TV Tropes: Love 'em or Loathe 'em

[SeriousPurrs]

People, particularly adults, scared of clowns.

 

I don't ever recall being scared by clowns as a child, nor do I know anyone then or now who was.

 

Yet somehow the idea that large segments of the population are terrified by clowns popped-up 20 years ago, or possibly earlier.

 

Is John Wayne Gacy behind this?

Yes. Yes, he is--also Ronald McDonald.

I went to get my mail one day and there was a big, silent clown in full make-up and costume standing there. I kind of froze for a few seconds--really wanted to run screaming, but that would have been rude.

[walnutqueen]

Ronald McDonald convinced me clowns were creepy.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

I believe that Stephen King's It is most likely the culprit.

"We all float down here....."

[galax-arena]

Rape or sexual assault being used to break the haughty or otherwise bring an unlikable female character “down to earth” and start her on the path to redemption and likability. Holy unfortunate implications, Batman.

[Jack Shaftoe]

Love Redeems, especially combined with All Girls Want Bad Boys. Everything is based on the idea that if the actors have chemistry (or rather, if enough shippers write to the producers claiming that they do), their characters should hook up. Even if one is a terrorist and the other a CIA agent or one is a vampire and the other a vampire slayer. It's all good, the power of love can achieve anything. Except for being the basis of a decent story, that is.

[braziliangirl]

 

Love Redeems, especially combined with All Girls Want Bad Boys.

So much word to this! I think it's such a wrong message to send. Especially if it's linked with the idea that "bad boys always change. Hold on even if they treat you like crap. They just need the right woman".

[ParadoxLost]

This is something I used to see predominantly in soap operas when I used to watch them; but it seems to be spreading.  I have a visceral loathing for the montage out trope.  No, I do not need to visit each character and bask in their emotions while a truly subpar song plays at the end of every single episode.  Just stop it.

 

Just picture watching the end of every single episode of Defiance.  Musical Post Montage Out.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oX3xIgyANOk#t=63

 

And no, I didn't know this song existed before this post and don't subject yourself to more than twenty seconds of it.

Edited August 10, 2014 by ParadoxLost

[Snow Apple]

Popular = mean/jerk/bitch. See: all high school shows.

 

How the underdog can do whatever they want and we're suppose to root for them. For example, the later season Rosanne treats customers and her boss like trash and is lazy, but we're suppose to think she's just sassy and boo "the man." No. I, for one, hate her.

[DXD526]

The Rodbell's Roseanne certainly wasn't perky, but she wasn't outright rude to the customers, like she was at the Lunchbox. I always wondered why anyone ate there. Them loose meat sandwiches must have been mighty good for people to put up with Roseanne's shitty attitude to get one.

 

I hate scenes that take place in a movie theater, because they're always the same: a couple of people will keep talking during the movie, and others will shush them, leading to some kind of confrontation, and hilarity is supposed to ensue. I always greet a scene that opens in a theater with a groan and eyeroll, because I know exactly what's coming.

[RubyWoo72]

I'm so tired of the nurse/doctor/health care worker who has gone beyond maintaining a professional, objective distance from personal feelings toward a patient, and right into straight-up deadpan, brusque, cold asshole. I get that some of that is to protect one's own feelings and not compromise a situation, but most of these types of characters are just mean. And it always rubs me the wrong way.

[ABay]

It's time to retire this one:

Two investigators approach a high fence or gate. One begins to scale the barrier with much preparation. The other opens the gate.

Corollary: They're trying to enter a locked house. One prepares to kick down the door, then the other opens it from the other side having entered through the unlocked back door.

[Kel Varnsen]

I don't really hate this trope but I think it needs to be retired: I am talking about the one where a main character comes to a realization that family aren't just the people you are related to but also the people in your life that really care about you. It is not that it is a bad message it is just that it gets used so often. And every time it does get used it is treated like some amazing revelation that no one has ever figured out before. When in reality, considering how often it shows up on tv, you would think the character would have seen it on TV themselves.

