TV Tropes: Love 'em or Loathe 'em

[Popples]

1 hour ago, DoctorAtomic said:

Psych.

[DoctorAtomic]

I await patiently for a Monk/Psych crossover. 

[andromeda331]

On 11/6/2022 at 5:37 PM, DoctorAtomic said:

I await patiently for a Monk/Psych crossover. 

So am I. It's too late for this cross over but I wish we had gotten a Rizzoli & Isles and Crossing Jordan crossover. They were both set in Boston. Jane and Jordan would be a great pair up while Maura would have fun talking with Nigel and Bug. Bug and Susie would be great together. Nigel and Kent too. Woody, Frost and Frankie.

[juno]

If there is one trope that drives me crazy is the way children are portrayed. I just watched 2 episodes of Fleishman is in Trouble and the preteen daughter is so hateful and angry towards her father that she is absolutely unwatchable. There have been other shows that the portrayal of children was so bad that the show became unwatchable. Better Things comes to mind.

They either make children so mean and selfish or some sort of mini adult that is smarter than the parents like Jake on Two and Half Men.

Edited November 19, 2022 by juno

[Ohiopirate02]

3 hours ago, juno said:

If there is one trope that drives me crazy is the way children are portrayed. I just watched 2 episodes of Fleishman is in Trouble and the preteen daughter is so hateful and angry towards her father that she is absolutely unwatchable. There have been other shows that the portrayal of children was so bad that the show became unwatchable. 

I have not had the opportunity to check out the TV adaptation, but that book spends the first half setting up tropes before turning them on their head.  The characters are going to be difficult to watch initially.  

[juno]

1 minute ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

I have not had the opportunity to check out the TV adaptation, but that book spends the first half setting up tropes before turning them on their head.  The characters are going to be difficult to watch initially.  

I hope so. There may be a few episodes to settle into the story. Show has some promise.

[magicdog]

On 11/6/2022 at 4:37 PM, DoctorAtomic said:

I await patiently for a Monk/Psych crossover. 

The closest we got was a promo on USA between seasons.

[Gharlane]

I'm not sure how to describe this, but have you ever noticed how when something really bad happens to someone while texting or sending email that the recipient gets a partial message? Wait, what? Nothing is sent until you push "send"! 

[DoctorAtomic]

And nowadays, you can set a 15-20 second delay on send, where you can undo and call the email back.

[Gharlane]

I was thinking something like an airplane crashing or the phone battery dying while someone is typing a text message.

[PrincessPurrsALot]

There's also that combo of the car crash of convenience while someone is texting. The partial text goes through.  The car crash is almost always the car being t-boned on the driver's side.  I did appreciate that on Dead to Me, one of the characters made a comment of "another hit and run?". 

[Gharlane]

On 10/11/2018 at 11:28 AM, topanga said:

I have to admit that I’m a sucker for will they/won’t they stories simply because I like watching actors work together who have great chemistry and banter. And I like a good romance—or the possibility of romance. But I agree with you that most of these stories are not written well. 

The first show I remember with a WTWT plot was Cheers. As a kid I really didn’t know whether Sam and Diane would get together. I had no idea that this was a common TV trope. So it was a fun mystery to me. 

Sam and Diane on Cheers was a textbook example of how to do a Will They/Won't They.

On 1/1/2019 at 4:47 PM, DearEvette said:

I don't like the trope where you go through the trouble of giving your protagonist a powerful special ability but when it comes time for them to use it something renders it competently ineffective.  And I am not talking about the villain being aware of the power and taking counter measures against it.  I am talking about convenient plot elements to nullify the power.

For instance, your heroine is a psychic and while she can read everybody else's mind, for a reason never explained, she just can't read the bad guy's mind and he kidnaps her.  Or you give your hero the ability to teleport, but in a never before explained development when he is imprisoned he can't teleport out of his prison because it has iron walls or some such.

I remember constantly yelling at Holly (I think) on Charmed (CANCELLED!) for never using her power to freeze time or blow things up whenever they were attacked.

[DoctorAtomic]

Cheers is the only effective will they/won't they because it was essentially the first. So it's been copied infinitely and it never really has worked since.  

