# Name your TV/movie pet peeves **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 2, 2012, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-tv-movie-pet-peeves/620674 "2012-05-02T19:04:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-tv-movie-pet-peeves/620674/142 "2012-05-08T15:23:30Z")
I think I got a couple… •Flamethrowers. Seem to consist of the “shoot propane flame jet” and “squirt weak stream of burning gasoline, which burns off in seconds” varieties. The real things [are](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppXf9eD3PYA#t=1m38s) [somewhat](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pRihxvk4YY) [more impressive/horrific.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:US_riverboat_using_napalm_in_Vietnam.jpg) (Note: Don’t worry, that’s just training footage, and a distance photo of a patrol boat firing at an off-camera target.) Now, I understand _why_ this is the case—using more realistic flamethrowers in live-action filming would be incredibly unsafe, possibly technically impossible, and probably _illegal_ in a lot of places. Though one could do better with CG effects or pure animation…if they cared to. Most don’t. The [kerosene-tossing scene from _The Thing from Another World_](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl-Y8ZkUenk) still looks more intense than most hollywood flamethrowers. Hey, maybe it’s ghoulish, but it is a “pet” peeve. And it does belie the true _horror_ of these weapons in action, which probably isn’t that great, either. •The [“Designated Girl Fight,”](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:OpgE5nly450J:tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DesignatedGirlFight+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us) i.e. the “in an action scene featuring a female villain, tapping in a female hero solely so the male good guys don’t have to fight a woman.” ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-tv-movie-pet-peeves/620674/143 "2012-05-08T17:07:49Z")
> [@Ranchoth](#): > > The [kerosene-tossing scene from _The Thing from Another World_](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl-Y8ZkUenk) still looks more intense than most hollywood flamethrowers. Heh. How about “actors who don’t know how to use a fire extinguisher”? Director: “CUT! CUT! Idiots! You point it at the _base_ of the fire!” Actually, “actors who clearly don’t know how to use their tools” is one of my peeves. This is most obvious in older films, mostly in cases involving firearms, where it’s clear that the actors have never fired a real weapon in their lives. C’mon, you don’t fire a pistol by thrusting it toward your target each time you pull the trigger! Fortunately, this has gotten better (aside from the “gangsta grip” of holding a handgun sideways). But the one that always sticks out to me, mainly because I’m a musician who has played a wide variety of instruments over the years, is the actor who is supposed to be a musician and yet doesn’t even hold the instrument correctly. For lead characters they usually do a good job of at least coaching the actor so he/she can fake it convincingly; it’s usually background characters, like the band playing in a bar. Seriously, if it’s just background musicians, how hard can it be to find _actual musicians_, in _Hollywood_, to play the parts of the bar band? ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-tv-movie-pet-peeves/620674/144 "2012-05-08T17:27:51Z")
> [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > But the one that always sticks out to me, mainly because I’m a musician who has played a wide variety of instruments over the years, is the actor who is supposed to be a musician and yet doesn’t even hold the instrument correctly. For lead characters they usually do a good job of at least coaching the actor so he/she can fake it convincingly; it’s usually background characters, like the band playing in a bar. Seriously, if it’s just background musicians, how hard can it be to find _actual musicians_, in _Hollywood_, to play the parts of the bar band? If you don’t already know it, you should see the movie _Round Midnight_. ---
**Author:** ![BlinkingDuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eada6e/32.png) [@BlinkingDuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlinkingDuck)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-tv-movie-pet-peeves/620674/145 "2012-05-08T17:44:38Z")
Just once…ONCE…I would like the nuclear weapon to hurt the aliens. Also, no visible breath when it is cold outside. Yes, I am looking at you Game of Thrones. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-tv-movie-pet-peeves/620674/146 "2012-05-08T18:12:27Z")
> [@BlinkingDuck](#): > > Also, no visible breath when it is cold outside. Yes, I am looking at you Game of Thrones. Heh… There’s a scene in \*Bull Durham \* where you _can_ see their breath, in the middle of summer, in North Carolina. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-tv-movie-pet-peeves/620674/147 "2012-05-08T18:12:38Z")
