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1 - Putting the lead in Danger when you know all too well that they won't get killed 2 - CSI style super zooming in on a pixelated image and being able to super-hi res it to find the killer! 3 - Villian is about to shoot one of the main cast, draws the gun and slowly pulls the trigger only to be shot themselves miliseconds before firing. 4 - ANY FORM OF COUNTDOWN CLOCK SCENE WHEN THEY STOP IT WITH 00:01 Seconds to go.
When someone is about to reveal or confess something super important we've been waiting forever and the other character is saying "let me go first" and ruins everything.
The bland cop procedural cliffhangers or the situations they get stuck to,either getting kidnapped or a bomb threat or their family in danger-you know they will solve it or get out of that situation in nick of time no matter how impossible it seems.No one cares if u know they were ever in any real danger.Case in point-Castle season 6 finale cliffhanger was beyond lame even though the show is brilliant IMO!
-Constant use of bait-and-switch. The main reason that I'm getting annoyed at The Blacklist. -When someone is about to admit something, the other person gets a call and then they decide not to tell them. -ARROW CATCHING. -Bringing people back from the dead (with the exception of Jack Harkness/Henry Morgan - given that it is a part of their character). Still annoyed at 24 season 7 (though that was also due to making Tony a bad guy, as well as bringing him back from the dead) -When a character ignores all logic and does something because of it (looking at you Laurel from season 2 of Arrow) -An otherwise intelligent character is made to look like an idiot by a decision they make (any season 1 episode of Prison Break where Michael told Tweener new info)
1.) When characters eavesdrop on a conversation and ends up finding out information that they specifically weren't meant to know. 2.) When walking to the other side of the room seems to create a magic sound barrier that makes it okay to spill all your secrets without having to worry other people in the room might hear you. And then, they wonder how the others found out about it... 3.) Clip Shows. 4.) Zoom In + Enhancement. 5.) Character turns on the lights and someone has been lurking in the dark for who knows how long.
There are more but these are the ones from the top of my head.
They do it on Prison Break a lot. Luckily, the rest of everything that is happening is strong enough to make up for it. Also, the ploys are intelligent and it's almost impossible to guess what's gonna happen.
With The Blacklist, if you look at 2.03 with Vargas, you knew that Red wasn't going to die and because of that, you knew that the guy was working with Berlin and not the guys he said were.
having a plot armor because of being a main...any danger that the character's going through, we know he'd survive later, cause s/he happens to be a main, and the show will sink without him/her.
it literally suck the joy out of me when I feel that the named character is walking around indestructible.
When you feel very excited when you think a character your rooting for is THIS CLOSE to finding out a huge secret that could help him/her on the long run but ended up not to because of some twist of fate that made him/her unaware by mere moments. Prolonging the agony of it is what frustrates me the most.
1. In a dangerous situation when one of those characters says to the other: I love you, we're gonna get out of here and then in the next scene the significant other is dead. Sometimes only the I love you is already enough. Haven't we seen anyone alive after that? Those words do really kill.
2. Resurrected from the dead. Only works in fantasy shows but I already have enough of it. For example The Vampire Diaries.
3. Season finales that feels like a cliffhanger with no closed storylines here and there. Then I feel the next season is merely a continuation from the previous season instead of Season 2. More like 1.5.
4. Make a character dumb and repeats the same thing over and over. Like Serena from Gossip Girl and Emma from Once Upon A Time.
1. Plot-holes or easy you're-all-so-dumb-viewers thoughtless plots! 2. Coming up with lame plots to write-off the character that its cast can't make it anymore. 3. Love triangles. (really, how many of them you've seen in real life?! me, none!)
- Fan service scenes (prime examples would be Supernatural, Lost Girl & OUAT etc). - Deus ex machina endings instead of credible outcomes. - Teen angst/brooding/temper tantrums. Ugh, just no. - Dumbing down a character to make another character seem smarter or more powerful. - Love triangle/square angst/jealous outbursts. Worst part of Lost was the whole Jack/Kate/Sawyer/Juliet thing. The fact that jealousy was the catalyst for Juliet's death made me hate it all the more.
Countdowns are basically always wrong. Sometimes they are simply absurd: 1 minute on the clock and two minutes later there are still like 20 seconds left. I hate it!!
In general: * When they disregard history/mythology continuity to fit a plot change
In specific: * When someone agrees to not do something because they frankly shouldn't and then they go off and do it anyway, get in trouble, and need to be rescued. Stay in the car.
* Keeping secrets, talking in riddles and then dying or having to leave before they get to the point so that the writers can maintain a mystery. We don't start talking like fortune cookies just because we're on-the-run/just-been-stabbed/only-have-a-few-minutes-before-our-former-bad-guy-partners-arrive
I hate them wearing 5-in heels and running around. But conversely, Olivia's FBI-issue dumpy, clumpy shoes in Fringe bugged me too. Can't win for losing I guess. :-)
Couldn't agree more with all of these. Especially number 2. I remember and episode of criminal minds where they did it and it was just so ridiculously unbelievale. It's what happens when the writers forget to write a way to solve a case
That's why game of thrones is so great. You don't think there's any way they'll die. Then they do. It's a real shock to the system though when you're so used to stuff like supernatural where literally death doesn't exist (well he does. But that's not what I meant)
Love triangles!! Can't stand em. Ruin any show. And on top of that, ships that only happen coz that's what the fans want (looking at you Emma and hook)
Going against canon. Or erasing canon to solve a plot. Supernatural has been a terrible offender in recent seasons.
People being told not to do something. Then doing it anyway. Then screwing everything up.
This one is really specific but Sam being knocked out in every episode of season 8/9 and needing to be saved by dean in supernatural.