[ganesh]

Well, no one on tv actually watches tv because they're so busy Living Life. 

[HalcyonDays]

Characters on shows almost always being perfectly put together. Somehow they can afford perfectly tailored outfits by the hundreds - with matching shoes - that never seem to repeat. No one - unless it's a "I'm depressed because someone dumped me" - ever shows up in public dressed in grungy jeans and an out of style T-shirt.

 

Sci-Fi - space themed shows - everyone always wears a jumpsuit in silvery colours, to show future clothing choces, requiring one to not have an ounce of extra weight or bulges anywhere. These same people apparently never need to go to the bathroom either (what, no flaps?).

 

The Friends Apartment trope - everyone can afford a beautiful large apartment/house, regardless of salary.

 

Whenever a woman gets with their true love on a show (and usually gets married), they automatically want to have lots of kids. Not every woman wants kids.

[CoderLady]

Whenever a woman gets with their true love on a show (and usually gets married), they automatically want to have lots of kids. Not every woman wants kids.

 

And any woman who says outright that she doesn't want kids will get pregnant unexpectedly and after about 10 minutes of angsting will be all for it.

Edited August 20, 2014 by CoderLady

[GreekGeek]

Corollary: Women who do want to start a family will often have fertility problems.

[Actionmage]

Also related? The wife of the cop/doctor/FBI agent who constantly complains about her spouses long hours at work. Like he's just hanging around the office, and not saving lives. And this is a huge shock to her, even though she knew she married a cop/doctor/FBI agent.

 

That has always made me angry at the wife, for just those reasons! For a doctor, she probably married her spouse as they were doing an internship, so even longer shifts and much less time, from what I have gathered from watching tv (news shows as well as scripted dramas.)

 

For the cop/government agent, did the wife never worry until that episode? The cop/agent's spouse apparently also isolates herself, so going to a support group or talking with other spouses doesn't seem to have occurred to her.

 

At least nowadays, we get a gender-flipped version with the husbands very grumpy and pouty about the female doctor or cop/agent leaving in the middle of whatever. Yet, no matter the gender, the spouse always seems to think that the professional is happy to be leaving wherever: family get-together, important function for the spouse, a romantic night out without the kids, etc. Because being hip deep in a bowel reconstruction is so much more fun? That having to deal with a hostage situation is less nerve-wracking that the hundredth time of dealing with in-laws  that, like said spouse, don't understand their job?

 

I also hate the Crusading Teacher, at least on TV.  When teachers in real life are being dismissed out of hand for failing to do everything some parents don't do and everything else society is currently refusing to do- and paying for supplies out of their own meager paychecks- seeing this trope just angries me up.  And this is from a person who loved Room 222 as a kid.

[ganesh]

Sci-Fi - space themed shows - everyone always wears a jumpsuit in silvery colours, to show future clothing choces, requiring one to not have an ounce of extra weight or bulges anywhere. These same people apparently never need to go to the bathroom either (what, no flaps?).

 

Ah ha. Babylon 5 actually had functional uniforms, with jackets and pockets too. They even did a bathroom scene! And they had wristbands for communication. Shocking.

[andromeda331]

The best cop/FBI/etc is the one with the tragic past because they care more then any of their co-workers. This also justifies them do what ever they want, treat people how ever they want and never get called on it because of their tragic past. The cop/FBI/etc who catches other cops/FBI/etc breaking the law, committing crimes or doing thing in order to get their suspect and gives them a huge smackdown speech despite the fact they do the exact same thing. But that's somehow different. 

[topanga]

At least nowadays, we get a gender-flipped version with the husbands very grumpy and pouty about the female doctor or cop/agent leaving in the middle of whatever.

 

This is one of the reasons I stopped watching Grey's Anatomy. When Dr. Bailey's marriage ended largely because her husband felt she wasn't "there for him" or their son. She's a friggin' surgeon! He knew this going into the marriage and had to have an idea, at least from TV and movies, that she wouldn't be home at 5 o'clock every day to cook dinner and bake cookies.

