TV Tropes: Love 'em or Loathe 'em

[2KllMckngBrd]

This isn't necessarily a trope because it's not a story line, but I hate it when writers take a ditzy or angry, but still funny and loveable character and turn him/her into someone who is either dumber than a stump (ditzy) or a raging bitch/jerk (angry).  Ex. Brittany and Sue from Glee!

Completely agree. I have never seen Glee, but an example of the "ditzy" variety that drives me nuts is Jackie from Roseanne. That show took what was a silly free spirit, and turned it into a complete moron. I went from rooting for her, to wishing she would shut the hell up by the end.

Edited September 28, 2014 by 2KllMckngBrd

[Snowprince]

Family Ties did the same thing to Justine Bateman's Mallory Keaton.

[Aquarius]

And Married With Children did it to Kelly Bundy. It's like she suffered a head injury offscreen, she's so stoooopid by the later seasons.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

Not that Kelly was ever Mensa material. In one episode, Bud was helping her cram for a test, and he told Al something to the effect of, "If you pour a gallon of knowledge into a shot glass of a brain, you're going to spill some."

[selkie]

That's so true, nobody ever gets drunk one in advised time or goes gambling once before it's an addiction. Nobody ever does cocaine in college and graduates and forgets all about it.

 

 

Six Feet Under was pretty good about showing occasional recreational drug use that never really turned into an addiction.

 

 

Again if it was before Ironsisde that's a long, long time ago. Any women OR men with a disabilit y other than reading glasses? Anybody deaf? In wheelchair? Asthma? Ra?

 

When PAX was doing original programming, they had Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye about a deaf woman whose excellent lip-reading skills got her a job on an elite FBI survelance squad.

 

Actor Jim Byrnes lost both legs in a car accident, and then was' Lifeguard' on the crime drama Wiseguy and watcher Joe Dawson on Highlander:The Series and his disability came up as a plot point on both shows.  (He's also one of those guys who shows up on half the series filmed in Vancouver, so there might be more of that I haven't seen.)

 

[lucindabelle]

But why a plot point? Why not just a fact, as it is for so many people with asthma, ra, diabetes?

[selkie]

But why a plot point? Why not just a fact, as it is for so many people with asthma, ra, diabetes?

 

Most of the time, Byrnes is shown just walking with a cane, but there were times on each show (Wiseguy- showing him without prosthesis made Vinnie's connection back to the FBI seem more vulnerable, and in Highlander, he was the contrast to physically perfect people who could live forever) where they were using the disability to add some symbolism to the bigger story.

[ganesh]

It wasn't actually a plot point on Highlander until way later in the series, and even then it was pretty well done. They actually did a really good story on how he met an old high school gf, but lost touch with her when he came back from Vietnam because of his injury. They actually used Vietnam as a good parallel to another character's dark [awesome] past. Otherwise he was a real, 3D character, and not just the disabled guy they trotted out once and a while for An Important Lesson. He had a lot going on. 

[lucindabelle]

OK, good to know. Never watched that show. I'm just tired of pretty pretty perfect people on TV. I'd like to see more people who happen to have a common physical ailment without it being ABOUT that, just as I like seeing people who happen to be Jewish, or black, or Asian, without it being a Very Special Episode.

 

In real life, business sharks wear glasses, have flat feet, diabetes, etc. Just not on TV.

[Gudzilla]

I used to hate that on tv shows (and in movies) being a writer is so often shown as the most noble profession and somehow means the character is deep and oh so interesting. Then I realized who comes up with this stuff. ;) 

[lucindabelle]

LOL and actors are often vain and overbearing and silly. Again, consider the source!

[ganesh]

They're all actually assholes though.

[kathyk24]

I'm a person with a disability and I also work for an agency that serves the disabled. I hate it when able bodies actors are cast as disabled people. Jim Brynes would have been perfect as Ironsides. The exception would be portraying a person with mental illness. Someone with split personality IRL couldn't play Tara in United States of Tara.

[islandgal140]

And Married With Children did it to Kelly Bundy. It's like she suffered a head injury offscreen, she's so stoooopid by the later seasons.

