# What bad habits or compulsions do you have that lessen your enjoyment of TV/movies/books? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 25, 2012, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-bad-habits-or-compulsions-do-you-have-that-lessen-your-enjoyment-of-tv-movies-books/616785 "2012-03-25T20:24:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2012, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-bad-habits-or-compulsions-do-you-have-that-lessen-your-enjoyment-of-tv-movies-books/616785/41 "2012-03-28T15:32:46Z")
I’ll remember numbers/ratios/etc, and start running them through my head to see if they make any sense. “It took you 10 hours to drive from NYC to DC? Did whoever was writing this thing even bother to look at a map?” Stuff like that. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2012, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-bad-habits-or-compulsions-do-you-have-that-lessen-your-enjoyment-of-tv-movies-books/616785/42 "2012-03-28T15:53:12Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > My wife likes to gripe about women in TV/movies who wear makeup to bed, or while swimming, or while on a commando raid, etc. I don’t even notice it. Well, I always wear at \*least \*lipstick and eye shadow on commando raids, but that’s just the way I was raised. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2012, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-bad-habits-or-compulsions-do-you-have-that-lessen-your-enjoyment-of-tv-movies-books/616785/43 "2012-03-28T16:12:13Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > Well, I always wear at \*least \*lipstick and eye shadow on commando raids, but that’s just the way I was raised. The rationale is that enemy sentries will mistake lipsticked women soldiers for fetish prostitutes, and invite them right into the guard shack for a bit of “close quarters drill”. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2012, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-bad-habits-or-compulsions-do-you-have-that-lessen-your-enjoyment-of-tv-movies-books/616785/44 "2012-03-28T16:17:44Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > I have a hard time reading comic books sometimes because I stress out (in a very mild way) over whether I should look at the picture first or read the speech bubbles. I have a hard time figuring out the order to read the panels, and by consequence the speech bubbles. Every time I read Manga I get even more confused. I’m highly critical of how women are portrayed on screen. I don’t even know what I’m looking for, but I know it when I see it. I didn’t bother seeing the other two Spiderman movies because I couldn’t stand the leading lady. My worst quirk is that I lose track of what’s going on in TV shows all the time, because I start thinking about something else. I’m just a giant space cadet. At least once in a home movie I’ll have to ask, ‘‘Wait, what just happened?’’ ---
**Author:** ![Celidin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Celidin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celidin)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2012, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-bad-habits-or-compulsions-do-you-have-that-lessen-your-enjoyment-of-tv-movies-books/616785/45 "2012-03-28T16:54:54Z")
The thing that bothers me most is when shows use [California Doubling](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CaliforniaDoubling) (warning: TV Tropes) in areas I know about. It was especially jarring in House last season (I think) a couple of times. There was an episode where House was driving through Trenton, NJ, down a 8 or 10 lane major road, with lots of shiny skyscrapers. I’ve lived in Central NJ my entire life. Trenton does not look that nice. There was another incident where he was driving on Pennington Rd/Rt 31. NJ Rt 31 is only called “Pennington Rd” in the Trenton area (okay got that right), but it’s a 4-lane road through suburbs where the speed limit is either 35 or 40 mph. **Not** the highway that they showed. Or the time where Chase was driving down Olden Ave (again in the Trenton area), and you had a quick shot of his GPS showing a couple cross streets. The map on the GPS was correct, but that area of town is a heavily-run-down industrial area, not the center-city-lots-of-skyscrapers feel on screen. It doesn’t happen a lot, especially since NJ isn’t used much in TV or films, which I guess is why I find it so jarring when it does happen. ---