[Gharlane]

On 3/27/2019 at 12:29 PM, Spartan Girl said:

I really hate it when female characters get their boyfriend to commit to them by flirting and/or going on a date with another guy and making them jealous. 

I'm not sure how often this happens, but I hate when they test their faithfulness by having their friends flirt and try to seduce them.

On 5/20/2019 at 5:38 PM, cpcathy said:

I always thought OG Darren was HUGE asshole. Darren #2 at least seemed nicer.

I think you have them mixed up. Then original Darren seemed much gentler and in love with Sam than his replacement, who was constantly seething.

On 5/25/2019 at 2:47 PM, Homily said:

Not even rent, owning.  Shows like Married With Children that have a not particularly successful shoe salesman (and it's a one income family at that) living next door to a banker.  Mmmkay.  

I always thought it was because Steve and Dacri had just gotten out of college and their home next to the Bundy's was intended to be a "starter home" but they never got around to moving to a better neighborhood (not to mention you'd lose the only foil to the Bundy's).

[Gharlane]

On 5/20/2019 at 2:26 AM, Joe Hellandback said:

People can either survive repeated blows to the head with no effect or be knocked out by a single blow as required. 

or amnesia, the type that can be cured by a second blow to the head. 

[andromeda331]

3 hours ago, Gharlane said:

or amnesia, the type that can be cured by a second blow to the head. 

There's an Addams Family episode where poor Gomez keeps getting hit on the head with a club and spends the episode going in and out of amnesia. He got hit in the head in the beginning of the episode and cured by another hit but other family members didn't know that so they each hit him in the head. 

[Blergh]

10 minutes ago, andromeda331 said:

There's an Addams Family episode where poor Gomez keeps getting hit on the head with a club and spends the episode going in and out of amnesia. He got hit in the head in the beginning of the episode and cured by another hit but other family members didn't know that so they each hit him in the head. 

Even 'tiny' concussions can lead to permanent brain damage so why were these folks playing that up for laughs?

Edited December 15, 2022 by Blergh

[andromeda331]

7 minutes ago, Blergh said:

Even 'tiny' concussions can lead to permanent brain damage so why these folks playing that up for laughs?

Probably because their the Addams family and weird. Fester somehow has electricity in him. So Gomez getting hit in the head isn't going to give him brain damage. A normal person definitely. 

[Blergh]

Just now, andromeda331 said:

Probably because their the Addams family and weird. Fester somehow has electricity in him. So Gomez getting hit in the head isn't going to give him brain damage. A normal person definitely. 

OK, but Fester was actually Morticia's uncle (and Morticia herself somehow made herself smoke just by sitting there and folding her arms). OTOH, Gomez could twist himself in all kinds of shapes doing yoga a good decade before it became trendy for in the Western world!

[Bastet]

4 hours ago, Gharlane said:

or amnesia, the type that can be cured by a second blow to the head. 

There's a Remington Steele episode that has fun with that.  Mr. Steele has amnesia due to a blow to the head, and Mildred keeps trying to hit him in the head again to cure him, because it always works in the movies ("A good clonk on the head usually brings it back").  Laura, saying head clonking is not a medically-recognized treatment, stops her every time.  In the end, he accidentally falls and hits his head; wouldn't you know it, memory restored.  Laura says, "So, Mildred was right after all -- a good clonk on the head."

[Raja]

22 hours ago, Blergh said:

Even 'tiny' concussions can lead to permanent brain damage so why were these folks playing that up for laughs?

Because we didn't know. Concussion protocols is a feature of this century, when I played American football every snap of the ball saw us slapping the head like Deacon Jones before that move got banned 

[JustHereForFood]

On 12/15/2022 at 4:40 PM, Gharlane said:

or amnesia, the type that can be cured by a second blow to the head. 

Alternatively, it can be caused and cured by being hit by a lightning.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

On 12/15/2022 at 11:34 AM, Blergh said:

Even 'tiny' concussions can lead to permanent brain damage so why were these folks playing that up for laughs?

"One of these days, you're going to wake up in a coma!"

