Growing more annoyed by slip-ups and bad plots/script in movies/TV

[Anonymous]

Full disclosure: I am a Boomer, so maybe that's the problem.

Not so much plots, maybe, but scenes or even moments in a show can really, really irritate me. Awkward writing. Character reactions to something that are off base. Going overboard when stereotyping 50s male chauvinism or any other particular stereotype. Errors about ordinary facts--the equivalent, say, of incorrectly stating the boiling temperature of water. Anachronisms (I swear I saw a post-it note on a prop in a show taking place in the 1950s).

Is this an age thing? Obviously, age affects recognition of anachronisms, but is being more and more irritated over the other stuff a symptom of age or of high expectations/standards? The books/video entertainment that pleases me the most has none of these potholes.

[Anonymous]

Just watch higher quality stuff. Watch less. Most movies and television shows are bad, especially the mainstream stuff. Try watching older shows (movies and TV) that are more critically acclaimed. Rewatch stuff you loved the first time.

You don't have to waste your time watching whatever is new to the market when so much of it is mediocre. Liberate yourself. It's okay to be picky.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Full disclosure: I am a Boomer, so maybe that's the problem.

Not so much plots, maybe, but scenes or even moments in a show can really, really irritate me. Awkward writing. Character reactions to something that are off base. Going overboard when stereotyping 50s male chauvinism or any other particular stereotype. Errors about ordinary facts--the equivalent, say, of incorrectly stating the boiling temperature of water. Anachronisms (I swear I saw a post-it note on a prop in a show taking place in the 1950s).

Is this an age thing? Obviously, age affects recognition of anachronisms, but is being more and more irritated over the other stuff a symptom of age or of high expectations/standards? The books/video entertainment that pleases me the most has none of these potholes.

Boomer as in your parents were WW2 vets, ie born in the late 40s to early 60s?

Or the tiktok definition of boomers of any adult older than a millenial?

[Anonymous]

If you are posting on this board, then you are probably about a decade or more younger than an actual Boomer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just watch higher quality stuff. Watch less. Most movies and television shows are bad, especially the mainstream stuff. Try watching older shows (movies and TV) that are more critically acclaimed. Rewatch stuff you loved the first time.

You don't have to waste your time watching whatever is new to the market when so much of it is mediocre. Liberate yourself. It's okay to be picky.

+1 quality matters, but I'd say the older shows are worse. I can't watch anything with a laugh track ever again.
I just stick to Netflix and apple programming and quality foreign items.

[Anonymous]

I guess I have trouble relating because as someone just posted the quality of TV and movies have significantly increased in most cases.

Most TV that I grew up with, and I’m Gen X, was just pablum. I guess the creators did not give the public any credit for any sort of intelligence so they just did very basic plots that would basically wrap up in the 30 or 60 minutes of the show. Important characters that would be on the show for years just disappeared. No one would talk about them again. The same plots were recycled over and over.

I find the quality so much better with a lot more depth today. I actually have trouble watching movies now because I don’t feel 2 or 2 1/2 hours is enough to really develop characters and storylines, I’ve been spoiled by streaming and being able to watch character development over 30 hours of a three season show.

[Anonymous]

Definitely Boomer. I do look for quality stuff. Ditto books. I had a Kindle given to me as a gift I never used until Covid lockdowns. I mostly don't buy books for Kindle (I like hard copy versions) but I do use Libby and have discovered what people mean by "literary fiction" is 90% drivel IMO (I think if the title is "TITLE--A Novel" it's enough to get classified that way).

But it's most irritating when a mostly good quality show has these lapses. I recently watched Lessons in Chemistry. Got hooked in the first episode. In some respects I felt it was over the top romance-wise but ok. But then although I know how grotesque chauvinism, could be in the 70s and 60s (I was there) if not so much in the 50s (I was too little) the cartoonish TV producer was. . . cartoonish. Besides, he thinks the advertising demographic for a cooking show is going to be husbands and they control the shopping? Might control buying the car and might hand out the grocery money each week but they are not picking out the canned soup.

There's an episode where she takes on the producer over shortening, telling the audience it is made from seed oils which damage mitochondria.
At the time, mitochondria research was much more basic, nobody was questioning seed oils--we hadn't even reached the point where animal fats were claimed to cause heart disease (which, in the 60s, led to embracing margarine and vegetable shortening until trans fats which led to liquid oils and now there are (unproven) claims regarding seed oils being bad). So the scene is absolute bullshit influencer moment (I'm not a scientist, but consider myself science-literate).

Last thing is that I'm positive when she found the Charlie Parker record it had a post it note on the cover. I could be wrong about that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I guess I have trouble relating because as someone just posted the quality of TV and movies have significantly increased in most cases.

Most TV that I grew up with, and I’m Gen X, was just pablum. I guess the creators did not give the public any credit for any sort of intelligence so they just did very basic plots that would basically wrap up in the 30 or 60 minutes of the show. Important characters that would be on the show for years just disappeared. No one would talk about them again. The same plots were recycled over and over.

I find the quality so much better with a lot more depth today. I actually have trouble watching movies now because I don’t feel 2 or 2 1/2 hours is enough to really develop characters and storylines, I’ve been spoiled by streaming and being able to watch character development over 30 hours of a three season show.

