What are the most overused cliches in Movies and TV shows that annoy you?

[s_bushido]

Every show has that thing that they do a lot, but you probably wouldn't notice unless you're binge-watching it. An example, since I just recently watched it, is Peter Bishop in Fringe having a sarcastic line in seemingly every episode in the first season about how his father is a quirky mad genius and how that annoys him greatly.
In Smallville it was always someone (generally Lana Lang when she was on the show) asking Clark "how can I trust you?!" Because...you know...secret identities.

Also: "You're the only ship in the sector!"

Character starting a monologue about how opressed he is and no one brings a counter argument

He says, doing the exact same shit without the slightest hint of self-awareness.

[Echeyakee]

Trying to make me care about characters that were just introduced, or trying to fast forward (new) character development through a flashback. Also dramatic and/or emotional moment right at the start of the show. Just makes me fast forward stuff or even drop the series. Write good characters and tell a proper story or GTFO.

Also, not really a trope, but it really annoys me. Lack of basic computer literacy or assuming that in viewers. It's not 90's anymore, most people use technology every day. And I can (begrudgingly) forgive the cinematic "hacking" with fast typing, racing against the time and line of code flying across the screen, it's sort of a tradition at this point, and the real thing is mostly unknown to people and is rather dull. But I'm talking about basic things...

For example "Bodyguard" had a literal windows XP IE save/open window pop up with he file name "No matches found" trying to masquerade as a notification window for a database search. Or "Kiss me first" VR game having the most unrealistic payment method I've ever seen, and that show literally revolves around that game. Or smashing a laptop against the table till the battery falls out being an effective method to erase specific data from it in "Protector".

Stuff like that is just so obvious it hurts.

[Zaktar]

People who mindlessly fixate on pet peeve tropes in good material.

[Alex86el]

i hate it when i go to see a movie about planets exploding and shit,
and its all about a son who has daddy issues, or a daddy running after his daughter,
instead of focusing on the important thing.. which is the planet exploding (for example).

also, that every kid has to become their parents.
like.. oh your parent was a great pilot, so we picked you to lead the fleet and save the planet.. for example.

i hate it when it is totally obvious that certain shows/movies are virtue signaling, with out of place lines and token characters.
which is actually demeaning towards those social groups.

the fact that if there is a guy and a girl protagonists.. they just HAVE to fall in love.
or like.. if there are two gay persons.. they also HAVE to be a couple. obviously.

the stereotypical very coward guy who will always doublecross the group then in his final moments will do something heroic.

misunderstandings on which the whole movie is based on..
which in the real world would never have happened, cause people would not remain silent for no reason
but they'd be like "hold on, i can clear things up by just saying something in 10 seconds!!"

in almost every movie/show there has to be a protagonist that is germanic-looking and either an ex-cop or ex-soldier or something.
and every scientist has to be a jewish american.

the bad guy is actually just misunderstood... and a villain because of circumstances...
like... fuck this shit. its a movie, not real life. can u imagine if Sauron "was just misunderstood, with a different point of view"? pff..

everything happens in new york.
planet new york. lol.
and alliens speak english.

[Frogguh]

Religion. any time that comes up, i just skip the episode.

Given that you have to hide from reality, I can see how you might panic when it also appears in your pretend worlds.

[Ohsorry]

Oh i'm not saying it's not... lol. Just sounded like you had a very specific one in mind... lol

Too many to name :P

[Outofmana]

The character that is 'bad' and keeps screwing others but never gets discovered. I quit watching Lost in Space on Netflix because after 2 episodes I was totally done with that woman pretending to be a psychiatrist. So tired of that role in series, just frustrating.

Introducing an _additional_ castmember. Then the wait starts until someone else, or even that additional castmember himself, dies. Usually within 2 episodes.

[Gallahadd]

Captain America: Civil War

Iron Man has conscripted a teenager into a war he knows nothing about
Spiderman grabs Steve's shield
Steve: "Hey kid, you don't know what you've gotten yourself into."
Spiderman: "Mr. Stark told me you'd say that!"

That's a good one, yeah. For some annoying reason, when trying to think of examples, the only one that came to mind was the interogation room scene in Fight Club, but honestly I think that was meant to be a parody of those scenes, so it's not the best example...

I know there was a really bad on in DS9, that I'd watched a couple of days before I wrote that first post, but I can't remember the exact episode.

[Zero3]

Every space movie explaining how wormholes work. I swear, if i see another paper bend i will....

[Syphke]

willhelm scream for sure

[Acelius]

Every time characters shoot at each other with rifles, 30 feet apart and they don't hit anything.

[CrawlFromThePit]

Bad dialogues that don't feel natural because it's written to explain things to the viewers instead of making characters say things someone would naturally say in that situation, doesn't even matter if the script is good enough or not to actually convey the information correctly, they just double down on it with cringe dialogue that has no credibility.

