Prime Directive violated, everyone admits it was violated (As opposed to The Apple) and…things turn out for the better instead of the most immediate thing that could go possibly go wrong does.
All I’ve got are Robin Williams’ Toys and anything based off the work of Ayn Rand.
Peter Burke, the main FBI agent in White Collar, was portrayed as happily married (to Tiffani Thiessen, no less!) and never, ever had any personal drama.
Hero’s sidekick: “[Hero], don’t kill [defeated bad guy]! You’ll be just as bad as he is!”
Hero goes ahead and kills bad guy, suffers no lasting psychological damage or loss of moral center.
One of the Austin Powers movies showed the effects of nameless mooks deaths on their families.
Dog is clueless about evil force nearby.
Hero (usually for this purpose the father, but sometimes the mother) whose wife and/or child DOESN’T complain that he’s never home/never spends enough quality time with the spouse and/or child(ren).
I’d like to see a sitcom that has as a running gag sitcom-trope subversions. E.g.,
Early in the episode the low end worker tells the boss his mom is coming to town and he’s been telling her that he’s really the boss. Could the boss switch positions with him when his mother visits? The boss agrees.
When the mom shows up the boss says: “You’re kid’s been lying to you the whole time, he’s just the janitor.” and walks away.
Throw something like that in every now and then. Hopefully this would force the writers to never, ever, reuse one of these hackneyed old plots for real.
If the show is successful, it would raise audience awareness of this nonsense and other shows would stop reusing this stuff.
I have a vague memory of watching something–I want to say it was a sitcom–where a character is telling his friends about an experience, and says:
“So I jumped into a cab and shouted, ‘Follow that car!’” Slight pause. “Turns out, they won’t really do that.” Big yucks from the audience.
Does this scene sound familiar to anyone? I’d swear that it’s real, and not something I made up, but I can’t remember what show it might be from.
Already subverted in the fourth-season Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Remember Me”. People on the ship start mysteriously disappearing—as in, being completely erased from existence, including from the memories of other crew members—and Dr. Crusher is the only one who notices. She reports the problem to Captain Picard, who, while skeptical, does not outright disbelieve her, and orders an investigation. He continues to support Crusher’s theory even though, to all outward appearances, she is delusional.
This cliché subversion was notable enough that it recently got written up in an feminist essay by Mirah Curzer: Star Trek’s Feminist Statement: Believe Women.
The Princess and the Tin Box, by James Thurber :).
I think there have been a few of those…
DI Barnaby in Midsomer Murders seems fairly well-adjusted - maybe a little stressed at times
Chief Superintendent Foyle in Foyle’s War - quiet, honest, well-mannered, scrupulous
Columbo (OK, so he was scruffy and a smoker, but he seems likeable enough)
Miss Marple (Not police, but well-mannered in the later stories at least)
I hope this isn’t a hijack, but I loved that show. Foyle was such a great character. I love how Michael Kitchen can do so much with a little change of facial expression. When he just kind of moves the corner of his mouth a little and you know he’s already got it all figured out. That is just so cool. Even when Foyle was thoroughly pissed off, he was still completely in control.
Steve Carella of Ed McBain’s 87th Precient mysteries comes to mind.
I’d like to see someone who figures out who the killer is and calls the cops, instead of confronting them alone in a deserted place.
In a typical action movie foot-chase scene, neither the pursued nor the pursuer is ever even the slighted bit out of breath when it is over. I’d like to see Jason Bourne on his knees puking his guts out after his next big chase.
Similarly, in automobile chase scenes, the ordinary cars crash into each other and walls and barriers and just keep going, like they are all the Batmobile on steroids. I’d like to see some of those cars on Triple-A tow trucks after the carnage is over.
I’d add: Faye Kellerman’s Police Lieutenant Peter Decker. His personal history is wildly and crazily complicated – he’s Jewish, but he isn’t, but after all he is – “functionally”, though, he seems to have a mostly-happy marriage, and to be a loving husband / father / stepfather.
An episode of The Rockford Files ended with a long chase through the Hoover Dam. Two guys in dress shoes and jackets running through concrete tubes. At the end, Rockford and the other guy collapse in exhaustion. Rockford can barely gasp out, “Gotcha” before motioning the other guy to sit down.
Terrible quality video here: https://youtu.be/BdxBfrvx-e4?t=3146
No, it’s more like the plot of…
Wait, you actually clicked on this? Why? You have no idea if the movie I was going to mention was a movie you’ve actually seen, and I’ve provided zero clue as to what this spoiler might contain - just like your spoiler box.
Police Chief: We’ve got some kinda monster out there! Four people have been killed, we’ve got to close the beach!
Mayor: Well, it will really hammer our tourist business and make those developers who are looking to invest nervous, but, you’re right. Close the beach.
The bomb detonates with the digital clock still reading time left as 2:43.
And all the wires in the bomb are the same color when the bomb squad opens it up.