Current Events > TV/movie cliches you hate

(+) Yeah! (+)

-Group of villains take turns attacking hero one by one, instead of all ganging up on hero
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Stolen identity and body switching
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Guy ends up with a girl way out of his league.
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The main character keeps something secret even though he didn't really need to and then his friend/ love interest finds out and they have a fight

Heroic sacrifice.
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villain doing speeches while giving hero time to think of plans
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Virus731 posted...

villain doing speeches while giving hero time to think of plans

Nonsense memory erasure at the end of the movie.

Hell, most kinds of memory erasure really.
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Story begins with amnesia.
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- Workaholic dad learns the wisdom that family is everything, after ungrateful brat complains that dad's too busy earning the money that gives the family their comfortable lifestyle.

- Someone gets flung thirty feet against a wall or though heavy furniture, and they bounce back fighting instead of requiring life-saving surgery.

- Someone outruns the rolling fireball of an explosion in slow motion, ending in a last-moment leap to safety. How the fuck does anyone ever get killed by terrorist bombings when escaping the blast is this easy?
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Amnesia.
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bump
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"there's something i need to tell you-"

*is interrupted*
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*beats all six villains at once*
*villains split up for rematch*
*much more difficult*
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The one.

Like seriously can they just not come a with a title for this prophecied hero?
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YoshitoKikuchi posted...

-Group of villains take turns attacking hero one by one, instead of all ganging up on hero

I hate this especially when the enemies all have guns and decide they want to get within 2 feet of the person before trying to shoot

Advertisements for films/TV shows that are a compilation of a zillion characters saying the name of the main character.
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I hate this especially when the enemies all have guns and decide they want to get within 2 feet of the person before trying to shoot

Maybe they only have one bullet and don't want to miss.
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-Cheating, especially when the person they cheated with is uglier than their partner

-In media res

-Hollywood hacking

-Token gay character

-Hero gets into constant fist fights but never carries a knife

-Police/FBI/etc are raiding some place and all they carry are handguns

-Police/FBI/etc are raiding some place and they don't set up a perimeter and only take a couple of guys with them

-Police/FBI/etc are raiding some place and they have their sirens going giving away their presence

-Police/FBI/etc are approaching some one they want to talk and say they are police when they are far away so the person runs off
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Season-long plot issue is about to be resolved! Oh but wait we'd have nothing to go on with if we did that so uh, have a last minute plot twist to fuck everything up and delay the intrigue for a few more seasons. Why even bring up the cure in the first place then.

Feline_Heart posted...

The main character keeps something secret even though he didn't really need to and then his friend/ love interest finds out and they have a fight

Delirious_Beard posted...

"there's something i need to tell you-"

*is interrupted*

I hate these so fucking much

idiot ball: character does something entirely out of character (and overtly stupid) in order to maintain/develop the plot

i had a huge problem with man in the high castle because every character grabbed the idiot ball constantly
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Oh and who could forget

*looks offscreen*
"You!?"
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evil twin foil
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Plot being driven by stupid decisions or extreme coincidence

When Character A overhears Character B speaking about something, but only catches the part that makes them sound like a huge asshole or like they did something really bad and then they're like OH GOD HOW COULD THEY until it's tearfully resolved at a later time. I think I hate this one the most.

When there's a big stupid drama conflict that could just be solved if someone talked about it for 2 minutes
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Oh and who could forget

*looks offscreen*
"You!?"

Seriously though who does this? Can you imagine goibg to the grocery store, bumping into someone you know and greeting them by gasping "you!?"
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Shows/movies where the villain is always ridiculously 6 steps ahead of the protagonists. Like, no matter what the protagonists do, the villain had anticipated that or has like fifteen backup plans to further advance his/her cause. It's always one step forward, two steps back.

The Following is especially guilty of this (made worse by the incompetence of the protagonists) as well as Captain America: Civil War (thought at least we got an entertaining movie out of it).
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Funkdamental posted...

- Workaholic dad learns the wisdom that family is everything, after ungrateful brat complains that dad's too busy earning the money that gives the family their comfortable lifestyle.

This one makes me rage the most. Half the time, the dad isn't even a workaholic. He just does what a normal middle-class American does based on today's job culture and requirements. Yet he's made out to be the bad guy.

And it's usually by an angry wife who (99% of the time) doesn't hold a job of her own. And in the end, the movie feels the need to hammer home the fact that the wife was right all along, despite that "ignore your job" behavior is a quick trip to unemployment and homelessness.
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"Oh! Honey! It's not what you think! Let me explain!"

Example: Your hot coworker falls, sprains her ankle, or has any other accident that results in you holding her in your arms. Your wife walks in.

Instead of blubbering about "Let me explain" and making her storm out, it would be better to quickly ask your wife for the first aid kit, for a towel with cold water to decrease the inflammation, or just to stay with your coworker while you do some other helpful thing. Your quick demands for help will make her understand that something happened and you're not cheating.
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Zanzenburger posted...

Funkdamental posted...

- Workaholic dad learns the wisdom that family is everything, after ungrateful brat complains that dad's too busy earning the money that gives the family their comfortable lifestyle.

This one makes me rage the most. Half the time, the dad isn't even a workaholic. He just does what a normal middle-class American does based on today's job culture and requirements. Yet he's made out to be the bad guy.

And it's usually by an angry wife who (99% of the time) doesn't hold a job of her own. And in the end, the movie feels the need to hammer home the fact that the wife was right all along, despite that "ignore your job" behavior is a quick trip to unemployment and homelessness.

"I've had it up to HERE with Turbo Man! Now get me your mother."
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Feline_Heart posted...

