Madame Secretary is one of our fave shows. One thing that regularly annoys me is the manner in which characters take off their glasses and put them back on for no apparent visual benefit. Someone will be sitting there wearing glasses and talking to someone, and they’ll pull their glasses off and toss them onto a desk or table (more roughly than anyone I know would handle their glasses), for no apparent reason other than to emphasize some kind of emotion. Then they’ll put the damn things on again seconds later - not because they need to read anything or view anything in the distance.
The worst offender is the husband. From the way he uses his glasses I can’t tell if he is nearsighted, farsighted, or if they are bifocals. But once I noticed this, I realized every character does the same. I haven’t noticed this affectation to this extent in other shows. I’ve worn glasses since I was 8, and couldn’t imagine handling them like this. Anyone else notice this? It is more annoying than the obviously empty coffee cup.
As long as you’ve bothered to click on this thread, any other TV tropes you want to bitch about? (Yeah, I know this has been done before!)
Coffee cups. The way actors wave around cups ostensibly filled with hot coffee, it’s perfectly obvious that they’re empty. They’re actors! Can’t they act like those cups at least had some liquid in them?
No, I hadn’t noticed this before… but now I will, dangit! Thanks a lot.
Actually, I won’t quite say I hadn’t noticed it, because I have noticed one specific case of it: Female characters taking off their glasses in an attempt to look more attractive. But there, at least, there is a discernible reason for the gesture, even if it doesn’t usually work. I think that puts it a half-step or so above doing it just for a rhetorical flourish.
We don’t watch a TON of TV dramas, but like I said, we hadn’t noticed it in shows iike Elementary or Better Cal Saul. I bet the husband (Henry?) does it at least once per episode. Must be written into his contract!
Last night, I wasn’t really counting, but I think he put his on and off 3 times in one scene, and then one or 2 other characters did the same within just a few minutes. Might be a drinking game!
Wondered if other folk noticed this in other shows. If so, is this a recent phenom across the industry? And why? If Madame Sec is the only show, what do these folk think they are getting across?
Not TV, but recently we went to a community theater production of The Lion in Winter. The actor playing Richard had his fists in permanent clench formation - once noticed, it could not be unnoticed. It made me wonder if the director suggested to him that it would indicate internal rage or something.
Years ago, and another amateur performance, one actor had one and only one hand motion. No matter the situation, that’s what he did - again, when you saw it, you couldn’t unsee it.
So, rolling back to the OP - could this be something the director thought would be compelling? Or maybe a crutch for the actor? Anyone’s guess…
Next time you’re in a social setting where you aren’t eating/drinking or otherwise have a convenient way to keep your hands occupied, try to remain fully conscious of what you’re doing with them at any given moment. It can get disconcerting pretty quickly.
Two things about glasses. First, I’ve become more careless about glasses, which are much more durable now, with unbreakable unscratchable lenses and spring-elbowed frames, and if they are lost or damged, I can just grab another ten-buck pair fron Zenni Optical. And, now that I’ve had cararact surgery, I put them on and take them off very often, for what a casual observer might think is no useful reason. I have bifocals, and I use them only for reading and watching TV and going outdoors (where I switch to tinted), but otherwise usually leave them off, including computer screen viewing.
Actors who whisper their lines in order to convey gravitas. It’s a mannerism that doesn’t seem as omnipresent as it was about 10 years ago, thank God, but still crops up once in a while. it just seems like a contrived way for wooden actors to emote.
Not to sidetrack a good rant, but this does happen in real life. Here’s a clip of CBS News coverage of the assassination of John F. Kennedy.Starting here, there’s a period of about 15 minutes where Walter Cronkite is trying to keep a steady narrative while the rumors mount that JFK is actually dead.
At first you might think he’s putting on his glasses to read and taking them off to look at the camera, but watch closely and you’ll see them going on and off at random times, and there are a few shots at other times during the afternoon where you can see Cronkite fiddling with the glasses on his desk.
I wear glasses for reading and everything else looks blurry with them on so I’m constantly removing them / putting them back on. For instance, if I go to a meeting I have to bring them to take notes and to see any presentations there might be, but I cannot stand not being able to see whoever I’m talking to so then they come off. That’s pretty clearly not the case in your tv show, though. I think what you’ve got there is an actor(s) overusing a prop.
No thread about tv mannerism gripes is complete without my oft mentioned irritation at sentences constantly being started with "Look, . . . " . Once you notice it - and it happens *constantly *- you’ll never stop noticing it.
Look; I’m really sorry for pointing it out but if I have to be annoyed, I’m dragging you down with me.
I think it was in The Way We Were where Katie points out that no good ever comes from a sentence that begins with “Look…” but I am unable to find the exact quote.
I see people take off their reading glasses to speak to someone on occasion. On TV it is of course just for effect. For real animation there’s the Law&Order talking to the police while working style, the witness is always on the job loading a truck, flipping burgers, or talking to three other people at the same time. Better than a couple of ventriloquist’s dummies engaged in time filling chatter.
When I start a sentence with “Look”, it means “everything you’ve been saying is mindless blather, and you haven’t understood anything I’ve said, so now I’m going to sum up the truth once and for all.” And she’s right, no socially advancing benefit ever comes from it.