[Highelf]

- Main character hitting everything with his (let's face it, usually a he) shots whilst his opponents keep missing and dying.
- Making a big deal out of pregnancies, especially in TV shows where it's often framed as a cliffhanger worth waiting for. The only time a movie/TV pregnancy surprised me was when that red-headed woman in GOT pushed out a cloud of smoke from her yahoo.
- Shaky cam. Shaky cam CAN work when used in moderation and with some artistry, but there are loads of entire movies featuring that sort of crap.
- Naggy, unreasonable wives.
- Men not being happy with what they have, going away from it and coming back to it and finding happiness.
- The White Saviour trope. Need I say more?
- Vapid, predictable Mary Sue characters being portrayed as and then hailed as "stronk" because they're pretty and the actress isn't politically charged.
- Gary Stu characters, and there are loads of those.
- Any of the Fast and the Furious movies.
- The American saviour trope, although I've got a feeling this'll be replaced with a Chinese saviour trope as more and more companies become more and more ingrained with their audience.
- Horror movie characters walking around houses as if they've suffered a stroke, with a jumpscare concluding the scene.
- Killing dogs to make us hate X character. Just stop.
- Horror movie characters being morons/besting their opponent through luck
- Taking away the mystery in the first act of the movie. Last time I saw it, was in We Need to talk about Kevin... I enjoyed the movie a lot, but it was so very easy to understand what'd transpire from scenes showed early on, and it took away a great portion of suspense.
- Almost-endings. If you couldn't be bothered to write an ending, then at least make it clear that it's left open. Don't make it come down to guesswork from your audience.

And of course the ever present "it was all/was it all a dream??"-trope.



Now consider all them movies where male characters are able to withstand attacks from dozens of men through brute force or surviving 300 assassination attempts and falling off a building.

But yeah, depicting something as inherently unrealistic as a girl beating others up with the same ease, that's an agenda at play...

It's cringeworthy when it's done in a blatant attempt at pandering for sure, regardless of the gender of the human character being written as such. But it's a very much tried and tested Hollywood trope for male characters, stands to reason it'd also apply to female ones as representation goes up.

I can see you got triggered by my response which is shared by many and one of the reasons why those movies always bomb. If you don't agree with it then keep it to yourself. That's my answer and my opinion, please don't make it more than that. Thanks.

[Queen of Hamsters]

- Making characters unthreatening by means of having them be dumb as bricks or insanely energetic. Watched Princess and the Frog earlier.

- Love stories for the sake of having love stories. Platonic relationships exist just fine in both fiction and reality. I was expecting The Martian to at any point cheapen the friendship and plot by making it romantic "over comms", but luckily it never did.

- NoNoNoNoYesNO!!-romance where X character is the right one for the lead but they'll overlook that and go through dozens of romantic partners, all ending in disaster, until they finally end up with the original lady/guy which might then be killed for extra drama points. I don't even wanna know just how many shows/movies have relied on this trope.

I can see you got triggered by my response which is shared by many and one of the reasons why those movies always bomb. If you don't agree with it then keep it to yourself. That's my answer and my opinion, please don't make it more than that. Thanks.

Sorry, but this is a forum where members can post their opinions. That includes me.
And of course I ain't taking it as anything but your opinion. I ain't "triggered" (wrongfully used term giving far too much weight to trivial things) as much as I'm calling out the hypocrisy that's so rampant. The fact that you had to appeal to the fallacies of "many agree with me" as foundation for your ideas and attempt to silence me speaks volumes.

You can post your opinion. You're right and no one attacked yours including me. So give the same courtesy. That's what annoys me about certain movies and you won't change my mind and shame on you for thinking you can and that your opinion is somehow law. Thanks.

Your opinion surely will not be changed, and your assumption that that's my goal here is rather narcissistic.

If you can't handle having your opinions questioned, start a blog where you limit who can comment.

And if you can't handle other people posting their opinion peacefully without it triggering your views on a personal level then go to a private blog where you can moderate only those that agree with something and everything you say.

Burping my point back at me in a slightly altered and saltier format won't change the facts, I'm afraid.
Get over it.

Edit: Lol, seems we know now who got "triggered" out of the 2 of us. The tactic of taking what someone says and going "No u!" = classic example of someone struggling.

[Highelf]

You can post your opinion. You're right and no one attacked yours including me. So give the same courtesy. That's what annoys me about certain movies and you won't change my mind and shame on you for thinking you can and that your opinion is somehow law. Thanks.

[Unholyground]

Random love stories in the middle of important plot things, no one gives a shit about your imaginary relationships that advance the plot in no way.

[Highelf]

My girlfriend watches these moves every year about a career women who moves to a small town and finds a charming guy that always has a dog. Usually it's also centered around christmas :P

Haha, is it bad that, as a grown man, I really enjoy watching them with my wife?

[Guildenstern]

Redemption

[Shadowsgrace]

The "Misunderstanding that leads to a temporary rift between family/Friend", so over used and blatantly obvious.

[Armakus]

Anyone else feel like Black Panther could have been resolved much more peacefully that way?

Yeah, but didn't he try and the bad guy just didn't care to listen? I kind of get it, kid was screwed his whole life just because of mistakes his father made, I probably wouldn't feel like talking either if I felt I could just take it back.