# One thing that drives you nuts about some popular shows...ONE thing **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 14, 2005, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-thing-that-drives-you-nuts-about-some-popular-shows-one-thing/326177 "2005-10-14T04:19:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Jayn\_Newell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jayn\_Newell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jayn_Newell)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2005, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-thing-that-drives-you-nuts-about-some-popular-shows-one-thing/326177/21 "2005-10-14T21:01:14Z")
> [@Poysyn](#): > > Okay - one thing for me is women in “uniform” or scientific roles that have their hair flying all over. > > I HATE IT. for the love of all that’s holy can you pin it back before you examine the crime scene or before you head out on that battle simulation? > > Hair off your face does not look bad. Get over it, or hire actresses with better shaped skulls. This really bothers me in live-action shows (and a lot in movies) where you have a female fighter. Doesn’t matter what she’s doing, her hair never gets in her face. This really bugged me in Daredevil (I know, not a show, but anyways…). Elektra does a backflip in one scene, and her hair falls perfectly in place when she lands. Geesh, in real life she would either pull it back or lose the fight because she can’t see\*. Somehow it doesn’t bug me much in cartoons. \*This reminds me of a late episode of Dragonball Z where Gohan tells Videl she should cut her hair. Not because he thinks it would look better, but because it would be less of a liability when fighting. Although she at least ties it back when it’s long. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2005, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-thing-that-drives-you-nuts-about-some-popular-shows-one-thing/326177/22 "2005-10-14T21:07:23Z")
Shows like “CSI” or “Crossing Jordan” where the crime labs are almost completely dark except for spot-lighting here and there and some neon blue lighting in the background. They look more like a trendy martini bar than a lab. ---
**Author:** ![Odinoneeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/97f17d/32.png) [@Odinoneeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odinoneeye)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2005, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-thing-that-drives-you-nuts-about-some-popular-shows-one-thing/326177/23 "2005-10-14T21:19:52Z")
> [@Art Vandelay](#): > > Mind you, this wouldn’t bother me half as much if seemingly everyone connected with the show gushes about how daring & progressive it is. But daring & progressive pretty much amounts to making sly references to the fact that Grace owns a vibrator. Big whoopee. Don’t forget all the hilarious puns on “gay” and “homo” ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2005, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-thing-that-drives-you-nuts-about-some-popular-shows-one-thing/326177/24 "2005-10-14T21:29:47Z")
> [@Carnac the Magnificent!](#): > > The entire premise of “The Apprentice” is nuts. I’m in senior management. The Apprentice is about Nielsens, not executive competency. I can think of any number of associates who would blow away Trump’s vaunted field were the competition to involve real world issues. On his show, they wouldn’t fare so well. > > And, yes, I’m a regular viewer of The Apprentice. :rolleyes: Completely agreed. The whole Apprentice show is a farce. If anyone believes the lineup of contestants is a sampling of the best and brightest in America and that you need real intelligence to get on that show think again. What you need is to be overly dramatic, or have a temper, or over egotistical, or really obnoxious, or overly emotional. If they’d be a good person for the Real World and they have held a white collar job or a college degree, then they’re perfect for the show. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2005, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-thing-that-drives-you-nuts-about-some-popular-shows-one-thing/326177/25 "2005-10-14T22:02:30Z")
Not to continue to pick on the CSIish type shows, but it’s fascinating how all the female techs wear tight, low cut tops, ass hugging slacks and blouses unbuttoned well past any office standard I’ve ever seen. Beyond this it’s interesting how some of the younger male lab tech CSI’s often come to work with these 200 dolllar gelled and massively highlighted hair cuts. ---
**Author:** ![stargazer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb8c5e/32.png) [@stargazer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stargazer)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2005, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-thing-that-drives-you-nuts-about-some-popular-shows-one-thing/326177/26 "2005-10-15T00:10:09Z")
The lighting thing gets me, too – frequently totally unrealistic, but it usually amuses me more than bugs me. What I don’t like is along the lines of the “everyone’s hot” thing. Everyone is either hot and toned – women are size 0 or 2 – or completely obese and over-the-top fat. No one is average, or even just a little on the chubby side – a size 12 or 14, say. No, they’re either a stick figure or morbidly obese. ---
