Things in entertainment you'd like to see stop

[Xpwn3ntial]

God, so many to choose from. Here is my top ten in no particular order

6. Romeo and Juliet plots (lovers thwarted by their corresponding faction alignments).

see, I love that. It makes for good conflict. I hate that the couple gets their happy ending, therefore invalidating the entire homage.

As for me, I want the "interview segments" in tv to stop. It's just padding to get a 45-minute runtime. Stop it. I don't care.

 

[Halla Burrica]

Every 'genius' being 25 years old. No buddy, that's not how the world works. There's a reason that all the experts, veterans, Nobel laureates, and Turing laureates are old and experienced.

Every super-programmer of late being 25, female, chatty/hypersocial, and dressed up like a retard/alternative combo. I have met over 3,000 programmers and not a single one of them matched anything even close to that profile. The awesome programmers are old, experienced, and calm, rational people.
.

I can see what you mean, but I'm fairly against fiction being required to adhere to the rules of the real world. Not just because that would mean we couldn't have crazy future tech or conveniences, but because if we were to REALLy adhere to the real world, dialogue would also change. There would be a ton of "uuhm" between sentences, awkward pauses, stuttering, irrational or short-sighted quips going back and forth without anything really happening etc, something I don't think needs to be taken done in fiction, just because it would be more "realistic".

Also to hell with calm and rational characters, I say! What good story has ever been told were the characters were just perfect little things that never had any flaws, never messed up and never had did something wrong? Very few I gather. I'll always take characters with some spunk in them, who trip over chords and start civil wars out of petty grievances, who yell at the mailman for delivering the letters too early. That's what good drama is made out of.

That's also how I prefer to look at people in the real world. I prefer the ones with clear flaws and that make mistakes, because these are people that are imperfect and are willing to show the world just that, and don't try to cover it up or look like they're made of stone.

 

[GrumbleGrump]

I'd like to see them stop always using artificial intelligence as the badguy. Seriously, every fucking movie that has it in it, they're trying to kill humanity. If they don't do the Ultron "I've done the math, and Humanity must die" angle, then they're an AI that started out as a war machine, and everyone is afraid of them because of that, just like SHort Circuit and Chappie. The only AI movie that didn't do this angle, was A.I. And it still had the "humans hate the robots" shit.

I also get fucking sick of the "he messed in God's domain" bullshit, for movies like Transcendence, or Lawnmower man, and other similar movies. Yes, please, let's further misrepresent technological advancement, and ALWAYS color it in the paint of fear and ignorance, planting the seeds in the common person brain that scientific discovery is evil, and we'd all be better if we just lived on a fucking farm. That good old "down to earth" lifestyle bullshit.

This always made noise in head. Why the fucking hell would a perfectly logical intelligence try to destroy humanity? Wouldn't it be easier to leave? The only fiction that has really dealt with this properly is Mass Effect, since the Geth stopped chasing the Quarians when they weren't a threat anymore. Don't even get me started on the "technology being bad" thing.

Anyway, I have a pretty petty niggle but it's one I'd like people to stop. Stop using the fucking BWOOOOOOM sound from inception! It's gotten tiring and clichéd! Inception had a fucking reason to do it, not you! You just want to look cool, fucking assholes!

Also, jumpscares. Fucking stop them. It's not horror, it's not clever, and most of the time it's telegraphed as fuck!

 

[Ravinoff]

Hm...okay, I've got a few.

1: fucking constant jump-cuts. Related to the shaky cam thing that's been mentioned, I'm talking about the trend of never doing anything in one shot, and jumping from perspective to perspective like crazy. It's massively disorienting, and very obviously a lazy shortcut instead of competent cinematography.

2: complete lack of understanding of guns. Yes, working the action of a pump shotgun looks and sounds badass. It also dumps unfired rounds from the magazine, so stop doing it. Glocks do not have hammers, so stop making that noise whenever someone draws one. And for chrissakes, stop chicken-winging every long gun you pick up.

