TV Tropes: Love 'em or Loathe 'em

[Bruinsfan]

Well, unless it's a genre show, in which case the police are hopelessly outgunned by a lone criminal or small band of criminals whose heads are apparently invulnerable to sniper fire. People, if I can see a crook's face well enough to recognize the actor, a SWAT team marksman could put a round in the middle of it.

[galax-arena]

I feel like this is more common in movies - specifically romantic comedies - than television, but what the heck: I hate romances that hinge upon a man's refusal to take no for an answer. Guy asks a woman out and she says no? That's okay, wear her down until she eventually says yes! Forget treating her as an adult who has agency and can make her own choices about the men she wants to date. She clearly doesn't know her own mind and needs the guy to tell her. Repeatedly. Engage in grand gestures if you have to so she'll understand the depth of your affections. Eventually she'll see the light.

 

It's all the more annoying because I feel like this has had a real-world effect where guys don't take rejection well and continue to harass/badger women after being turned down because that's what pop culture tells them is romantic.

Edited March 17, 2015 by galax-arena

[CoderLady]

And if a woman does it to a man, she's definitely a creepy pathetic wacko stalker who will meet a very nasty end because when a man says no, he means it.

[SmithW6079]

Sassy black female assistant. Or else it's a maid or some other subservient role.

Forgot to add: also, sassy effeminate gay assistant or second banana. Why can't TV ever show masculine, sports-loving gay men who aren't into pop divas, being BFFs with a "hag," and drinking Cosmos at the fabulous bar around the corner? (Note to TV producers: those types of homosexuals really do exist.)

 

Note to moderator: Changed "gay men" in the second instance back to "homosexuals" because that is my preferred term. As a homosexual, or more correctly an androphile (lover of men), I do not identify with the mainstream "gay community." GLAAD does not speak for me nor does it dictate the terms I use to describe myself or my brethren who also do not identify as "gay." I have no shame in identifying as a "homosexual," despite GLAAD's "Terms to Avoid" media resource guide. Thank you for your respect and understanding.

Edited March 20, 2015 by SmithW6079
replaced homosexuals with gay men- this is the preferred term to use

[ganesh]

And if a woman does it to a man, she's definitely a creepy pathetic wacko stalker who will meet a very nasty end because when a man says no, he means it.

 

Not usually me. I can be coerced. I'm kind of easy. 

[Brandi Maxxxx]

Are you a TV character though?

[Rick Kitchen]

Forgot to add: also, sassy effeminate gay assistant or second banana. Why can't TV ever show masculine, sports-loving gay men who aren't into pop divas, being BFFs with a "hag," and drinking Cosmos at the fabulous bar around the corner? (Note to TV producers: those types of homosexuals really do exist.)

 

They did that with Brandon Routh in the short-run series "Partners" (which I really liked).  His character was a nurse, but very masculine, and his partner was the effeminate Michael Urie, who was partners with David Krumholtz in an architecture firm.

[BoogieBurns]

Why can't TV ever show masculine, sports-loving gay men who aren't into pop divas, being BFFs with a "hag," and drinking Cosmos at the fabulous bar around the corner?

 

Max from Happy Endings! 

[Raja]

The clairvoyant who rides on the roof of a car and knows when to dodge the gunshot coming from inside the car

[ParadoxLost]

The clairvoyant who rides on the roof of a car and knows when to dodge the gunshot coming from inside the car

 

You watched iZombie last night didn't you?

[SmithW6079]

Max from Happy Endings!

Yes, but Max was a loser. And to be fair, the mainstream gay "community" pushes the effeminate, diva-loving, "hag"-having stereotype, where everyone has to have the same opinions.

[Raja]

The clairvoyant who rides on the roof of a car and knows when to dodge the gunshot coming from inside the car

 

You watched iZombie last night didn't you?

Actually no, it was something last week (the most recent time) though maybe Agents of SHIELD?

[Gudzilla]

The altruistic hacker.

[ToxicUnicorn]

That reminds me - the trope of "Surprise!  She's got a kick ass, androgynous or dweeby web name, but she turns out to be an incredibly sexy female hacker.  What about a regularly sexy female hacker?  Why must one have beautifully wavy, long, high maintenance, well conditioned hair, too much mascara, and a push up bra on at work in order to be an attractive and intriguing somewhat brainy woman?

[Constantinople]

The hateful, unsympathetic mother of the murder victim.

I'm not sure if this is common enough to be a trope, but I'm watching 2 shows now that have this character, and last year there was a show that had a third. Though to be fair, in that case, the character was unsympathetic long before her child died.

[CoderLady]

The hateful, unsympathetic mother of the murder victim.

I'm not sure if this is common enough to be a trope, but I'm watching 2 shows now that have this character, and last year there was a show that had a third. Though to be fair, in that case, the character was unsympathetic long before her child died.

