Things That Bug me in TV Shows and Movies

Sluggo63 said:
Also that nobody’s hearing is ever affected by close gunfire. The only scenes I’ve seen this done right are:

1. Sopranos (Caution: Violence)
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Shouldn't the driver's side window have shattered?
 
My favorite to pick on the science fiction fans is indirect fire. "So, back in the 19th century, people figured out that they could fire shells into something without actually seeing it, but your star wars guys can't do that?" I have to be careful with that, though. Star wars fans are maybe more rabid than southern football fans.
 
Salty said:
When the entire space fleet warps in from all over the universe and they’re all oriented the same way up.
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Actually, I think this might be reasonable. Simplifies the C&C issues involved in maneuvering the fleet; if the admiral commands a sudden course change, there's less translation needed for individual ship actions, and a better instinctual understanding of what's happening. I've heard, for instance, that astronauts tend towards a common orientation in microgravity.

Read Jack Campbell's "The Lost Fleet" series for a nice wrenching orientation on space fleet maneuvers. A command to turn "starboard" means turn towards the sun, for instance....

Ron Wanttaja
 
Albany Tom said:
My favorite to pick on the science fiction fans is indirect fire. "So, back in the 19th century, people figured out that they could fire shells into something without actually seeing it, but your star wars guys can't do that?" I have to be careful with that, though. Star wars fans are maybe more rabid than southern football fans.
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I remember seeing the "air combat" scenes in "Independence Day" and wondering how the alien fighter spacecraft seemed to be armed no heavier than .50 caliber machine guns.....

Ron Wanttaja
 
wanttaja said:
Actors in the "military" who don't know how to salute, who don't have their hair done properly, whose uniforms have the wrong insignia or mispositioned insignia, who insist on wearing their covers everywhere or not at all. Writers for these actors who don't know that a Lieutenant Colonel or Lieutenant Commander or Lieutenant General is NOT addressed as "Lieutenant"....

In the heyday of the war movie (50s-70s), a large percentage of the actors HAD military service, so these issues didn't arise as much.

Ron Wanttaja
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I tried watching some war movie the other night. When the Army private repeatedly called the SGT “Sir”, I knew it was going to suck. When the aww-shucks know-nuthin’ new guy (who turned out to be a crack shot sniper, but that fact apparently was missed throughout his training) repeatedly used a bazooka against troops… the troops BEHIND the TANK…. I gave up.
 
Bob Noel said:
phony gunfire sound effects. I was listening to a DVD commentary for some film and the sound guy talked about how they don't use actual gunfire for the sound effect because it doesn't play as authentic.
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Especially suppressed fire. No, it’s not “pew pew”.
 
Half Fast said:
And it seems that whatever planet our brave spacemen set out to explore, from Endor to Tatooine, always has a 1g gravity and a breathable atmosphere.
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Those sorts of planets are where people would settle, and not the ones with a reducing atmosphere (for example), nor a very high gravity. Those with much lesser gravity than 1 g would probably tend to lose their atmosphere.
 
flyingron said:
My wife has grown tired of me saying "Be sure to move his spine around a lot," to various Fire/EMS/Emergency Room scenes.
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When they need to transfer an injured patient to an operating table, what's the proper way to do it? As depicted, but just more gently?
 
Cap'n Jack said:
Those sorts of planets are where people would settle, and not the ones with a reducing atmosphere (for example), nor a very high gravity. Those with much lesser gravity than 1 g would probably tend to lose their atmosphere.
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I would assume that Vulcan has somewhat higher gravity than one g, which would account for their greater-than-human strength.
 
Palmpilot said:
I would assume that Vulcan has somewhat higher gravity than one g, which would account for their greater-than-human strength.
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So why doesn't Starfleet jack the artificial gravity way up so humans can be even stronger?
 
A whole bunch of folks standing around a patient in the emergency room...all doing nothing just waiting to be told what to do by the main character doctor....then it's only one thing at a time.
 
and what really bugs me is when they don't make the show follow a linear timeline. Drives me nuts flip flopping forwards and backwards through time.
 
Brad W said:
and what really bugs me is when they don't make the show follow a linear timeline. Drives me nuts flip flopping forwards and backwards through time.
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Sometimes flashbacks are useful from a story telling pov.

but that presumes the writers/directors/editors actually know how to tell a story.
 
Salty said:
So why doesn't Starfleet jack the artificial gravity way up so humans can be even stronger?
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Who says they don't?

Ron "Gravity down to .7 here, can you confirm" Wanttaja
 
Yeah....I just looked at his IMDB page. Of his films that I've seen...none I would call great...that's for sure.
 
Omalley1537 said:
Another is when a crime drama mobilizes a tactical team in full gear to hit the house of the armed and dangerous suspect, then the two or three detectives on the case are leading the stack on entry, still in suits with nothing but their pistol…

Law and Order loves to do this.
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Yep. In real life they are getting coffee.
 
When they introduce half a dozen characters all with the same hair style and color. It takes me halfway through the series to figure out who is who.
 
I just love it when several bad guys are using full automatic weapons spraying the entire area with bullets and the good guy is using 2 inch barrel 38 special and always hit the bad guys with one shot, killing them.

And reality car rebuild shows, everyone dresses alike, black t-shirts not company t-shirts, same tattoos and same bald heads. Is there no individuality among these people.??
 
