# You get to fix one of your pet peeves about shows and movies... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 21, 2016, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-to-fix-one-of-your-pet-peeves-about-shows-and-movies/760460 "2016-07-21T02:06:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Ace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/6bbea6/32.png) [@Johnny\_Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ace)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2016, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-to-fix-one-of-your-pet-peeves-about-shows-and-movies/760460/101 "2016-07-23T15:13:20Z")
Remove any reference to ‘based on a true story.’ Everyone knows it ends up being bullshit anyway. Entertainment value trumps reality every time. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2016, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-to-fix-one-of-your-pet-peeves-about-shows-and-movies/760460/102 "2016-07-24T15:46:38Z")
> [@D\_Odds](#): > > Too true, especially the ones that want to force real life wait times on things. Hey, let’s grind our show to a halt waiting the 20-30 seconds for a modern flat screen to boot up and another 15 seconds searching for a news report. Let’s wait 20 seconds for someone to answer a phone. Let’s have real parking woes. It can work, if the plot calls for it. When it doesn’t, then trying to keep the pacing while enforcing these waits will always be just as contrived as eliminating the waits. > [@Anamorphic](#): > > This is one that gets mentioned regularly when this topic comes up. And I get that it’s not realistic the way it’s done. But I promise you, if filmmakers ever started doing it “the realistic way”, after you watched it once or twice, you’d be saying, “Oh, so THAT’S why they used to do it the unrealistic way”. 15-20 seconds may not seem like much time, but 15-20 seconds of dead screentime of someone just standing, waiting, holding a phone is an ETERNITY. The movie would come to a stop, along with any sort of pacing. > > People say they want realism in their movies, and they certainly do, to an extent. But movies aren’t reality; the vast majority of reality is boring. Waiting around for someone to answer the phone. Driving around the block to look for a free parking spot. You may think you want this type of realism in movies, but I guarantee you you actually wouldn’t. What I want is for the writers to write around it. Some of us find the fake physics, convenient news reports, and unrealistic conversations just as distracting, if not more so, than waiting a paltry few seconds for a movie to show something accurately. Any decent writer should be able to get around a scene where a character just waits. Add in some dialogue, banter, a brief time skip, anything. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2016, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-to-fix-one-of-your-pet-peeves-about-shows-and-movies/760460/103 "2016-07-24T16:24:33Z")
When you show the starry night sky, use a photo of the damn real thing. 2 minutes research on an astronomy forum and bam! you got the real thing. And probably for free if you play your cards right. Hell, you probably spent more time and money to make that fake piece of shit you were using. And all these CSI/crime series/ movies. When the detectives go to the Megalow Mart to investigate the murder do all the workers and managers always have to be too busy/self absorbed/sociopathic to not bother giving you more than a sentence or two of trivial info about their coworker before itching to get back to work? And the phone/goodby thing. I know someone that actually pulls that shit. Not just no “goodbye”, they will say one last sentence that has not indication of being such, then just hang the fuck up. Which is irritating as hell when you were waiting your turn to convey some important information to them. My brother calls them back when they do this and then just hangs up on them 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2016, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-to-fix-one-of-your-pet-peeves-about-shows-and-movies/760460/104 "2016-07-24T16:31:31Z")
> [@YogSothoth](#): > > If there’s no reason why a role has to be male, then 50% of the time, cast a female. Same thing if the role doesn’t specifically call for the actor to be white, try an Indian. I have a theory about this - not so much about men instead of women, but whites instead of nonwhites; either they hire somebody of color who speaks without any sort of accent, or the viewers detect the accent and, for some reason, are suddenly “pulled out of the movie/show and back into reality.” > [@YogSothoth](#): > > This didn’t use to bother me, but now I just find it so lazy. For phone numbers, no more 555, use a real area code from that area and just make up the rest of the numbers. I don’t care if you accidentally get a real person’s number, it happens. It’s more noticeable now because a prefix (not area code - those tend to be accurate) being 555 is no longer enough; the number has to be between 555-0100 and 555-0199. The producers of _American Dad!_ were fined by the FCC because they had a 555 number where the next two digits were not 01. Anyway, tell anyone who has ever owned the phone number 867-5309 how this isn’t a problem. > [@Reluctant\_A](#): > > Actually, what might _actually_ work is if studios would reserve particular blocks of TN’s, and use them for their movies. And then, when people eventually call into them, they ring to some sort of promotional bit for the movie. There’s a reason for that; we need all of the phone numbers we can get. This is why there are more and more area codes. I remember when the San Francisco bay area, except for the extreme northern and southern parts, was all 415; now it’s 415, 650, 510, and 925. (I once had a prefix of 925, and got my share of calls from people trying to call area code 925 and forgetting to dial 1 first.) Also, unless every studio does this (and even at that, what do independent filmmakers do?), then any number that is used will be called by people who think that they can get free stuff from it, even if it’s only the URL to an extended trailer on YouTube. ---
