If someone I’m watching a movie with gets up once in awhile and goes to the bathroom or to get a sandwich, no big deal. “Wandering” in and out would not be appreciated.
I still remember when I was maybe 13 or so and I was excited to watch “Citizen Kane” for the first time, at home on TV. I was watching with my parents and a couple other relatives who chatted during the movie, made snide comments about Orson Welles and other cast members etc. I found this annoying enough that I left and saw the rest of the movie on a small TV in another room.
*After all that, I was unimpressed with the movie given all the hoopla about it being the Greatest Film Ever.
My ex would do this. And when she would finally come sit back down, she would expect to be updated. And when I told her: “I don’t know”, she would get annoyed with me: “Weren’t you paying attention?”
One time she asked me: “What’s he (the bad guy) doing?”. I told her: “Important bad guy stuff”. I at least got her to giggle at that one.
My wife doesn’t like to watch movies very much, so at home it’s usually just me. But I don’t understand the folks that pay good money to see a movie in the theater and either 1) show up 20 minutes late or 2) can’t keep away from their phone for 10 straight minutes. I know it *shouldn’t *bother me (I don’t even know these people!), but for some reason it does. In a lot of films if you miss the first 20 minutes there’s so much of the movie that ain’t gonna make a hell of a lot of sense. I guess it bothers me that some people don’t respect the director or the “movie-going experience” to give the movie the attention it deserves.
UGH! One of my pet peeves. My husband has never sat through an entire movie or TV show, even a half-hour one. Sure, get up to grab a snack or take a potty break - that’s understandable, normal and allowed. But he’ll get up and disappear for 15-20 minutes. Sometimes he’s flossing his teeth, clipping his nails, taking the garbage out, etc. Thank goodness for the pause function. I’ll pause it and he’ll say, “don’t pause it, just keep watching it”. If I don’t pause it, he’ll come back and have a million questions. So I pause it anyway. The worst is when he’ll get up and roam around during the last 10 minutes! I get anxiety! There is only a handful of TV shows that we BOTH like and I usually DVR them. So when I’m getting ready to watch I make the announcement and ask, “are you ready to watch or are you still wandering around?” He’s usually not ready so I wait until he’s settled down before I start the show. He still gets up at least once.
He also likes to ask questions as we’re watching a show. 15 seconds into it he’ll ask me - is that his girlfriend or his wife?, where are they?, why are they doing that? Yesterday I yelled at him! I said, “how do I know? It just started. Be quiet and we’ll find out.” Obviously, I enjoy movies and TV way more than he does!
This I hate. I had a friend who would constantly ask questions like this. Just shut up and watch the show! He’d even do it in a movie theater. And he’d also make comments like “Oho! He’s going to …” Shutupshutupshutup
Yea, it’s annoying. When I watch something, I like to pay 100% attention to it. Other people don’t seem to have that requirement. As long as they press Play and are in the general vicinity then they have “watched” it.
My father. He seems to believe that a movie is just background noise, and he’ll get up and make a cup of coffee, go outside for a smoke, or do whatever else, regardless of what he misses.
So, um, I am someones one of the people who does that. I wonder how much it annoys my husband. But, while I understand that it’s annoying if I have to ask “who is that again?” (something that I often wonder even if I’m paying attention, because I have a very poor memory for faces) I gather that a lot of you are annoyed just by the fact that someone with you isn’t paying full attention. Can you articulate why that bothers you?
No problem when we’re both watching something. I do a puzzle (seated) and she sometimes looks at her phone, but usually pays attention. Except when she falls asleep like for the last part of the last Breakthrough.
What is annoying is when I’m watching something and she wanders in to chat.
We hardly watch anything that we can’t pause anymore, which solves the getting up problem, though that is mostly to skip ads.
I don’t take it personally - one thing I’ve learned is that nobody will be as into “your” entertainment as you are. People don’t want to be captive audiences and politeness only goes so far.
Because a movie is a pretty hefty time commitment (normally around 2 hours long) and unless we’re instead spending that time talking and having fun I’d rather be doing something else with that time instead of being part of someone elses background noise.