# What is a plot or genre you hate for personal reasons? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 6, 2015, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-plot-or-genre-you-hate-for-personal-reasons/716988 "2015-04-06T20:14:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2015, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-plot-or-genre-you-hate-for-personal-reasons/716988/121 "2015-04-09T17:41:34Z")
Putting aside all the ridiculous bullshit they put in movies about computers (“zoom in and enhance”, guy hacks into anything by pounding keys with no mouse using just a DOS window with no tools or utilities, while his keyboard plays a beep boop sound for every keystroke, passwords that the good guy guesses in seconds b/c the Genius Mastermind has a comically soft password, like, oh, “Ramses II”, nonsensical [crap](https://youtu.be/hkDD03yeLnU) meant to sound like impressive computer lingo)… What drives me insane is when all movie computer people are total nerds / weirdos / misfits. It would be nice to have a developer character that also happens to look and act completely normal, and not have bandaged thick glasses, empty red bull cans everywhere, crazy hair, a troll doll pencil that he twirls and chews on, speaking in a socially awkward babbling patois and living in some dark basement. ---
**Author:** ![funky\_little\_lee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e95f7d/32.png) [@funky\_little\_lee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/funky_little_lee)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2015, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-plot-or-genre-you-hate-for-personal-reasons/716988/122 "2015-04-09T17:58:02Z")
Historical novels/miniseries. Most contain such ridiculous inaccuracies. Examples: A woman singing “Amazing Grace” in a story set in American colonial times (it wasn’t even published till 1779 according to Wikipedia). Cora Grantham saying “Have gun, will travel” on\* Downton Abbey,\* I believe the time period was the 1910’s. (The TV show _Have Gun - Will Travel_ was on in the late 1950’s IIRC.) Catherine of Aragon portrayed with coal-black hair in _The Tudors._ (Granted the whole series was an exercise in WTF, but seriously, one look online would show that her hair was actually auburn.) I love history so this kind of stuff makes me want to cringe, then slap the face off the skull of whoever couldn’t get such simple stuff right. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2015, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-plot-or-genre-you-hate-for-personal-reasons/716988/123 "2015-04-09T18:13:08Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > I shut it off after about 15 minutes because it was BOOOOOORING. YMMV, of course; some people loved it. > > For me, it’s any kind of medical drama, especially if there’s a pharmacist in it. So many inaccuracies! You wouldn’t have liked 60s era doctor shows- there was always the operating room with two props: occiloscope and rubber bag. The scope would saw tooth a bunch of times, and then flat line; the bag would slowly inflate and deflate, then stop. Seat edge stuff it was, to be sure :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2015, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-plot-or-genre-you-hate-for-personal-reasons/716988/124 "2015-04-09T18:26:16Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > Putting aside all the ridiculous bullshit they put in movies about computers (“zoom in and enhance”, guy hacks into anything by pounding keys with no mouse using just a DOS window with no tools or utilities, while his keyboard plays a beep boop sound for every keystroke, passwords that the good guy guesses in seconds b/c the Genius Mastermind has a comically soft password, like, oh, “Ramses II”, nonsensical [crap](https://youtu.be/hkDD03yeLnU) meant to sound like impressive computer lingo)… > > What drives me insane is when all movie computer people are total nerds / weirdos / misfits. It would be nice to have a developer character that also happens to look and act completely normal, and not have bandaged thick glasses, empty red bull cans everywhere, crazy hair, a troll doll pencil that he twirls and chews on, speaking in a socially awkward babbling patois and living in some dark basement. I loved Harold and Kumar just because it made Kumar into a perfectly ordinary stoner. Yes, he wanted to go back to medical school in the end, and that was still stereotypical, but I liked it because it depicted him as an ordinary guy first and an Indian nerd second. There is a reason I hate movies for personal reasons: Indians are rarely “mainstream” and always have to talk about kooky beliefs or arranged marriage. There are hundreds of thousands of Indian kids that have been born here and grown up here and the only reason they are distinguishable from anyone else is because they are brown. ---
