There have been countless threads in Cafe Society about the details about life that t.v. shows get wrong, and plot contrivances that are unlikely. How about, for a change, we list the unusual plots, and details about sets that shows get right?
“Friends” for example. So many people have commented about the girls’ spacious loft, and how it is unlikely that a waitress & a short-order cook could afford the rent there. What most people miss (and admittedly, I did too until someone pointed it out to me) the layout of the apartment. In both the girl & guys’ apartments, the kitchen is immediately next to the door, and the bathroom in each is located right beside the kitchen. This is realistic, because most Manhattan buildings (especially downtown buildings) are old tenements that either originally didn’t have plumbing, or had primitive plumbing. There would be a central plumbing line near the center of the building to which every apartment would need to connect. Hence, the kitchen & bathroom would be close by the front door, rather than in the back of the house as most suburban homes have them situated. (Conspicuously, both “Seinfeld” and “Will & Grace” get this wrong!)
And “Star Trek: Voyager” is often accused of resorting to psuedoscientific technobabble. In one episode, they discover a decaying wormhole that leads to a Romulan patrolled area of the Neutral Zone. Later, it’s discovered that the wormhole not only traverses space, but time and connects to an era about 50 years earlier. I recalled reading an article in which a physicist explained that this would be an accurate description of wormholes. (assuming they exist at all and a spaceship could survive passing through them, but in theory they would incorperate a dislocation in time as well as space.)
What others things have you noticed that television shows get right?
The late, lamented Firefly had a few nice “realistic” touches. My favourite being that in the far future, most folks still used guns to shoot at each other. None of your phased plasma rifles in the 40 watt range.
Actually, Voyager’s worst travesty was in its second episode, I believe (well, technically third, but the first two episodes were really the same one). They found a crack in a black hole’s event horizon.
Yeah. A crack in a black hole’s event horizon.
That’s like saying, “I found a point fifty feet away from the target that isn’t fifty feet away from the target!”
Stupid stupid show. Its predecessors were far more amusing.
(Yeah, I know we’re supposed to talk about things gotten right. It’s just so hard to think of the RIGHT things about Voyager… there were so many things WRONG…)
Anyway, something right: I’ve been noticing a tendency in cop shows to show people smoking weed without them pulling typical Half-Baked pothead acts. In fact, drugs in general are usually no longer treated similarly to being drunk… look at The Shield, f’rinstance…
As tempting as it is to continue to pummel the inconsistent and mostly regrettable Voyager, I’ll think I’ll try and steer back to original topic
The Sopranos does a lot of things realistically. The way they handle phone coversations to avoid being detected, and the language (not just profanity but Italian terminology) is apparently very accurate.
People really comment on that? They mention several times that the apartment once belonged to Monica’s Grandmother and it was given to her, don’t they?
It was actually dealt with as the subplot for a full episode. The apartment really belongs to Monica’s aunt (or great aunt or some similar relative who is either dead or in a nursing home). The apartment is rent controlled only as long as that aunt is the resident of the apartment… Uh-oh.
The landlord is not supposed to know that Monica and Rachel are living there and not the aunt. The scummy and dirty looking superintendent finds out and threatens to tell the property management company (which would result in eviction or an immense rent increase), unless – and here’s the funny punchline – someone agrees to be his dancing partner! Yes, the scuzzy super in the filthy overalls is taking ballroom dance lessons and is preparing for a competition.
The result of this extortion? The scuzzy super gets Joey as a dance partner. They practice clandestinely on the roof and in the basement boiler room. (And in typical sitcom fashion the whole scenario is like a romantic affair, including a “break-up” with Joey when becomes too attached to the dancing and is investing more in the relationship than the super.)
So that’s it. They are living in a rent controlled apartment (for which they are not elligible) as sort of a scam, but the super is complicit.
From what I’ve read, anything Dennis Farina does as a cop on any TV show (or movie) is right, from the way he knocks on a door of a suspect to how he holds his gun. Probably because he was a Chicago cop for more than a decade.
I saw a TV show about police consultants to TV shows. They said you can always tell if a consultant was used because cops hold flash lights out at arms length at their side, and never right in front of them (which would be a glowing bulls eye).
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Actually, he already knew, but when Joey told him to apologize to Rachel for making her cry, the super got pissed off and made the threat. When Monica found out, she told Joey to go back and suck up to the super – “Suck like you’ve never sucked before!” – and that’s how he got roped into the dancing.
Also, it was not for a competition but for a big dance – the “Super Ball.” Treeger wanted to impress “Marge,” a lady super.
And, by the way, if you notice who wrote the teleplay, it’ll make sense why it was so stupid. Brannon Braga’s responsible for more than his fair share of idiotic episodes and is usually blamed for Voyager’s idiocy and Enterprise’s mediocrity.
He’s recently allowed someone else to step in for him on producing Enterprise and the rise in quality’s already apparent after just four episodes.
The FOX sitcom Grounded for Life is the only one I can remember ever doing a computer/Internet based plot that treated them – and the way ordinary people use them – realistically.
Mom & Dad were worried that their teenaged daughter was up to something. She says she’s going to a friend’s house, but her parents are suspicious. They log on to her AOL account after guessing her password (with help from another of the kids), and are horrified to see that her mailbox is full of porn messages. But their son reassures them that this is just spam, and everyone gets it. Then an IM window pops up from one of their daughter’s friends, and they begin chatting with her in an attempt to get information. The friend mentions all kinds of youthful wrongdoing, like getting a tattoo and sneaking out to raves.
Turns out the daughter really was at her friend’s house. Her friend’s computer was online, and the friend saw the daughter’s IM name appear on her Buddy List and told her. Daughter immediately realized that one of her relatives must be using her computer, so she took the keyboard from her friend and began messing with her parents.
Nothing too complicated or difficult, but that’s just the point. Other computer based plots I’ve seen almost always have the machines doing something impossible, or at least very difficult, or behaving in strange ways. In this one it was just e-mail and IM, two things that an ordinary teenaged girl really would use her computer for, and both behaved in an ordinary manner.
Damn that ol’ King of the Hill. I tell 'ya man, it just scary how they do Texas dialogue sometimes.
Yes, there are East Texans who talk just like that.
Also, when Bobby says something to his dad that flies off the radar, and Hank just stares at his boy. Most scriptwriters would want to finish the scene with a punchline, not understanding that some of the things people say don’t deserve much more than a baleful stare.
For all that Seinfeld did crappy, the show’s attitude towards sex was usually very realistic, covering such topics as intact penises, faking it, sponges, exhibitionism, and being “master of your domain.”
Jerry’s kitchen is right next to the door. The bathroom is on the opposite side; you mean this would be inaccurate, too?