Things that bug you that are standard in film/TV

Cafe Society
1

I’m not sure how to categorize this, but there are little things that bug the hell out of me in movies/TV/commercials that are so commonplace as to almost be standard.

glass bottles - X2 is latest film to show people in the U.S. drinking soda pop, Dr. Pepper in this case, out of the glass bottles that were common in yesteryear. This is commonly seen in commercials and ads, but nobody does so in real life because glass bottles aren’t even available for most sodas!

Big houses - people in TV shows and commercials especially who are played off as average usually have big houses with big rooms, very nice furniture. The guy will be something like a truck driver and there’s no way he could afford his TV-house in real life as a truck driver.

Suburbia - it doesn’t exist At least you’d never know it from TV or movies. Nobody on film lives in a suburb that was developed in the last 30-40 years, with its sprawl, strip malls, sea of parking lots and generally pedestrian-impossible design – you know, where most middle-class Americans really live. They all instead live in the city or in Norman Rockwell land.

lighting - In the last ten years or so, the concept of naturalistic lighting has basically been thrown out the window. Nightime scenes are amazingly well lighted with just-off-camera electrical sources - even if it’s the Middle Ages. For instance, the mines of Moria in FOTR. Drives me nuts!
So what else bugs you?

2

Elementary school kids with lockers. Until the seventh grade, I never had a locker. Everyone spent the entire day in one room. Waukegan may not have been typical (it is a bleak, working-class suburb), but I cannot be the only person to have spent his elementary school days in one classroom. Yet television, without exception, depicts elementary school kids going from classroom to classroom.

3

Headbutting. Can’t stand it, never will. People who use their heads to hit other heads deserve all the headaches and seizures they get. :rolleyes:

4

Glass bottles are available in some markets. In East Texas, for example, I’ve found glass bottles of Dr Pepper at several gas stations; Big Red and some sort of orange beverage were also available, and the price was not more than the plastic bottles IIRC. The glass looks better on film, anyway.

I am annoyed by the fact that on film, high schoolers have approximately 20 minutes between classes in which to wander the halls and further the plot.

5

No one EVER says goodbye on the phone. They just hang up. This always makes those lists of TV and movie things (like the L shaped sheets) but it just bugs me. I don’t know anyone but my brother (who’s an ass) who doesn’t say some version of good-bye at the end of a phone call.

6

Every kid’s school apperantly starts at like 2 in the afternoon, because they always leave in broad daylight and have time for a large breakfast and to chat with their parents, who are not only up, but already dressed.

Of course, I guess the can afford to have shorter days, because once they get there, all they generally do is walk around the hallways and swoon over the Star Quarterback or Head Cheerleader, since there’s no actual class.

7

You beat me to it :wink:

Another one that bugs me is when the hero runs from a burning building and flings himself onto a conveniently placed pile dirt/hay at the exact moment that the building explodes leaving the character with no scars, bruises or cuts… just a bit dirty…

8

People just lounging around at home are always way overdressed. This usually includes wearing shoes in the house. Who does that?

On the rare occasions when some guy is shown, say, sitting around in his undershirt, unshaven, barefoot, etc., it’s only because he is supposed to be a slob/lazy bum/wife-beater, etc. On the other hand, when a woman is shown in a state of casual, semi-undress, she will be depicted as a walking Victoria’s Secret ad.

9

Don’t forget those “special” episodes where the unshaven, barefoot, undershirt-wearing guy is that way because he is despondent because he has lost his job or his woman has broken up with him. But he will, of course, snap back by the end of the show.

10

Even in movies set in places like Chicago, New York, Detroit, etc., it only ever snows on Christmas Eve – or if the plot requires it.

One that’s often mentioned here: the software used in movie/tv computers looks and behaves exactly unlike the real software countless millions use every day.

Teachers are invariably saints or morons, never something in between.

No one owns a car more than two years old, unless they live in utter poverty.

Every town in the world looks suspiciously like LA, Toronto, or Vancouver.

The prevailing legal system is from some alternate dimension where ignoring procedure, backtalking the judge, and failing to disclose evidence are all smart legal tactics.

Everyone on Earth is either so attractive they could be, well, movie stars, or so odd-looking they could get a job in a sideshow.

Digression: I’m not sure why the OP thinks that naturalistic lighting has only been tossed out in the last ten years. For both technical and artistic reasons, film has never used realistic lighting, particularly in night/dark scenes. (Which is often a good thing. Would the Mines of Moria been very impressive if Gandalf had said, “Behold, the majestic columns of the Mines of Moria! You can’t see them, of course–there’s no way my puny wand could light something more than a few yards away in this total darkness. But trust me, they’re out there. Somewhere.”)

11

When somebody needs to lose weight, all they have to do is run for a couple of days on one of those treadmill machines – in a complete sweatsuit – and they are suddenly not only slim and sexy, but their hair and skin looks great, too.

The phone never rings in the middle of a point someone’s trying to make – only when they just finished.