For me it´s with PLL, everytime they show A´s hood I wanna fuc*ing know who it is and they always reveal al a season finale and then it´s no him/her, it´s another one and it´s just SOOO confusing that I wanna know it!!!!!!!!!!
Casting famous guest stars in crime-solving/procedural shows.
they spoil the killer almost every time when the guest star shows up on the screen, if you want us to be surprised and actually be intrigued...keep it interesting (looking at you CSI !)
Storyline aspects: love triangles destroying character to make it fit into stupid ship developing character and then magically making old self come back keeping minor characters without giving them any kind of stoyline character whom only purpose is making viewers laugh I have to tell you sth *killed* Stay here *stays for whole 5 seconds* deja vu storylines getting shot in heart and surviving in drama/too many resurrections in fantasy shows car accidents in finales
Explaining things in "rounds," as in: Detective 1, "He was stabbed twelve times." Detective 2, "That means the killer was angry." Detective 3: "And the killer had issues with the victim--" When one person could have said all that.
People being assaulted, tied up, and held captive--and still remain gorgeous.
People being shot and coming out of it just fine the next week.
Grammatical errors!! As in, "He gave the order to she and I" or "she and me." "Momentarily" meaning in a moment, instead of for a moment. Oh so many grammatical errors.
Amnesia. Again? Every show has someone come down with amnesia.
Yes! Dying before they get to the point. Or, "I have something to tell you, but I'll tell you tomorrow." You know that person will be killed before tomorrow.
When every new show seems to have a character come in that the lead has a "past" with. Enough already. Writers need to use their imaginations to find ways for them to have conflict.
1. LOVE GEOMETRY and the need to pair off everyone - I don't care what shape it comes in, all these cliched love pairings need to go. It always makes the characters look stupid. After all if someone can't make up their mind about if they want to be in a relationship with you or your brother/sister/cousin/best friend/worst enemy/etc, then why on earth would you want to be with them? The obsessive need to pair off everyone and especially work partners is equally as vexing. This is especially perturbing when they have to sneak around so their co-workers and bosses won't know. Just stop already. When partners become lovers, that's when I'm getting off from now on. It's so old it isn't cute anymore at all.
2. Fan pandering - Writers and other important people on shows need to get off social media and write their own freaking shows. Adding in things to please the most vocal fans does a show no favors and needs to go.
3. People who are terrible at their jobs - Blame The Following for making Feds look like simpletons with no common sense. Blame Helix for making the CDC look like morons, who can't follow basic protocol. Blame every cop show that has people touching evidence without gloves, trampling through crime scenes, walking around in heels with their hair blowing around, having conversations about secret things in public, or leaving evidence wily nily around for making cops look incompetent.
4. Canon breaking - Look I know it is hard on a long-running show to keep track of canon and I know fans know shows better that the show's creators, writers, show runners, producers, and actors do. That's the nature of fandom. However, it isn't asking too much to try to remember the big things or hey, even to know your own characters. Jeremy Carver, talking to you! If you start throwing canon grenades everywhere, the foundation crumbles too and then all you have is a mess of your own making.
5. Dead people who don't stay dead - This is no longer a cliffhanger. It's a detriment to your show. Sci fi and fantasy shows are the absolute worst at this. If you want death to mean something, you can't have people popping up like daisies every season. Dean Winchester says it best, "What's dead should stay dead." Oh and just changing your mind and saying the person really wasn't dead is the cheapest copout of them all. I'm looking at you, Malcolm Merlyn.
6. Dragging things out way too long / Questions without answers - I admit I don't have any patience, but for the love of my sanity, a secret doesn't need to take an entire season to reveal. Even worse is when shows constantly add new questions/mysteries without ever solving the old ones. Those shows make me feel like they don't have any more clue of where they are going than I do. Tell me one more time how the truth is out there, Chris Carter. I dare you. Then you have those deathbed confessions where they never get to the important part. On Teen Wolf, Allison could live long enough to confess her undying love to Scott in great, flowing opera sentences and yet she had to croak before she could tell them that silver takes out the season-long bad guys. Really? Urgh! This is right up there with people deciding to wait just a little longer to tell the truth and ending up dead, etc. before they can.
7. Bad guys who can't shoot - I'm sorry but when a well-trained militia of heavily armed soldiers go against our intrepid heroes who have 3 bullets left to their name, it's not the bad guys who should end up dead. It bugs me to no end. Stop putting characters in such unbelievable predicaments or come up with something more plausible than the bad guys can't aim please.
I have dozens more that I posted during the Character Cup this summer but I have to stop procrastinating. My shows are not going to review themselves.
I can't really disagree with any of this but I do have 2 small nits to pick: 1. I'd like to amend your "bad guys who can't shoot" section to include good guys who are spectacular marksmen yet suddenly can't hit the broad side of a barn when going after a main bad guy. 2. If you're going to talk about destroying canon, instead of " throwing canon grenades" why not say "firing canon balls?" It's catchier. :)
I agree to your 2 amendments. Good guys not being able to shoot is equally frustrating. I once described Jeremy Carver as a canon IED, but for the rest of them "firing canon balls" is perfect. BWAAHH!!!
I've read through the comments here - can I say all of the above? lol I agree with everyone. Except maybe the main character being indestructible. I don't mind that cause I want all the main characters to live. There are ways of making it seem like they could die (permanently) though without doing it.
I can't disagree either. The term "Love geometry" is really a perfect fit. Because love triangle aren't enough, nah now we have love square or love pentagone... Please, just stop. Like paring weren't anoying enough... It is usually there I am out. Seriously I was watching a pilot yesterday and there it was ! a love triangle ! Not loud and clear but it is bound to happen. On a pilot for pete's sake !