[Anduin]

3 hours ago, Cobalt Stargazer said:

"One of these days, you're going to wake up in a coma!"

Cordelia to Giles, right?

[Blergh]

16 hours ago, Cobalt Stargazer said:

"One of these days, you're going to wake up in a coma!"

I know it was meant to be a joke. However, many coma survivors have testified that they HAD woken up and were completely aware of their surroundings but unable to even non-verbally communicate with anyone around them!

[Egg McMuffin]

On 12/15/2022 at 10:40 AM, Gharlane said:

or amnesia, the type that can be cured by a second blow to the head. 

Remember when Adam on Little House on the Prairie was cured of his blindness by a blow to the head? I kept expecting them to club Mary occasionally to see if her sight would come back too.

[Shannon L.]

19 hours ago, Blergh said:

I know it was meant to be a joke. However, many coma survivors have testified that they HAD woken up and were completely aware of their surroundings but unable to even non-verbally communicate with anyone around them!

I had a friend who was in a really bad accident that left her in a coma for a couple of weeks (this was before we'd met).  She told me that if I ever had a loved one in a coma that I should talk to them because she was very aware of the people who were talking to and around her.

[Blergh]

6 hours ago, Egg McMuffin said:

Remember when Adam on Little House on the Prairie was cured of his blindness by a blow to the head? I kept expecting them to club Mary occasionally to see if her sight would come back too.

Actually, Adam had his eyesight cured after . .. tripping on a case of dynamite (?!) and getting knocked out for something like a few minutes- yet somehow emerged not only with 20/20vision  but also  as physically traumatized from the experience as Superman would have been!

I guess it's as realistic as a Charles only having ribs  and right arm injured (but nothing below the waist) after having had a gigantic stone millstone roll over him!

I hope no one watched LHOTP thinking this had any kind of resemblance to medical science!

Edited December 18, 2022 by Blergh

[Gharlane]

No one ever finishes a meal. A whole family will be sitting at the breakfast table, laden with bacon, scrambled eggs, toast, etc. All or most of them will leap up, take a swig of OJ, and dash out without eating a bite. (Why did they even sit down?) No one seems to mind. 
 

On 9/19/2019 at 10:19 PM, DoctorAtomic said:

I think this was the plot of every other Three's Company. 

The other is misunderstanding something you overheard (but didn't bother getting clarification). 

[PrincessPurrsALot]

Sometimes they will grab a piece of toast to go, especially if they're a teenager. Otherwise, full breakfasts thrown away on a daily basis. 

[DoctorAtomic]

Maybe the mother just puts all the uneaten food in the tupperware and just drags it out the next morning. 

[Anela]

When they have a woman begging a man to "ask me to stay". 

Grey's did this a few times. Once, a woman was having a fling with a main character. She wants to know where this is going, but doesn't ask directly. Things happen, and she interviews for and gets the job he really wants. She tells him, he's pissed, and later on she shows up and says, "Ask me to stay!"

Hell, no. Not only because she's begging, but because she stole his job!

[merylinkid]

7 hours ago, Anela said:

ut because she stole his job!

She didn't steal "his" job.   Unless he was already in the position and they just kicked him out for her, it was not "his" job.   It was an open position they both interviewed for.   She got it, he didn't it.   It happens.

Nor should she have begged him to ask her to stay.   If you have to beg someone to ask you to stay - the relationship is toxic and you need to get out.

Gray's Anatomy was the perfect show to illustrate toxic horrible relationships.

[Jaded]

I thought Meredith begging Derek to pick her was where all that "Pick Me" stuff originated. Then I wonder about it because of how long ago that scene originally aired. I remember thinking how he wasn't worth it at all if she had to resort to begging.

Edited January 15, 2023 by Jaded

[Bethany]

The discussion in the Friends thread reminded me of something I really dislike.  The dumbing down of a character.  There are so many examples that this must be a pretty common thing.  From Joey on Friends to Penny on Big Bang Theory to Adam on Rules of Engagement to Potsy on Happy Days.  I'm not entirely sure why this happens other than it's an easy way to make jokes at a character's expense I guess.

