Hoosier Red (07-27-2014)
One of mine is when the actor either whispers or shouts to prove their ACTING
westofyou (07-27-2014)
Boy, you guys are real sticklers for realism
There's a reason TV shows are TV shows: they're not real. Many of the things you mention are things that writers and directors have considered the facts of and adjusted or altered in the name of storytelling. If the places of Lexington and Harlan are rich for storytelling, but it throws a wrench into the storytelling to have them be so far apart, they adjust. It's not supposed to be "real", it's supposed to be a story.
There's a subtle difference between this and a character continually ordering a drink that he doesn't touch, because that's an indication of character. The obvious conclusion of buying a drink is to drink it, so if a character bucks this convention, there has to be a reason for it -- the character gets mad, the character is deliberately buying a drink as an excuse, etc. This is problematic, especially it if happens over and over, because it goes to the heart of a character's motives and thereby can even affect a plot, in a way that altering distance between places does not. The difference is that the former is distracting for any human watching and trying to ingest the story, whereas the second is just a trivia (and trivial!) distraction for anyone who happens to know the place and doesn't really affect the story itself.
There is no such thing as a pitching prospect.
"You just don't get it, do you?"
I'm sorry that is the worst line of dialogue, just ever.
vaticanplum (07-27-2014)
See also: "What do you want from me?" "What is it that you want?"
And this is an example of something that IS realistic; people do say these things. But it's the laziest writing ever. Every character exists in every story to want something and to try to get it. It's the basis of acting. To have them state it outright is basically coming right out and saying "we are incapable of telling this story in an interesting way."
There is no such thing as a pitching prospect.
30 year olds playing teenagers in High school.
Over the top stereotypes. Even with characters like nerds, or popular girls, or gym rats, or soccer moms. They make it so we can spot them as soon as they enter the room, before they say anything. Zero subtlety.
Hoping to change my username to 75769024
KittyDuran (07-27-2014)
Yes, it's the writers telling, not showing.
To Chip's and others' point, perhaps writers should just find a way around some of these details, that's a possibility.
Whenver I hear a character say "Yes, my number is 5-5-5..." I get tossed out of the story for a few seconds.
There's a dictionary with thousands of words in it, pick a few out that get us around this.
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