3: your designs should make sense (with some exceptions, like kaiju in Pacific Rim because they're artificial). I was going to apply that specifically to monsters, but come to think of it, this is a massive problem in just about anything. The ship with a crew of half a dozen people has miles of barely-lit corridors, reactor systems that explode at the press of a button, the list goes on and on. And don't try to technobabble it away, either.

 

[Burgers2013]

Laugh tracks. I don't care if it's real. Sit-coms with laugh tracks are extremely annoying now. I couldn't even finish How I Met Your Mother even though I liked it. I read a comic that had laugh tracks in it (American Born Chinese), and it drew my attention to how annoying/unnecessary they are. It's like when someone asks you if you can hear a ringing sound. You didn't notice it before, but now that you draw your attention to it, it's extremely distracting, and you can't stop hearing it. All I can think is: STOP LAUGHING FOR ME. I CAN DO IT BY MYSELF HAHAHA! SEE?? It also seems like they laugh way too often and totally break the rhythm of conversation. "Would you like" BWAHAHAH "to go to the park" BWAHAHAHA "next Saturday?" BWAHAHAHA. I cannot listen to it anymore.

The "chosen one" narrative is annoying. I've actually come to enjoy anti-heroes just because it's a bit different than the excruciatingly irritating optimism of those who know they will succeed. Sure there's always a period of "uncertainty" of the protagonist, but he always seems to come around in the end and fulfill the prophecy--yay, that was exciting. Turning this trope on its head is something I love to see. It's nice when it's not used at all, but I'll take what I can get.

Poorly written antagonists. I saw it a lot in books/anime aimed at teens where the antagonist was an intolerable 1000% asshole for no reason whose only purpose to make use feel sorry for/relate to the protagonist. I never found this very compelling, and it seems to make character development/decision-making "easy" for the protagonist--Like the antagonist is an obstacle to be overcome rather than another human being. Developing all of the relevant characters well makes for a much better story than only focusing on the protagonist's development. This goes for side/minor characters whose only purpose is to give the protagonist a chance to show how awesome he/she is to the audience. It makes the story feel very flat or almost like it exists in a vacuum at times.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Not so much My Little Pony as its fans' attempts at selling it as the BEST THING EVER.

 

[Marik2]

God, so many to choose from. Here is my top ten in no particular order

6. Romeo and Juliet plots (lovers thwarted by their corresponding faction alignments).

see, I love that. It makes for good conflict. I hate that the couple gets their happy ending, therefore invalidating the entire homage.

As for me, I want the "interview segments" in tv to stop. It's just padding to get a 45-minute runtime. Stop it. I don't care.

Interview segments?

OT: The whole YOU ARE JUST LIKE THE BAD GUY IF YOU KILL

Would like to see someone who kills not out hatred or revengeance, but out of conscious.

"This person is highly delusional and a danger to himself and everyone around them. He needs to be stopped, period."

 

[Xpwn3ntial]

God, so many to choose from. Here is my top ten in no particular order

6. Romeo and Juliet plots (lovers thwarted by their corresponding faction alignments).

see, I love that. It makes for good conflict. I hate that the couple gets their happy ending, therefore invalidating the entire homage.

As for me, I want the "interview segments" in tv to stop. It's just padding to get a 45-minute runtime. Stop it. I don't care.

Interview segments?

OT: The whole YOU ARE JUST LIKE THE BAD GUY IF YOU KILL

Would like to see someone who kills not out hatred or revengeance, but out of conscious.

"This person is highly delusional and a danger to himself and everyone around them. He needs to be stopped, period."

That is also annoying. Taking a life doesn't make you a villain. It's one of the requirements for supervillainy, sure, but not the defining factor.


So, interview segments. This occurs mostly in reality television (I like to watch cooking shows) where the reality television people are seated down and explaining what was going through their head at a certain time, their process, generally anything you could easily have a narration by the person for. But no, they have to cut away to them in a chair so we can pad out the runtime.

