/12 "2020-02-23T17:12:20Z")
None whatsoever. There is one enormously ridiculous and hilarious movie called “The Pentagon Wars” which got a few things right. Sadly, only the most exaggerated parts of the story were accurate. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2020, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-good-realistic-fictional-portrayals-of-your-job/848392/13 "2020-02-23T17:19:37Z")
Although there were exaggerated and dramatized elements, [_Never Cry Wolf_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Never_Cry_Wolf_(film)) wasn’t bad at depicting the life of a field biologist in a remote area. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2020, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-good-realistic-fictional-portrayals-of-your-job/848392/14 "2020-02-23T17:21:43Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Although there were exaggerated and dramatized elements, [_Never Cry Wolf_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Never_Cry_Wolf_(film)) wasn’t bad at depicting the life of a field biologist in a remote area. And here I thought you were going to tell us a movie about message board moderators… ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2020, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-good-realistic-fictional-portrayals-of-your-job/848392/15 "2020-02-23T17:24:16Z")
Believe it or not, but I had a civil procedure professor in law school who sometimes showed clips from “My Cousin Vinny” in class. Because of the need to show Joe Pesci as completely out of his element, the rest of the movie did a fairly good job showing a realistic portrayal of the legal process. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2020, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-good-realistic-fictional-portrayals-of-your-job/848392/16 "2020-02-23T17:32:42Z")
> [@snfaulkner](#): > > And here I thought you were going to tell us a movie about message board moderators… That would be [Dante’s Inferno.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6w6HGTUIjXQ)😃 ---
**Author:** ![XOldiesJock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/ec9cab/32.png) [@XOldiesJock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XOldiesJock)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2020, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-good-realistic-fictional-portrayals-of-your-job/848392/17 "2020-02-23T18:36:12Z")
I worked in radio for many years as an on-air personality, a DJ if you please. Never have I seen a radio station depicted as technically correct. No one ever wears headphones, for example, and in the days before digital programming you never saw anyone cueing-up a record. That said, however, the 1970’s sitcom “WKRP in Cincinnati” often accurately portrayed the good times, bad times, lunacy and stupidity I encountered at many a station at which I hung my headphones. And although Clint Eastwood’s “Play Misty for Me” was incorrect in just about every way, I still say it should be required viewing for any young person, male or female, who wants to be a radio personality. Those crazy people, the kind that become obsessed with the voice they hear on the radio and on the phone, are really out there, and I’ve seen some tragic outcomes as a result of getting too familiar with them. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2020, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-good-realistic-fictional-portrayals-of-your-job/848392/18 "2020-02-23T19:35:05Z")
> [@XOldiesJock](#): > > That said, however, the 1970’s sitcom “WKRP in Cincinnati” often accurately portrayed the good times, bad times, lunacy and stupidity I encountered at many a station at which I hung my headphones. Series creator Hugh Wilson had worked in ad sales at a top-40 station in Atlanta (WQXI), and he based the show’s premise, and a number of the characters and stories (including the “turkey drop” episode), on his experiences there. I work in advertising, and I’ve never seen anything approaching a realistic portrayal of it. _Mad Men,_ _The Crazy Ones_, _What Women Want_, _Crazy People_, even _Bewitched_ – no, it’s not really like that. But, as **RealityChuck** says, an accurate portrayal wouldn’t make for good entertainment. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2020, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-good-realistic-fictional-portrayals-of-your-job/848392/19 "2020-02-23T20:11:41Z")
I’m an artist. There are plenty of biopics about artists, but none of them do the type of art I do (I don’t think anyone else in the world does). ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2020, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-good-realistic-fictional-portrayals-of-your-job/848392/20 "2020-02-23T20:16:38Z")
Plenty of accurate portrayals of teaching out there. They’re just…concentrated. Everything that happened in the first episode of _Boston Public_, for example, actually happened at a public school. Just not the same school. And not on the same day. Maybe a few years scattered across a dozen schools across several states. If they showed it like it really is, it would be boring as hell. Just like _real_ school! 😃 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-good-realistic-fictional-portrayals-of-your-job/848392.md?page=2)