 

 

 

The Friends Apartment trope - everyone can afford a beautiful large apartment/house, regardless of salary.

Not to mention that every New York City apartment is huge.

Edited August 21, 2014 by topanga

[Qoass]

 

The girls who make everyone fall in love with them, are amazing in anything they try, the most special snowflakes ever

 

Paging Rory Gilmore...

 

As an adjunct to that doctor with the frosty bedside manner, how about the one who keeps trying to shock his dead heart patient to life way after the rest of the room recognizes that s/he's a goner.  Clear!  Zap!  Beeeeeeep.....

 

I'm also sick of that camera shot in which someone gives a person terrible news and we see it from a distance through a window as we watch the person wail silently.

[HalcyonDays]

As an adjunct to that doctor with the frosty bedside manner, how about the one who keeps trying to shock his dead heart patient to life way after the rest of the room recognizes that s/he's a goner.  Clear!  Zap!  Beeeeeeep.....

 

The fact that the show never indicates that properly executed CPR actually will crack ones ribs. I vaguely remember this from CPR training, but if done correctly, cracked (and sometimes broken) ribs are apparently very common. Correct me please if I am wrong.

 

Oh, and that two or three weak pumps get that heart muscle going but strong. Can't fault them in a way. The actors cannot do full force CPR on another actor, so I guess this really shouldn't be a problem.

[Joe]

Another trope I hate, poor communication. Characters who assume, or don't talk to each other. I once watched a porn based on this premise, it irritated me so much I couldn't continue. I can't even accept it in an excuse plot.

[ganesh]

Ah, so you mean The Leftovers? They made a whole set of characters on the show whose thing is not talking, but they write everything on paper, except since they're writing, it's only like 4 words at a time. So no one every answers anything. 

 

It's a cheap writing hack to "manufacture drama". 

 

Can you tell me what happened last night?

Why?

 

*eyeroll*

[Gudzilla]

All law enforcement agencies are incompetent (except for the one the show is based on) and will be uncooperative.

[Joe]

Ah, so you mean The Leftovers? They made a whole set of characters on the show whose thing is not talking, but they write everything on paper, except since they're writing, it's only like 4 words at a time. So no one every answers anything.

I haven't watched the Leftovers. I was thinking of something else at the time, though it's completely gone out of my head now. But hey, now I know not to start watching!

[P2C2E]

The fact that the show never indicates that properly executed CPR actually will crack ones ribs. I vaguely remember this from CPR training, but if done correctly, cracked (and sometimes broken) ribs are apparently very common. Correct me please if I am wrong.

 

Oh, and that two or three weak pumps get that heart muscle going but strong. Can't fault them in a way. The actors cannot do full force CPR on another actor, so I guess this really shouldn't be a problem.

 

It drives me absolutely crazy to watch them perform CPR on television shows. I realize you cannot compress an actor's rib cage, but you could at least position yourself correctly! They always stand to the side with their arms out in front, rather than in a position of leverage. Also, why couldn't they use a dummy? I realize, not going for accuracy, but still!

 

And yes, although it was never covered in most of my CPR classes, I do believe that it is highly likely to crack ribs when doing it correctly.  

[kathyk24]

When Brenda and Fritz on the Closer got married he wanted kids she didn't and they ended up childless. It drove me crazy when Brenda's parents would visit her without telling her they were coming. She's a high ranking police official she can't drop everything to entertain them. A male cop would never be expected to do that.

[MaryPatShelby]

This may be too Inside Baseball, but I hate the trope of two law enforcement agencies and/or DAs (Law and Order mothership, I'm looking at you) fighting over the crime's jurisdiction, and both of them WANT jurisdiction. In real life, cops especially do NOT want jurisdiction if there is a dispute. Not only that, there are normally clearly drawn lines of jurisdiction and no reason for a dispute in the first place.