And even when they don't pair partners, they suceed to pair one partner with the brother of the other. Between all people. Elementary ! I like Mycroft even if he isn't the usual Mycroft Holmes. Ifans and Miller were great together. I still believe the affair between Mycroft and Watson unnecessary though. They stayed in London for a few days and they find a way to sleep together, why can people take time for relationship in a show ? At list they didn't drag it on every episodes. On the other hand it did lead to some great scenes between Sherlock and Mycroft...
Other scenario, the pairing thing, some shows actually understand that it doesn't do any good. But they end up fan pandering like you said. Which lead to will they/ Won't they for how many saisons and writers don't know how to handle it and it's getting ridiculous and maybe worse that if the character were paired... And it's basically the same thing that droping / don't resolving a storyling. And it's terrible.
Actually a pairing doesn't necessarily annoy me. Usually when showrunners and writers knows where they are going it will turn out okay, even the so annoying paring. When they don't know were they are going, that's when they start "firing canon balls" (copyright Bruce_F) and it's getting messy. And when a show is on the aire for a long time its not that surprising. When you start a story, you have to know how to end it.
As for the rest, i would need twenty pages so I am just gonna stop there.
- I HATE IT when characters, after going through several seasons of development and change, go back to their previous selves. - When shows go on for several seasons, characters transform from teens to adults etc. and in the end they still end up in the same pairings from season 1 just because fans got used to them. Or when some characters have great chemistry but the writers make them break up because everyone is already used to them being paired with their former partners - RECAST CHARACTERS. Game of Thrones, looking at you - When writers don't know how sth will end in advance. You can ALWAYS tell. It's either well-thought, well-built or a total mess - Trying to fill in holes left by deceased characters. Never works - When smart outgoing guys fall for codependent, weak girls with no personality. Makes me think I'm too good for this world :P
1. Dragged on relationships!!!! (Example: Tiva anyone?) 2. Criminals who go full stupid mode when cornered. (Ex: Can't aim, can't think, can't do nothing) 3. Shows that end on cliffhangers but gets cancelled 4. Shows that promise answers in promos but then pose more questions at end of episode 5. Too many shows have that one quirky character that bugs the bloody heck out of everyone else 6. Spinoffs. I can do one spinoff but anything after that just irks me. (Ex: CSI, NCIS, Law and Order) 7. Deep, important, and possible life changing conversations that get interrupted (Great show but Castle has done this a lot...) 8. Any character death :D
Ha, have you been watching TV, CDC did not need Helix to make them look like morons and I worked at a company that was robbed, the FBI came and could not figure out how it happened, I tried to tell them and they blew me off, did not want to hear it. So since the early 70s I have not had faith in the FBI. BTW the case was never solved.
Everything that's been posted, especially Dahne's post. The only thing I will add is the killing of a fan favorite or beloved character and calling it "good story" or worse yet, do an interview after the fact and say you thought fans would love it. Prison Break, I am talking about you. I'm still angry over their stupidity in killing Michael.
When after a horrible cliffhanger on a season finale you get a season premiere when they just skip 6 months or one year and everything is peachy again.
Couldn't agree more. On Chicago Fire they killed Shay so the show could "have better storylines." The storylines are better from where I'm sitting. Obviously I'm still bitter.
I had to stop calling it a love triangle when we started getting love octagons. It really has gotten ridiculous. I just finished Red Band Society and spent half my time throwing socks and yelling at characters to shut up because they all went from great characters in their own right to jealous banshees. And not the good, Lydia kind of banshee. Ugh! Another great show down the drain.
I agree that the Mycroft and Watson fling made zero sense but I have to admit I was happy they didn't have Sherlock and Watson go down that road so I tolerated it. Still I am tired of all pairing. I don't trust showrunners or writers enough to not pander to fans these days which makes everything they do suspect.
There are so many TV cliches these days that it's hard to know where to stop in TV pet peeves. These are my biggest ones but there are plenty more like changing major characters to fit the plot of a standalone episode jsut because the writers think the idea is cool or they get stuck in a writing corner, plot devices of all shapes, most antiheroes and almost all Chosen One characters (who might as well be called Mary Sue and be done with it), and the freaking villain monologue. By the time they are done, I am wishing the hero would kill them just to shut them up.
I totally agree with the above, The other thing I hate is when in the mystery dramas they cast pretty known actors as the "who done it". Most of the time they play down the part at the start of the episode like the character is irrelevant and this pretty much unintentionally gives away the "who done it" plot just by the casting a known actor in that "irrelevant role".
#2 - I especially hate it when they dumb down a formerly brilliant villain just so the hero can catch them. It makes me think they are all incompetent. And yes, that includes the writers.
And then realizing their mistake and hastily finding any excuse they can come up with to a do-over, even if it makes zero sense. It's the cornerstone of genre shows these days. I still maintain that no one would believe Malcolm Merlyn was dead without hard evidence, i.e. his cold, dead, lifeless body. He mass murdered a city so they aren't going to take a vigilante's word for it that he really truly did die. It makes zero sense at all.
1. Add Arrow to that list as well. 3. I would say almost every teen role on TV is on my list. Before the freaking love triangle Red Band Society (minus Kara) would be exempt as is the Teen Wolf crowd, but that's about it. 4. Especially when that character is the previously genius villain and it's getting towards the end of the season. 5. 100% agreed.
Yes, yes, and yes. It's even more irksome when they change canon for some random standalone episode that means nothing anyway and then you are stuck with that canon.
"We don't start talking like fortune cookies just because we're on-the-run/just-been-stabbed/only-have-a-few-minutes-before-our-former-bad-guy-partners-arrive." Bwah! That's the best way i've ever heard it put.