**Author:** ![Harborwolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Harborwolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harborwolf)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2005, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-thing-that-drives-you-nuts-about-some-popular-shows-one-thing/326177/27 "2005-10-15T00:25:48Z")
We’re talking about cop shows and noone has mentioned the mandatory gravelly voice for the male leads? It’s like every cop show features an Alec Baldwin impersonator now. Laugh tracks kill me. I hate the hell out of them. I stopped watching that 70s show simply because of the laugh track. ---
**Author:** ![dwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwyr/32/363_2.png) [@dwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwyr)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2005, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-thing-that-drives-you-nuts-about-some-popular-shows-one-thing/326177/28 "2005-10-15T00:59:54Z")
> [@marque elf](#): > > Unresolved plolines. I loved **Soap** but the husband was a murderer and, after the initial story arc, it was never mentioned again. Which husband? Chester? It was eventually revealed a brain tumor made him kill Burt’s son. When the tumor was surgically removed he was back to his normal, sleazy self, crime forgiven. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2005, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-thing-that-drives-you-nuts-about-some-popular-shows-one-thing/326177/29 "2005-10-15T01:54:17Z")
> [@waits](#): > > To get even more specific than the OP, I stopped watching _ **Malcolm in the Middle** _ a couple of years ago. Not because of the writing or the acting. It’s just that I noticed that every time they switch to a new scene there’s a SWOOSH noise. Once my brain latched onto that it was all I could friggin’ hear and it drove me nuts. No more _ **Malcolm** _ for me. I never noticed that, though I did notice the door-slam noise at the end of each act (which I thought was clever). ---
**Author:** ![kittenblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ba8739/32.png) [@kittenblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kittenblue)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2005, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-thing-that-drives-you-nuts-about-some-popular-shows-one-thing/326177/30 "2005-10-15T01:57:16Z")
Every lawyer show has female lawyers wearing low-cut tops and very short skirts and extremely high heels. I know several female lawyers, and not one of them would ever show up to work dressed like that. ---
**Author:** ![anyrose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/54ee81/32.png) [@anyrose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anyrose)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2005, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-thing-that-drives-you-nuts-about-some-popular-shows-one-thing/326177/31 "2005-10-15T02:08:38Z")
> [@Art Vandelay](#): > > I’ve always been reluctant to post this, for fear of being viewed as some militant P.C. haranguer. But here goes… > > **Will & Grace** : This year is, what?, eight years the show has been on the air and (to my recollection) they have never, ever mentioned AIDS. As far as I know, there was one passing reference to getting an HIV test, but it was quickly glossed over. A show centered around two gay guys who’ve both been sexually active since the 1980s, in NYC no less, and yet this doesn’t seem to touch their lives at all. > > Mind you, this wouldn’t bother me half as much if seemingly everyone connected with the show gushes about how daring & progressive it is. But daring & progressive pretty much amounts to making sly references to the fact that Grace owns a vibrator. Big whoopee. well, there _was_ that one episode about the first primetime gay kiss… ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2005, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-thing-that-drives-you-nuts-about-some-popular-shows-one-thing/326177/32 "2005-10-15T02:09:58Z")
A one hour show plot is 20 episodes long. ---
**Author:** ![anyrose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/54ee81/32.png) [@anyrose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anyrose)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2005, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-thing-that-drives-you-nuts-about-some-popular-shows-one-thing/326177/33 "2005-10-15T02:14:09Z")
ok - i’m on board with everything listed so far but i have one thing not yet mentioned female chefs with their hair loose and hanging down, instead of tied back, or up under their chef’s hat i first noticed it in the first season of Friends, and anytime a female character works as a cook/chef in a restaurant, their lovely hair is perfectly coiffed, instead of what it ought to look like after several hours in a professional kitchen ---