Edited January 18, 2023 by Elizabeth Anne

[juno]

1 hour ago, Elizabeth Anne said:

The discussion in the Friends thread reminded me of something I really dislike.  The dumbing down of a character.  There are so many examples that this must be a pretty common thing.  From Joey on Friends to Penny on Big Bang Theory to Adam on Rules of Engagement to Potsy on Happy Days.  I'm not entirely sure why this happens other than it's an easy way to make jokes at a character's expense I guess.

That is something I am noticing on rewatching a lot of shows. On Rules of Engagement they turned Adam into a idiot and became used on the show as something to laugh at. They also turned Russell who was bad into a complete psycho with the way he was abusing Timmy (and Timmy continuing to allow him). They also did this with Alan on Two and a Half Men when they turned him into a complete leech and idiot.

[Bethany]

4 minutes ago, juno said:

On Rules of Engagement they turned Adam into a idiot and became used on the show as something to laugh at.

I am watching this show now and it is clear in the early episodes that Adam is a college graduate and respected in his field (although we're never really told exactly what he does - something in high end real estate development anyway) but as the series progresses he becomes an absolute bumbling doofus.  But somehow still managed to keep that high faluting job!  

[GHScorpiosRule]

23 hours ago, Elizabeth Anne said:

The discussion in the Friends thread reminded me of something I really dislike.  The dumbing down of a character.  There are so many examples that this must be a pretty common thing.  From Joey on Friends to Penny on Big Bang Theory to Adam on Rules of Engagement to Potsy on Happy Days.  I'm not entirely sure why this happens other than it's an easy way to make jokes at a character's expense I guess.

The writers did the same thing to one of my favorite characters on one of my favorite shows: Shawn on Psych. In the pilot and the first few episodes of the first season-we saw he was smart, charming, intelligent. But by mid-season, just the smallest phrases? He suddenly turned into an idiot. But. At least he remained smart for at least the first four seasons. They REALLY dumbed him down and turned him into a loser moocher from season five-ish to the end. I HATED that.

But Shawn and Gus are THE TRUE and BESTEST OTP for me! I've been rewatching and still laughing my ass off.

[DoctorAtomic]

Shawn still stepped up when the others needed help; Vick, etc. 

[GHScorpiosRule]

9 minutes ago, DoctorAtomic said:

Shawn still stepped up when the others needed help; Vick, etc. 

Oh, without a doubt. But I hated the dumbing down of him.

[andromeda331]

On 1/19/2023 at 1:33 PM, GHScorpiosRule said:

Oh, without a doubt. But I hated the dumbing down of him.

So did I.

[DoctorAtomic]

I thought it was ridiculous that Jules actually thought he was psychic too. No one else did. 

[Mabinogia]

30 minutes ago, DoctorAtomic said:

I thought it was ridiculous that Jules actually thought he was psychic too. No one else did. 

That always bothered me. She's supposed to be a great detective yet she is ignoring the obvious fact that Shawn is a fraud. 

In the beginning Psych really got it right with Shawn being able to solve cases because he was able to do things the cops couldn't. But then they just dumbed down all the cops so Shawn was the bestest little boy in all the land. Ugh

[DoctorAtomic]

I wouldn't say Shawn was a fraud. He legitimately solved those cases. Just hiding behind the conceit of being psychic. 

I think at the end of the show, when he was trying to apologize to Vick about not really being psychic, Vick said something like, 'Well certainly you can't be faking it because all of those criminals we put behind bars would have been under false pretenses and those cases would have to be thrown out.'

I think it would have been better if Jules actually said that, and Vick maybe just a 'Mr. Spencer.' with a knowing look. Lassie always said he knew he was faking. 

The movies are a little better on the characterizations for me. 

[andromeda331]

15 hours ago, Mabinogia said:

That always bothered me. She's supposed to be a great detective yet she is ignoring the obvious fact that Shawn is a fraud. 

In the beginning Psych really got it right with Shawn being able to solve cases because he was able to do things the cops couldn't. But then they just dumbed down all the cops so Shawn was the bestest little boy in all the land. Ugh

Me too. It made her look so stupid. There's also at least one episode where she hinted that she knew he was faking. I really don't know why they did that or dumbed down Shawn. They also decided to turn him into a moocher by having him not pay for anything. Instead expecting Gus and later Jules to pay everything for him. I hate moochers.

