<p>Amnesia. Very common on TV–in real life–not so much.</p>
<p>How about in the Harry Potter movies when they have to move the plot along, Harry goes under his magic cloak and overhears a converstation among the adults, which inevitably ties up loose ends and leads us off in a new direction.</p>
<p>Government conspiracies and secret government agencies.</p>
<p>Overused movie cliche: Guy and girl hate each other, but due to circumstance or fate are forced to spend lots of time together. Eventually they fall in love.</p>
<p>Think- When Harry Met Sally, You’ve Got Mail, Shrek, Ground Hog Day etc. etc.</p>
<p>I used to watch a certain soap opera and one of the golden rules was that if someone died but you didn’t see the body buried, that person would show up again…or his long lost twin brother, illegitimate but unknown cousin who looked just like the dead person, or maybe that really wasn’t the hero’s body after all!</p>
<p>I’m amazed at the bladder and bowel control of the characters on TV and in the movies. No one ever has to use the restroom of its intended purpose. Restrooms are for hiding, passing secrets, killing, changing clothes and/or weapons, ………but never for just relieving oneself.</p>
<p>That’s why Dumb and Dumber was so memorable…who can forget him on the loo?</p>
<p>I’m a book hound but I peruse the jacket to find out if incest or domestic abuse (aka The Oprah Effect) is going to be the major plot device. If so, the book gets a big PASS from me.</p>
<p>Sorry WashDad I missed your # 9 before I posted.</p>
<p>All women have super make-up that never rubs off on her blouse or guys shirt or the bedding. I have never seen a make-up stain on anything. Also the sheets are always perfect - even ones on cots in old, run-down cabins or sleaze-bag motels they look new (pressed w/o holes or stains).</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Amnesia - total amnesia where you can’t even remember your name is exceedingly rare - just a few cases in the entire world each year. But it happens all the time on TV shows, especially soaps. Every soap opera has at least one amnesiac.</p></li>
<li><p>Women who can’t run - bad guys are chasing a man and a woman. The woman invariably falls down allowing the bad guys to catch up.</p></li>
<li><p>Bad/evil guys speak with British accents - good guys with American accents.</p></li>
</ol>
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<p>A related concept is that all frogs croaking at night all sound the same everywhere. The species of frog that you actually hear in most TV shows and movies is the Pacific Tree Frog - native and common here in SoCal but not a lot of other places. But out there in TV and movie land, Pacific Tree Frogs also croak at night in Indiana, France, Cambodia…</p>
<p>I can’t even focus on the plots because I’m too busy noticing the perfect environments t.v. characters live in - unless they’re bad people, and then their paint might peel.</p>
<p>I watched Men In Trees last night. Don’t they know there’s a time difference between NYC and Alaska? All the characters in both places were eating Thanksgiving dinner at the same time! Then the woman told the guy she was flying back to Alaska and “with the time difference I can be there by 10:00”. So now there is a time difference? I’m so confused!</p>
<p>My pet peeve:</p>
<p>Television Shows about Television Shows.</p>
<p>I also am bored by even great novels when the protagonist is an English teacher fighting for tenure or else a frustrated Novelist</p>
<p>Lafalum, I noticed that too! Which brings up another pet peeve of mine that I noticed on Men in Trees. 1)Why do all the women wear such high heels and 2)never look uncomfortable? Every real woman I know takes off her heels as soon as she sits down. Actually, I don’t know too many women that wear heels except for going to church or a special dinner. But on tv, they wear them all the time. Where are the women in jeans that are twenty pounds overweight and wearing sneakers or clogs? oops, guess I got way off topic there!</p>
<p>I HATE mistaken Identity shows, any plot that resembles Threes Company, and anything with animals that get abused…can’t stand desert movies with horses, all I can think about is if they are getting enough water the whole time</p>
<p>Movies where aliens with enough technology for interstellar light speed travel who are actually interested in colonizing us stupid humans for some strange reason.</p>
<p>Police shows in LA where they announce locations at intersections of streets that run parallel to each other.</p>
<p>or were people are missing relatives, etc and look like a million bucks, wth fullon makeup, etc.</p>
<p>And do people really just show up at houses all the time without calling ahead…</p>
<p>You’re funny coureur. Are you a musician? Who listens to the croaking?</p>
<p>Never mind wearing heels–how did Carrie SINTC RUN through the streets of New York in Jimmy Choo STILETTOS? I can barely walk properly in stillettos much less RUN in them!</p>
<p>All birds in the movies and TV sound like redtail hawks.</p>
<p>churchmusicmom: your gripe about “hearing” things in space was resolved with Joss Whedon’s (he who created Buffy the Vampire Slayer) sci-fi western Firefly. I would read posts from fans on messageboards saying, “Why, when they shot a pistol in space, didn’t it make any noise??” I would just shake my head and smile.</p>
<p>Here’s another one, for teen soaps like One Tree Hill and The O.C.: No one ever studies (unless, of course, the stud is trying to pick up the nerdy tutor who, once she takes off her glasses, looks gorgeous)</p>
<p>I haven’t gotten the chance to see it, but Not Another Teen Movie lampoons the above and movies of the same nature, with characters like The Pretty-Ugly Girl, The Funny Old Lady, The Fat Virgin, etc.</p>
<p>My parents both work in advertising, so my sister and I are fairly media-centric. Some of the most fun we have together (which, incidentally, I wrote about as a short-answer for one of my apps) is eating dinner and watching a bad show like One Tree Hill, predicting the next outrageous plotline, and unanimously crowing, “I could write this crap!”</p>