**Author:** ![anyrose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/54ee81/32.png) [@anyrose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anyrose)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2005, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-thing-that-drives-you-nuts-about-some-popular-shows-one-thing/326177/34 "2005-10-15T02:14:34Z")
ok - i’m on board with everything listed so far but i have one thing not yet mentioned female chefs with their hair loose and hanging down, instead of tied back, or up under their chef’s hat i first noticed it in the first season of Friends, and anytime a female character works as a cook/chef in a restaurant, their lovely hair is perfectly coiffed, instead of what it ought to look like after several hours in a professional kitchen. It’s in clear violation of the simplest of health codes! ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2005, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-thing-that-drives-you-nuts-about-some-popular-shows-one-thing/326177/35 "2005-10-15T02:22:57Z")
I wouldn’t exactly say it drives me nuts but I was just thinking the other day how often TV and movies will show a character smoking early in the show, to establish the person’s persona but then they never show them smoking or talking about smoking again. No matter how stressful the situation, they never reach for the smokes after the opening sequences. One example that comes to mind is “The Upside Of Anger” in which Joan Allen is smoking and drinking in her darkened living room as she depresses over her husband’s departure but then never smokes again despite other emotional upheavals. ---
**Author:** ![jacksprat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/77aa72/32.png) [@jacksprat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jacksprat)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2005, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-thing-that-drives-you-nuts-about-some-popular-shows-one-thing/326177/36 "2005-10-15T02:35:17Z")
That series of micro-jump zooms in every other shot of the legal show with Shatner. Horribly distracting, with no apparent relation to the narrative. ---
**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2005, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-thing-that-drives-you-nuts-about-some-popular-shows-one-thing/326177/37 "2005-10-15T05:17:49Z")
okay, someone has to say it… “reality” television, it drives me nuts that it _still exists_, kill it, put it out of it’s misery, it deserves to die okay, now that that’s out of the way, my _real_ gripe… the new Battlestar Galactica can’t seem to make up it’s mind about the “sound in space” issue, in the Mini and the first couple of eps, space was (thankfully) mostly silent, save what the pilots might hear inside the cockpits (heh heh heh, he said “cockpit” 😉 ), but later on in the series, there seems to be a higher prevalance of sound in space, make up your mind, either stay reasonably scientifically accurate and keep with the no sound/audible in cockpit only sound, or go fully Hollywood and use all the whizzes, bangs, zaps, and explosions that the average viewer has come to expect from the likes of Trek/Wars/Etc… i’m voting for the “no sound in space” option ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2005, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-thing-that-drives-you-nuts-about-some-popular-shows-one-thing/326177/38 "2005-10-15T12:45:13Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > Shows like “CSI” or “Crossing Jordan” where the crime labs are almost completely dark except for spot-lighting here and there and some neon blue lighting in the background. They look more like a trendy martini bar than a lab. Heh Heh… My wife gives me _that look_ everytime I yell, “Turn on some lights. You’re examining evidence! Turn on some lights!” I keep thinking they’d solve the case in fifteen minutes if they’d just turn on some lights. ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2005, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-thing-that-drives-you-nuts-about-some-popular-shows-one-thing/326177/39 "2005-10-15T15:18:11Z")
Instant trials in legal shows. I know it’s to move plots along, but it normally takes months to get a trial, even for something relatively inconsequential. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2005, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-thing-that-drives-you-nuts-about-some-popular-shows-one-thing/326177/40 "2005-10-15T15:41:02Z")
Physical comedy without bruising. Even Lucy was guilty of this. IRL, the Nanny would be a mass of bruises. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-thing-that-drives-you-nuts-about-some-popular-shows-one-thing/326177.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-thing-that-drives-you-nuts-about-some-popular-shows-one-thing/326177.md?page=3)