# What takes you out of a TV show or movie that’s actually trivial? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted, movies\ **Created:** [September 23, 2026, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-takes-you-out-of-a-tv-show-or-movie-that-s-actually-trivial/1033299 "2026-09-23T01:49:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 12
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2026, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-takes-you-out-of-a-tv-show-or-movie-that-s-actually-trivial/1033299/221 "2026-10-01T17:12:24Z")
> [@TroutMan](#): > > I’ll leave it to you to decide if it’s more believable that it never submerged, or that he could belly-surf behind a sub that inexplicably kept its periscope up for the entire trip. Kid, it ain’t that kind of movie. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2026, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-takes-you-out-of-a-tv-show-or-movie-that-s-actually-trivial/1033299/222 "2026-10-01T18:03:18Z")
Bad gun handling. Like smokers/non-smokers and empty coffee cups, people mishandling guns or weird gun stuff always jumps out at me. Actors holding guns in strange stances, It’s clear they have no knowledge of what it would be like to be in a firefight. Most of us don’t, of course, but that’s why they have technical advisors. Holding pistols too close to your face. I get it, the director wants the highly paid actor’s face and his gun both in frame but that wouldn’t go well IRL. I saw a De Niro movie where he literally had it on his cheek. Racking a pump action gun repeatedly for effect. When I see and actor rack a shotgun for the second time in a scene, I’m always waiting for the first shell to come flying out. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2026, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-takes-you-out-of-a-tv-show-or-movie-that-s-actually-trivial/1033299/223 "2026-10-01T18:53:53Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > Bad gun handling. There’s an active thread on this very topic. Lotsa folks agree with you! > [@Stupid gun tricks in the movies and on television](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-gun-tricks-in-the-movies-and-on-television/1033459): > > And by gun, I mean anything that a character picks up that fires a solid projectile towards a target. No animation, please. I’ve got one in mind, from a single-worded movie, and it was actually tested on “Mythbusters”. I mention it if no one else does first…but that’s not very likely. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2026, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-takes-you-out-of-a-tv-show-or-movie-that-s-actually-trivial/1033299/224 "2026-10-02T00:29:18Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > Bad gun handling. Like smokers/non-smokers and empty coffee cups, people mishandling guns or weird gun stuff always jumps out at me. > > Actors holding guns in strange stances, It’s clear they have no knowledge of what it would be like to be in a firefight. Most of us don’t, of course, but that’s why they have technical advisors. > > Holding pistols too close to your face. I get it, the director wants the highly paid actor’s face and his gun both in frame but that wouldn’t go well IRL. I saw a De Niro movie where he literally had it on his cheek. > > Racking a pump action gun repeatedly for effect. When I see and actor rack a shotgun for the second time in a scene, I’m always waiting for the first shell to come flying out. More basic than that. Don’t point a gun at a cop and expect to have a long conversation. It’s so common that I barely notice anymore. Bad guy and good guy pointing guns at each other and having a dramatic talk. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2026, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-takes-you-out-of-a-tv-show-or-movie-that-s-actually-trivial/1033299/225 "2026-10-02T01:03:40Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > Bad guy and good guy pointing guns at each other and having a dramatic talk. Yeah, I have pretty much conceded to the‘Mexican standoff’. It’s so ridiculous. If two people have guns on each other the first one to pull the trigger wins. Simple. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2026, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-takes-you-out-of-a-tv-show-or-movie-that-s-actually-trivial/1033299/226 "2026-10-03T07:39:19Z")
Just stumbled onto _ **Closing the Ring** _ (2007), a melodrama about US airmen in WWII. The first thing I noticed was the non-period haircuts on the GIs. Then a B-17G with a chin turret and a shiny aluminum finish landed at an AAF base in May 1941, two years before the type first flew. I gave up trying to take the movie seriously after that. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2026, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-takes-you-out-of-a-tv-show-or-movie-that-s-actually-trivial/1033299/227 "2026-10-03T14:12:07Z")