> [@Spiff](#): > > Car peels out on a dirt or gravel surface … yet we hear the tire squealing sound as if the car had been on a paved surface. :rolleyes: I had a friend who swore he saw an old Elvis movie in which Elvis’ speedboat sped off with that sound. ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-tv-movie-pet-peeves/620674/148 "2012-05-08T18:17:20Z")
> [@control-z](#): > > That’s why I don’t enjoy Andy Griffith. I like the characters and the setting but it’s painful for me to watch Barney screw up every time (with few exceptions.) That always bugged me about Fraiser. He was smart, a fairly well respected psychaiatrist, and yet he was always wrong. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-tv-movie-pet-peeves/620674/149 "2012-05-08T18:19:26Z")
> [@Wheelz](#): > > Heh… There’s a scene in \*Bull Durham \* where you _can_ see their breath, in the middle of summer, in North Carolina. _The Notebook_, too. Summer. South Carolina low country. Er, or so I’m told. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-tv-movie-pet-peeves/620674/150 "2012-05-08T18:25:25Z")
Watched Earthquake! over the weekend. (Gawd, what a horrible move) Walter Mathau in a comic relief role, playing a drunk at a bar. he earthquake hits, people are tossed like salad, the pool table moves with enough force to pin someone against the wall. Walter is having trouble bring his shot class full of whiskey to his lips…yet doesn’t spill a single drop!! ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-tv-movie-pet-peeves/620674/151 "2012-05-08T18:36:13Z")
> [@BlinkingDuck](#): > > \ > > Also, no visible breath when it is cold outside. Yes, I am looking at you Game of Thrones. That’s an ongoing peeve of mine - there are certain ways you act and certain things you do when it is truly cold outside (and visible breath is one of them - not having your neck and chest exposed is another - it drives me crazy to see people acting like they’re cold, with their scarf hanging loosely around their exposed neck). There are tons of people from somewhere else in Hollywood - surely some of them are from cold places. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-tv-movie-pet-peeves/620674/152 "2012-05-08T18:38:07Z")
> [@spooje](#): > > \ Walter is having trouble bring his shot class full of whiskey to his lips…yet doesn’t spill a single drop!! Maybe that was just a tribute to how a serious drinker treats alcohol. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Il\_Palazzo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Lord\_Il\_Palazzo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Il_Palazzo)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-tv-movie-pet-peeves/620674/153 "2012-05-08T19:26:49Z")
A few of mine: I can’t stand the Wilhelm scream any more. When I first learned about it, it was a cool little in-joke that I got to be part of. Now it takes me out of the movie every time I hear it, which is a pain because it more or less always happens in tense, action driven scenes when I’m getting really into it. That stock “schwing” sound sharp objects make just by existing. It could be a sword being drawn from a leather scabbard, a kitchen knife from a wooden block or a pocket knife being unfolded; they always go “schwing” and it never makes sense and it always drives me crazy. The pointless comic relief character. I absolutely can’t stand these; they kill tension, break the mood of dramatic scenes and otherwise sabotage the movie at every turn. If there’s a character who has no impact on the plot, no character development, provides no development for any other character and exists only to say something funny whenever you point the camera at him or her (Kat Dennings in _Thor_ comes to mind) then you shouldn’t have this character in your movie, especially if none of their jokes are actually funny. A couple that are a little more niche: Badly portrayed video games. When someone in a movie or TV show plays a video game, there are pretty good odds that they’ll just be flailing away at random buttons like a little kid trying to emulate his big brother playing a game, that the game will look horrible and unfinished like it was made by two guys in a basement over a weekend, that it will make sounds like Pac-Man or Frogger even if it’s supposed to be a modern game or that it will have a ridiculous name like Blood Kill or Slaughter Blaster III. Nerds and gamers being treated as acceptable targets for general ridicule. (This is a large part of why I can’t get into The Big Bang Theory.) People in TV shows and movies who play video games or role playing games, read sci-fi or fantasy books or comic books, understand math beyond an elementary school level or show the least bit of proficiency with computers beyond checking email and browsing the internet are almost always portrayed as awkward losers or overgrown children. ---
