# Plot Genres You Hate, Even In Your Favorite Shows **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 8, 2014, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-genres-you-hate-even-in-your-favorite-shows/680851 "2014-02-08T19:37:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-genres-you-hate-even-in-your-favorite-shows/680851/41 "2014-02-09T04:00:35Z")
> [@j666](#): > > _The Odd Couple_ did one in a stalled subways train, with a dog, rather than a human. I think _Saved by the Bell_ did it too. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-genres-you-hate-even-in-your-favorite-shows/680851/42 "2014-02-09T04:03:34Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > And the “transfer minds” schtick, where actors trade off playing roles. Buffy the Vampire Slayer did this so good that I was it was _only_ a two-parter. And seconding The X-Files for the best Rashomon homage ever. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-genres-you-hate-even-in-your-favorite-shows/680851/43 "2014-02-09T04:44:47Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > Extra demerits if the something dangerous is defusing a bomb, and the bomb has a timer. And the bomb must have color-coded wires. Do you cut the red wire? Is that the hot one? What if they wired it the other way on purpose and the blue wire is the one to cut? Red or blue? Which to cut? We are out of time, dammit! As the timer ticks down to 1 second and they guess right. For once I’d like to see them open up a bomb and find that every wire, every fucking wire, is the same color. Do I cut the black wire or the other black wire? ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-genres-you-hate-even-in-your-favorite-shows/680851/44 "2014-02-09T04:49:29Z")
I hate it when a perfectly good drama, usually police or spy or something, brings in someone’s parent (who’s visiting from far away) just to embarrass them or to make them feel bad; also, like the lame younger sister, they get in the way of their offspring’s work and don’t seem to understand that the offspring isn’t at their beck and call. Happened in New Tricks (British cop show); happened in NCIS with Tony’s father, although he was actually involved in the work somehow. Roddy ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-genres-you-hate-even-in-your-favorite-shows/680851/45 "2014-02-09T05:02:45Z")
> [@Dallas\_Jones](#): > > For once I’d like to see them open up a bomb and find that every wire, every fucking wire, is the same color. Do I cut the black wire or the other black wire? That’s been done but for the life of me I can’t remember an example. MacGruber plays with colored wires a bit (probably the SNL skits are better, not the crappy movie). Another one that’s overdone: Main character commits to two events. At once! And he can’t let either party know. Hijinks ensue as he must excuse himself to go to the bathroom, change to nicer/more casual clothes to spend 5 minutes at the other place. It all comes to a head when he returns to dinner with his fiancée and forgot to take off the gimp suit! Uh-oh! Join us next week. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-genres-you-hate-even-in-your-favorite-shows/680851/46 "2014-02-09T05:39:37Z")
A serial killer creates a fiendish series of riddles for detectives to follow. Enough already! ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-genres-you-hate-even-in-your-favorite-shows/680851/47 "2014-02-09T05:46:08Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > That’s been done but for the life of me I can’t remember an example. _The Abyss_ sort of did it - when the main character is at the bottom of the trench, defusing the nuke, he’s told to cut the green wire, not the yellow wire. Cut to his POV, and under the yellow chemical light he’s using to see at that depth, both wires look identical. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-genres-you-hate-even-in-your-favorite-shows/680851/48 "2014-02-09T05:53:52Z")
> [@nevadaexile](#): > > I know the origins of the film. > Thanks. > However, it is being exceptionally charitable to state that both **The Greatest Gift** and **It’s a Wonderful Life** can’t be traced very closely back to Dickens. A magical being appears and shows a person how his life is supposed to be? Well, no, because in IAWL the magical being essentially tells the protagonist that his life is _already_ how it’s supposed to be. A quibble perhaps, but I consider the distinction to be significant. I’d watch it again, although I don’t care for some of the cliched situations seen throughout the film, e.g. “bad” Bedford Falls/Potterville actually has a nightlife and Meade Lux Lewis tickles the ivories in the corner tavern. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-genres-you-hate-even-in-your-favorite-shows/680851/49 "2014-02-09T06:17:30Z")
My pet peeve is the episode that every show seems to have where it turns out at the last minute that ghosts/miracles/psychic powers must have been real, because something written to be inexplicable inexplicably happens! I also hate what I call the Friendly Foil, and TV Tropes does not, such as Dawn on Buffy, at least one character on every episode of MacGyver, etc. The person on the hero’s side who causes and persists in exacerbating the problem. Lately, I’ve been putting up with a lot of this from the Jeeves and Wooster stories, but some of these friends of Wooster really need slapped silly but don’t in fact even get told off for the hot water they get Wooster in and expect him to put his ass on the line to get them out. And I have no patience for Angel on The Rockford Files. A few years ago on Le Dope, someone started a thread about ice fishing episodes, with the speculation that this had been a common assignment in writing classes in the preceding decade, so ended up a cliche in television. Put two people in a situation where there was nothing but their personalities to deal with. But I seem to recall also a long history of stuck-in-a-commercial-refrigerator episodes, stuck-elevator episodes, locked in basement episodes, etc. The clips episode has always been an eye roller, often combined with one of the above stuck-somewhere cliches, but I thought it was particularly unfortunate when the flash-back episode of Castle drew sharp attention to the fact that Nathan Filion has gained weight since the show started. He still looks good, but the juxtaposition doesn’t do him any favors. ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-genres-you-hate-even-in-your-favorite-shows/680851/50 "2014-02-09T06:20:23Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > Buffy the Vampire Slayer did this so good that I was it was _only_ a two-parter. > > And seconding The X-Files for the best Rashomon homage ever. Yeah, Buffy did that really well. I’ll disagree about the X-Files doing the Rashomon homage. The best was the TV series Boomtown, which I’m still furious about being cancelled. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-genres-you-hate-even-in-your-favorite-shows/680851/51 "2014-02-09T06:22:02Z")