 

I'm also afraid to go into TV Tropes to see if this has officially become one but this is an example of the "everybody sucks" drama trope, where there's no sympathetic or completely innocent character to be found and as the drama unfolds everyone looks worse and worse. It's great for getting actors to stretch out and show their skills at playing complex characters, but it depresses the hell out of me.

[Bruinsfan]

Max from Happy Endings!

To be fair, his BFF was a comically clumsy woman who usually had a drink in her hand. Though in personality Penny was basically a flamboyant gay man trapped in a woman's body (as the show itself noted).

[UYI]

I'm a diabetic and always wanted more people who shared that with me on tv. The only time I've really seen that was on an extremely short lived version of "Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde" that was on a few years ago. Jekyl worked in a hospital, but told everyone he couldn't work after 7 (when Hyde came out) because of his diabetes, because apparently diabetics are reverse vampires and I've taken my life in my hands the thousands of times I've gone out for the evening. Plus, the guy works in a hospital with other doctors who have, one assumes, been to medical school and none of them notices a problem with this? There was also a memorable scene where the main character turns into Mr Hyde in the middle of sugary and his colleagues leap on him and stab him with insulin like it's an epi pen whereupon Mr Hyde collapses instantaneously to the floor. Sigh.

 

If that's what it means to have chronic diseases on tv, I'll be fine without thankyouverymuch.

 

I'm not sure how much this counts, because it was based on a book series and is a show specifically for young girls, but Stacey McGill from The Baby Sitters Club had diabetes, and a few times in the books and once on the series (in the Christmas episode, no less!), she wound up in the hospital for it because she started eating sweets when she shouldn't have (in her case, she absolutely could NOT have any junk food). There were definitely times where her disease was emphasized more than others, but in her defense, she was a thirteen year old girl whose parents were divorced and living in separate cities. Not only that, but her friends in her New York City (where she had grown up and where her dad stayed after the divorce) had shunned her after her diagnosis (I've read since that Ann M. Martin most likely used diabetes as a metaphor for AIDS, given that the books were first published in 1986--which, yeah, I TOTALLY see now that I'm older). For the most part, though, she was treated perfectly normally by her friends in the BSC and her baby sitting charges, and seen as the "sophisticated city girl" of the club.

 

...And now you guys have probably figured out that I was WILDLY obsessed with books/TV show as a kid, and at 26, I still have a BUNCH of the books, and plan on watching the entire series again on Netflix, which now has it (it was originally on HBO in the early 90's, I watched it on the Disney Channel/on VHS in the late 90's). Excuse me while I go weep in a dark corner because I have no life. :( 

Edited March 21, 2015 by UYI

[selkie]

Forgot to add: also, sassy effeminate gay assistant or second banana. Why can't TV ever show masculine, sports-loving gay men who aren't into pop divas, being BFFs with a "hag," and drinking Cosmos at the fabulous bar around the corner? (Note to TV producers: those types of homosexuals really do exist.)

 

Cop and prescription painkiller addict John Cooper on 'Southland'. The last three episodes of season 5 will send you into a HULK! RAGE! but he was a very well written character until that point and his interactions with other cops generally seem spot on.

[Rick Kitchen]

Andre Braugher's Captain Holt on "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" is a kick ass gay character.

[Jack Shaftoe]

And let's not forget one of the most kick-ass character of all time, Omar Little of The Wire.

[Joe]

There was Sam Adama on Caprica. He was a mob enforcer, whose husband didn't like him coming home bloody.

[ParadoxLost]

I didn't realize how much I hate 'character with a mysterious past' until I tried watching Battle Creek.  They've made the reason why the FBI agent was transferred to the town and what he's up to the overarching mystery of the series to date (or at least through three episodes I watched).  Really not a good idea to have one of the leads be a complete enigma.  I can't connect with the character or show at all.  I'm done with it.

[andromeda331]

I don't know if its considered Creator's pet or not but your watching a show that starts out being all about the whole cast and then starts becoming about one person. You realize either this has become the Creator's pet or the writers have fallen in love with an character and/or actor or actress that plays them. Its not because the audience loves a character and their playing on that to get more viewers. But you start getting nearly every other character singing their praises all the time even ones who were once victimized or had reasons to hate the character. Everyone suddenly idolizes them and stories are suddenly being ignored or re-written to make the character look really good. Other characters suddenly become lobotomized  so the audience can see how much more awesome the character they love is. 

[FortKnox]

The police captain on The Flash is gay. And they don't make a big deal out of it.

[Wiendish Fitch]

Same with that female cop (sorry, forgot her name) on The Fall.