I would add destroying formerly awesome characters by making everything about the ship so they are defined by nothing more than the romance. It happens to great female characters all the time.
Slow mo is one of the banes of my TV watching life. Teen Wolf hasn't met a slow mo shot it didn't love, smother to death, and then resurrect to do it all over again. I swear Gracepoint would be 10 minutes shorter is it cut out the slow mo.
I am good with the previouslies but not when they are then shown in the actual episode too. What the heck! Recapitations in general are a bad, bad TV trend.
5. Ha! Amnesia is one of my pet peeves too. Has any amnesia story in the history of TV ever been more entertaining than it is annoying? I cannot think of one. It's like a bad daytime soap. 6. I call that the Violetta Dying trope. Every single time it reminds me of watching La Traviata with my sister-in-law and both of us befuddled about how a woman dying of tuberculosis could still be caterwauling her love when she's on her death bed. Then she croaks midsentence and I shake my head.
The thing I hated with prison break is they could never catch a break, half the plans were stuffed up one way or another leading into yet another plan and so on. they did make it enjoyable to watch but you couldn't go an episode without thinking about whats going to go wrong.
Is that like when one of the main "super weapons" suddenly goes missing, and the main characters never mention it or try looking for it ever again. they must of had the colt shoot and kill itself.
I'm not a CF fanatic but I do like most of the show. Shay was part of what I liked. The wonderful, platonic relationship between Shay and Severide. They were best friends. Tell me how killing her gives better storylines? Writers make me sick sometimes. It's like they run out of ideas and say to themselves "hey, if we kill off Waldo, that'll give us a few episodes." Um, no. If you had kept her you could have had seasons of great storylines. Frankly Dawson annoys me but I guess they didn't want Casey to lose two women that he loves.
Or the classic - he/she loves a friend, he/she never tells that person because they are with someone else, something happens to boyfriend/girlfriend, he/she finally tells them how he/she fells, they finally kiss, then that other person suddenly comes back into the picture after a miracle of god. its not that i hate it the story of it, I hate the cliche.
The Sam getting knocked out one is just pathetic, Jared could actually be at home with his family if not needed on screen rather than having to play knocked out just to get him out of a scene. The treatment of Sam Winchester by the writers has been nothing short of disgusting. I feel sorry for Jared who puts his heart and soul in the job and gets to see his character butchered on a weekly basis just to make another character look good and to appease that characters fans. If it wasnt for the pay check I think he would have walked years ago.
3 - The arrest or catch of a villain/bad guy in procedurals can be really bad. Either it is like you discribe for big viliains, they end up shot when they're about to shoot or when they're about to change their mind. Either way they end up dead. And in the worse case the poor bastard shoot himself at the last second.
But the petty "bad guys" are the worse. In one episode you can have more than 3 chases of stupide innocent people. 5-seconds chases. Every time a cop says something from "we need to speak to you" to "put your hand where I can see them", we hear a false suspense music then the guy do what looks like a very bad feint and start running... for five seconds, until the cop catches him. It is seriously infuriating.
3! The villian will hold a gun to the hero's head and the hero will insist that he's going to kill him and the villian shrugs it off and then, well, dies.
Having John Scott use his dying breath in the "Fringe" pilot to urge Olivia to ask Broyles why he sent her to the storage facility and then a) never having her ask Broyles and b) never letting us in on the answer. The guy used his DYING FREAKING WORDS. He might as well have said "that'll put marzipan in your pie plate, bingo"
4. Exactly! I hate what they did to Rebecca/Rachel on White Collar, for example. If she was brilliant enough to con Neal, Mozzie & Peter, surely she shouldn't be so easy to outwit (twice).
That is exactly who I was thinking of when I wrote that. I loved Rebecca and how smart she was. Then they made her gullible for no reason and it ruined it for me.
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1 - Putting the lead in Danger when you know all too well that they won't get killed
ReplyDelete2 - CSI style super zooming in on a pixelated image and being able to super-hi res it to find the killer!
3 - Villian is about to shoot one of the main cast, draws the gun and slowly pulls the trigger only to be shot themselves miliseconds before firing.
4 - ANY FORM OF COUNTDOWN CLOCK SCENE WHEN THEY STOP IT WITH 00:01 Seconds to go.
Someone post a link to the tv tropes. That should be the end of the thread. ;) :)
ReplyDeleteWhen Andros had to kill Zordon to save the galaxy! In Power Rangers in Space.
ReplyDeleteI really don't get it.
When someone is about to reveal or confess something super important we've been waiting forever and the other character is saying "let me go first" and ruins everything.
ReplyDeleteWhen a plotline has a gaping hole so large you could steer a ship through it
ReplyDeleteThe bland cop procedural cliffhangers or the situations they get stuck to,either getting kidnapped or a bomb threat or their family in danger-you know they will solve it or get out of that situation in nick of time no matter how impossible it seems.No one cares if u know they were ever in any real danger.Case in point-Castle season 6 finale cliffhanger was beyond lame even though the show is brilliant IMO!
ReplyDelete-Constant use of bait-and-switch. The main reason that I'm getting annoyed at The Blacklist.
ReplyDelete-When someone is about to admit something, the other person gets a call and then they decide not to tell them.
-ARROW CATCHING.
-Bringing people back from the dead (with the exception of Jack Harkness/Henry Morgan - given that it is a part of their character). Still annoyed at 24 season 7 (though that was also due to making Tony a bad guy, as well as bringing him back from the dead)
-When a character ignores all logic and does something because of it (looking at you Laurel from season 2 of Arrow)
-An otherwise intelligent character is made to look like an idiot by a decision they make (any season 1 episode of Prison Break where Michael told Tweener new info)
when a series ends in a "to be continued'. that's the most frustrating moments!!!
