I am currently watching Riverdale and it's the second show I've seen that doesn't understand that while fraternal twins can run in families, identical twins do not. Even more annoying is that they do it just so the "evil twin" can be the villain. Of course these twins usually aren't mentioned until right before the big reveal. It just feels like lazy writing to me. I hate it when shows make you suspect a whole slew of characters you know well and then end up making the villain someone you've hardly ever encountered.

 

What are some of your least favourite tropes in television shows?

I think a general trope I don't like is when characters are made out to be poor decision makers for the sake of the plot, especially when that isn't necessarily supposed to be the case. For example, when a character is supposed to be smart or is in a profession that should give them extensive knowledge on a subject, but they end up making obvious mistakes in order to force certain events to happen.

This type of occurrence is very common because of the nature of fiction, and is not too bad by itself, but I feel like this type of trope has so much potential for ruining a movie.

Really old movies where women are portrayed as people who just scream their heads off at the slightest little thing. I think the truth is that people, regardless of gender, do not actually scream their heads off when they see something frightening. It's probably more like a sharp intake of breath, and a yelp, (perhaps I need to do a controlled experiment on this!).

 

Meanwhile in these ancient movies, men are portrayed as people who are calm and collected, and can just take charge of anything and everything. Hey ho.

Something else I don't like that's very commonplace is when the antagonist of the show is told the entire plan to bring him or her down. I was watching a show the other day where this happened. The antagonist has done something, and no one knows except this one person, and it never fails that person has to come along and inform the antagonist, "I know what you did! You're not going to get away with this! I know it was you who switched those samples and poisoned half of the town, and I'm going right now to the police and tell them everything!" Of course that person never makes it out of the room. So predictable.

When they make a character seemingly omnipotent - not in the sense that they're a god, but like they seem to know/have a relationship with everyone and know at least a little bit about everything.

 

Best example I can think of right now is Red Reddington from Blacklist. He's a really good character, very interesting and well played. However, it seems like the dude literally knows everyone on the freakin planet and knows everything ranging from classical music to internet memes to chess to cars to psychology to biology - My problem is that, yes I know Red is probably in his 50's or 60's so he's been alive for awhile, but I still just don't believe that he'd know so much about everything or have so many friendships like he does. Everyone of his contacts is portrayed like a best friend and they have some deep experiences and I'm like...there's just no way he had enough time to cultivate all that knowledge and those relationships.

@milyt g. planet That can be really aggravating. I've seen that done more than enough times. Sometimes it can make sense if the character is under immense pressure or has to make a quick decision and they don't ever really fly by the seat of their pants. They usually don't bother with that though. As for the second one you mentioned, yes, that's another stupid decision. However that one doesn't bother me quite as much. I feel like I would do the same thing because I don't know how to keep my mouth shut when I'm all riled up.

 

@AmyRichmond I can see how this could be really annoying. I find it quaint since we have (for the most part) moved past these stereotypes. Also I would probably scream during a frightening situation. I'm not very good at playing it cool, especially when I'm scared!

 

@Zack T I haven't seen Blacklist, but I've seen series with that kind of character. Sometimes it can make sense, like Rumples in Once Upon a Time. The ones that are done well are few and far between though. It's especially annoying when they make a teenager know everything about everything.

I'm also tired of the "scientist who can do anything" trope. Flash and Agents of Shield both have this problem, and while both shows try to show the difference between their sciency characters in terms of what they're best at, it's still like "Welp Kaitlyn isn't here and she's the medical doctor so I guess I'll have to do it!" *Wings it and everything's ok*

 

I also am tired of the whole creepy "I'm walking in weird ways through hallways and doors in the peripheral vision or behind the character so it seems scary". Realistically, it makes no sense and it just comes off looking blatantly gimmicky to me

Ugh, yes, @Zack T. So long as you're good at one science, you're good at all of them! It's a shame that didn't work for me at uni. My biology skills did not translate into my physics course for some strange reason. I get that someone who knows a thing or two about science in general might be able to wing it better than others, but it would be much more refreshing to see them actually mess something up every now and again!

 

That is exceptionally gimmicky.