# 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:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2005, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-thing-that-drives-you-nuts-about-some-popular-shows-one-thing/326177/41 "2005-10-15T16:31:19Z")
> [@anyrose](#): > > 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! I haven’t seen ffriends. However, I **have** seen [Chef](http://www.jumptheshark.com/c/chef.htm) (PBS, Sat. Night 11:30, sometimes) and I can’t say I remember having seen any examples of this. ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2005, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-thing-that-drives-you-nuts-about-some-popular-shows-one-thing/326177/42 "2005-10-15T18:20:30Z")
> [@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. And not just in the lab. I like _CSI_, but I hate when they’re at a crime scene and just walk around looking for evidence with their little Mini-Maglights. Turn on some damn lights and you might find something! ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2005, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-thing-that-drives-you-nuts-about-some-popular-shows-one-thing/326177/43 "2005-10-15T18:25:40Z")
> [@dwyr](#): > > 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. I think one of the first (if not the first) conflict of the show was that Bert had killed Mary’s previous husband, and she didn’t know. I don’t recall the circustances or how (or if) it got resolved. ---
**Author:** ![FilmGeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@FilmGeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FilmGeek)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2005, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-thing-that-drives-you-nuts-about-some-popular-shows-one-thing/326177/44 "2005-10-15T18:36:21Z")
Any sitcom, but most especially Everybody Loves Raymond and certain awful episodes of Friends in which a simple two or three word explanation would make the whole episode moot. It’s hard to explain, but character A does something wrong, but won’t tell character B, because it might be embarassing, followed by 20 minutes of stupid shit with more and more lies to cover up the first one, where if A had been honest in the first place we could have had a much better episode. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2005, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-thing-that-drives-you-nuts-about-some-popular-shows-one-thing/326177/45 "2005-10-15T18:44:06Z")
> [@BiblioCat](#): > > And not just in the lab. I like _CSI_, but I hate when they’re at a crime scene and just walk around looking for evidence with their little Mini-Maglights. Turn on some damn lights and you might find something! Yeah. Same thing when people stumble around looking for someone in a dark room or a basement. Look. There’s gonna be a light switch near the door. Just turn on the damn lights. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2005, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-thing-that-drives-you-nuts-about-some-popular-shows-one-thing/326177/46 "2005-10-15T19:37:30Z")
Here’s a plot I dislike: Our intrepid protagonist, usually single, stumbles across an orphaned child. She or he takes the kid into their home, and they get along really really well. The child brightens their world and makes them think about parenting for the first time. He or she wants to keep the child, because it seems like it was fate that made them rescue the kid. Then they don’t end up keeping the kid for some contrived reason, which makes them sad. Monk, The Dead Zone and Medical Investigation all used this plot within a couple months’ span. Why can’t they ever keep the kid?! That’d spice things up a little, going against convention. When’s the last time someone got to keep the orphan they found - the pilot of Punky Brewster? ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2005, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-thing-that-drives-you-nuts-about-some-popular-shows-one-thing/326177/47 "2005-10-15T20:25:26Z")
The one thing that bugs me about many popular shows is that **nobody** sits around watching 7 hours of TV a day watching popular shows. These lovely people have all the time in the world to have cute made-for-TV adventures because they aren’t sitting on their asses at home like their viewers are. There are some exceptions: Archie Bunker and Al Bundy come to mind. The fact that TV-watchers are a minority of TV characters says volumes to me, though. ---
**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2005, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-thing-that-drives-you-nuts-about-some-popular-shows-one-thing/326177/48 "2005-10-15T22:34:33Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > When’s the last time someone got to keep the orphan they found - the pilot of Punky Brewster? You make a fine point, but I do have a counterexample: The 4400. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Silence](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a4c791/32.png) [@The\_Great\_Silence](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Silence)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2005, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-thing-that-drives-you-nuts-about-some-popular-shows-one-thing/326177/49 "2005-10-16T02:38:57Z")
> [@anyrose](#): > > well, there _was_ that one episode about the first primetime gay kiss… **Roseanne** did it first. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2005, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-thing-that-drives-you-nuts-about-some-popular-shows-one-thing/326177/50 "2005-10-16T03:25:50Z")