ReplyDelete1.) When characters eavesdrop on a conversation and ends up finding out information that they specifically weren't meant to know.
ReplyDelete2.) When walking to the other side of the room seems to create a magic sound barrier that makes it okay to spill all your secrets without having to worry other people in the room might hear you. And then, they wonder how the others found out about it...
3.) Clip Shows.
4.) Zoom In + Enhancement.
5.) Character turns on the lights and someone has been lurking in the dark for who knows how long.
There are more but these are the ones from the top of my head.
Bait and switch is a pain in the arse. Castle is an infamous exponent of it too.
ReplyDeleteThey do it on Prison Break a lot. Luckily, the rest of everything that is happening is strong enough to make up for it. Also, the ploys are intelligent and it's almost impossible to guess what's gonna happen.
ReplyDeleteWith The Blacklist, if you look at 2.03 with Vargas, you knew that Red wasn't going to die and because of that, you knew that the guy was working with Berlin and not the guys he said were.
I always time them and they ALWAYS take more time than the countdown.
ReplyDeleteWhen it's a season finale and everything is all good and dandy... only knowing that there's still 10 minutes remaining so SOMETHING bad has to happen.
ReplyDeletehaving a plot armor because of being a main...any danger that the character's going through, we know he'd survive later, cause s/he happens to be a main, and the show will sink without him/her.
ReplyDeleteit literally suck the joy out of me when I feel that the named character is walking around indestructible.
When you feel very excited when you think a character your rooting for is THIS CLOSE to finding out a huge secret that could help him/her on the long run but ended up not to because of some twist of fate that made him/her unaware by mere moments. Prolonging the agony of it is what frustrates me the most.
ReplyDelete1. In a dangerous situation when one of those characters says to the other: I love you, we're gonna get out of here and then in the next scene the significant other is dead. Sometimes only the I love you is already enough. Haven't we seen anyone alive after that? Those words do really kill.
ReplyDelete2. Resurrected from the dead. Only works in fantasy shows but I already have enough of it. For example The Vampire Diaries.
3. Season finales that feels like a cliffhanger with no closed storylines here and there. Then I feel the next season is merely a continuation from the previous season instead of Season 2. More like 1.5.
4. Make a character dumb and repeats the same thing over and over. Like Serena from Gossip Girl and Emma from Once Upon A Time.
Throwing canon out the window, Supernatural is a prime example.
ReplyDeleteIt is dark and quiet and someone is creeping up and sound like a horse clopping. You would think they would be wearing shoes that are softer. ;)
Police women that wear spike heels to work, would really like to see them run..dumb.
Small talking.
ReplyDelete1. Plot-holes or easy you're-all-so-dumb-viewers thoughtless plots!
ReplyDelete2. Coming up with lame plots to write-off the character that its cast can't make it anymore.
3. Love triangles. (really, how many of them you've seen in real life?! me, none!)
- Fan service scenes (prime examples would be Supernatural, Lost Girl & OUAT etc).
ReplyDelete- Deus ex machina endings instead of credible outcomes.
- Teen angst/brooding/temper tantrums. Ugh, just no.
- Dumbing down a character to make another character seem smarter or more powerful.
- Love triangle/square angst/jealous outbursts. Worst part of Lost was the whole Jack/Kate/Sawyer/Juliet thing. The fact that jealousy was the catalyst for Juliet's death made me hate it all the more.
Countdowns are basically always wrong.
ReplyDeleteSometimes they are simply absurd: 1 minute on the clock and two minutes later there are still like 20 seconds left. I hate it!!
In general:
ReplyDelete* When they disregard history/mythology continuity to fit a plot change
In specific:
* When someone agrees to not do something because they frankly shouldn't and then they go off and do it anyway, get in trouble, and need to be rescued. Stay in the car.
* Keeping secrets, talking in riddles and then dying or having to leave before they get to the point so that the writers can maintain a mystery. We don't start talking like fortune cookies just because we're on-the-run/just-been-stabbed/only-have-a-few-minutes-before-our-former-bad-guy-partners-arrive
I agree.
ReplyDeleteI hate them wearing 5-in heels and running around. But conversely, Olivia's FBI-issue dumpy, clumpy shoes in Fringe bugged me too. Can't win for losing I guess. :-)
Couldn't agree more with all of these. Especially number 2. I remember and episode of criminal minds where they did it and it was just so ridiculously unbelievale. It's what happens when the writers forget to write a way to solve a case
ReplyDeleteYes!! Catching an arrow. It's so annoying.
ReplyDeleteThat's why game of thrones is so great. You don't think there's any way they'll die. Then they do. It's a real shock to the system though when you're so used to stuff like supernatural where literally death doesn't exist (well he does. But that's not what I meant)
ReplyDeleteLove triangles!! Can't stand em. Ruin any show. And on top of that, ships that only happen coz that's what the fans want (looking at you Emma and hook)
ReplyDeleteGoing against canon. Or erasing canon to solve a plot. Supernatural has been a terrible offender in recent seasons.
People being told not to do something. Then doing it anyway. Then screwing everything up.
This one is really specific but Sam being knocked out in every episode of season 8/9 and needing to be saved by dean in supernatural.
Ha, Olivia's shoes never bothered me, they were not pretty, but worked for the job. ;_
ReplyDeleteTotally agree. I think a few more 3-5 episode story arcs might help. And a few more bad cops.
ReplyDeleteFor me it´s with PLL, everytime they show A´s hood I wanna fuc*ing know who it is and they always reveal al a season finale and then it´s no him/her, it´s another one and it´s just SOOO confusing that I wanna know it!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteCasting famous guest stars in crime-solving/procedural shows.