**Author:** ![Soylent\_Juicy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@Soylent\_Juicy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soylent_Juicy)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-tv-movie-pet-peeves/620674/154 "2012-05-08T20:49:26Z")
When someone comes inside from a blizzard and their hair is perfect, nose not red & running, eyes not watering, and not a snowflake on them. ---
**Author:** ![Noelq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noelq/32/16438_2.png) [@Noelq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noelq)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2012, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-tv-movie-pet-peeves/620674/155 "2012-05-08T22:46:34Z")
The show is called “So You Think You Can Dance”. For the love of god, SHOW THEM DANCING! Stop with the quick cuts, the audience reactions, the judge shots, the flashy lights, random passersby, etc. Show them dancing. Show their routines. Put a goddamn camera in the center of the auditorium, point it at the stage, and STOP Quick Cutting! I want to watch them! GAh! I feel better now. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-tv-movie-pet-peeves/620674/156 "2012-05-09T11:48:26Z")
My wife likes “Grey’s Anatomy”. I’ve come to enjoy it as well, except for two pet peeves: 1. They roll the opening credits FIFTEEN MINUTES into a 55-minute episode. I find this pretentious, like they think it’s the Gandhi epic film or something. 2. The god-awful music – that is, full songs, not incidental background music – which they blare over the action and dialogue once or twice a show. I get it that it’s a signature device for that show, but it’s a sucky device … made worse by the fact that the songs themselves are almost always atrocious … soft pop or pseudo-indie balladry from obscure, earnest young “musicians” who sound like they were chosen because they’re the producer’s niece or whatever. ---
**Author:** ![Soylent\_Juicy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@Soylent\_Juicy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soylent_Juicy)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-tv-movie-pet-peeves/620674/157 "2012-05-09T13:11:58Z")
Are doctors really allowed to break into people’s homes and poke around? Because those guys on “House” do it all the time. Another pet peeve is when someone walks into a surgical room without a mask or gown or anything - that’s a freakin’ sterile environment!! ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-tv-movie-pet-peeves/620674/158 "2012-05-09T13:42:24Z")
I hate the “start movie/TV episode with cliffhanger, then ‘[X time] ago…’” It’s lazy writing and entirely pointless. It’s just time-padding. We end up seeing a scene twice, for no reason. See _Iron Man_ as an example. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-tv-movie-pet-peeves/620674/159 "2012-05-09T20:35:17Z")
> [@Soylent\_Juicy](#): > > Are doctors really allowed to break into people’s homes and poke around? Because those guys on “House” do it all the time. > > Another pet peeve is when someone walks into a surgical room without a mask or gown or anything - that’s a freakin’ sterile environment!! They admit in show that it is illegal and immoral and that they shouldn’t be doing it and that they could go to jail for it. But I’ll accept the complaint about the gowns and especially masks. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-tv-movie-pet-peeves/620674/160 "2012-05-09T22:13:57Z")
“Previously, on…” I understand if it’s the first episode of the season. I understand if you’re going to be touching on a plot point that you haven’t covered recently. But I have to wonder if they show these previouslies to people who have NEVER WATCHED THE SHOW and then asked them to write down what happened previously, and see if their understanding of what has gone before has any bearing on reality. ---
**Author:** ![Sister\_Vigilante](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Sister\_Vigilante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sister_Vigilante)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2012, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-tv-movie-pet-peeves/620674/161 "2012-05-10T01:10:14Z")
> [@Soylent\_Juicy](#): > > Are doctors really allowed to break into people’s homes and poke around? Because those guys on “House” do it all the time. > > Another pet peeve is when someone walks into a surgical room without a mask or gown or anything - that’s a freakin’ sterile environment!! Is that supposed to be true in the pre-op room where they gas you as well? Because they didn’t have masks when I went through it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-tv-movie-pet-peeves/620674.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-your-tv-movie-pet-peeves/620674.md?page=9)