I hated how Kelly was so inconsistently stupid on the show. One episode she is completely illiterate and the next she seems to be able to read albeit at a 3rd grade level.

 

Speaking of disabilities and Michael J Fox, I have been binge watching past seasons of The Good Wife and I liked his guest starring as Louis Canning. He is a man with a disability who ain't afraid to play dirty and uses his disability to gain sympathy with judges and juries. It is interesting to watch. 

 

I am over the nerd trope on TV. We get it.  They are all socially inept, awkward, oddly dressed, sci-fi and comic book loving, video game playing, can't get a woman cerebral weirdos. Heaven forbid a person be highly intelligent and socially adept.

 

The maverick in his field (doctor, lawyer, detective, etc) who gets to verbally and emotionally abuse everyone in his immediate environment terribly simply because of his/her oh hell lets face it his (damn you sexism) ability to solve whatever problem is at hand. 

[ganesh]

The thing about the nerd trope is that it's patently false. Nerd culture has been 'in' for a while now. *everyone* is a 'nerd'. So much so, that the definition has finally lost meaning. You like Orphan Black? You're a nerd. Game of Thrones? Nerd. Despite the fact that genre shows and movies have been popular for a while. 

 

I really hate the 'zomg, a chick who likes scifi and plays video games????!!!!!11!!!' Uh, yeah, go to a con. They're a significant demo and buy about 50% of games, etc. 

[zillabreeze]

I could not believe that this seasons' first episode of Castle has the main character get amnesia!!! Wow writers, just wow.  How 'bout add a hooker with a heart of gold while you are on such a creative roll?

[HalcyonDays]

I am over the nerd trope on TV. We get it.  They are all socially inept, awkward, oddly dressed, sci-fi and comic book loving, video game playing, can't get a woman cerebral weirdos. Heaven forbid a person be highly intelligent and socially adept.

 

Here, here, re: the clothing. I mean, the Big Bang Theory is a prime example. Raj dresses so mis-matched and in so many layers of un-matching clashing stuff. He's also portrayed as a bit of a metro-sexual with good taste, so his wardrobe choices makes no sense. Sheldon is ironically the only one who dresses normally. And apparently nerds don't wear jeans at all. I'm a nerd, and plain simple jeans with a dark in colour, one-colour (preferrably black) shirt is my uniform of choice. Easy, lazy and simple. At least the T-shirts the guys wear are cool.

 

Good looking = dumb but successful in relationships. Intelligence = social awkward, unattractive and can't get a date.

[lucindabelle]

I never thought about the Nerd Trope. Y'all are absolutely right. This trope was true-ish 30 years ago, now, not so much.

I know plenty of people in IT with kids, who listen to Springsteen, dress normally, etc. There are also plenty of socially awkward people in the arts.

But cliche to the Nerd trope!

[psychoticstate]

Family Ties did the same thing to Justine Bateman's Mallory Keaton.

 

I used to be good friends with someone who worked on Family Ties back in the day and he said that Justine Bateman was one of the most vile bitches to ever walk the planet.  She was extremely disliked on the set and she burned many bridges - - she didn't do another series for a while after FT ended. 

 

On the other hand, he said that Michael J. Fox was fantastic to work with, as well as Meredith Baxter.  Initially, MB was going to be the star of the show.  She was the "name" when it started but MJF became the breakout star.  Wouldn't have been unusual for MB to take offense but she's been in the biz long enough and is a decent enough person that she realized the popularity only helped the show.  In any event, he said that both were very down to earth and considerate people (which I always like to hear about celebs).

[ganesh]

I'm a nerd, and plain simple jeans with a dark in colour, one-colour (preferrably black) shirt is my uniform of choice.

 

I wear whatever the fuck is on sale from Old Navy whenever my mother gives me a gift card because I can't afford anything. 

 

When you have LeBron James wearing a bow tie, I think we can officially say that 'nerd' can be retired. 

[Rick Kitchen]

James Franciscus played a blind insurance investigator on the TV series "Longstreet".