ReplyDeletethey spoil the killer almost every time when the guest star shows up on the screen, if you want us to be surprised and actually be intrigued...keep it interesting (looking at you CSI !)
Storyline aspects:
ReplyDeletelove triangles
destroying character to make it fit into stupid ship
developing character and then magically making old self come back
keeping minor characters without giving them any kind of stoyline
character whom only purpose is making viewers laugh
I have to tell you sth *killed*
Stay here *stays for whole 5 seconds*
deja vu storylines
getting shot in heart and surviving in drama/too many resurrections in fantasy shows
car accidents in finales
Technical aspects:
slow motion (90%)
'previously on'
fights without touching
poor visual effects
too much 'dramatic' music + using awful covers instead of originals
LOVE TRIANGLES!
ReplyDeleteExplaining things in "rounds," as in: Detective 1, "He was stabbed twelve times." Detective 2, "That means the killer was angry." Detective 3: "And the killer had issues with the victim--" When one person could have said all that.
ReplyDeletePeople being assaulted, tied up, and held captive--and still remain gorgeous.
People being shot and coming out of it just fine the next week.
Grammatical errors!! As in, "He gave the order to she and I" or "she and me." "Momentarily" meaning in a moment, instead of for a moment. Oh so many grammatical errors.
Amnesia. Again? Every show has someone come down with amnesia.
Yes! Dying before they get to the point. Or, "I have something to tell you, but I'll tell you tomorrow." You know that person will be killed before tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteWhen every new show seems to have a character come in that the lead has a "past" with. Enough already. Writers need to use their imaginations to find ways for them to have conflict.
ReplyDeleteWhen one character says something and the other character stares at them for 10 seconds till they cut to commercial or end the episode.
ReplyDeleteThe end of House season 5 where we find you the Huddy scene from the previous episode was actually an hallucination
ReplyDeleteGeneral:
ReplyDelete1. LOVE GEOMETRY and the need to pair off everyone - I don't care what shape it comes in, all these cliched love pairings need to go. It always makes the characters look stupid. After all if someone can't make up their mind about if they want to be in a relationship with you or your brother/sister/cousin/best friend/worst enemy/etc, then why on earth would you want to be with them? The obsessive need to pair off everyone and especially work partners is equally as vexing. This is especially perturbing when they have to sneak around so their co-workers and bosses won't know. Just stop already. When partners become lovers, that's when I'm getting off from now on. It's so old it isn't cute anymore at all.
2. Fan pandering - Writers and other important people on shows need to get off social media and write their own freaking shows. Adding in things to please the most vocal fans does a show no favors and needs to go.
3. People who are terrible at their jobs - Blame The Following for making Feds look like simpletons with no common sense. Blame Helix for making the CDC look like morons, who can't follow basic protocol. Blame every cop show that has people touching evidence without gloves, trampling through crime scenes, walking around in heels with their hair blowing around, having conversations about secret things in public, or leaving evidence wily nily around for making cops look incompetent.
4. Canon breaking - Look I know it is hard on a long-running show to keep track of canon and I know fans know shows better that the show's creators, writers, show runners, producers, and actors do. That's the nature of fandom. However, it isn't asking too much to try to remember the big things or hey, even to know your own characters. Jeremy Carver, talking to you! If you start throwing canon grenades everywhere, the foundation crumbles too and then all you have is a mess of your own making.
5. Dead people who don't stay dead - This is no longer a cliffhanger. It's a detriment to your show. Sci fi and fantasy shows are the absolute worst at this. If you want death to mean something, you can't have people popping up like daisies every season. Dean Winchester says it best, "What's dead should stay dead." Oh and just changing your mind and saying the person really wasn't dead is the cheapest copout of them all. I'm looking at you, Malcolm Merlyn.
6. Dragging things out way too long / Questions without answers - I admit I don't have any patience, but for the love of my sanity, a secret doesn't need to take an entire season to reveal. Even worse is when shows constantly add new questions/mysteries without ever solving the old ones. Those shows make me feel like they don't have any more clue of where they are going than I do. Tell me one more time how the truth is out there, Chris Carter. I dare you. Then you have those deathbed confessions where they never get to the important part. On Teen Wolf, Allison could live long enough to confess her undying love to Scott in great, flowing opera sentences and yet she had to croak before she could tell them that silver takes out the season-long bad guys. Really? Urgh! This is right up there with people deciding to wait just a little longer to tell the truth and ending up dead, etc. before they can.
7. Bad guys who can't shoot - I'm sorry but when a well-trained militia of heavily armed soldiers go against our intrepid heroes who have 3 bullets left to their name, it's not the bad guys who should end up dead. It bugs me to no end. Stop putting characters in such unbelievable predicaments or come up with something more plausible than the bad guys can't aim please.
I have dozens more that I posted during the Character Cup this summer but I have to stop procrastinating. My shows are not going to review themselves.
I can't really disagree with any of this but I do have 2 small nits to pick:
ReplyDelete1. I'd like to amend your "bad guys who can't shoot" section to include good guys who are spectacular marksmen yet suddenly can't hit the broad side of a barn when going after a main bad guy.
2. If you're going to talk about destroying canon, instead of " throwing canon grenades" why not say "firing canon balls?" It's catchier. :)
I agree to your 2 amendments. Good guys not being able to shoot is equally frustrating. I once described Jeremy Carver as a canon IED, but for the rest of them "firing canon balls" is perfect. BWAAHH!!!
ReplyDeleteI've read through the comments here - can I say all of the above? lol I agree with everyone. Except maybe the main character being indestructible. I don't mind that cause I want all the main characters to live. There are ways of making it seem like they could die (permanently) though without doing it.
ReplyDeleteI can't disagree either.
