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Issues that pull you out of "suspended disbelief"....

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Issues that pull you out of "suspended disbelief"....

Old 07-09-08, 02:11 PM
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Originally Posted by Groucho
And speaking of the cloaking device, it seems like this would be a handy thing for the Enterprise to have. Yet they only engaged it for one episode, and then it was forgotten about.
Roddenberry felt that the noble Federation would never sneak around, and so never developed cloaking technology. The only time the original Enterprise had a cloaking device was when they stole one from the Romulans for Starfleet Intelligence. In TNG they retconned this by establishing that the Federation and Romulans had a treaty saying Starfleet could not develop cloaking technology -- why the Federation would put themselves at such a disadvantage is never explained. On DS9, the Federation, Klingons, and Romulans allied themselves against the Dominion, which finally allowed Starfleet to equip ships with cloaking devices -- but unfortunately the Dominion had ways of detecting cloaked ships.
Old 07-09-08, 02:12 PM
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Originally Posted by GradVT06
I thought it was just a long commercial paid by the city to highlight hot chicks, beaches, and waterfront mansions.
Isn't that pretty much the same thing?
Old 07-09-08, 02:15 PM
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1. Brushing their teeth with 1-2 strokes and spitting once in less than 1 minute.

2. Eating Chinese Food directly out of their paper take out boxes. I'm Asian and I have never seen anyone do this. Especially if you order an a la carte entree....that's way too much meat for 1 serving. This would only make sense if your eating Noodles/Chow Mein.
Old 07-09-08, 02:17 PM
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Maybe everyone on TV and in movies eats only Chow Mein.
Old 07-09-08, 02:22 PM
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Originally Posted by DJariya
1. Brushing their teeth with 1-2 strokes and spitting once in less than 1 minute.

2. Eating Chinese Food directly out of their paper take out boxes. I'm Asian and I have never seen anyone do this. Especially if you order an a la carte entree....that's way too much meat for 1 serving. This would only make sense if your eating Noodles/Chow Mein.


Heh, well I'm Irish (as are most of my roommates) and we Micks do this all the time... although that may be because that's how people eat it on TV....


-Doc
Old 07-09-08, 02:27 PM
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The good guy takes out the bad guys with one shot to each and the bad guys can only seem to hit the ground behind the good guy as he runs.

Phone conversations that end without a good-bye.

Presents where the bottom and top of the box are wrapped separately so they lift off one another without ripping any paper.

Four people sitting at a square table with one side left completely open.
Old 07-09-08, 02:42 PM
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Originally Posted by Doc MacGyver
The post-coital armpit tuck women do with the comforter (They NEVER do that)
I've long wanted to buy one of those sheet sets that only crosses my navel yet comes up to her armpits while we're both laying down. They seem to be readily available in Hollywood!

And the correct answer to this question is "Anytime that anyone interacts with a computer".
Old 07-09-08, 02:44 PM
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Originally Posted by UAIOE
Lets be honest here, "CSI: Miami" is just a fairy tale with some realistic elements.

True. It's also a show where it is always daytime in Miami.
Old 07-09-08, 02:46 PM
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White people being friends with black people.
Old 07-09-08, 02:53 PM
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Originally Posted by atlantamoi
This can go for movies as well, but I hate when people set up a time to meet each other and then never mention the actual time. Ya can't take one more second in the script to say, "8:00pm"?
I know! And how about when they say "I'll pick you up", but they met in a bar or coffee shop and you never see them get the address - so how do they know where the other person lives?
Old 07-09-08, 02:53 PM
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The Tanner home on Full House looks as narrow as a cracker box from the outside, yet the inside is unbelievably spacious. It must have been constructed by the same architects who designed the Tardis.
Old 07-09-08, 02:58 PM
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Almost anything in a hospital. I know they have people advising them, don't know if they have bad advisors or are just not listening to advice. Side rails down. Sound of a ventilator working when the patient isn't on one (seems to be a standard hospital sound) Intubated patients with way too much of the tube outside their mouth, and the tube isn't secured with anything. Same with NG tubes. Doctors doing all the care, nurses nowhere to be seen. IVs not set up right. And on and on

Last edited by louiseb; 07-10-08 at 10:48 AM.
Old 07-09-08, 03:04 PM
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Most legal shows show cases seemingly going to trial within a few days of when the lawyers are hired. That's definitely fantasy-land.
Old 07-09-08, 03:13 PM
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Originally Posted by Groucho
Selective amnesia, particularly in genre shows. For example, on Smallville the murder/disappearance rate in Smallville must be sky-high. Yet people walk around at night without a care in the world.

