# Television Show Complaints **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 1, 2010, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-show-complaints/559066 "2010-11-01T07:11:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**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:** [November 1, 2010, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-show-complaints/559066/21 "2010-11-01T17:20:56Z")
> [@Kal](#): > > No matter how passionate the prior evening was, a TV couple will wake up clothed to some degree. > > Can’t decide if that means they bonked in their underwear or got dressed afterwards. If they do wake up naked, they will either put their clothes on while under the covers, or make a sheet toga to wear while putting on their clothes. Yes, Charlie Harper, I’m talking about you. How come you weren’t earing a sheet toga when trashing the Plaza hotel room? ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2010, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-show-complaints/559066/22 "2010-11-01T17:34:35Z")
> [@BobArrgh](#): > > I know, I know … everything in this posting make for bad television. However, this just isn’t the way computers or software work in the real world. I like how they always say “Yeah, the suspect ran a website for talking about little girls…”, hit a button and the website just springs up, fully loaded with sound, animation and whatever. I’d like to see them hit a button, wait, get a time out error, hit F5 a dozen times and then finally see the site come into view. Ok, not really but computers on TV are funny 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2010, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-show-complaints/559066/23 "2010-11-01T17:58:41Z")
> [@PoorYorick](#): > > This was amusingly subverted in [The Brothers Bloom](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0844286/). While Rachel Weisz’s character is hiding from the bad guys by crawling through the air ducts, you see the bad guys standing underneath the same air ducts, following the clangs and booms she is making. And of course she comes crashing down. But even then she was able to get inside an air duct and crawl around in it until it became amusing for her to fall out of it. If I were writing an action thriller, I’d have a scene were the heroes are trapped inside a locked room. They notice an air vent up above. They improvise some kind of ladder and climb up and then improvise some kind of tool to unscrew and remove the vent … to find a typical air duct that’s about six inches wide. The wiseguy hero then turns to the straightman hero and says “You first.” ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2010, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-show-complaints/559066/24 "2010-11-01T18:00:40Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > If they do wake up naked, they will either put their clothes on while under the covers, or make a sheet toga to wear while putting on their clothes. Yes, Charlie Harper, I’m talking about you. How come you weren’t earing a sheet toga when trashing the Plaza hotel room? And presumedly it’ll be one of those L-shaped sheets that are so popular in movies and TV shows - the kind that only come up to the man’s waist but go all the way up to the woman’s shoulders. ---
**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:** [November 1, 2010, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-show-complaints/559066/25 "2010-11-01T18:03:21Z")
> [@Baracus](#): > > Man the databases the FBI must have. My wife is a big _Criminal Minds_ fan and I always get a big laugh from all the info Garcia is able to pull off. > > “OK, Garcia, we have narrowed the profile down to males, age 40-45, who live within 5 miles of the victims, who have ever worked at a Burger King, and get Chinese takeout at least twice a month.” > > Two second later. “I have got five names for you” > > “Also, based on evidence left at the scene, we believe he smokes Marlboros” > > One second later. “Got him!” It can’t be that tough. Abby from NCIS does the same thing. And Angela on Bones has them both beat. She’s a Fine Arts major who can run a facial reconstruction program and then find out who the real person is. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2010, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-show-complaints/559066/26 "2010-11-01T18:11:45Z")
> [@NJ\_Kef](#): > > Computer magic is like TV magic. When you turn on a TV set, the news event you need to see is airing at that very moment. > > As for magic search engines. I like how the nerdy sidekick can access in a matter of seconds the blueprints for top secret government buildings, with the labyrinthine, but ever so handy, air ducts mapped out. Over the weekend, I saw the DVD of _The Girl Who Played with Fire_, the second film in the Millennium Trilogy. The title character is supposed to be a super-hacker, so in a couple of scenes we see her typing commands like (assume that John Doe is the target of her spying): Locate\_computer\_John\_Doe Control\_computer\_John\_Doe Download\_Files\_John\_Doe And just like that she’s reading every file on John Doe’s computer. I understand that the hacking was compressed for film reasons, but it was hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2010, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-show-complaints/559066/27 "2010-11-01T18:45:39Z")
It’s the underscores that do it. You have to be an expert to know about them. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2010, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-show-complaints/559066/28 "2010-11-01T18:55:57Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > I know there have been several variations of generic complaints about TV shows, but just felt the need to add another. > > - I am so tired of almost ever drama/mystery series that has a “name” guest star being the murderer/bad guy. I realize these are “juicy” roles for the actors, but it ruins the show when you know 95% of the time that “name” actor is the villain, simply because they are the “name” actor guest star! I will concede that this one is sometimes valid, but in fact it depends on the nature of the show–hell, the individual episode. I just saw a snippet of an old MONK, for instance, in which Steven Weber was guest-starring. He was the murderer, which was made clear in the teaser, but that was no big deal for this show, as the cases were just the framework for Monk’s crazy. Monk was about the comic journey, not the resolution. > [@](#): > > - Lazy writers who want to speed the plot and thus the detective/cop will walk into a room and find the key evidence in less than 2 seconds - hell, I can’t even find my car keys in my own house in less than 3 minutes, let alone find a 24 year old Polaroid photo of the murder victim hugging the suspect that is tucked away in one of 38 photo albums in the attic, hidden under the floorboards beneath a 500 pound antique chest of drawers. Now this one is silly. The episodes are only going to be an hour long – really more like 45 minutes with commercials. There’s no time to show all the stuff that would happen in “reality,” or even all the stuff that the characters surely do. We only see the payoff. On NCIS, the characters are based in Washington DC but frequently have occasion to drive to Norfolk for crime scenes. That’s a good long drive, and it’s always implicit that the next time we see them in the office, it’s probably the next morning. You don’t really want them to show the drive, do you? Or to show the long tedious process of Abby working alone in her lab, talking to her instruments because she’s all by herself for hours at a stretch each day? > [@](#): > > - has there ever, in the history of television, been a pool scene without 100% perfect bodies (male and female) in skimpy bathing suits walking by in the background? I mean, seriously - have you ever been to a pool without a single fat bald guy or chubby woman wearing a bizarre swimming cap? Let me know where that pool is - and hey, I live in Vegas but still… No one wants to see fat guys in speedos. Not even straight girls. I just checked with every straight girl in Collierville and the answer was unanimous. TV shows are not supposed to replicate reality. They’re supposed to be amusing. If you want reality, you can always go outside. > [@](#): > > - jumping from one roof top building to the next, the distance of an alleyway…sure, that happens all the time. Who amongst us cannot long jump 50 feet, 40 stories high? What show featuring non-superhero characters does this? ---
**Author:** ![Tanbarkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a698b9/32.png) [@Tanbarkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tanbarkie)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2010, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-show-complaints/559066/29 "2010-11-01T18:57:47Z")
> [@Bosstone](#): > > It’s the underscores that do it. You have to be an expert to know about them. n00bs think that holding shift just makes the dash mark bigger. ---
**Author:** ![Casey1505](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dc4da7/32.png) [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2010, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-show-complaints/559066/30 "2010-11-01T19:37:01Z")
No we don’t. We know that holding the shift key increases the screen resolution of photographs on the computer to levels never before seen, meaning that that license plate photograph taken at night, in the rain, from 3 blocks away can be zoomed in on so much you can SEE the fingerprints on it. ---
**Author:** ![kath94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/67e7ee/32.png) [@kath94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kath94)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2010, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-show-complaints/559066/31 "2010-11-01T19:49:35Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > I know there have been several variations of generic complaints about TV shows, but just felt the need to add another. > > \ > > - Lazy writers who want to speed the plot and thus the detective/cop will walk into a room and find the key evidence in less than 2 seconds - hell, I can’t even find my car keys in my own house in less than 3 minutes, let alone find a 24 year old Polaroid photo of the murder victim hugging the suspect that is tucked away in one of 38 photo albums in the attic, hidden under the floorboards beneath a 500 pound antique chest of drawers. > > \ My husband HATES police procedurals because the crime is ALWAYS solved within an hour. Too predictable, says he. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2010, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-show-complaints/559066/32 "2010-11-01T20:01:11Z")
\*\*DMark \*\* said: > [@](#): > > - I am so tired of almost ever drama/mystery series that has a “name” guest star being the murderer/bad guy. I realize these are “juicy” roles for the actors, but it ruins the show when you know 95% of the time that “name” actor is the villain, simply because they are the “name” actor guest star! Yeah, some shows make it work, because the mystery isn’t who did it, but how and why. But 90% of the shows, they want you to wonder at the who, but it’s pretty easy to eyeball the biggest name guest star or most recognizable one of 3 and you’ll be correct. > [@](#): > > - Lazy writers who want to speed the plot and thus the detective/cop will walk into a room and find the key evidence in less than 2 seconds A lot of time there is shorthand - the lead detective walks up, and someone who has been there starts explaining what they know, and then someone else points out detail X they just found. The suggestion is they’ve been looking for a while. > [@](#): > > - jumping from one roof top building to the next, the distance of an alleyway…sure, that happens all the time. Who amongst us cannot long jump 50 feet, 40 stories high? The biggest jumps are usually ~20 ft and drop a floor. But some of them do look fairly far for the average person to leap. Not all alleyways are the same. Some places the gaps between buildings aren’t so much alleyways and just spaces between walls, or footpaths. **Annie-Xmas** said: > [@](#): > > If they do wake up naked, they will either put their clothes on while under the covers, or make a sheet toga to wear while putting on their clothes. Yes, Charlie Harper, I’m talking about you. How come you weren’t earing a sheet toga when trashing the Plaza hotel room? Recently watching a show (IIRC Undercovers), lady lying on top of her husband, with her back exposed, but butt covered. She rolls sideways off of him, to have him exposed to his waist but she has the cover over her chest. That’s right, she had a layer of sheet between them. **Skald the Rhymer** said > [@](#): > > Or to show the long tedious process of Abby working alone in her lab, talking to her instruments because she’s all by herself for hours at a stretch each day? I don’t know, the all Abby show might make an interesting spin off. With or without sound. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2010, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-show-complaints/559066/33 "2010-11-01T20:22:07Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > **Skald the Rhymer** said > I don’t know, the all Abby show might make an interesting spin off. With or without sound. 😃 I dunno. I like Abby, and watching her interact with Gibbs, McGee, Ducky, and occasionally Vance is a big attraction of the show for me. But by herself she just seems … nuts. ---