[Jac]

The almost all characters with autistic spectrum disorders/autism-like personality traits are super talented (often verging on savantism) at science and/or mathematics trope is overly done and patently wrong. Most people with ASDs do not display any savant qualities. People with ASDs have a wide range of interests. Some people with autism downright suck at science and mathematics. 

 

A related strong dislike is that almost all characters with ASDs are portrayed as only enjoying popular culture that would be considered geeky/nerdy. Sci-fi, comic books etc. Again people with ASDs have a wide range of interests.

 

My sister has an ASD, I have a more complex disorder that features some ASD traits. I am studying law and have a background in international public policy journalism and my sister is studying media and english. Admittedly I did once study medical science but gave it up after failing basic chem, repeatedly. 

[BatmanBeatles]

I blame Rain Man.

[cynic]

Again if it was before Ironsisde that's a long, long time ago. Any women OR men with a disabilit y other than reading glasses? Anybody deaf? In wheelchair? Asthma? Ra?

The coroner on CSI is a double-amputee.

[Portia]

Those guys on Big Bang Theory all dress better--or at least more interestingly--than 90% of the real-life male college professors I know. I see a lot of sad, wrinkled golf shirts and ill-fitting khakis with sneakers.

[CletusMusashi]

How about precisely Timed Biological Processes?

You know what I'm talking about. "This poison will kill him in exactly 28 minutes and 6.359 seconds! Unless he gets the antidote at 28 minutes and 6.358 seconds! In which case, he's immediately cured."

Especially weird since the assassin is always carrying the antidote in his pocket. How does that make you better at killing people?

Edited October 5, 2014 by CletusMusashi

[AntiBeeSpray]

The thing about the nerd trope is that it's patently false. Nerd culture has been 'in' for a while now. *everyone* is a 'nerd'. So much so, that the definition has finally lost meaning. You like Orphan Black? You're a nerd. Game of Thrones? Nerd. Despite the fact that genre shows and movies have been popular for a while. 

 

I really hate the 'zomg, a chick who likes scifi and plays video games????!!!!!11!!!' Uh, yeah, go to a con. They're a significant demo and buy about 50% of games, etc. 

 

I hate both of those tropes!

 

Especially the latter. Surprise boys! We like to play games too! Just as much as you do, along with watching sci fi.

[ABay]

This is a visual trope and it's ubiquitous but it still annoys me: When the person in a commercial is doing the confessional thing--I have COPD, ED, IBS, NAMBLA, what- the-hell-ever--but instead of seeing them head on, we see them from the side as if they're speaking to someone else. It usually starts with them speaknig directly to the camera and then shifts. And I'm thinking "Hey! I'm over here!"

[ganesh]

The only problem now with the video game trope is that it's flown out of control and is actually dangerous. 

[backformore]

The tv trope I hate is that so many people "unexpectedly" can look at an item of clothing (often on a dead body) and recognize the designer and price of the item.

A dead body,and there's someone who is focusing on shoes, a coat, and knowing, not just that it "looks expensive", but the precise designer, year price.

[Ambrosefolly]

I hate the trope in which a person tries to better themselves in some fashion and are accused to "trying to be something they're not".

 

I came across an episode of Fantasy Island in which a woman has a "fantasy" of being  a "lady".  Her daughter is marrying a rich guy from a richer family and the wedding was being held at the island.  The woman was a nice earthy type who wanted to learn a little more of the social graces so she wouldn't appear to be an idiot at a party filled with more sophisticated folk.  The rich boy's aunt exposes the woman's past in front of all the party guests (she was in roller derby and put her daughter through [finishing] school after losing her husband and having no other way to make a living).  Future father in law is cool with the woman not being "a lady" and future son is law is cool too, so as all's well that ends well, I hear the, "I was wrong for trying to be something I'm not". 

 

Sorry, I saw it as a woman just trying to learn how to act with a crowd she doesn't spend much time with and not seem embarrassing to her daughter (although said daughter never acted embarrassed).  No different than trying to learn which fork to use at a fancy dinner party.  I've seen this trope in so many films and TV shows - except the character is going to college or looking to make new friends/contacts/relationships. The person's old group always accuses them of trying to be "better than they are".  I call it self improvement!