**Author:** ![Lemmytheseal2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/82dd89/32.png) [@Lemmytheseal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemmytheseal2)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2015, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-plot-or-genre-you-hate-for-personal-reasons/716988/125 "2015-04-09T20:00:50Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > I used to fall into the trap of thinking that sad, bleak, tragic or upsetting movies were somehow automatically “deeper” or more philosophical than happy ones. But I am starting to agree with your view here; the world has plenty of depression already. Panache45\*\*\*\*'s post was about adventure versus mundanity, not necessarily happiness or sadness. As for me, I recoil from depictions of weddings, childbirth, and such. Yes, for personal reasons. ---
**Author:** ![typoink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2015, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-plot-or-genre-you-hate-for-personal-reasons/716988/126 "2015-04-09T22:59:10Z")
> [@gallows\_fodder](#): > > I can’t stomach anything that casts infidelity in a positive light. I have a somewhat opposite one: I can’t stand things that depict infidelity as a justified reason for actively trying to harm somebody. Context matters, but I find most “infidelity revenge” scenarios extremely ugly, unpleasant, and idiotic. And I think they often reinforce a very unhealthy view of relationships. I don’t think infidelity is a good thing, but I also see it as more complicated than “cheaters deserve whatever they get.” ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-plot-or-genre-you-hate-for-personal-reasons/716988/127 "2015-04-10T00:44:53Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > I hate stories about characters who are faced with a choice between a life of interesting, romantic adventures vs. a life of settling for the mundane and ordinary . . . and choosing the latter. \*Bridges of Madison County, \*for example. > > Life is to be lived, not endured. I need a story that will pull me up and out, not push me down. Meanwhile, I can’t stand it when a character decides to give it all up to run off with the romantic adventurer. I know from experience it only ends with someone’s life in pieces and both people miserable. _Bridges of Madison County_ may be crap, but at least Francesca had the sense to know the romance wouldn’t last. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-plot-or-genre-you-hate-for-personal-reasons/716988/128 "2015-04-10T02:06:37Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > The all-time Grand Champion movie of this ilk is ‘Jack Frost’. Father is tragically killed, and comes back ‘reincarnated’ as a snowman. A snowman! :eek: His son becomes aware of this, and the snowman, now supernaturally hosting the dead father, helps the kid in a snowball fight, teaches him hockey, and rides with him on a sled! I remember Roger Ebert’s incredulous review, it certainly sounds like a piece of work. I imagine the melting snowman at the end is a real 3-hanky tearfest… I never saw this movie, but I vividly remember seeing an ad for it on TV and feeling like I’d been punched in the stomach. I was a teenager and my father had been dead for years at that point, but the ad basically came right out and said “If a father really loves his children, he’ll magically return from death to comfort them.” So thanks, Hollywood, for making a family film in which the “heartwarming” message is that if you have a dead parent then they clearly didn’t really love you or they’d have come back to life somehow. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Winkler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/82dd89/32.png) [@The\_Winkler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Winkler)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-plot-or-genre-you-hate-for-personal-reasons/716988/129 "2015-04-10T04:20:21Z")
> [@GargoyleWB](#): > > I hate the trope of women most desiring assholes so they can bring out their sensitive side. > > Cites: > Purple Rain > Jerry McGuire > As Good as it Gets > > The one movie that got it right and I loved where the woman rightly finally kicked the man to the curb was “White Men Can’t Jump”. Wow, that really strikes a nerve with me being that I’m the “nice guy” who women pass up for assholes. I vote for the buddy cop film where two cops don’t like each other in the beginning of the film and they’re forced to work together, always becoming best friends at the end of the film. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2015, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-plot-or-genre-you-hate-for-personal-reasons/716988/130 "2015-04-10T14:50:36Z")
Women most desiring A-holes so they can tame their troubled, misunderstood loves and make them into good mates (ha!) has been a movie thing since the beginning of movies. Marlon Brando, Elvis, William Holden, and Frank Sinatra (Some Came Running, and that one with Doris Day - Doris Day!!!) - countless others to some extent or other - were all out of control or damaged rebels whose women could look beyond the bad and see the sensitive, wounded little boy underneath. Good luck with that in real life. You can try to tame a feral cat, bring it in, feed it, and eventually pet it a bit, but leave the door open and out it goes! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-plot-or-genre-you-hate-for-personal-reasons/716988.md?page=6)