When a gun is fired in a spaghetti western and every shot results in a ricochet.
When two actors are faced off pointing pistols at each other and neither fires his weapon.
When a 105# fashion model takes down 5 armed brutes using just her fists and feet.
When an actor gets hit/kicked in the face multiple times and has only a small cut to show for it.
When you can “buzz the tower” and only get a reprimand. Try that at your local field!
 
Htaylor said:
I've flown a few cast members and camera crew out to Hoonah more than once. The show is silly, but they are nice people.
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Hoonah was a crazy approach before they cut down the trees on short final and paved the runway.

Most all of the super short dirt strips in Alaska have been paved and lengthened. It's not the wild wild West any more...
 
Sluggo63 said:
Also that nobody’s hearing is ever affected by close gunfire. The only scenes I’ve seen this done right are:

1. Sopranos (Caution: Violence)

2. Archer (continuous running gag throughout the series)
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OIP.zjT_fhA_vTb7tFKuQ-jzowEsCo


I love Archer
 
Zeldman said:
...And reality car rebuild shows, everyone dresses alike, black t-shirts not company t-shirts, same tattoos and same bald heads. Is there no individuality among these people.??
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And they all have to have one goofy character so different than the others for example, Mikey on American Chopper or Caveman on...what's the name of that show? Then there's the Canadian one with the dreadlocks and his goofy friend. They're all the same and they don't really produce anything I would call quality builds.
 
Palmpilot said:
When they need to transfer an injured patient to an operating table, what's the proper way to do it? As depicted, but just more gently?
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If the c-spine hasn't already been immobilized, someone needs to hold that stable while the patient is slid with as little other stress on the body as possible. Usually patients with trauma come in immobilized on a long board so you just pick the full thing up and move it to the table and then remove the board after clearing spinal injuries. I was referring more to the propensity to take someone and immediately flip them over on their back which is dumb for a number of reasons. Unless you need to perform CPR, that's not the first step.
 
Sluggo63 said:
Also that nobody’s hearing is ever affected by close gunfire. The only scenes I’ve seen this done right are:

1. Sopranos (Caution: Violence)

2. Archer (continuous running gag throughout the series)
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Reminds me of an opera I played in where they fired a real gun on stage. The horn player who was closest had ringing ears for quite a while. After we in the pit orchestra complained, they switched to a cap gun.
 
steingar said:
My pet peeves mostly have to do with poor writing.
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A specific writing sin for me: When a character is given lines that he would never actually say. A police weapons expert talking about a "three ought eight" or an Ivy League upper crust person saying things like "me and Sally should be together." Basically anytime the script was written by someone whose narrow world view keeps him from writing different characters. Few people speak in perfect, formal English. Few Harvard alumni speak like the Beverly Hillbillies. (Few actual hillbillies do, either, for that matter, but I'm willing to let that one slide.)

Zeldman said:
Then there is that aviation movie that gets nothing in aviation correct and most all pilots hate....
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Spoiler alert: Airplane! is the best parody of all time, right down to the exclamation point in the title.

 
Anachronisms.

Example - there’s a MASH episode where Radar does a John Wayne impersonation. But the bit he does is from a John Wayne movie, “McClintock,” that wasn’t released until 10 years after the Korean War.
 
Rushie said:
When they introduce half a dozen characters all with the same hair style and color. It takes me halfway through the series to figure out who is who.
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In the same vein, nobody ever have the same name on shows. I'm sure this is done purposely for the viewers to be able to keep characters straight, but in real life, I must know a dozen "Mikes" or "Joes" or "Janets." In TV shows or movies you never hear a dialogue like"

"You know Bobby told me..."
"Wait, Bobby who? Flaherty?"
"No, not Flaherty, the other one. I don't know his last name. The fat one. His friends call him 'Mush'."
"Oh, Bobby Mushnick... I know him. Now go on with what you were saying."
"I forget. Never mind, it's not important."
 
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Half Fast said:
Anachronisms.

Example - there’s a MASH episode where Radar does a John Wayne impersonation. But the bit he does is from a John Wayne movie, “McClintock,” that wasn’t released until 10 years after the Korean War.
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But that's Radar ... he always hears the "choppers" before they arrive, too!

:D
 
Daleandee said:
Back in the day when I used to look at TV there was a show that had three brothers on it,
Larry, his brother Darryl, and his other brother Darryl ... :D
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Larry is Sebastian on Blade Runner.
 
You know what doesn't bug me in movies? All the accurate aviation details in The High and the Mighty (1954), starring John Wayne.

Ernest Gann wrote the book, based on one of his own experences, and stuck around with the movie to make sure they got it right (John Wayne's first officer even slaps the captain because he won't pull back the mixture and prop to conserve fuel).
 
Rushie said:
This. Unless the whole movie is CGI. Like in Walking Dead the CGI tiger. If you don’t want to use a real tiger, and I fully understand not wanting to use a real tiger, just write the tiger out of the story.
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The elephants and animals in “The Greatest Showman” were all CGI. More than half the geenery in Avatar was CGI. Really impressive work!
 
Zeldman said:
Reality shows that claim they are not scripted. Alaska Bush People is the funniest comedy going today. I mean folks that are supposedly living off the land but always have clean clothes, not to mention the weight gain.
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Couple of the kids had braces on their teeth.
 
Timbeck2 said:
What was the name of the other show of the same type? Anyway I used to work with a guy who's niece (Jane) was on that show. They lived minutes from downtown and they had to move their cars out of the shot to make it seem as if they are way out in the bush.
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Life Below Zero?
 
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