[Raja]

This may be too Inside Baseball, but I hate the trope of two law enforcement agencies and/or DAs (Law and Order mothership, I'm looking at you) fighting over the crime's jurisdiction, and both of them WANT jurisdiction. In real life, cops especially do NOT want jurisdiction if there is a dispute. Not only that, there are normally clearly drawn lines of jurisdiction and no reason for a dispute in the first place.

The lines are clear, NCIS handles everything.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

Or the BAU.

[Francesca007]

Oops wrong thread.

Edited August 26, 2014 by Francesca007

[Raja]

I hate TV making us think we are safe because the terrorist leaders will always break their plans of mass mayhem in order to kill one cop

[Minneapple]

If a woman vomits on TV, that automatically means she's pregnant. Can't be a stomach virus or anything like that, nope. Vomit and you're pregnant!

 

I pretty much hate all pregnancy tropes on TV. Pregnant women are crazy and crave crazy food and are always vomiting.

[Raja]

The quirky do anything technical support staff every detective and spy squad has.

[Haleth]

The rogue bad boy who seems to be in it only for himself but really has a heart of gold and shows up out of the blue to support the good guys.

[potatoradio]

 

This is something I used to see predominantly in soap operas when I used to watch them; but it seems to be spreading.  I have a visceral loathing for the montage out trope.  No, I do not need to visit each character and bask in their emotions while a truly subpar song plays at the end of every single episode.  Just stop it.

 

From your post to every writer/producer's brain with a special STAT page to the Grey's Anatomy and Parenthood musical monkeys. I'll admit that I've liked a song or two from the Grey's Anatomy montage outs, but it's so overdone and extra cheesy now that I pretty much have to turn off the teevee as soon as I hear the first notes of a boo hooing wailing song and see all the sad face contortions.

 

Quite sure it's possible to do a good montage, but most of them just make me think the writers quit early, some self-important emo took over, and I, the viewer, am supposed to watch and feel moved by the craptastic masturbatory project that's put together. Not happening.

[ganesh]

The montage is a cheap way to pad the show because they don't have the talent to write a full episode. It's not like the characters are really interacting. Someone is washing dishes, someone else is brushing their teeth, someone cowering in the closet, etc.

[blueray]

I don't mind montage's if they are done right. Like in Lost there is one at an end of an episode (don't remember which one) where everyone is walking around on the beach and their is music in the background... and suddenly it cuts out. Then it's revealed it was Hurley listening to it and his battery died.

 

I don't like clip shows. To me if it's a new episode it should be mostly all new footage and advance the story. Anyone watching the show should be following it so they don't need to be reminded what happened earlier that season for 45 minutes.

[kathyk24]

I loved the ending montage on Cold Case that's where we saw the victim get closure. Cold Case also used music better than most shows on television.

[briochetwist]

People, particularly adults, scared of clowns.

 

I don't ever recall being scared by clowns as a child, nor do I know anyone then or now who was.

 

Yet somehow the idea that large segments of the population are terrified by clowns popped-up 20 years ago, or possibly earlier.

 

Is John Wayne Gacy behind this?

For me, it was Poltergeist,  I've been terrified of clowns ever since.  John Wayne Gacy didn't help the situation, and neither did Ronald McDonald.

[bmoore4026]

"Good people have good sex".

 

Heroes never have fetishes or kinks.  If a character engages in something kinky, it's because:

 

A) There's a joke being set-up (Example: George Costanza handcuffed to a bed ready for a wild time, only to have the lady enter the room, fully dressed.  She then proceeds to rob him blind and then leaves).

 

or

 

B) The character is an eeeeeeevil pervert that eats babies and rapes angels.

 

Also, heroes never have any "sexual mishaps", unless it's for comedy's sake.

[Shannon L.]

Only on tv (and movies) do people always have the means to get beautiful, elaborate costumes for costume parties.

 

Oops.  I just realized that this was the wrong thread, but since it has a couple of likes, I'll leave it here.

Edited August 30, 2014 by Shannon L.

[ganesh]

Heroes never have fetishes or kinks.