> [@Fish](#): > > The fact that TV-watchers are a minority of TV characters says volumes to me, though. Hear, hear. > [@Fish](#): > > Archie Bunker and Al Bundy come to mind. FWIW, I just realized that Archie and Al have the same initials. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2005, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-thing-that-drives-you-nuts-about-some-popular-shows-one-thing/326177/51 "2005-10-16T06:30:47Z")
> [@Art](#): > > **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. Not to get into a big argument or anything, but why is it the responsibility of The Gay Show to mention AIDS? The cast of _Friends_ did more bed-hopping than either Will or Grace, and they were also sexually active in the same time frame in the same city. Did that show ever mention AIDS? > [@RevTim](#): > > I think one of the first (if not the first) conflict of the show was that Bert had killed Mary’s previous husband, and she didn’t know. I don’t recall the circustances or how (or if) it got resolved. It was resolved about a third of the way into the first season, and it turned out it was self-defense. As for my own example, the most irritating has to be that staple of Star Trek and other SF and medical shows, in which if the cure to the disease of the week isn’t found in exactly X hours, veryone instantly dies. But if the cure is found in X hours minus three minutes, everyone makes a full recovery. Because everyone reacts exactly the same way to disease. ---
**Author:** ![butter\_pie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aca169/32.png) [@butter\_pie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/butter_pie)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2005, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-thing-that-drives-you-nuts-about-some-popular-shows-one-thing/326177/52 "2005-10-16T07:04:17Z")
Another vote for “everyone is hot” men/women and perfect hair, expensive clothes. Also goes for people whose TV-homes are way too expensive, nice, or large for what the characters supposedly do for a living. Both have about ruined television and movies for me. Watch an old show on TVland or an older movie and there are tons of actors that look like anybody you’d meet on the sidewalk. Now everyone is either very attractive, or a character actor (token fat person, token bald guy, token comic relief). I understand why they want an attractive lead, but I have trouble suspending my disbelief because the “reality” in TV shows and movies looks so different from real life. I find myself focusing on how fake and impractical everything looks. Even characters you can tell are supposed to be ugly or gritty are attractive. And no one ever gets dirty. Dramas are extra-bad about that. Then there are shows where no one ever needs to sleep/use the washroom/etc. _24_, I am looking at you. The Simpsons. The show has been on so long and is so pervasive that it’s almost impossible to go through a day without having someone say, “This reminds me of the Simpsons episode where…” ---
**Author:** ![stanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ba0ec/32.png) [@stanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stanger)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2005, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-thing-that-drives-you-nuts-about-some-popular-shows-one-thing/326177/53 "2005-10-16T17:33:43Z")
I am annoyed by TV shows that have an almost constant bass note hum or drum beat in the background. Sometimes it is difficult to tell what the charactors are saying because of the noise. I understand music in the background of some scenes, but it seems like every show trys to heighten the suspense or tenseness of the scene by having a bass note hum in the background. One of the worst shows for this type of thing is “NCIS”. During any sequence that is even mildly suspenseful (or the directors want you to think it is), there is a low bass hum in the background. Sometimes it is so great that the pictures on my walls start to buzz along with it. During a lot of the rest of the show there is a steady drumbeat in the background. Why is there a drum beating while they are talking in the office or examining a crime scene? I’m tires of all the noise in the background that has nothing to do with what is on the screen and makes it so damn hard to tell what the charactors are talking about. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2005, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-thing-that-drives-you-nuts-about-some-popular-shows-one-thing/326177/54 "2005-10-16T19:08:38Z")
1. I like the format, they seem to miss a couple things that would make it more realistic. 1.)In the first season, the first episode, everyone is called in from home in the middle of the night. So our last line of defense againest terrorism mostly shuts down at 6 pm when everyone goes home for the day? 2.) Only rarely do you see anything drinking coffee or highly cafinated soda. Just a few coffee cups or cans of moutain dew sitting around the would be more then enough to get this across. 3.)In the 2nd season, as the day ends, somebody says “The next shift is here”. Great. Where were they before? You know, with a national emergency and all these poor computer techs sittting there for 24 hours straight. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2005, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-thing-that-drives-you-nuts-about-some-popular-shows-one-thing/326177/55 "2005-10-16T19:09:54Z")
Damn, I fraked that post up badly. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-thing-that-drives-you-nuts-about-some-popular-shows-one-thing/326177.md?page=2)