Reality television could get the same content in half the time without it. But they won't cut it, because it costs virtually nothing to film and edit these sequences to be part of the show, double its runtime, and therefore double the ad revenue it gets.

Like so.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/shows/cutthroat-kitchen/food-network-cutthroat-kitchen.70e1480f-60e8-4f0e-b816-c1519597f2d4.0209039.html

This show is but one example. Modern Family (a non-reality show) does it as well. The Office does it, Parks and Rec does it, it's friggin' annoying.

 

[verdant monkai]

Pre order incentives/general pre order bollocks
Leaving out content and parring it off as paid DLC so much that Game of the year editions are necessary.

I just don't buy most big western games any more. I always kick myself when they bring out the mandatory "complete edition" like the human cockroaches at activision did with Destiny. I'm currently waiting for the GOTY editions of Arkham Knight and Mortal Kombat X.

To be fair to the Japs their games are usually a lot more complete (not Capcom of course). DLC to them is usually what I consider suitable for DLC (basically extra outfits and extra characters) they don't hold huge chunks of their games story at ransom. Japanese games tend to become increasingly elusive after the first year of circulation, so I'm happy buy games like Freedom wars and dragons crown, whilst waiting for the big corporations to squirt out their Definitive/complete editions, which I can get for about £15 new on amazon a year or so after their release.

 

[Sam Billin]

My least favorite subject has to boil down to reality tv. There's the TLCs weirdos and their lives type of shows: i.e honey booboo, sister wives, Duck Dynasty, teen mom. Then the Totally Super Dangerous Job shows where, sure the job looks interesting and tough, but the endless overplay of how dangerous this ONE PARTICULAR ice road is or how THAT TREE ALMOST HIT SOMEONE gets really old really fast. And then the Tough Biker Looking Guy's Business a la Pawn Stars terrible offshoots (Hardcore Pawn etc.) Fast and Loud, OC Chopper, hell even cake boss.

 

[Dragonlayer]

Poor communication - Obviously dependent on the circumstances and the level of communication technology available in whatever media I'm watching, but its incredibly frustrating to watch horrible situations occur because nobody takes five seconds to catch their breath and tell someone else important information. Especially when the show is set in modern times, where everyone's computer/laptop/phone/toaster has about twenty different ways to communicate. Fear the Walking Dead suffered from a particularly infuriating example of this, where a father had to quickly find their son who was *supposed* to be with their ex but had vanished. Did he say why it was urgent? Did she ask him why he sounded so desperate? No, they just fucking did this for the entire five minute phone conversation:

"Where's our son!?"
"You're not supposed to see him on the weekend!"
"Where's our son!?"
"You're not supposed to see him on the weekend!"
"Where's our son!?"
"You're not supposed to see him on the weekend!"
"Where's our son!?"
"You're not supposed to see him on the weekend!"
"Where's our son!?"
"You're not supposed to see him on the weekend!"

JUST FUCKING MENTION THE ZOMBIES YOU STUPID TWATS!

I have more but I can't think of any examples to support them off the top of my head, so I'll just list a few: military enemies who are staggeringly incompetent or evil for the sake of evil, female enemies who are easily forgiven or get nice "clean" deaths while male ones are graphically butchered in their droves, firearm-users that never have to reload or even hold their weapons properly, swords that slice through armour rather then being used to find the unprotected part of an enemy's body, casts of beautiful young super models who think having a bit of grime of their faces makes them fit for a post-apocalyptic or pre-modern hygiene setting....

 

[WolfThomas]

I can see what you mean, but I'm fairly against fiction being required to adhere to the rules of the real world.

My favourite quote in this regards (paraphrased as I can't remember the source) is "Never bring an occam's razor to a chekov's gun fight".

 

[Ronald Nand]

Mine is generally an Anime only thing: Putting flashbacks/character development scenes in the middle of a fight.