> [@F.U.Shakespeare](#): > > In the 1970’s, it seemed that every sitcom had to do a mediocre [Rashoman](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashomon_effect) episode. That’s not how I remember it. ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-genres-you-hate-even-in-your-favorite-shows/680851/52 "2014-02-09T06:22:52Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > I hate it when a perfectly good drama, usually police or spy or something, brings in someone’s parent (who’s visiting from far away) just to embarrass them or to make them feel bad; also, like the lame younger sister, they get in the way of their offspring’s work and don’t seem to understand that the offspring isn’t at their beck and call. Happened in New Tricks (British cop show); happened in NCIS with Tony’s father, although he was actually involved in the work somehow. > Roddy The variation on that is the annoying kid, often a relative, who gets brought in, is a huge pain-in-the-ass, but somehow saves the day because they have some special insight. ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-genres-you-hate-even-in-your-favorite-shows/680851/53 "2014-02-09T06:27:28Z")
Apologies if it’s already been mentioned, but with a few exceptions, like Cracker, I hate the cliche of the brilliant alcoholic detective who somehow or other solves all the crimes that others can’t. I’ll exempt The Wire and this season’s True Detective because I think they deconstruct that trope. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-genres-you-hate-even-in-your-favorite-shows/680851/54 "2014-02-09T07:04:38Z")
Any Christmas episode with a supernatural element. The mysterious helpful person turns out to be Santa, or an angel, or they just fade away as magically as they arrived. I never would have thought My So-Called Life would do that, or Bernie Mac, but they both did. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-genres-you-hate-even-in-your-favorite-shows/680851/55 "2014-02-09T08:09:56Z")
OP here and I forgot to add one: Main characters being accidentally caught in a bank robbery and giving the police outside information until it is “discovered” they are a cop/detective whatever. ---
**Author:** ![Tread](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Tread](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tread)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-genres-you-hate-even-in-your-favorite-shows/680851/56 "2014-02-09T08:14:17Z")
Let’s not forget the room mates have a fight, so we will just divide the room in 1/2 with tape on the floors and walls ---
**Author:** ![It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/it_s_not_rocket_surgery/32/312_2.png) [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/It_s_Not_Rocket_Surgery)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-genres-you-hate-even-in-your-favorite-shows/680851/57 "2014-02-09T08:42:46Z")
By the way, these are all plot devices, not plot genres. I’ll add something stolen from Roger Ebert. If someone coughs, they are going to have a fatal disease. Also, although someone else probably posted it already - the scene where something horrible or shocking happens - only to have the show cut to the protagonist in bed, waking up from a bad dream. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-genres-you-hate-even-in-your-favorite-shows/680851/58 "2014-02-09T09:21:55Z")
My personal pet peeve is when a character is killed off, and later revealed to either have not died after all, or even worse, to have been brought back from the dead. Sometimes it gets played with in a way that works, but usually it just comes off as a bit of cheap emotional torque. This is obviously more likely to be the case when the dead character was particularly important in the context of the show. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-genres-you-hate-even-in-your-favorite-shows/680851/59 "2014-02-09T09:37:25Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > This is the one I came in to mention. Without even trying I can think of three “baby in the elevatior shows” _All in the Family_, _Benson_, and _Night Court_ did it. Any others? _Star Trek: The Next Generation_ did it, with Worf having to deliver the baby. Years later, on _Deep Space Nine_, when the same mother reveals that she is pregnant again, Worf hastily informs her that he’s planning to be on leave, far away, whenever the kid is due. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-genres-you-hate-even-in-your-favorite-shows/680851/60 "2014-02-09T10:04:17Z")
X-Files related: that Scully can watch a ghost float through walls, eat a man’s head, then it gets a notarized statement from a ghost notary that it is in fact a ghost, and then in the next episode she’s skeptical about bigfeets or whatever. > [@Raguleader](#): > > My personal pet peeve is when a character is killed off, and later revealed to either have not died after all, or even worse, to have been brought back from the dead. Sometimes it gets played with in a way that works, but usually it just comes off as a bit of cheap emotional torque. This is obviously more likely to be the case when the dead character was particularly important in the context of the show. Pretty much standard with Marvel/DC comics. I _think_ the term “retcon” was popularized with those. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-genres-you-hate-even-in-your-favorite-shows/680851.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-genres-you-hate-even-in-your-favorite-shows/680851.md?page=4)