 

I guess I'll never he a hero then.  I thought I was actually a good guy!

[andromeda331]

When Brenda and Fritz on the Closer got married he wanted kids she didn't and they ended up childless. It drove me crazy when Brenda's parents would visit her without telling her they were coming. She's a high ranking police official she can't drop everything to entertain them. A male cop would never be expected to do that.

 

 

That reminds me how people would get on her case for being a workaholic. She was but it was because she loved her job. What was wrong with her loving her job? They do it on other shows too as if their trying to make the person feel bad or in the wrong because they happen to love their job. No, they need to see the light, to relax, or learn to have more in their life besides the job they love.

[magicdog]

The best cop/FBI/etc is the one with the tragic past

 

 

That also bugs me!  Almost every cop/investigator has a dysfunctional family.  There is such a thing as a loving family life.  Bluebloods is the only show I've seen in recent years to show a loving, solid, normal family.

[Popples]

That also bugs me!  Almost every cop/investigator has a dysfunctional family.

*cough*NCIS*cough*

 

Seriously,every single one of the main response team has daddy issues. I stopped watching in the middle of last season, so I don't know if the woman who replaced Ziva does.

[truthaboutluv]

I am with others about the bad boy woobie and the love triangle, which is why The Vampire Diaries makes me rage so much as it employs both of those and does so to the point that they dominate the show. That said, the other one that's very high up on my list is the victim/victimizer relationship and I largely blame soap operas for that one. Going all the way back to Laura falling in love with her rapist on General Hospital, time after time we see pairings and shippers rooting for pairings where one person has violated, attacked, kidnapped, etc. the other because "OMG the actors have amazing chemistry and they would be so hot together." I also feel like the bad boy woobie strongly intertwines with this one because the bad boy woobie often starts off doing heinous things but the actor's usually hot, he and the female look good together and so the inevitable woobification will begin so the lead can inevitably fall in love with him despite all the heinous shit he's done and many of which was done to her. 

 

Another one I absolutely loathe is the "couples can't stay together and be happy because that's boring so let's break them up and keep them apart as long as possible because it makes for great angst." And then after throwing every horrible and bullshit hurdle possible at the couple until they both become downright unlikeable and no sane and reasonable person would want them anywhere near each other again, throw them back together in some lame 13th hour reunion as the show is ending. And audiences are expected to cheer and aww and believe they'll live happily ever after even though they'd just spent years watching all the ways they were awful for and to each other.

Edited September 6, 2014 by truthaboutluv

[GreekGeek]

Another one I absolutely loathe is the "couples can't stay together and be happy because that's boring so let's break them up and keep them apart as long as possible because it makes for great angst." And then after throwing every horrible and bullshit hurdle possible at the couple until they both become downright likeable and no sane and reasonable person would want them anywhere near each other again, throw them back together in some lame 13th hour reunion as the show is ending. And audiences are expected to cheer and aww and believe they'll live happily ever after even though they'd just spent years watching all the ways they were awful for and to each other.

 

 

Don't you mean "unlikeable"?

I remember how upset I was back in the 70's when I read that Rhoda and Joe on Rhoda were going to divorce, simply because the writers didn't know how to make a happy marriage funny. Joe went from being a great catch to a jerk in record time, to make the breakup more convincing, because their problems didn't seem like anything they couldn't work through. At least there was no last minute reconciliation.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

Another one I absolutely loathe is the "couples can't stay together and be happy because that's boring so let's break them up and keep them apart as long as possible because it makes for great angst." And then after throwing every horrible and bullshit hurdle possible at the couple until they both become downright unlikeable and no sane and reasonable person would want them anywhere near each other again, throw them back together in some lame 13th hour reunion as the show is ending. And audiences are expected to cheer and aww and believe they'll live happily ever after even though they'd just spent years watching all the ways they were awful for and to each other.

A corollary to this is the trope of "chemistry means the couple fights all the time and basically acts like they hate one another". Yes, it happens in real life that even couples who are very much in love fight, but it isn't every minute of every day.