**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:** [November 1, 2010, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-show-complaints/559066/34 "2010-11-01T20:43:44Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > - Lazy writers who want to speed the plot and thus the detective/cop will walk into a room and find the key evidence in less than 2 seconds… Worse is when the crime scene is a public place, where who knows how much random crap may have been lying around for who knows how long – but that broken barrette under the subway platform, that’s the _only thing_ the investigator picks up, is obviously the key to solving the crime. It’s also lazy writing when the off-duty main-character cops just _happen_ to be attending a high school football game when a gang killing happens right on the field, or just _happen_ to be at a surfing contest talking to one of the participants right before he gets shot to death. These were two of the three episodes of the new _Hawaii Five-O_ I have seen. ---
**Author:** ![conway](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ec9cab/32.png) [@conway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/conway)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2010, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-show-complaints/559066/35 "2010-11-02T20:12:27Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Over the weekend, I saw the DVD of _The Girl Who Played with Fire_, the second film in the Millennium Trilogy. The title character is supposed to be a super-hacker, so in a couple of scenes we see her typing commands like (assume that John Doe is the target of her spying): > > Locate\_computer\_John\_Doe > Control\_computer\_John\_Doe > Download\_Files\_John\_Doe > > And just like that she’s reading every file on John Doe’s computer. I understand that the hacking was compressed for film reasons, but it was hilarious. As I recall, the premise is that she already had installed some sort of virus on John Doe’s computer or whatever to allow her to access it. Maybe I’m thinking of a different scene… ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2010, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-show-complaints/559066/36 "2010-11-02T20:50:01Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > - has there ever, in the history of television, been a pool scene without 100% perfect bodies (male and female) in skimpy bathing suits walking by in the background? I mean, seriously - have you ever been to a pool without a single fat bald guy or chubby woman wearing a bizarre swimming cap? Let me know where that pool is - and hey, I live in Vegas but still… Look, are you sure you really want any change here? Think carefully. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2010, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-show-complaints/559066/37 "2010-11-02T23:46:16Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > And presumedly it’ll be one of those L-shaped sheets that are so popular in movies and TV shows - the kind that only come up to the man’s waist but go all the way up to the woman’s shoulders. I guarantee you the perfectly normal square sheets that you likely use in your very own home are capable of that exact same thing. It’s a piece of cloth, not a rigid board. Just a little adjusting, and maybe a little tucking, is all that’s needed. Anyway… Is there anyone in the history of TV/Movies that hasn’t had an extremely easy to guess password? I mean, sure some people do that in real life too, but the evil computer genius that created a virus that will wipe out all computers on the eastern seaboard uses his kid’s name “mike” instead of “jFFgiHSSS32q”? ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2010, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-show-complaints/559066/38 "2010-11-02T23:49:46Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > I guarantee you the perfectly normal square sheets that you likely use in your very own home are capable of that exact same thing. It’s a piece of cloth, not a rigid board. Just a little adjusting, and maybe a little tucking, is all that’s needed. > Anyway… Is there anyone in the history of TV/Movies that hasn’t had an extremely easy to guess password? I mean, sure some people do that in real life too, but the evil computer genius that created a virus that will wipe out all computers on the eastern seaboard uses his kid’s name “mike” instead of “jFFgiHSSS32q”? The passwords on the various Treks seemed okay – except for the bit about havin to say them OUT LOUD. ---
**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:** [November 2, 2010, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-show-complaints/559066/39 "2010-11-02T23:58:19Z")
I’m always amazed when I watch “House” that none of his team has ever been arrested for breaking-and-entering when going to the patient-of-the-week’s house to figure out what made them sick. ---
**Author:** ![DonLogan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/51bf81/32.png) [@DonLogan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DonLogan)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2010, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-show-complaints/559066/40 "2010-11-02T23:59:09Z")
Clumsy exposition in the dialogue. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-show-complaints/559066.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-show-complaints/559066.md?page=3)