On General Hospital, there was a character named Kate Howard, who changed her name from Connie Falconeri. She came from a humble background, won a full scholarship to attend an Ivy League school and worked her way up to being an editor and chief of a major fashion magazine, and changed her name (and gave herself a false backstory) in order to achieve it. In a genre that often gives CEO positions to people that aren't even qualified to flip burgers, it is a refreshing change to have a woman that not only did well in school but started from the bottom.  While it made her uncomfortable when her real history was revealed, it wasn't devastating to her, but no one could deny that she didn't put in the work to earn her position. 

 

But just about everyone would complain about what a "phony" she was: her cousin, one of her employees (that would sabotage her), her kingpin boyfriend/fiancé, and his bitchy ex wife, which was rich because she came to town under an assumed name to destroy her birth mother's life.

Edited October 27, 2014 by Ambrosefolly

[ABay]

Another visual trope, as lately seen in the ads for Atlantis on BBCA: the ancient Greek jumping sword attack. I'm not a Classicist, but I'm going to hazard a guess that actual ancient warriors of Greece did not, in fact, attack their opponents by leaping into the air in order to stab them with a sword.

[ganesh]

The only poem written in the history of everything is the "Tiger tiger" poem because tv has used it 5 billion times. 

[CletusMusashi]

Another visual trope, as lately seen in the ads for Atlantis on BBCA: the ancient Greek jumping sword attack. I'm not a Classicist, but I'm going to hazard a guess that actual ancient warriors of Greece did not, in fact, attack their opponents by leaping into the air in order to stab them with a sword.

Please. Next you'll be claiming that shirts were invented before steroids.

[Wiendish Fitch]

The only poem written in the history of everything is the "Tiger tiger" poem because tv has used it 5 billion times.

 

 

Similarly, Romeo and Juliet is the only play Shakespeare ever wrote. The. Only. One. Apparently, no drama teacher wants to put on A Midsummer Night's Dream, or As You Like It, or Twelfth Night, or, hell, to really stir the pudding, A Winter's Tale. Nope, it's Romeo and Juliet or nothin'.

[ChromaKelly]

The tv trope I hate is that so many people "unexpectedly" can look at an item of clothing (often on a dead body) and recognize the designer and price of the item.

A dead body,and there's someone who is focusing on shoes, a coat, and knowing, not just that it "looks expensive", but the precise designer, year price.

And of course that scarf was made from rare silk and only sold at a boutique in the Hamptons, I'm on it. (Visit to boutique, where owner of course remembers the purchaser, who is not the victim, but the suspect.) No one wears a scarf from Old Navy that 100,000 other people own.

[Constantinople]

Similarly, Romeo and Juliet is the only play Shakespeare ever wrote. The. Only. One. Apparently, no drama teacher wants to put on A Midsummer Night's Dream, or As You Like It, or Twelfth Night, or, hell, to really stir the pudding, A Winter's Tale. Nope, it's Romeo and Juliet or nothin'.

True enough, but I like to imagine the teacher is telling the students to go kill their angsty, teen-aged selves.

[Gudzilla]

.....and anyone looking at the stars will point out Cassiopeia. 

[Gulielma]

On competition shows, I hate Battle of the Sexes. Great. You put all the guys on one team, all the women on the other. How long did it take you to think that up Ten nanoseconds?

[kiddo82]

Similarly, Romeo and Juliet is the only play Shakespeare ever wrote. The. Only. One. Apparently, no drama teacher wants to put on A Midsummer Night's Dream, or As You Like It, or Twelfth Night, or, hell, to really stir the pudding, A Winter's Tale. Nope, it's Romeo and Juliet or nothin'.

Trope within a trope: this is so the shy, sneakily pretty, drama girl Juliet will see that there's more to the seemingly arrogant Romeo than being quarterback of the football team.

[Wax Lion]

Another Ro&J trope that annoyed me, I get tired of how that play is the one students relate to because they're so angsty and romance prone. When I studied Ro&J my classmates thought they were idiots and didn't understand what the fuck they were getting crazy about. Don't underestimate the ability of teens to get judgey about things they do themselves.

 

Give me a story about kids learning to enjoy Shakespeare because they love the pulpy violence of MacBeth and Hamlet.