This is less a failing of the movie than of mine but in crime dramas when detectives ask potential suspects “where were you last October on the Saturday the 12th?” And they always have a ready answer. I can’t remember where I was on Monday, much less where I was a month or two ago. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2026, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-takes-you-out-of-a-tv-show-or-movie-that-s-actually-trivial/1033299/228 "2026-10-03T18:18:09Z")
Documentaries where the film editors obviously don’t know the provenance of their stock footage. I’m talking about things like American Dauntlesses dive-bombing Pearl Harbor, or P-38s being unloaded in Murmansk Lightnings went mainly to the Pacific after 1942, while the USSR got planes like the Airacobra and the Havoc. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2026, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-takes-you-out-of-a-tv-show-or-movie-that-s-actually-trivial/1033299/229 "2026-10-03T18:57:28Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > This is less a failing of the movie than of mine but in crime dramas when detectives ask potential suspects “where were you last October on the Saturday the 12th?” And they always have a ready answer. I can’t remember where I was on Monday, much less where I was a month or two ago. Yeah, same here. Mind you since retirement, I could likely say “Ay home, reading a book” and be pretty close. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2026, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-takes-you-out-of-a-tv-show-or-movie-that-s-actually-trivial/1033299/230 "2026-10-03T19:21:44Z")
Filmmakers who think they can turn a sunset into a sunrise (or vice versa) by reversing the footage. NO YOU CAN’T! In the northern hemisphere, the sun rises up and to the right. If you see the sun rising up and to the left, that is either a southern hemisphere sunrise (unlikely) or reversed footage. DON’T DO THAT! ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2026, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-takes-you-out-of-a-tv-show-or-movie-that-s-actually-trivial/1033299/231 "2026-10-04T01:57:19Z")
Not only do they somehow remember, in the next scene, an underling will tell their superior that “Their alibi checks out” implying that they found someone else that remembers it as well. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2026, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-takes-you-out-of-a-tv-show-or-movie-that-s-actually-trivial/1033299/232 "2026-10-04T03:11:02Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > #1 dealbreaker is: PERIOD HAIR. If you are a postpubescent female in basically any European or European-derived culture from medieval times up through the 19th century, you are NOT running around in public with no head covering, unless you’re fleeing a fire or literally insane. […] > > Largely for that reason I’m not even bothering to see _The Uprising_ And the new _Sense and Sensibility_ is off the list, too. You are not a ten-year-old child, get that damn hair off your neck! You can play around with side curls but HAIR. GOES. UP!! And when you’re walking outdoors in company, wear your damn bonnet! Lazy and ignorant filmmakers may think that modern-looking loose hair conveys how a 19th-c character is a “free spirit” and “not like other girls”, but it only shows they don’t have the knowledge or creativity to think of a way to dramatize this that actually works in-period. Not dressing and covering your hair appropriately for the occasion was not “daring” or “cool”, it was just startlingly unkempt, like walking around with your boobs hanging out of your dress. And it’s not like we can’t see the actress’s face perfectly well with an updo and a bonnet, anyway. Like I said about _The Odyssey_, it’s one thing if you’re deliberately putting everybody in fantasy versions of historical costumes and there’s no such thing as authenticity. But when you’ve got a character in period-appropriate Regency attire from toe to chin, it just looks incongruous to have her hair flapping around like a roadside beggar girl’s. These characters would not have considered such dishevelment fun to do or attractive to see, just get a clue already. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2026, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-takes-you-out-of-a-tv-show-or-movie-that-s-actually-trivial/1033299/233 "2026-10-04T10:47:46Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > Bad guy and good guy pointing guns at each other and having a dramatic talk. “When it’s time to shoot, shoot – don’t talk.” ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2026, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-takes-you-out-of-a-tv-show-or-movie-that-s-actually-trivial/1033299/234 "2026-10-04T12:42:23Z")