The main character keeps something secret even though he didn't really need to and then his friend/ love interest finds out and they have a fight

This. Bonus points when they straight up lie to the character that ends up being the love interest and they end up together.

_Schwarzlicht_ posted...

When Character A overhears Character B speaking about something, but only catches the part that makes them sound like a huge asshole or like they did something really bad and then they're like OH GOD HOW COULD THEY until it's tearfully resolved at a later time. I think I hate this one the most.

Or when bad people are actually plotting against them, but they only heard an intriguing comment and interrupt, setting themselves up for being lied to.

Ethan is on his way to the bathroom, and passes the kitchen threshold. He overhears wife an her mother plotting something against his true love interest, but only hears "But Ethan can never know about it!". Ethan interrupts, demanding to know what it is that he shouldn't know (and cut to commercials), and gets back a lie about a surprise birthday party, "but now the surprise is ruined!".

Dumbass should have stayed behind the wall, to find out more.
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Car won't start until the monster gets really close to you.
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- the peasant hero is secretly a prince / the protagonist is "the chosen one"
- getting captured was all a part of the plan
- characters walking away from explosions
- enemies dancing around the hero and attacking one at a time
- "If you kill him, you'll be just like him"
- gratuitously making characters into antiheroes (key word: gratuitously)

The distraction that allows the bad guy to escape
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Killing the guy in charge somehow causes the entire organization to collapse

Antagonist is able to predict and anticipate every single thing to protagonist does
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The lack of long range weaponry

Makes for a crappy story when the hero or villain is gunned down from 300+ yards away, but whatever.
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Protagonist is sent on some journey or mission. Their guide/partner/whatever is a beautiful single person that you know is only there for a love interest.
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"So what's Plan B?"
"THAT WAS PLAN B!"
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bluezero posted...

Protagonist is sent on some journey or mission. Their guide/partner/whatever is a beautiful single person that you know is only there for a love interest.

Even worse when the guide/partner/whatever makes it clear from the beginning they have a significant other, only for you to later realize the significant other is either evil/a jerk/even the main antagonist, making the protagonist the perfect rebound partner.
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CrimsonAngeI posted...

Heroic sacrifice.

This, but only because it's almost always played straight. Have it fail! Have the person offering to be sacrificed back out of it! Have someone deny the opportunity for the other to be sacrificed!
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You spend an entire movie or season getting two people together. The next movie or season they start off as separated. First example that popped in my head was national treasure 2
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Dead characters being forgotten
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dave_is_slick posted...

CrimsonAngeI posted...

Heroic sacrifice.

This, but only because it's almost always played straight. Have it fail! Have the person offering to be sacrificed back out of it! Have someone deny the opportunity for the other to be sacrificed!

That happened in Kong Skull Island
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Every action movie for the past ten years has had the exact same trailer.
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Zanzenburger posted...

Shows/movies where the villain is always ridiculously 6 steps ahead of the protagonists

I don't remember where I heard this from, but basically the main problem with writing an antagonist who is way smarter than the writers and is always six steps ahead is that eventually you need to come up with a payoff and that's hard for writers to do because, well, they aren't as smart as the character.

Which is why you end up seeing contrived "I was able to predict all of your actions and made a plan that involved everyone being in exactly the right place at the right time" scenarios.
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-students hate school
-students hate teachers
-phonecalls that don't end in 'goodbye'
-Men vs Women episodes
-students don't want to do part-time jobs during summer vacation
-shows that punish the audience that pay attention lore by retconning a story or ending a serious moment with a silly gag
-awkward moments that end with a character saying "AWKWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARD"
-popular students are mean (if a person is popular, it's usually because they're really nice)
-jokes about how being uncircumcised is gross (one of the only flaws of The Venture Brothers)
-toilet humor
-jokes that involve a guy getting hit in the BALLS
-Men that are good at baking/cooking, but are ashamed of letting others know that they are good at baking/cooking
-Asthma/allergies being associated with nerds
-female characters can act like ungrateful brats that never have to sacrifice anything even when the happiness and safety of others are at stake (Mable from Gravity Falls)
-main character is best friends with a jerk (Foster's Home Of Imaginary Friends. One of the only shows that did this right was Dan Vs)
-any humor that involves a character being a jerk or disrespectful (ICarly or any Nickelodeon sitcom)

J E S U S posted...

You spend an entire movie or season getting two people together. The next movie or season they start off as separated. First example that popped in my head was national treasure 2

Especially after the whole "My father would say I've been too cavalier in my personal life." for saying "I love you" to more than one someone.
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Someone earlier mentioned the villain who's always six steps ahead no matter what, and I'd like to echo that. Heath Ledger's Joker is the only villain I can think of who can get away with this, but just barely. Flawed villains who occasionally get the piss knocked out of them on the road to the final showdown are the best villains.

And I've always this type of plot: guy lies to girl to win her affection, gets caught in the lie, sees the error in his ways, does some elaborate spectacle to win her back. Or alternately, guy gets caught in a compromising situation, girl thinks the worst, guy does some elaborate spectacle to win her back. One of my favorite bits in the original Austin Powers is when Vanessa catches Austin with the fembots, he stammers through a this-isn't-what-it-looks-like explanation, and she smirks and says 'okay Austin, I believe you. Now get dressed!' That killed me the first time I saw the movie.
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weapon_d00d816 posted...

Every action movie for the past ten years has had the exact same trailer.

They follow trends, before GotG every trailer ripped off Nolans Batman trilogy, after GotG the focus switched to humor and nostalgic music.
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