Not quite the same, perhaps, but there was an episode in the BBC’s Casualty where an elderly man turned up at the insistence of his wife because he was getting pain in his side and chest while gardening. The couple waited patiently while they tested everything they could, but finally had to be told there didn’t seem to be anything wrong at all. The man put his gardening jacket on and instantly winced in pain again. Said the doctor “I take it that’s your gardening jacket -had it long? Might you have put on weight since you bought it?” And they slunk away in embarrassment…
I forget what other storylines were going on in that episode.
As someone who has had to sit around in a level 1 trauma center ER babysitting various people over the years none of it is realistic. There is never the sense of panic or dramatic urgency that’s on tv. Even when there is something dramatically urgent happening. Professionals going about their business doesn’t make for dramatic TV.
The only time I had to go to a ER it was packed with people too poor to have insurance waiting to see a doctor for a flu, cold or similar malady.
No one yelling stat or anything really immediately obviously deadly. No GSW, etc. Note the word “obvious”.
I went to another non-county ER instead, and there was like one other person, who appeared to have a badly sprained ankle (had ice on it.) I needed some stitches for a scalp wound.
My Doc said his most common stitching was due to people cutting bagels the wrong way, which I thought was humorous.
What is extremely common in TV or movies but almost never happens in real life?
Hmm… justice visibly clearly and obviously prevailing?
Which I suppose was supplanted by avocados last year, if the web were to be trusted. Which left me going like, really, people? We’ve only had like, what, twelve thousand year to master this technology known as a “knife”.
That was from Boy Scouts… they started us on knives by teaching us intricate whittling, then we advanced to big swiss army knives, kitchen cleavers, then big lumberjack axes.
You know, people always say this in these kind of threads. But I genuinely can’t think of a show or movie where I’ve ever seen it happen. Does anyone have any examples? Maybe I’ve just never noticed.
Same here. Since so many people complain about the habit, I’ve been actively looking for examples. The only one I’ve found is in an old episode of Columbo where our intrepid detective is trying to catch a few winks and his assistant calls him from another room. The Lt mutters his thanks for the update and fumbles the handset back onto the receiver sans goodbye. That’s all I’ve got.
Bingo. I’ve noticed that ever since I was 10 years old.
Also, ever notice how much information can be conveyed in a 5 second phone call that never ends with a goodbye? Like this:
Phone rings, guy answers. We can’t hear what’s being said by the caller but the guy issues a series of “OK…yeah…uh uh…good” and call ends. Then said guy that received the call tells people in the room what the caller said: a veritable litany of information and events that even an auctioneer couldn’t cram into that 5 second phone call.
Even better: In an episode of Highway Patrol, Broderick Crawford introduces himself to the mother of a girl who’s been kidnapped. They talk for maybe ten seconds, max. He then goes out to his squad car and issues a bulletin giving a full description of the child, down to what she was wearing when she disappeared.
What? Wait a second, I don’t recall the woman saying any of that! How the hell does he know it?!?
Good one on that Highway Patrol observation. Broderick Crawford can really belt out authoritative commands. I like when he’s in the station, then makes a call or a radio call to one of his men with a barrage of gish-gallop commands to acquire information in a short time frame that would be difficult or even impossible to comply with even in today’s “information age”.
“First! Get me a list of every left-handed Presbyterian who owns a Buick built at the Van Nuys assembly plant before April of 1955. Second! I want the arrest records of every police department west of the Mississippi river for parole violators that served in the Korean war above the rank of corporal. Third! I need you to match the tire tread samples with every car dealer, car rental agency, and tire retailer in the state of California. Fourth!..”
Something I’ve never seen in real life but happens all the time on TV is the 8 or 9 year child who’s wise beyond their years to the point that they’re able to give their mom or dad helpful and cogent dating advice.
I’ve also never seen kids who are able to get their divorced/separated parents back together by masterminding a series of instances where they have to interact in some way. In the movies/on TV this is a regular occurrence.
Teen girls on TV are always so over the prom and don’t want to go or have to be convinced to go…in my experience most teen girls are excited to get a dress and go to the prom and other school dances.
Rebel Girl hates the prom… until the cynical nerd she’s been hanging out with (but it’s not a date, those are for conformists) says “I was thinking that we should go to the prom, so we can make fun of all the people who like it. And, umm, maybe we should go… together.” And her heart skips a beat.