12

Bells in college classes…In college, classes end at different times, so their end is not marked by a bell ringing throughout the whole college.
It also seems that in college, the bell rings just at the time the professor is about to get to the point…

13

This one has always been a big peeve of mine. I haven’t seen it in several years, but, Friends was notorious for this one, especially Rachel. If I’m just hanging out watching TV with my friends, they’re lucky if I’m wearing makeup.
The one that bugs me is that everyone’s house is always perfectly clean. Even if they work all day. Even if they have small children or pets. No matter what. The only time a house gets dirty is, sometimes, after a big party and even then the magical self-cleaning house is spotless the next morning.

14

Nobody ever waits for their change when buying something.

Anytime they show the moon when it’s full IT’S THIS DAMN BIG IN THE SKY! Also, more often than not, when it’s a non-full moon it’s lighted face is oriented the wrong direction (something more astonomical types are likely to observe). Lastly, the moon is either full or crescent, never somewhere in between. Rarely do we see the moon at it’s first/third quarters or as a gibbous.

Any product whose sponsor paid for its placement will always conveniently have the label directly facing the camera.

Whenever kids are playing a home video game the sound effects will usually be those from the Atari 2600 version of Pac-Man.

15

Some important news item will be on the radio or TV. Cast members stand around listening intently. Without fail, someone will go over and turn off the TV/radio immediatley after the newscaster finishes the sentence with the all-important plot detail.

Of course, I realize the show can’t continue with a TV blazing in the background, but this is just too contrary to reality. We all know the news story would continue with further details, and possibly even analysis. Anyone remotely interested would keep the TV on, even if just for background!

Whenever this happens, I want to yell at them–“Keep listening! They’re gonna tell you important stuff!”

16

Nobody on TV or in movies ever eats at McDonald’s or Carl’s Jr. or Taco Bell or whatever. It’s always “Happy Burger” or “Clowny McClownerson’s” or “Big Beefer’s” or the like.

17

I think that’s because they don’t want to pay for licensing. Or look like they’re doing huge product placement. Actually, product placement is a pet peeve of mine.

Absurd conveniences like the one divemaster mentions. When a girl screams, the hero always knows it’s the girl he loves - and he’s always within earshot. And it always happens just as he’s thinking about it.

Recognition/eye contact turns into precognition somehow.

It annoys me a lot when you have a long-running show and nothing ever changes. Makes you wonder “why am I watching this if next week, it’ll be like this didn’t happen?”

18

Several of mine have to do with the bedroom:

People wake up in the morning with their pajamas neat and the sheets neat. (My sheets are usually look like a linen cresent roll.)

If the characters are played by actors who has a nice body, in which case they’re nude- if it’s a man and woman in bed together, he has the sheet to just under his navel and she has hers to just over her nipples, but evidently people with Ed Asner and Penny Marshall bodies don’t sleep in the nude). They wake up with their hair just slightly tassled if that, and apparently never ever have morning breath. (When I wake up the last thing on earth I’d do to somebody I love is kiss them with an open mouth and until I’ve had my second cup of coffee I look like Ozzie Osbourne.)

When somebody turns off the light to go to bed, there’s enough ambient light to see every detail in the room. Related to this, a single solitary candle can give off enough light to perform surgery by.

You rarely see the same outfit twice. (Exceptions: Edith and Archie Bunker often wore the same clothes for several seasons, and Tyne Daly on Cagney & Lacey wore the same outfit several times.)

Money problems never last more than a few episodes.

Somehow working class family’s scrimp enough to pay $90,000 for a Halloween or Christmas party.

Family’s on TV actually garnish their dinner with parsley or a bed of lettuce; I’ve seen that on several shows.

All old relatives want to talk about is their sex life, and don’t you know that anytime an old person sexually harasses a younger person it’s funny.

Gay men are all suave, sophisticated, neat, muscular, and nurturing guys that you wouldn’t know were gay if it weren’t for the “you go girl” quips.

Regardless of whether the show is set in Cleveland, Pasadena, or Butte, all dumbasses have southern accents and all southerners are dumbasses who’ve never heard of computers.

All kitchens are the size of supermarkets.

Furniture is always new and perfectly matched.

No house is cluttered.

Of course The Cosby Show has to have set some kind of record. In the first place, he’s an obstetrician and she’s an attorney, yet the family’s considered middle class. In the second place, both have plenty of time to take the kids to burlesque shows or cook barbecue for B.B. King. Claire manages to mother 5 kids, bill 60 hours a week as a lawyer, and still come home to cook supper, while Cliff never gets called away from home during non-office hourse unless there’s a special guest star.

SOAP OPERAS are too easy, but something that’s always irritated me about them in addition to the “just how many people in one small town can be presumed dead for two years then come back with a different face?” and the 2-4-6-18 way the kids age, is that people constantly go to parties attended by their archenemies. If the guy who poisoned your wife and seduced your daughter and ruined your father’s business and kept you prison on a tropic island for seven years was going to be at the opening of the new art gallery or whatever, don’t you think you’d avoid it on principal?

19

Using O Fortuna in every trailer ever since Excalibur decided to use it. Its such a good song to waste, then again I wouldnt be able to ID the bad movies.

20

And they play them by punching buttons furiously and moving the controllers back and forth.