[ganesh]

We watched Roman Polanski's Macbeth in HS, which was a blood bath. We loved it. 

 

I know no one generally knows the comedies, so they aren't going to do them on tv, but some of them are *hilarious*. It's kind of funny because the whole "mistaken identity" trope on sitcoms is straight out of Shakespeare.

[kiddo82]

Give me a story about kids learning to enjoy Shakespeare because they love the pulpy violence of MacBeth and Hamlet.

We all got such a kick out of the carnage of Hamlet.

Edited October 29, 2014 by kiddo82

[Cobalt Stargazer]

The only poem written in the history of everything is the "Tiger tiger" poem because tv has used it 5 billion times. 

 

And the only classical song in Handel's The Messiah

 

We all got such a kick out of the carnage of Hamlet.

 

To be fair, there's a pretty good body count in [ii]Romeo & Juliet[/i] as well. Shakespeare was famous for killing off his character. Isn't that what "He dies, she dies, everybody dies..." is based on?

[legaleagle53]

To be fair, there's a pretty good body count in [ii]Romeo & Juliet[/i] as well. Shakespeare was famous for killing off his character. Isn't that what "He dies, she dies, everybody dies..." is based on?

 

Heh.  I remember a Shakespeare class I took in high school sometime back in the last century.  After we had finished studying Richard III, we then went on to study one of the comedies, The Taming of the Shrew.  I remember my teacher explaining to the class the main difference between a Shakespearean tragedy and a Shakespearean comedy:  In a comedy, nobody dies -- everyone gets married instead.  After she had said this, a guy in the back row said, "It's the same thing!"

Edited October 30, 2014 by legaleagle53

[scarynikki12]

My Classical Lit class senior year watched a PBS version of King Lear and we thought it was the funniest thing ever.  The production had Lear dress up like a giant elf when he went nuts and all of our laughing (seriously, the funniest thing ever) really dampened the seriousness of the play.  My teacher joined in so it didn't hurt our grade.  We also used the Greek mythology we were studying as an excuse to watch the original Star Wars trilogy and Bullwinkle, so we were big fans of that class.

 

The One Special Girl trope is tied with the Draco in Leather Pants one for my most hated.  A male character who treats every female character save one like shit is a myth.  If he tends to treat everyone like shit, then he'll always treat everyone like shit, even the woman/girl he's fixated on (and, more often than not, especially the woman/girl he's fixated on).  Shows love to use this trope to make it clear that one female character is considered Better Than the Others and to pit them against each other.  This just reinforces the idea that women will always hate/be in competition with each other.

[lucindabelle]

Mistaken identity goes back at least to Plautus. Shakespeare did not invent it.

As for teens getting judgy, delighted and surprised when a group of teens told me last week that you can't be sexy and scary at the same time (we were discussing halloween costumes) and heaped scorn on 13 year olds wearing miniskirts. 3 year olds, they said, should not try to look sexy. You never see teenage Puritanism on TV. I'd like to.

[ganesh]

Moonlighting, for whatever reason, did an episode that was the Taming of the Shrew. I have no idea why they did, but it was actually very good an extremely funny. 

[Kel Varnsen]

Not sure if this is a trope or not, but I have noticing lately that the skill level a police department has depends entirely on whether or not the show's main characters are cops or criminals. On shows like CSI or Hawaii Five-O or Bones the cops can solve major cases in a single shift, eye witnesses give great testimony and lab techs can enhance the tiniest part of an image from the world's worst security camera to get evidence. On a show like Sons of Anarchy, the main characters commit dozens of crimes a day, while I believe still on parole, but no one even considers trying to arrest them, trying to build a case against them, or even put surveillance on them.

[magicdog]

One trope I have always been weary of was the "a great opportunity comes up and the character chooses to abandon it for no discernible reason".  This is a cousin to the "bettering yourself equates to snobbery" trope.  A person inherits/wins millions of dollars, a grand palace, offered a scholarship to an exclusive school/college, or a dream job.  They often end up abandoning all that because it would take them away from their friends .

 

Dang it!  Take it!  I would have!