**Author:** ![stosh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@stosh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stosh)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2016, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-to-fix-one-of-your-pet-peeves-about-shows-and-movies/760460/105 "2016-07-24T16:49:57Z")
Whenever you have a group of people, no matter if it’s a SWAT team or the bad guys, there is a young guy, an old guy, a black guy, a Latino guy and a woman in black leather that can kick any 3 guys asses, oh yeah, and the guys who are going to die. ---
**Author:** ![Reluctant\_A](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/839c29/32.png) [@Reluctant\_A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reluctant_A)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2016, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-to-fix-one-of-your-pet-peeves-about-shows-and-movies/760460/106 "2016-07-24T16:56:30Z")
Well, it seems to me that they can keep re-using the same bank of numbers, and recycle them for different movies. For independent filmmakers, I don’t see why whoever’s in charge of such things couldn’t set aside a small bank of numbers reserved for that purpose, and let those be recycled as well. As far as people calling into the numbers, trying to get free whatever, that’s kind of the idea: they call the number, get an automated message telling them to go to the movie’s official social media page for further details/instructions. Repeat ad infinitum, until a predetermined amount of time, and then the number goes back into the bank until it is assigned to another movie. But, if it’s a bad idea, it’s a bad idea: I’m not really that strongly wedded to it. ---
**Author:** ![Reluctant\_A](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/839c29/32.png) [@Reluctant\_A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reluctant_A)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2016, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-to-fix-one-of-your-pet-peeves-about-shows-and-movies/760460/107 "2016-07-24T16:57:42Z")
> [@stosh](#): > > Whenever you have a group of people, no matter if it’s a SWAT team or the bad guys, there is a young guy, an old guy, a black guy, a Latino guy and a woman in black leather that can kick any 3 guys asses, oh yeah, and the guys who are going to die. Bonus points if the Latino is good with knives. ---
**Author:** ![stosh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@stosh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stosh)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2016, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-to-fix-one-of-your-pet-peeves-about-shows-and-movies/760460/108 "2016-07-24T22:41:35Z")
Another one is where the bad guy blows away everyone except the good guy who he misses every time and then they have a fist fight. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2016, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-to-fix-one-of-your-pet-peeves-about-shows-and-movies/760460/109 "2016-07-24T22:50:42Z")
> [@Omega\_Glory](#): > > If it’s not too broad, I’d like to have a volunteer come in and glance over the dialogue written for characters by script writers from a different demographic and make sure it makes sense. Like a teen who can say “People my age grew up wanting to be like Lebron, not Michael Jordan.” Or an urban black guy to say “Nobody has said ‘Yo that’s wack!’ in 20 years, if ever.” I agree. I’m looking at How I Met Your Mother, here. Characters are into Star Wars as if it was the defining movie of _their_ generation, not their writers. Glee, too, with the characters desperately upset about Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson. ---
**Author:** ![Chihuahua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dec6dc/32.png) [@Chihuahua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chihuahua)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2016, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-to-fix-one-of-your-pet-peeves-about-shows-and-movies/760460/110 "2016-07-24T23:24:52Z")
If you are stranded on a deserted island, an alien planet, or a zombie apocalypse, sit down and share information so everyone is on the same sheet of music. If one person has information and says something weird or cryptic or vaguely threatening, make them sit the fuck down and explain what they meant to say so that everyone is communicating clearly. Seriously, shows like LOST would be over in like five minutes if people would just talk to each other instead of screwing around. This is pretty much why I quit watching that show. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-to-fix-one-of-your-pet-peeves-about-shows-and-movies/760460/111 "2016-07-25T09:56:22Z")
> [@ekedolphin](#): > > Long bridges across seemingly-bottomless chasms will have rails on either side. I’m looking at you, Star Wars. Hilariously lampshaded by Will Smith in _I, Robot:_ “This is bad building planning.” And mentioned in _Family Guy_’s “Blue Harvest” parody of _Star Wars_, in the scene in which two technicians are seen working on a control panel next to a long drop with no safety railing (as in the original): > [@](#): > > Death Star superlaser technician 1: [after blowing up Alderaan] So, anyway, I says, “Forget the dental plan, forget sick leave. I just want a railing. You know, one railing right here!” > > [points to the edge of the platform they’re standing on] > > Death Star superlaser technician 2: Yeah, I know. I’ve almost fallen over that thing so many times. So what’d they say? > > Death Star superlaser technician 1: Get this: they said they’re worried we’d be \*leaning \*all day. > > Death Star superlaser technician 2: They said that? > > Death Star superlaser technician 1: Yeah. > > Death Star superlaser technician 2: Well, none of this will matter when we’re famous singers. ---