[tennisgurl]

andromeda331, I feel like this has been a plague all over my TV this year. I called it "Sleepy Hallow Syndrome" on another board, and its making me want to pull my hair out! A minor or supporting character, or a brand new one, is suddenly the main character of the show, who either everyone loves, or is given so much screen time, the audience is clearly supposed to love them to. I gave it the SHS name after this last, disastrous season of Sleepy Hallow, where Katrina, a character no one in the audience really liked, but who the show runner absolutely adored, was given TONS of prominence and importance, had everyone act like she was wonderful, and pushed all the beloved characters from the first season into the background, or started writing them out of character. It was a mess, and it almost killed the whole show.

 

It goes all the back to Lana Lang, or Wesley Crusher. Its unbearable.  

[Janet Snakehole]

I'm not sure how much this counts, because it was based on a book series and is a show specifically for young girls, but Stacey McGill from The Baby Sitters Club had diabetes, and a few times in the books and once on the series (in the Christmas episode, no less!), she wound up in the hospital for it because she started eating sweets when she shouldn't have (in her case, she absolutely could NOT have any junk food). There were definitely times where her disease was emphasized more than others, but in her defense, she was a thirteen year old girl whose parents were divorced and living in separate cities. Not only that, but her friends in her New York City (where she had grown up and where her dad stayed after the divorce) had shunned her after her diagnosis (I've read since that Ann M. Martin most likely used diabetes as a metaphor for AIDS, given that the books were first published in 1986--which, yeah, I TOTALLY see now that I'm older). For the most part, though, she was treated perfectly normally by her friends in the BSC and her baby sitting charges, and seen as the "sophisticated city girl" of the club.

 

...And now you guys have probably figured out that I was WILDLY obsessed with books/TV show as a kid, and at 26, I still have a BUNCH of the books, and plan on watching the entire series again on Netflix, which now has it (it was originally on HBO in the early 90's, I watched it on the Disney Channel/on VHS in the late 90's). Excuse me while I go weep in a dark corner because I have no life. :(

Kimmy Schmidt? Is that you ;)

[ganesh]

The Unholy Alliance: enemies band that together for a common cause (good or bad) tend to wreck shop on tv. The Highlander tv show actually had an episode called Unholy Alliance. Farscape took this to the height of perfection several times with bigger and bigger shit blowing up every time. With *nukes*.

 

The Unholy Alliance of *pirates with a war ship* was declared at the end of Black Sails last week. Tomorrow night is the season finale and I cannot wait.

[UYI]

Confession: I haven't watched Kimmy Schmidt, so now I have to in order to get the joke. Crap. ;) 

[joelene]

Forgot to add: also, sassy effeminate gay assistant or second banana. Why can't TV ever show masculine, sports-loving gay men who aren't into pop divas, being BFFs with a "hag," and drinking Cosmos at the fabulous bar around the corner? (Note to TV producers: those types of homosexuals really do exist.)

There was also Kevin and Saul on Brothers & Sisters and Kal Ingram on Rubicon, although I don't remember if they liked any of the sports. And there are all kinds of gays on Cucumber and Banana.

[andromeda331]

I called it "Sleepy Hallow Syndrome" on another board, and its making me want to pull my hair out!

 

Its not a bad name since Sleepy Hallow is the one of the most recent casualties of it. It was a great show before the writers fell in love with Katrina. I made it to the end but it was really hard to do. It was so hard to stomach all of the "greatness" Katrina supposedly was.  Once Upon a Time is another casualty.  Lang Lang and Wesley Crusher are early examples. LOST when they fell in love with Ben.  General Hospital when fell in love with Sonny. Charmed was another. I hate when it happens.  

[Cobalt Stargazer]

Which one?

 

Unless I miss my guess, Phoebe.

[meep.meep]

Forgot to add: also, sassy effeminate gay assistant or second banana. Why can't TV ever show masculine, sports-loving gay men who aren't into pop divas, being BFFs with a "hag," and drinking Cosmos at the fabulous bar around the corner? (Note to TV producers: those types of homosexuals really do exist.).

Elaine Benes tried to get one of those to "change teams." His reply - "but I'm the starting shortstop!"

[andromeda331]

Unless I miss my guess, Phoebe.

 

 

Yes, Phoebe.   

[kathyk24]

I thought of another trope that needs to die the Evil Cripple trope and its cousin the Mentally Ill are scary trope. I think Law and Order CI ran that trope into the ground.

[ChaseMCP]

The UO thread is talking about Greys Anatomy and that made me remember a trope I'm tired of: characters having sex at work. Especially if they work in a hospital. It's one of the reasons why I never watched GA and why I took a break from House when it started to happen there. I guess it's supposed to be sexy and naughty and whatever, but it just makes me think the characters are stupid beyond belief. Like, they really can't control their urges long enough to wait until their shifts are over? And you're at work, you're supposed to be, you know, working. Especially in a hospital when there are people who need help more than you need sex. And it's worse when they get caught cause nothing really happens of it. I'd be ok watching it happen to lead characters on a show only for them to be caught and then fired for it. The whole thing just shows the characters making stupid decisions for all the wrong reasons and I never find that entertaining.