ReplyDeleteThe term "Love geometry" is really a perfect fit. Because love triangle aren't enough, nah now we have love square or love pentagone... Please, just stop. Like paring weren't anoying enough... It is usually there I am out. Seriously I was watching a pilot yesterday and there it was ! a love triangle ! Not loud and clear but it is bound to happen. On a pilot for pete's sake !
And even when they don't pair partners, they suceed to pair one partner with the brother of the other. Between all people. Elementary ! I like Mycroft even if he isn't the usual Mycroft Holmes. Ifans and Miller were great together. I still believe the affair between Mycroft and Watson unnecessary though. They stayed in London for a few days and they find a way to sleep together, why can people take time for relationship in a show ? At list they didn't drag it on every episodes.
On the other hand it did lead to some great scenes between Sherlock and Mycroft...
Other scenario, the pairing thing, some shows actually understand that it doesn't do any good. But they end up fan pandering like you said. Which lead to will they/ Won't they for how many saisons and writers don't know how to handle it and it's getting ridiculous and maybe worse that if the character were paired... And it's basically the same thing that droping / don't resolving a storyling. And it's terrible.
Actually a pairing doesn't necessarily annoy me. Usually when showrunners and writers knows where they are going it will turn out okay, even the so annoying paring. When they don't know were they are going, that's when they start "firing canon balls" (copyright Bruce_F) and it's getting messy. And when a show is on the aire for a long time its not that surprising. When you start a story, you have to know how to end it.
As for the rest, i would need twenty pages so I am just gonna stop there.
- I HATE IT when characters, after going through several seasons of development and change, go back to their previous selves.
ReplyDelete- When shows go on for several seasons, characters transform from teens to adults etc. and in the end they still end up in the same pairings from season 1 just because fans got used to them. Or when some characters have great chemistry but the writers make them break up because everyone is already used to them being paired with their former partners
- RECAST CHARACTERS. Game of Thrones, looking at you
- When writers don't know how sth will end in advance. You can ALWAYS tell. It's either well-thought, well-built or a total mess
- Trying to fill in holes left by deceased characters. Never works
- When smart outgoing guys fall for codependent, weak girls with no personality. Makes me think I'm too good for this world :P
1. Dragged on relationships!!!! (Example: Tiva anyone?)
ReplyDelete2. Criminals who go full stupid mode when cornered. (Ex: Can't aim, can't think, can't do nothing)
3. Shows that end on cliffhangers but gets cancelled
4. Shows that promise answers in promos but then pose more questions at end of episode
5. Too many shows have that one quirky character that bugs the bloody heck out of everyone else
6. Spinoffs. I can do one spinoff but anything after that just irks me. (Ex: CSI, NCIS, Law and Order)
7. Deep, important, and possible life changing conversations that get interrupted (Great show but Castle has done this a lot...)
8. Any character death :D
Everything you put here. Everything and more, I can't even find the words to add more.
ReplyDeleteHa, have you been watching TV, CDC did not need Helix to make them look like morons and I worked at a company that was robbed, the FBI came and could not figure out how it happened, I tried to tell them and they blew me off, did not want to hear it. So since the early 70s I have not had faith in the FBI. BTW the case was never solved.
ReplyDeleteEverything that's been posted, especially Dahne's post. The only thing I will add is the killing of a fan favorite or beloved character and calling it "good story" or worse yet, do an interview after the fact and say you thought fans would love it. Prison Break, I am talking about you. I'm still angry over their stupidity in killing Michael.
ReplyDeleteWhen after a horrible cliffhanger on a season finale you get a season premiere when they just skip 6 months or one year and everything is peachy again.
ReplyDeleteCouldn't agree more. On Chicago Fire they killed Shay so the show could "have better storylines." The storylines are better from where I'm sitting. Obviously I'm still bitter.
ReplyDeleteI had to stop calling it a love triangle when we started getting love octagons. It really has gotten ridiculous. I just finished Red Band Society and spent half my time throwing socks and yelling at characters to shut up because they all went from great characters in their own right to jealous banshees. And not the good, Lydia kind of banshee. Ugh! Another great show down the drain.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the Mycroft and Watson fling made zero sense but I have to admit I was happy they didn't have Sherlock and Watson go down that road so I tolerated it. Still I am tired of all pairing. I don't trust showrunners or writers enough to not pander to fans these days which makes everything they do suspect.
There are so many TV cliches these days that it's hard to know where to stop in TV pet peeves. These are my biggest ones but there are plenty more like changing major characters to fit the plot of a standalone episode jsut because the writers think the idea is cool or they get stuck in a writing corner, plot devices of all shapes, most antiheroes and almost all Chosen One characters (who might as well be called Mary Sue and be done with it), and the freaking villain monologue. By the time they are done, I am wishing the hero would kill them just to shut them up.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with the above, The other thing I hate is when in the mystery dramas they cast pretty known actors as the "who done it". Most of the time they play down the part at the start of the episode like the character is irrelevant and this pretty much unintentionally gives away the "who done it" plot just by the casting a known actor in that "irrelevant role".
ReplyDelete#2 - I especially hate it when they dumb down a formerly brilliant villain just so the hero can catch them. It makes me think they are all incompetent. And yes, that includes the writers.
ReplyDeleteAnd then realizing their mistake and hastily finding any excuse they can come up with to a do-over, even if it makes zero sense. It's the cornerstone of genre shows these days. I still maintain that no one would believe Malcolm Merlyn was dead without hard evidence, i.e. his cold, dead, lifeless body. He mass murdered a city so they aren't going to take a vigilante's word for it that he really truly did die. It makes zero sense at all.
ReplyDeleteI know zero as well, btu Hollywood would have us believe that no one can make up their minds.