....
Fixed
Old 07-09-08, 03:29 PM
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Originally Posted by Groucho

Or in Star Trek. Every time they encounter an alien with the cloaking device, they devise a new way to work around it. How about writing down the first thing you did and making it Starfleet procedure?
Someone else talked about the why, so I'll touch on the "how". It's best to think of it as a non-stop arms race. Everytime the Federations figures out how to see through it, the Romulans/Klingons would keep changing something about it to keep one step ahead. I'm sure that everytime a ship decloaks near a Fed ship, they take as many sensor scans as they can just to get an idea of power usage, radiation levels ("know anything about a radiation surge?" "Only the size of my head."), and any other info, and constantly send it back to Starfleet R&D who would compile it with all the other fleet reports, and then send it back out as sensor system "updates" if you will.



As for my pet peeves, anytime a character in the show doesn't ask the questions that the viewer has been yelling at the TV screen for the past ten minutes. And I'm not talking things where the viewer sees a scene that the other character wasn't privy to, but common sense things that any sane person would ask. I can't think of a specific thing right now, but I know I've seen it, and it always reeks of lazy writing.
Old 07-09-08, 03:32 PM
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This is probably more of a movie pet-peeve, but it happens in TV (especially cable) too: when a woman has her bra on during sex. Uh, no, unless the guy has some sort of bra fetish, they're coming out, always.

I realize that it's due to the actress not wanting to be topless, but they could shoot from the back or above the shoulders, rather than the silliness of having every article of clothing off except for the bra.
Old 07-09-08, 03:34 PM
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It's definitely the "how could these people reasonably afford such a spacious place in the neighborhood they live in with the jobs they have." I never noticed it as a kid, but as someone that actually has to pay rent now, it's glaring.

I also dislike the obviously faked "driving in a car" scenes.

Similar to the computer complaint, but any time people are playing videogames. You'd think they were all playing the Wii, the way they gesture like that. It gets even worse when they have some kind of videogame-related crime on one of those crime shows.

I also don't see a problem with eating chinese food with chopsticks or eating out of the boxes... seems like something college kids would do, for instance. Also, I don't generally note the wardrobe (of course, I watch a ton of anime and animated series where the characters wear the same thing every single day).
Old 07-09-08, 03:44 PM
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Originally Posted by fujishig

Similar to the computer complaint, but any time people are playing videogames. You'd think they were all playing the Wii, the way they gesture like that. It gets even worse when they have some kind of videogame-related crime on one of those crime shows.
This is particularly annoying when they're using Atari 2600 joysticks with sound effects to match.
Old 07-09-08, 03:53 PM
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Originally Posted by Sean O'Hara
Roddenberry felt that the noble Federation would never sneak around, and so never developed cloaking technology. The only time the original Enterprise had a cloaking device was when they stole one from the Romulans for Starfleet Intelligence. In TNG they retconned this by establishing that the Federation and Romulans had a treaty saying Starfleet could not develop cloaking technology -- why the Federation would put themselves at such a disadvantage is never explained. On DS9, the Federation, Klingons, and Romulans allied themselves against the Dominion, which finally allowed Starfleet to equip ships with cloaking devices -- but unfortunately the Dominion had ways of detecting cloaked ships.
Old 07-09-08, 03:54 PM
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Fat guys with slim attractive wives. (According to Jim, King of Queens, ect.)

People always swallowing pills dry.

Canned studio laughter.

Obvious product placement.

Kitchens with swinging doors, like saloons have. (I really don’t watch traditional sitcoms anymore, but this was the norm for the 80’s and 90’s shows)

In action/thriller shows when a newspaper, or television always reports something at the exact moment it needs to so a character can see it. (Magic TV/Newspaper Syndrome. This happened a lot in Prison Break. People would be reading a news paper then look up and see that the person sitting in front of them was wanted. Or when characters are sitting in a bar and the TV all of a sudden reports something crucial to the plot and the exact moment the character needs to hear it.)
Old 07-09-08, 04:09 PM
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The liquid-less cups have always been my biggest gripe with television. Put something in there to at least make it look like it's got something to it. I hate seeing people drink from a cup, and occasionally complain about what's in it, when it's obvious there's nothing in there at all.
Old 07-09-08, 04:17 PM
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Originally Posted by Fanboy
I've long wanted to buy one of those sheet sets that only crosses my navel yet comes up to her armpits while we're both laying down. They seem to be readily available in Hollywood!

It's utterly ridiculous. Why would she suddenly get prudish and hide them after the horrible, unspeakable things she just let you do to them?

Same goes for getting up after and bringing the sheet with her. I know why, because it may be a PG movie or something, but still. Shoot it cleverly. Don't have people act completely unrealistically.



-Doc
Old 07-09-08, 04:23 PM
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Originally Posted by Doc MacGyver
Same goes for getting up after and bringing the sheet with her. I know why, because it may be a PG movie or something, but still. Shoot it cleverly. Don't have people act completely unrealistically.
Like in Austin Powers!
Old 07-09-08, 04:32 PM
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Some form of talent show always offering the exact amount of money needed to fix a characters problem (this was spoofed well in Scrubs one time)
Old 07-09-08, 04:52 PM
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People shooting locks off doors. In reality the bullet would go bouncing all over the place.

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