I've been getting back into Anime and this has been annoying me, when they put a flash back in the middle of a fight.

For example in Attack on Titan, there's a scene where the MC wants to fight the arcs villain on his own, and his allies are trying to convince him to trust them and follow the plan. The show cuts to scene around 6 minutes or so, showing a story establishing the MC and his allies agreeing to trust each other. There's lots of moments like this in AoT and other shonen anime I've seen, Naruto is super guilty of this, and all it does is grind the pacing of the battle to a halt.

Put your character development scenes before the battle, and then have one or two lines in the MC's head calling back to those scenes during the battle. I'm sure the audience is intelligent enough to remember the character development scenes.

 

[solemnwar]

.
1. Trailers trail. They follow. They come after. If the movie hasn't come out yet, you cannot release a "trailer"; there's nothing to follow yet. The movie has not yet been seen; the snippet you put out is for watching prior to watching the movie. That's why we have the word "preview". That's what you mean. Use it. You do not earn confidence by saying "we don't understand how time works".

IIRC the root word for "trail" means something like "to pull" or "to draw" in Latin, so an argument can be made that it's an appropriate word as the whole point of a trailer is to "pull in" or to "draw in" crowds, so to speak.
Or perhaps an argument can be made that people will "trail behind it" to the movie Language is weird!


OT: Would I be all edgy and controversial if I glibly said "white dudes"? No? That's old hat? Okay.
I guess I'll just go with general sexism, racism, and discrimination against the various LGBTQ+ denominations.
Yeah I'm tired shut up.

 

[kuolonen]

Poor communication

Oh god yes, can't count the times I've nearly pulled my hair out because protagonists just can't spit a few simple words out.

For my part I could name a loooooooong list of things I'd like to see gone, but for escapist I'll pick one from video games; what I'd like to call "the rebel syndrome".

Yes we get it, empires are bad, corporations are bad, dictatorships are bad, yada yada yada- but the fricken "former soldier/employee turning on the system" has been done to death since star wars came out. For once, I'd like a game where I'd at least get the option to stick to the system, maybe hold some doubts, but for the love for all that is holy, don't make me join the resistance force #420123518092841.

Examples of games I'd might have actually had interest in, if this had been an option:
Syndicate(the FPS) and Call of Duty Advanced warfare. On CoDAD I could see the PMC flagged as the villain miles away, but I still really wanted to get the option to shoot the soldier trying to expose it. We kill for cash, what the hell did she expect from an office with such modus operandi? Hell, even non-standard game over that would have lasted for 5 seconds, where I chose to stay with the company would have been ok but nope. Follow the pretty face to meet luke skywalker and fight for democracy and the freedom to vote for Donald Trump.

 

[Twintix]

I just remembered another one that I hate.

In crime dramas like CSI, Criminal Minds and Stalker where the investigation team always save the last girl (and it is always a girl) from the clutches of the serial killer.

I am so fucking tired of this trite, predictable, shittily written cliché. They're always used and never changed. There's never, ever, a twist on this one. Even shows with supposedly "good" writing like Criminal Minds do this.

Every. Single. Fucking. Episode.

Nor does it help that they pick the whiniest and most annoying actresses for the victim roles. Maybe I'm just a sociopath in the making, but I eventually found myself screaming "Oh my GOD, just kill that fucking ***** already so that she'll shut the fuck up!".

Just once, I'd like to see the team show up too late and that the "last" victim has been killed. Because that's how it is in real life. Sometimes, killers succeed. Some final victims aren't saved. I just want to see them storm in, ready for the "Just in time!", only to find the lifeless body of the latest kidnapping victim.

I don't actually like these shows, but my mom just loves to watch them, and I sometimes sit in the living room when I study. I eventually started to make a point of going away whenever she turned the shows on because the annoyingness of the actors really got to me.