And how well do period-authentic hairstyles communicate to the vast bulk of the audience who have no idea about what actual e.g. 1800s dress was like? What hairstyle (or clothing style or …) would have communicated “free spirit” in the 1800s? Was there such a thing? Would a 2026 audience recognize it now for what it meant then? etc. If filmmakers were serious about authenticity, then period language would be used too. Old French and Old English for stories set in Merrye Olde Englande, and incomprehensible gibberish for any SF space aliens. We’re communicating with a mass audience of 2026 era people and must use language they understand. “Language” in the large sense of any meaning-carrying symbol; words, images, clothing, hair, social behaviors, etc. I’ve always liked this xkcd. Which in talking about the future is actually saying something about how much current audiences don’t know about the past. [![](https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/period_speech.png) ](https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/period_speech.png) ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2026, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-takes-you-out-of-a-tv-show-or-movie-that-s-actually-trivial/1033299/235 "2026-10-04T12:52:01Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > …I’ve always liked this xkcd. Which in talking about the future is actually saying something about how much current audiences don’t know about the past. > > [https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/period\_speech.png](https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/period_speech.png) Or this comic, set in an even more distant imagined future: > **[Now Showing](https://pbfcomics.com/comics/now-showing/)** > > The Perry Bible Fellowship ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2026, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-takes-you-out-of-a-tv-show-or-movie-that-s-actually-trivial/1033299/236 "2026-10-04T12:58:20Z")
Or this clip: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/-tljhVRjJ6o/maxresdefault.jpg "Idiocracy - Time masheen ride") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tljhVRjJ6o) ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2026, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-takes-you-out-of-a-tv-show-or-movie-that-s-actually-trivial/1033299/237 "2026-10-04T13:06:01Z")
Bad spelling, especially where correct spelling should be a no-brainer. I mean, I don’t think a marshal or marshal’s office would put up a permanent sign stating “Marshall’s Office.” And what cemetery owner invests in a fancy arch over the entrance stating “Middleton Cemetary?” People get signs wrong from time to time, but you’d think that a whole production crew would have someone able to notice that the signs are not spelled correctly. Don’t even get me started on newspaper headlines, instruction manuals, and maps that are shown on-camera. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2026, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-takes-you-out-of-a-tv-show-or-movie-that-s-actually-trivial/1033299/238 "2026-10-04T13:43:09Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > This is less a failing of the movie than of mine but in crime dramas when detectives ask potential suspects “where were you last October on the Saturday the 12th?” And they always have a ready answer. Corollary: the bartender with the photographic memory. **Detective:** (shows photo of suspect) have you seen this man? **Bartender:** I dunno. My memory ain’t so good these days, unless, y’know, somethin’ jogs it. **Detective:** (slides a $20 bill across the bar) will this help jog it? **Bartender:** Ohh, _that_ guy. Yeah, he came in last Saturday the 12th, at 9:37. Had a blue suit on with a red and blue striped tie. Came in with a 5’ 7” blonde woman in a green dress. Mole on her left cheek, close to her nose. Stayed for an hour and a half, ordered 3 Tito’s vodka martinis with two blue cheese-stuffed olives for him, a couple glasses of Chardonnay for her, kinda cheaping out with the Kendall-Jackson. They seemed a little nervous or agitated, talking about some ‘job’ coming up they were worried about. His phone rang about 10:03, and he walked away to take the call. When they left I happened to look out the bar window and saw he was driving a late model white Lexus with the license plate number FKE123. Sorry, that’s all I can recall. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2026, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-takes-you-out-of-a-tv-show-or-movie-that-s-actually-trivial/1033299/239 "2026-10-04T14:03:28Z")
I think you may have somehow mistaken an episode of _Police Squad_ for a serious show. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2026, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-takes-you-out-of-a-tv-show-or-movie-that-s-actually-trivial/1033299/240 "2026-10-04T14:50:49Z")
Well, I was exaggerating a wee bit to make a point. I admit, I can’t say I wasn’t entirely I influenced by this scene though: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/b6mor63_Lvo/maxresdefault.jpg "Naked Gun - Bribes") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6mor63_Lvo) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-takes-you-out-of-a-tv-show-or-movie-that-s-actually-trivial/1033299.md?page=11) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-takes-you-out-of-a-tv-show-or-movie-that-s-actually-trivial/1033299.md?page=13)