[Mabinogia]

9 hours ago, andromeda331 said:

. I really don't know why they did that or dumbed down Shawn. They also decided to turn him into a moocher by having him not pay for anything. Instead expecting Gus and later Jules to pay everything for him. I hate moochers.

Since the world revolves around me (kidding) I just assume they were doing everything in their power to make me loathe Shawn Spencer. They succeeded. I went from loving the show and everything about it, to loving the show but tolerating to Shawn, to really liking everything but Shawn, to "not even Lassie and Gus can get me to spend one more moment watching this obnoxious man baby who is only clever because he has writers making him clever at the expense of every other character on the show". 

[Gharlane]

 

On 11/16/2019 at 9:49 PM, Dr.OO7 said:

I hate the No Periods, Period trope.

Once again, I'm not asking for 24/7 discussion of this issue, but it's ridiculous how absent this subject can be, especially on female-dominant/centric shows--Full House, Cosby, Just The Ten Of Us, had houses chock full of women, including several girls who undoubtedly reached the age of menarche at some point in the show's run, yet somehow the topic never came up.

There was a very funny ep of Married with Children in which all the women had their periods simultaneously during a camping trip. 

 

On 11/18/2019 at 8:27 AM, Homily said:

In fairness to Mrs Kravitz she was seeing some really bizarre stuff and no one would believe her!  She was the real victim IMO, poor thing!

 

[Dr.OO7]

On 12/15/2022 at 2:55 PM, Bastet said:

There's a Remington Steele episode that has fun with that.  Mr. Steele has amnesia due to a blow to the head, and Mildred keeps trying to hit him in the head again to cure him, because it always works in the movies ("A good clonk on the head usually brings it back").  Laura, saying head clonking is not a medically-recognized treatment, stops her every time.  In the end, he accidentally falls and hits his head; wouldn't you know it, memory restored.  Laura says, "So, Mildred was right after all -- a good clonk on the head."

That happened in the Sweet Valley High book "Dear Sister" too. Elizabeth woke up from a motorcycle accident acting like a completely different person following a concussion and not until she hit her head again at the end of the book did she not only revert to her original behavior, she didn't remember anything about how she'd been acting before.

I remember hoping that this would happen to General Hospital's Jason after he woke up from his accident treating everyone like crap.

[Gharlane]

On 1/19/2020 at 6:00 AM, Danielg342 said:

Alternate Timelines always being worse than the original one- Again, I know there are exceptions, but more often than not, if you have characters who go back in time, change something there and then try to go back to their original spot in their own time, they'll find the "changed" timeline results in a world and a universe they don't like, forcing them to go back in time and reverse their changes so they can go back to the universe they know and like. I think I understand why this storyline keeps getting used- writers are afraid audiences wouldn't root for the characters to go back to their original timeline unless it's shown that timeline is actually better than the altered one- but I still see it way too much.

On a related note, I hate how the alternative realities in which sex roles are reversed are handled. Inevitably, all the women are butch and all the men are sniveling crybabies. 🙄

[DearEvette]

I think for me Alternate Timeline stories are hit or miss.  I tend to like it as a trope overall and Tv Tropes has a bunch that fall in the same family but are all slightly different-- Alternate Timeline, Alternate Universe, Alternate History, Alternate reality etc.

I like them when a tv show explores a 'what if' alternate reality scenario in an episode.  It can be fun. Grey's had an interesting one and of course the Community episode stands out as one of my favorites.

More often than not if they are really playing with timeline shenanigans as an overall arc it gets muddled and confusing and yeah, they often don't commit to a real swing for the fences change unless they are trying to get creative about a major character leaving.

I will say, one of my favorites was Eureka.  In Season one Carter gets an Alt reality timeline episode and gets to experience his idyllic future only to know he can't keep it because it becomes and ethical dilemma.  Only for the next four seasons to move him toward just that future in a more natural way  (well, not exactly natural because it is Eureka).