"Hey, Philippa, you know there's no female characters in this book?"
"What? That can't be right..."
"Seriously. What are we going to do?"
"Well we'll just stick one in. Can't hurt. Since we're sticking Legolas in lets just put the two in side-by-side."
"But what are we going to have her DO?"
"Um...well...she can fall in love with...ah...this random dwarf guy! That'll work! It'll be like Legolas and Gimli again!"
"BRILLIANT!"

I chuckled. And I'm willing to bet that that's exactly how the converstion went.

 

[sanquin]

I'm surprised the "liar revealed" plot device hasn't been mentioned yet. Protagonist is lying about something, but either for good reasons or he comes to like the people he's lying to. Then the lie is revealed and everyone suddenly hates him. (usually for no truly good reason.) So the plot has to be put on hold for a while to insert some stupid drama about the protagonist redeeming himself.

Another one that's INCREDIBLY prevalent in romance anime. The lack of communication to create drama through misunderstandings. "I saw my boyfriend being nice to another girl that one time, he must be cheating and not love me any more! Let's not find out what was going on but instead start avoiding him! Wah wah wah! Drama!!" "Oh wait, he was just being nice to that girl because he's a nice person? Oh silly me!" Ugh...

 

[Fallow]

Every 'genius' being 25 years old. No buddy, that's not how the world works. There's a reason that all the experts, veterans, Nobel laureates, and Turing laureates are old and experienced.

Every super-programmer of late being 25, female, chatty/hypersocial, and dressed up like a retard/alternative combo. I have met over 3,000 programmers and not a single one of them matched anything even close to that profile. The awesome programmers are old, experienced, and calm, rational people.
.

I can see what you mean, but I'm fairly against fiction being required to adhere to the rules of the real world. Not just because that would mean we couldn't have crazy future tech or conveniences, but because if we were to REALLy adhere to the real world, dialogue would also change. There would be a ton of "uuhm" between sentences, awkward pauses, stuttering, irrational or short-sighted quips going back and forth without anything really happening etc, something I don't think needs to be taken done in fiction, just because it would be more "realistic".

Also to hell with calm and rational characters, I say! What good story has ever been told were the characters were just perfect little things that never had any flaws, never messed up and never had did something wrong? Very few I gather. I'll always take characters with some spunk in them, who trip over chords and start civil wars out of petty grievances, who yell at the mailman for delivering the letters too early. That's what good drama is made out of.

That's also how I prefer to look at people in the real world. I prefer the ones with clear flaws and that make mistakes, because these are people that are imperfect and are willing to show the world just that, and don't try to cover it up or look like they're made of stone.

This is a clumsy quote because I don't have a proper mouse.

Yes, you are right in that you don't have to go 1 to 1 with reality, and in many scenarios fiction is better because of it. There's the lithe instead of massive fighter, the smart instead of strong hero (Guybrush comes to mind), the unlikely saviour (Day of the Tentacle iirc) and many many others. However, you do have to stay "close enough" to reality if you want to take the "believable/possible" road, which is what you need to do if you're aiming for a dystopic/"could be us" series (which is pretty popular these days). And that means that a 45kg blonde bombshell with dynamite boobs ain't gonna pass as the world champion in heavyweight lifting. Likewise, it means that a programmer shouldn't be as far removed as possible, personality-wise, from what an actual real-life programmer is.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

Generally fanatical, sociopathic, dickish or just downright crazy characters. Not so much them in entertainment themselves, but rather how people latch on to them and think they're the coolest motherfuckers ever and endlessly quote them. For example, Rorschach is not a sensible role model, neither is Tyler Durden, Jeffrey Goines, The Joker or Agent fucking Smith.

Quoting an Academy Award-nominated movie isn't remotely subversive or interesting either, piss off.

A little more on-topic, sitcom characters living unfeasibly nice lives whilst working shit jobs. How the fuck does Penny in TBBT have such a nice apartment? How do characters 'bad with the ladies' have even more sex in a year than your mum Casanova?