My brother has a TBI. He likes the rerun channels because he can't follow plots of shows he has not seen before. He also has hearing loss related to the TBI injury. So he will have his TV at full blast on a channel that plays mostly 80s sitcoms. I visit him from time to time but can only withstand the torture of Small Wonders at full volume for a limited time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I guess I have trouble relating because as someone just posted the quality of TV and movies have significantly increased in most cases.

Most TV that I grew up with, and I’m Gen X, was just pablum. I guess the creators did not give the public any credit for any sort of intelligence so they just did very basic plots that would basically wrap up in the 30 or 60 minutes of the show. Important characters that would be on the show for years just disappeared. No one would talk about them again. The same plots were recycled over and over.

I find the quality so much better with a lot more depth today. I actually have trouble watching movies now because I don’t feel 2 or 2 1/2 hours is enough to really develop characters and storylines, I’ve been spoiled by streaming and being able to watch character development over 30 hours of a three season show.

My brother has a TBI. He likes the rerun channels because he can't follow plots of shows he has not seen before. He also has hearing loss related to the TBI injury. So he will have his TV at full blast on a channel that plays mostly 80s sitcoms. I visit him from time to time but can only withstand the torture of Small Wonders at full volume for a limited time.

This tracks - shows were just much simpler and easier to follow.

I’m not knocking all of them. During the pandemic, I went down a major nostalgia rabbit hole and my kids and I watched “Who’s the Boss.” It took me back to the 1980s where I would watch in my living room on Tuesday nights. I really enjoyed the show and actually really enjoyed the simplicity of it and how no problems were that big….when we were going through such a dark, strange time.

But I do appreciate the depth on some of the shows I’ve watched in the last 5 years. I don’t want this to turn this into whether this show versus that show is good because I feel like we have plenty of threads on individual shows, so I’ll just say that I can think of shows that I’ve enjoyed from the last five years that have taken on mental health, sexual assault and consent, addiction, the complexities of sibling relationships, etc. in a nuanced way that show runners wouldn’t have dreamt of when I was growing up.

That said, agree with OP that just because of all the streaming channels, and all the content out there, there is definitely a lot of crap being made as well. Life is too short and if I start a show or a book and it’s not grabbing me I bail.

[Anonymous]

The thing I can’t believe is how production companies apparently think the American public still wants almost every TV show & movie to be set in NYC.

Enough already! How about a story about Milwaukee or Memphis?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Full disclosure: I am a Boomer, so maybe that's the problem.

Not so much plots, maybe, but scenes or even moments in a show can really, really irritate me. Awkward writing. Character reactions to something that are off base. Going overboard when stereotyping 50s male chauvinism or any other particular stereotype. Errors about ordinary facts--the equivalent, say, of incorrectly stating the boiling temperature of water. Anachronisms (I swear I saw a post-it note on a prop in a show taking place in the 1950s).

Is this an age thing? Obviously, age affects recognition of anachronisms, but is being more and more irritated over the other stuff a symptom of age or of high expectations/standards? The books/video entertainment that pleases me the most has none of these potholes.

Boomer as in your parents were WW2 vets, ie born in the late 40s to early 60s?

Or the tiktok definition of boomers of any adult older than a millenial?

True boomers were in grade school during the 50s, watching Howdy Doody and acting out real life Stand By Me adventures, then teens and college age during Vietnam and the hippie years. I know that the definition of boomer extends to kids born into the mid-60s, but those aren't real boomers, they're closer to Gen X.

[Anonymous]

I actually have been watching a lot of cheers and family ties lately (I’ve been dealing with depression this summer and needed light hearted), and while 75% of it is just silly fun, they did actually tackle some difficult issues along the way. There is a very early cheers episode about gay patrons. And there is also a family ties later in the series about book bans.

I also have been watching a lot of night court.

I understand what you mean, and I get upset with inconsistencies, too. My pet peeve is DC based shows that are so obviously NOT in DC.

[Anonymous]

I’ve noticed a lot more exposition in newer movies and tv shows - characters telling each other things that they would already know, for the benefit of the viewer. Things like, “My brother Frank, who has been away at college, is coming to visit this weekend” — when they are talking to a good friend who knows the brother and that he’d been away at college.

I’m supposing this is because attention spans are shorter and people are distracted by phones and other things as they’re watching, but it just makes the dialogue so clunky and forced. The worst are period pieces — “My lord father, your brother said…” — Pretty sure that character knows who his own brother is without someone telling him.

[Anonymous]

Maybe you should go back to radio shows OP
or the original Perry Mason

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I actually have been watching a lot of cheers and family ties lately (I’ve been dealing with depression this summer and needed light hearted), and while 75% of it is just silly fun, they did actually tackle some difficult issues along the way. There is a very early cheers episode about gay patrons. And there is also a family ties later in the series about book bans.

I also have been watching a lot of night court.

I understand what you mean, and I get upset with inconsistencies, too. My pet peeve is DC based shows that are so obviously NOT in DC.

I'm with you on this one.

As a former case officer (CIA for those of you who don't know), I also hate most shows set in or around it because they're so far off the reality that it makes my teeth itch. I have the same issue with shows made today set in the 80s--not everyone was wearing neon all the time, and the hair is usually all wrong. It's just not that hard.