[CoderLady]

Good God, I hate that enough so that if I'm tuning in to a show for the first time and trying to decide whether or not I'm going to commit to it, if a couple of idiots start going at it in the workplace right off the bat I'm out.

[ganesh]

Wait, people *don't* have sex at work? No wonder I keep getting fired.

[DeLurker]

That ^^^ really did make me laugh out loud.

[Bastet]

Wait, people *don't* have sex at work? No wonder I keep getting fired.

 

This made me think of George Costanza, after his new boss finds out he had sex with the cleaning lady on his desk:  "Was that wrong? Should I have not done that? I tell you, I gotta plead ignorance on this one because if anyone had said anything to me at all when I first started here that that sort of thing was frowned upon ... because I've worked in a lot of offices and, I tell you, people do that all the time."

Edited March 29, 2015 by Bastet

[Shannon L.]

Ah, yes...the sex at work scenario.  I hate it, too.  And, since it's on a ton of shows, whenever it comes up on one we're watching with the kids, I find myself remarking on the inappropriateness of it and how one would be fired for it just so I can be sure my kids understand. 

 

Coincidentally, I had a coworker who was caught having sex at work and was immediately fired. 

[ChromaKelly]

Maybe I'm hopelessly boring but the sex in random places thing just seems so uncomfortable and not worth the risk.

[proserpina65]

The UO thread is talking about Greys Anatomy and that made me remember a trope I'm tired of: characters having sex at work.

 

It's particularly annoying when one character is the other character's boss.  Businesses have policies against this for a reason.  (And yet, I still have trouble breaking the GA habit.)

[ErinW]

 

I'm a diabetic and always wanted more people who shared that with me on tv.

Tracy Morgan's character on 30 Rock had diabetes, presumably because the character was an exaggerated version of Morgan himself. The character was chronically irresponsible but had people (like Kenneth the page) watching out for his sugar intake and whatnot. The best diabetes joke I remember is Dr. Spaceman telling Tracy he may lose a foot, and Tracy asking if he could get a wheel as replacement. Oh, or the time another character, the president of GE, fell into a diabetic coma and Spaceman called 911 asking for, "...Diabetes repair, I guess?"

 

 

Sassy black female assistant. Or else it's a maid or some other subservient role.

"The word he's looking for his sassy. He better pray he don't find it." - Shirley Bennett, on Community, being both sassy and also not. That actress, Yvette Nicole Brown, is a great follow on Twitter, by the way.

[ChaseMCP]

Also Turk on Scrubs was a diabetic (I forget what type though) and was afraid to tell Carla, only for her to have a bunch of recipes ready to try for him that were diabetic friendly.

This may be a very broad trope but in connection to my previous post about sex at work, one thing I really hate in a show is unprofessionalism. Whether it's disrespecting the boss, or dressing in an inappropriate manner or just ignoring your responsibilities, I hate when characters in shows don't do their jobs and are never called out on it. So often there's a scene where a character will be incredibly rude to their boss and nothing will come from it. Shows don't have to be realistic and boring and there are some plots where context changes everything, but entitlement is never a good look on a character and unprofessionalism without any consequences makes for many entitled characters that I end up hating.

[MaryMitch]

This may be a very broad trope but in connection to my previous post about sex at work, one thing I really hate in a show is unprofessionalism.

I'm always amazed at the language used in work situations on cable TV.  In over 30 years on the job, I have NEVER heard the F word spoken by a coworker in a meeting. We are grownups.

[DeLurker]

Had to do an audit of financial records held at the office of the District Attorney. One of the ADA's would scream obscenities across the office at his staff on a regular basis, including f bombs. It was appalling.

[Moose135]

I'm always amazed at the language used in work situations on cable TV.  In over 30 years on the job, I have NEVER heard the F word spoken by a coworker in a meeting. We are grownups.

 

I had one VP who used it regularly - it was something of an art form with him, and it didn't matter much who was in the meeting.

[merylinkid]

The lawyer asking for a dollar in order to be "retained."   Urrrggggghhhh.   Did it just last night on the Good Wife, but it happens on EVERY SINGLE SHOW in which a lawyer is used to cover up some nefarious plot by the person seeking advice.    You don't have to retain a lawyer to get advice and create a lawyer-client relationshp that is protected by confidentiality.   Heavens, pro bono people don't pay a darn cent but they get the same privileges and protections as those who hand over a token dollar.   It's about the relationshp, not the money (excuse me, I think the Bar Assoc, wants to have a little talk with me now).