TV Clichés that annoy you the most?

[wonderer99]

OK so it can be from a production perspective or maybe a particular show does something over and over again. Or anything in the TV world really that annoys you.

The reason for the thread is that I have just discovered the show The Curse of Oak Island. I was very happy with this as I have followed the Oak Island story since I was a young child and it has fascinated me for the over 25 years. I was so excited that I have 3 seasons of a show about the island and the quest to solve its mysteries.

However as soon as I started watching the first episode I cringed. It was going to be one of those American shows. Yes the ones that treat the audience like they are 12. Basically the kind of show that has to repeat the same information at least 4 times every 10 minutes(after every ad break American viewers seem to need to hear the entire story again) and every action and development is acted out for the cameras. Which is fine if you are dealing with actors but not, like in this show, real people whose true desire is to not be in front of the cameras on a reality show. "Hey guys look what I have found" Cue dramatic drum soundtrack. Oh the drums.Probably the single worst trait of an American shows like these.

Major discovery.....Dramatic drums
Minor discovery.....Dramatic drums
Possible discovery.....Dramatic drums
Discussing what to order for lunch......Dramatic drums
Establishing aerial shot.....Dramatic drums

This story is fascinating, intriguing, baffling and dramatic enough. It does not need all this gung ho, f**k Yeah, Americanization. I am going to try to see past all this as the topic fascinates me enough to watch the process and see the current situation on Oak island as it happens. So rather than just have a rant I thought I would turn it into a thread so others can air their TV grievances to.

[Hubunkey]

Sounds like you hate Merican TV and not Clichés

[TheLaughingMann]

"Previously on...." can be a make or break element.

It helps for refreshers for episodes on a weekly basis, or for season recaps going from one season to another. But that is where it ends with me. A show does not need to reiterate situations more than once occasionally. If that character's aware of what's going on already, they don't need it thrown back in their face unless something new happened.

Can anyone recall any shows that aired on TV that did NOT use this and still ended up being great? There's a couple I think may or may not have, but I don't want to post a firm answer and embarrass myself.

[wonderer99]

Originally Posted by Hubunkey

Sounds like you hate Merican TV and not Clichés

Well crappy American over-dramatisation of everything could well be a cliche itself.

[Buscemi]

Confession cams. Tells you right away that the so-called "reality" show was filmed at a previous date and given the glossy post-production treatment instead of trying to seem live. Also my main problem with Modern Family (well, that, Ty Burrell's acting, and that the Dunphys would be spending half their time in family therapy if such a family existed).

To answer the "previously on" cliche, Bryan Fuller knows how to make them work. And it wasn't so bad on The Bridge (the DVD's at least made them skippable).

[llj]

Magical computers.

"Garcia, hack into those computers..."

Garcia: "Okay chief, give me a sec"

*types some random nonsense for 5 seconds*

"Got it! Here's all the top secret classified data!!!"

[Michael24]

^ On that note . . .

[brdmaverick1]

I hate it when shows go to commercial on a cliff hanger and then when they come back they replay at least 25 seconds of the sequence that we just watched prior to going to commercial.

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by Michael24

^ On that note . . .

[Show spoiler]

I can't breathe.

[Captain Flint]

The fact that these shows have the gull to have a main character and there's always a problem that needs solved. Such a cliche, I'm sick of it.

[TheLaughingMann]

Originally Posted by Captain Flint

The fact that these shows have the gull to have a main character and there's always a problem that needs solved. Such a cliche, I'm sick of it.

A main character that solves problems?

It isn't so much in the idea, it's in the execution.

One of the best 'fixers' I have seen to this day remains Winston Wolf from Pulp Fiction. One trick scene, but a well done scene. I'd definitely watch more of him ONLY if Harvey Keitel was playing the role.

Can you imagine a show with Winston Wolf handling various clients including Marcellus Wallace? If they can do a show with Fargo, they could pull this off. Even if it didn't have a central plot to it, they could do it in just general case-of-the-week style. One episode, one plot, one resolution, another day in the life of 'solving problems'. Very few shows make it work so well like Poirot and Columbo, but this COULD definitely work.

Another cliche I hate:
-bad guy has good guy restrained and ready to kill, but he or she goes into a fricking monologue just long enough for other good guys to swoop in and save the day-

Perfectly addressed once upon a time by one of Eli Wallach's immortalized characters:

[richieb1971]

A character that does their last turnaround before never being seen again because a magical bus whisked past and suddenly they disappeared.

I've yet to come across any bus that can do that.


Lots of movies that use sparks to create tension. Pacific Rim and Transformers both use under ground caverns/caves to introduce large characters and there seems to be an awful lot of welders in the scenes.

Helicopters that need to veer left and right in formation. Another Michael Bay thing. If you are up in the air you shouldn't be turning left or right.

Characters that do the opposite in similar situations. Gandalf in LOTR/Hobbit will approach 1000's of enemies, pop his staff out and take them all out in one swoop. 30 minutes later a similar situation, he says "RUN!"
In effect, if you have magic in a movie and it works once, it should work over and over.

[MazeRunner]

This is more of a The CW problem, but main characters who are always in danger but you know will NEVER die. So what's the point? Characters don't get cuts/bruises when fighting/getting thrown around. And secondary characters get killed off only to be brought back somehow.

[richieb1971]

In the same way that Jurassic Park writers always put kids in front of dinosaurs.

The audience will never believe for 1 second that they will actually let a dinosaur eat a child so there is never any tension in it for me.

But I get the idea that certain characters in shows are bullet proof and are always saved in the nick of time.

[Steelmaker]

The way in any hospital drama, patients just suddenly tell their nurse or doctor their ENTIRE life story right there after simply being asked "what happened?"

[rikraq]

I didn't want to create a new thread.

These are tv plot cliches that I've seen in a lot of the fantasy type shows I've watched:

Time travel (Charmed, Once Upon A Time...)

Black and white/noir episode (Charmed, Smallville, X-Files...)

Faith healer episode (X-Files, Supernatural, Houdini & Doyle..)

Adult child from the future episode (Angel, Charmed...)

Remembering/seeing past lives plot (Smallville, Charmed..)

Musical episode (Buffy, The Flash, Once Upon A Time..)

Flashbacks (Lost, Once Upon A Time, Arrow..)

Abandoned baby plot (Charmed, Smallville, Birds of Prey..)

Groundhog Day/Time Loop episode (X-Files, The Flash, Charmed, Angel..)

Character in mental asylum trying to be convinced they are crazy episode (Buffy, Charmed, Smallville...)

any others?

[JamesKurtovich]

More of a pet peeve, but I hate it when they don't say goodbye on the phone.

[Monterey Jack]

The "mopey song montage" closer for an episode. You could ALWAYS tell when an episode of, say, Smallville was about to finish when the obligatory mopey song started on the soundtrack.

[Josep5349]

Sci-fi shows set in space featuring a wide range of species and spanning many planets, yet earth-centric.

After sex scenes with the couple in bed in their underwear.

Animation characters always wearing the same clothes.

[kevin87]

Originally Posted by Josep5349

Sci-fi shows set in space featuring a wide range of species and spanning many planets, yet earth-centric.

After sex scenes with the couple in bed in their underwear.

Animation characters always wearing the same clothes.

It's even weirder when the guy gets out of bed and they pan up to imply he's naked, but the girl rolls out from under the covers and has on her bra and underwear... like yeah, ok.

"I did it to keep you safe" when not telling people the truth, which backfires.