**Author:** ![Dave\_Hartwick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@Dave\_Hartwick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dave_Hartwick)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2012, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-bad-habits-or-compulsions-do-you-have-that-lessen-your-enjoyment-of-tv-movies-books/616785/46 "2012-03-28T22:05:24Z")
I don’t watch a lot of movies and TV these days, my entertainment is mostly games with a few books. Lately I’ve been hanging out in the fantasy genre ghetto. I notice some things TVTropes has pointed out, like I’ll mentally refer to a character as “Ms. Fanservice” or the handy magic stuff as “phlebotinum”. That doesn’t necessarily reduce my enjoyment. One thing that does, though, is the way characters wear armor. For example, in the game _Dragon Age: Origins_, only minor characters wear helmets. Major characters who wear armor will (always, even when just hanging around the camp, and at one point my character woke up wearing armor for PJs) wear bulky, ornate suits that make Gothic plate armor look low-key, but no helmet. Yeah, I can understand why they did it: somebody went to a lot of trouble to animate the faces in all those dialogue scenes I’m skipping over as fast as I can. Unfortunately, I’m having a little trouble with this basic safety violation in my magical dragon fighting game. The armor they put on female characters is just puzzling, though. I can understand why they had to use their imaginations for a model, as women didn’t serve in medieval cavalry-- it’s knight armor they’re wearing, so I presume everyone just temporarily misplaced his or her horse-- I can’t help but be distracted by the tit dents they put in the breast plate. I’m not a woman, but I have touched a tit, and I’m pretty sure tits compress enough so that maybe just leaving a little extra room up top would do, having boob chambers jutting out isn’t required. It also seems negligent of the armor designer to make it low cut. ---
**Author:** ![pendgwen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3da27b/32.png) [@pendgwen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pendgwen)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-bad-habits-or-compulsions-do-you-have-that-lessen-your-enjoyment-of-tv-movies-books/616785/47 "2012-03-29T22:16:07Z")
> [@Mosier](#): > > I think I speak for the majority of people employed in the emergency medical care industry when I say “stop showing ineffective CPR on tv and movies.” > > Seriously, anyone who has done CPR can see just how aggravatingly ineffective those chest compressions are! I know, you can’t actually do real CPR on a person who doesn’t need it, or you’ll hurt them. That’s why you can’t show it! Use camera angle tricks or a dummy or something, but please, pretty please, stop showing people bending their elbows when they’re doing CPR. This. If the hero has to do CPR on his sidekick/damsel in distress/whatever use a close-up to show us his expression of anguish as he does compressions. That way I won’t have to snicker at how he’s bending his arms to avoid breaking the other actor’s ribs. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Downtown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mr\_Downtown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Downtown)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2012, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-bad-habits-or-compulsions-do-you-have-that-lessen-your-enjoyment-of-tv-movies-books/616785/48 "2012-03-30T04:11:15Z")
Anachronistic typefaces. The banner over your Peach Festival 1938 parade should _not_ be in Helvetica. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2012, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-bad-habits-or-compulsions-do-you-have-that-lessen-your-enjoyment-of-tv-movies-books/616785/49 "2012-03-30T06:40:28Z")
> [@Mr\_Downtown](#): > > Anachronistic typefaces. The banner over your Peach Festival 1938 parade should _not_ be in Helvetica. Can we be friends? So how badly does it ruin the movie when you see Papyrus? ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2012, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-bad-habits-or-compulsions-do-you-have-that-lessen-your-enjoyment-of-tv-movies-books/616785/50 "2012-03-30T07:47:40Z")
My mind has a tendency to wander from the character to the actor. I notice that an actor’s hairline is starting to recede, or an actress is starting to look a little matronly, or that this movie was made just before someone’s addiction or untimely death. I blame this on my father, who was always pointing out women who had had abortions or kids out of wedlock (very scandalous back then), or his favorite: pointing out someone’s name change because they were Jewish (my father, himself, was Jewish . . . and his family had Americanized their name when he was a child). ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2012, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-bad-habits-or-compulsions-do-you-have-that-lessen-your-enjoyment-of-tv-movies-books/616785/51 "2012-03-30T07:48:53Z")
> [@jackdavinci](#): > > So how badly does it ruin the movie when you see Papyrus? Especially if it takes place in ancient Egypt. ---
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2012, 10:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-bad-habits-or-compulsions-do-you-have-that-lessen-your-enjoyment-of-tv-movies-books/616785/52 "2012-03-30T10:38:20Z")