ReplyDelete1. Add Arrow to that list as well.
ReplyDelete3. I would say almost every teen role on TV is on my list. Before the freaking love triangle Red Band Society (minus Kara) would be exempt as is the Teen Wolf crowd, but that's about it.
4. Especially when that character is the previously genius villain and it's getting towards the end of the season.
5. 100% agreed.
Yes, yes, and yes. It's even more irksome when they change canon for some random standalone episode that means nothing anyway and then you are stuck with that canon.
ReplyDelete"We don't start talking like fortune cookies just because we're on-the-run/just-been-stabbed/only-have-a-few-minutes-before-our-former-bad-guy-partners-arrive." Bwah! That's the best way i've ever heard it put.
Jeremy Carver - the ultimate canon IED, exploding everything in his path.
ReplyDeleteI would add destroying formerly awesome characters by making everything about the ship so they are defined by nothing more than the romance. It happens to great female characters all the time.
ReplyDeleteSlow mo is one of the banes of my TV watching life. Teen Wolf hasn't met a slow mo shot it didn't love, smother to death, and then resurrect to do it all over again. I swear Gracepoint would be 10 minutes shorter is it cut out the slow mo.
I am good with the previouslies but not when they are then shown in the actual episode too. What the heck! Recapitations in general are a bad, bad TV trend.
5. Ha! Amnesia is one of my pet peeves too. Has any amnesia story in the history of TV ever been more entertaining than it is annoying? I cannot think of one. It's like a bad daytime soap.
ReplyDelete6. I call that the Violetta Dying trope. Every single time it reminds me of watching La Traviata with my sister-in-law and both of us befuddled about how a woman dying of tuberculosis could still be caterwauling her love when she's on her death bed. Then she croaks midsentence and I shake my head.
Similar to love triangles, but the petty jealousy scenes on crime procedural shows.
ReplyDeleteThe thing I hated with prison break is they could never catch a break, half the plans were stuffed up one way or another leading into yet another plan and so on. they did make it enjoyable to watch but you couldn't go an episode without thinking about whats going to go wrong.
ReplyDeleteIs that like when one of the main "super weapons" suddenly goes missing, and the main characters never mention it or try looking for it ever again. they must of had the colt shoot and kill itself.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a CF fanatic but I do like most of the show. Shay was part of what I liked. The wonderful, platonic relationship between Shay and Severide. They were best friends. Tell me how killing her gives better storylines? Writers make me sick sometimes. It's like they run out of ideas and say to themselves "hey, if we kill off Waldo, that'll give us a few episodes." Um, no. If you had kept her you could have had seasons of great storylines. Frankly Dawson annoys me but I guess they didn't want Casey to lose two women that he loves.
ReplyDeleteOr the classic - he/she loves a friend, he/she never tells that person because they are with someone else, something happens to boyfriend/girlfriend, he/she finally tells them how he/she fells, they finally kiss, then that other person suddenly comes back into the picture after a miracle of god. its not that i hate it the story of it, I hate the cliche.
ReplyDeleteAnything and everything happening on SPN for the past 5 seasons
ReplyDeleteThe Sam getting knocked out one is just pathetic, Jared could actually be at home with his family if not needed on screen rather than having to play knocked out just to get him out of a scene. The treatment of Sam Winchester by the writers has been nothing short of disgusting. I feel sorry for Jared who puts his heart and soul in the job and gets to see his character butchered on a weekly basis just to make another character look good and to appease that characters fans. If it wasnt for the pay check I think he would have walked years ago.
ReplyDelete3 - The arrest or catch of a villain/bad guy in procedurals can be really bad. Either it is like you discribe for big viliains, they end up shot when they're about to shoot or when they're about to change their mind. Either way they end up dead. And in the worse case the poor bastard shoot himself at the last second.
ReplyDeleteBut the petty "bad guys" are the worse. In one episode you can have more than 3 chases of stupide innocent people. 5-seconds chases. Every time a cop says something from "we need to speak to you" to "put your hand where I can see them", we hear a false suspense music then the guy do what looks like a very bad feint and start running... for five seconds, until the cop catches him. It is seriously infuriating.
Shows that end on a cliffhanger, and then get cancelled. (I'm looking at you, Showtime, and what you did with The Borgias)
ReplyDeleteShows that look like they going to switch things but end up going back to their old ways.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking at you, Castle - Season 6
2. "Brilliant" detectives
ReplyDelete3. Cases that are solved in less than 2 days and always end in a confession.
Im looking at you, police procedurals.
I thought of Criminal Minds straight away!
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely.
ReplyDelete3! The villian will hold a gun to the hero's head and the hero will insist that he's going to kill him and the villian shrugs it off and then, well, dies.
ReplyDeleteThis is every ABC Family show ever!
ReplyDeleteHaving John Scott use his dying breath in the "Fringe" pilot to urge Olivia to ask Broyles why he sent her to the storage facility and then a) never having her ask Broyles and b) never letting us in on the answer. The guy used his DYING FREAKING WORDS. He might as well have said "that'll put marzipan in your pie plate, bingo"
ReplyDelete4. Exactly! I hate what they did to Rebecca/Rachel on White Collar, for example. If she was brilliant enough to con Neal, Mozzie & Peter, surely she shouldn't be so easy to outwit (twice).
ReplyDeleteThat is exactly who I was thinking of when I wrote that. I loved Rebecca and how smart she was. Then they made her gullible for no reason and it ruined it for me.
ReplyDeleteFAN PANDERING - Oh my goodness, yes. This still happens on Criminal Minds, in it's TENTH SEASON no less.
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid it won't stop until the powers that be get off social media or at least make their accounts private.
ReplyDelete