**Author:** ![iljitsch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/77aa72/32.png) [@iljitsch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iljitsch)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-to-fix-one-of-your-pet-peeves-about-shows-and-movies/760460/112 "2016-07-25T12:34:19Z")
> [@Mr\_Shine](#): > > Breaking the rules of the OP here, but I thought of another one I’d do instead. Don’t hire 2 people with very similar faces, hair styling and build for the same movie and dress them similarly. Make one of them dye their hair, cut it differently or have them have different clothing styles. I don’t want to spend the first hour of the film thinking “wait isn’t that the guy who…” Or at least give them names that start with a different letter. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-to-fix-one-of-your-pet-peeves-about-shows-and-movies/760460/113 "2016-07-25T15:26:52Z")
> [@That\_Don\_Guy](#): > > It’s more noticeable now because a prefix (not area code - those tend to be accurate) being 555 is no longer enough; the number has to be between 555-0100 and 555-0199. The producers of _American Dad!_ were fined by the FCC because they had a 555 number where the next two digits were not 01. They were fined? For what, having a fake number? > [@That\_Don\_Guy](#): > > Anyway, tell anyone who has ever owned the phone number 867-5309 how this isn’t a problem. I don’t doubt that it could be a problem for a couple of people a year, I just doubt that those people are enough to change movies forever. In my years of watching TV and movies, I’ve hardly ever heard them name a number out loud. Just have the actor scribble it on a piece of paper unseen to the audience, or have on person say “Ok the number is…” and then cut to the other person nodding “Ok I got it”. There’s tons of ways to not actually name a number on screen and I really don’t believe that we should make this a permanent feature of movies just because a few people a year are inconvenienced. > [@Reluctant\_A](#): > > Bonus points if the Latino is good with knives. No, the Asian guy is the one good at knives. The Latino guy is the one who, before he gets killed, takes out a cross and talks about his Catholic mother ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-to-fix-one-of-your-pet-peeves-about-shows-and-movies/760460/114 "2016-07-25T15:43:18Z")
> [@That\_Don\_Guy](#): > > It’s more noticeable now because a prefix (not area code - those tend to be accurate) being 555 is no longer enough; the number has to be between 555-0100 and 555-0199. The producers of _American Dad!_ were fined by the FCC because they had a 555 number where the next two digits were not 01. Does that mean the 555-0200 and above are being used as real phone numbers now? If you get assigned one of those numbers, good luck giving it out to anyone and being believed. ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-to-fix-one-of-your-pet-peeves-about-shows-and-movies/760460/115 "2016-07-25T15:55:39Z")
> [@YogSothoth](#): > > They were fined? For what, having a fake number? No - for using what is **not** a fake number any more. The only “fake numbers” now are 555-0100 through 555-0199. > [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Does that mean the 555-0200 and above are being used as real phone numbers now? If you get assigned one of those numbers, good luck giving it out to anyone and being believed. Actually, numbers beginning with 555, but not followed by 01 (with the exception of 555-1212, which is the same as 411 if you are in that area code), can be used for some sort of call forwarding, although I am not entirely sure of the details. The only time I have seen this used is on a WWE wrestling program, where they were calling viewers at home, and were using 555 numbers to mask the viewers’ actual phone numbers. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/22080_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-to-fix-one-of-your-pet-peeves-about-shows-and-movies/760460/116 "2016-07-25T16:15:40Z")
I’m caught between the proliferation of easily checked and corrected inaccuracies regarding the military, or the far-too-frequent romantic pairings of old geezers with sweet young things. As an aside, I was watching Foyle’s Law and it struck me that all the characters in the show looked like ordinary people rather than all being gorgeous and well-coifed. Quite a difference from American series where the main characters always seem to be model-perfect while frumpy folks are added for comedy effect. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2016, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-to-fix-one-of-your-pet-peeves-about-shows-and-movies/760460/117 "2016-07-26T19:52:39Z")
The May-December relationships bother me too, but I attribute that less to bad screenplay than powerful men who want to make out with a 20 year old model. If I could force the issue, I’d make it so that no on-screen romance, other than one that specifically calls for it, can be cast with actors more than 10 years apart. ---
**Author:** ![Reluctant\_A](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/839c29/32.png) [@Reluctant\_A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reluctant_A)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2016, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-to-fix-one-of-your-pet-peeves-about-shows-and-movies/760460/118 "2016-07-26T21:35:30Z")
> [@YogSothoth](#): > > The May-December relationships bother me too, but I attribute that less to bad screenplay than powerful men who want to make out with a 20 year old model… Well, there’s also [this](http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/maggie-gyllenhaal-told-play-55-year-olds-girlfriend/story?id=31210513) to consider… ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2016, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-to-fix-one-of-your-pet-peeves-about-shows-and-movies/760460/119 "2016-07-27T17:20:05Z")
Whoever’s making that decision is a dickface ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2016, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-to-fix-one-of-your-pet-peeves-about-shows-and-movies/760460/120 "2016-07-27T18:52:11Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Leather scabbards _usually_ have a metal throat - they do, indeed, go _schwing_ when you pull them out fast. Can we at least agree to get rid of the _schwing_ sound when a _human_ throat is cut ;)? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-to-fix-one-of-your-pet-peeves-about-shows-and-movies/760460.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-get-to-fix-one-of-your-pet-peeves-about-shows-and-movies/760460.md?page=7)