> [@Mr\_Downtown](#): > > Anachronistic typefaces. The banner over your Peach Festival 1938 parade should _not_ be in Helvetica. Oh no, now I’m going to start noticing that. Thank goodness I’m not a font geek or I’d probably be driven crazy a lot faster. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2012, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-bad-habits-or-compulsions-do-you-have-that-lessen-your-enjoyment-of-tv-movies-books/616785/53 "2012-03-30T11:00:13Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > After watching an episode of “Columbo” about a projectionist, for a long time I couldn’t help noticing the cue dots that indicate when to switch reels. That was a bit annoying. My father pointed these out to me when I was a small boy and now I can’t un-see them. It doesn’t detract from my experience though. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2012, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-bad-habits-or-compulsions-do-you-have-that-lessen-your-enjoyment-of-tv-movies-books/616785/54 "2012-03-30T13:03:35Z")
> [@Dave\_Hartwick](#): > > I don’t watch a lot of movies and TV these days, my entertainment is mostly games with a few books. Lately I’ve been hanging out in the fantasy genre ghetto. > > I notice some things TVTropes has pointed out, like I’ll mentally refer to a character as “Ms. Fanservice” or the handy magic stuff as “phlebotinum”. That doesn’t necessarily reduce my enjoyment. > > One thing that does, though, is the way characters wear armor. For example, in the game _Dragon Age: Origins_, only minor characters wear helmets. Major characters who wear armor will (always, even when just hanging around the camp, and at one point my character woke up wearing armor for PJs) wear bulky, ornate suits that make Gothic plate armor look low-key, but no helmet. Yeah, I can understand why they did it: somebody went to a lot of trouble to animate the faces in all those dialogue scenes I’m skipping over as fast as I can. Unfortunately, I’m having a little trouble with this basic safety violation in my magical dragon fighting game. > > The armor they put on female characters is just puzzling, though. I can understand why they had to use their imaginations for a model, as women didn’t serve in medieval cavalry-- it’s knight armor they’re wearing, so I presume everyone just temporarily misplaced his or her horse-- I can’t help but be distracted by the tit dents they put in the breast plate. I’m not a woman, but I have touched a tit, and I’m pretty sure tits compress enough so that maybe just leaving a little extra room up top would do, having boob chambers jutting out isn’t required. It also seems negligent of the armor designer to make it low cut. Forget “you don’t need that much room” - plate armor is all about redistributing the force of a blow. Boob cups in armor would just redistribute all that force onto your sternum. Female SCA fighters I have known go more for a sports bra uniboob sort of armor. Not as attractive, but considerably more practical. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2012, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-bad-habits-or-compulsions-do-you-have-that-lessen-your-enjoyment-of-tv-movies-books/616785/55 "2012-03-30T13:14:52Z")
I can’t stand spoilers. And I seem to live in a world where EVERYONE wants to know EVERYTHING before it happens. I love surprises, and want to be surprised, and struggle to remain ignorant until the time but when they post things like “DOCTOR WHO COMPANION DIES!!!” (not a real headline!) on the front page or as a lead-in to an article I can’t help but read it; I read so fast. Very few people get this. I understand it’s my lookout, but sometimes I despair of common courtesy from folks. ---
**Author:** ![Renifer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71c47a/32.png) [@Renifer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renifer)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2012, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-bad-habits-or-compulsions-do-you-have-that-lessen-your-enjoyment-of-tv-movies-books/616785/56 "2012-03-31T05:56:03Z")
I have a hard time watching actors I like playing especially vile villains. Shallow Disney-ish villains are fine but . . . well for example I could never bring myself to see The Lovely Bones because I liked Stanley Tucci in The Devil Wears Prada and I couldn’t see him play a murderer/rapist in that context. Also any movie that’s likely to center on an animal’s life and the horrible abuse the lovable animal endures. I could tell I would be avoiding the movie War Horse just from the title of the movie. ---
**Author:** ![Dave\_Hartwick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@Dave\_Hartwick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dave_Hartwick)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2012, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-bad-habits-or-compulsions-do-you-have-that-lessen-your-enjoyment-of-tv-movies-books/616785/57 "2012-04-02T09:03:17Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > Forget “you don’t need that much room” - plate armor is all about redistributing the force of a blow. Boob cups in armor would just redistribute all that force onto your sternum. > > Female SCA fighters I have known go more for a sports bra uniboob sort of armor. Not as attractive, but considerably more practical. Having a little trouble picturing that. Got any pics? I was thinking that maybe the boob compartments were for accessories, because you never see the armored women carrying purses. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-bad-habits-or-compulsions-do-you-have-that-lessen-your-enjoyment-of-tv-movies-books/616785.md?page=2)