Comments | istne_pieklo: 10 Annoying Things: Storylines, Devices, Details, etc. Part 1

istne_pieklo

10 Annoying Things: Storylines, Devices, Details, etc. Part 1

Aug 15, 2013 19:01

Ever found a story, be it a book, a movie or a TV-series, that was good in just about every way except that one element that just happened to be one of your berserk buttons? Or perhaps that element doesn't cause enough rage to stop you from watching but you still grit your teeth every time it's in the forefront. Perfect stories are so few and far ( Read more... )

mean glow cloud, 10 things, meta, issues

Comments 15

awesome list geekgirl62 August 15 2013, 19:07:37 UTC

Absolutely agree with your list. Love Triangles and Angsty Cops are my top button pushers. If I read one more cozy mystery with a love triangle I'm going to scream.

Let me add one to your list. I'll call it "The good guys are incredibly stupid while the bad guys are geniuses".

The Following with Kevin Bacon is the perfect example of this. Not more than a couple of brain cells between them all (good guys). If it weren't for an awesome performance by Bacon, I would pass on this.

As for Willow, no one would measure up to Tara, ever.

Re: awesome list istne_pieklo August 15 2013, 19:27:30 UTC

Thank you. :) Part 2 is coming soon. XD
Ugh yes! Stupid good guys are stupid - and yet somehow they often win. Not only it is annoying but also implausible. Like: if they're so stupid, how do they even beat the bad guys?
I started The Following some time ago but so far I've only seen the first 4 or 5 eps. IDK, I like the premise but... Kevin Bacon keeps angsting and it bores me. :(
As for Willow, no one would measure up to Tara, ever. THAT! T_T

zoicite August 15 2013, 19:35:09 UTC

Wow, that gif of Hal just made me feel irrationally irritated...which, uh, I guess translates to Yes! Agreed! With pretty much this entire post, really. The law enforcement thing bothers me the least on this list, but I think that's just because I don't watch all that many shows that focus on law enforcement.

Off the top of my head the only vampire girl/human dude relationship I can readily think of is True Blood's Jessica/Hoyt (which was actually pretty cute until it all went to shit), but since the main relationship on that show is not only vampire dude/special human girl, but also a M/F/M triangle, that minor supporting storyline never really won out over the other really tired tropes.

istne_pieklo August 15 2013, 19:41:39 UTC

Haha, that gif is perfect imho because not only does he look angsty, but he's also waxing poetic about taht Sylvie girl in this scene. So it's both an angsty vamp thing and a vamp in love thing! XDD Scary!
I don't watch True Blood (dropped it after 2 episodes, not my thing), but it's nice to know that at least they thought of it, however small the part is... I can maybe think of Ingrid/Will in Young Dracula but it was really in the background, he became a vampire very quickly and then he died. XD

zoicite August 15 2013, 20:33:43 UTC

Ugh, that Sylvie scene.

I dropped True Blood after two or three episodes initially as well, and then my sister got me to give it another try later on and I ended up getting mildly sucked in by the second season, but I only really watch it casually/sporadically. I wouldn't say it's a fannish favorite, really. The Jessica/Hoyt storyline did last three seasons though, and dealt with various issues related to vampire/human relationship dynamics, so I think we can definitely count it in the f!vampire/m!human category (though there's really nothing super 'special' about Hoyt at all when compared to the specialness of Buffy/Sookie/Bella/Elena(I assume anyway. not really familiar with TVD)/etc, probably in part because he isn't the main protagonist)

rosalui August 16 2013, 12:55:58 UTC

Shows need less love triangles and more threesomes tbh.

I still love monster angst. I just love early!BH monster angst as opposed to late!BH monster angst. The kind where it's legit more trouble and not an OVER-WROUGHT PILE OF STEAMING SHIT OH MY FKBFEJKGTDS LATENT ANGER

istne_pieklo August 16 2013, 13:12:08 UTC

Amen to that! XD I'd love to watch a show with a threesome as the central romantic storyline. So that everyone had an equal share of screentime.
I'm okay with early BH monster angst but I'd still be overjoyed to see a vampire who doesn't hate being a vampire. I'd originally thought Mitchell was like that, but alas. :(

rosalui August 16 2013, 13:31:09 UTC

I miss the Mitchell who would sort of just hang out in his grunge clothes and be surprisingly dad-ish.

istne_pieklo August 16 2013, 13:41:46 UTC

Me toooo! :( I did enjoy Mitchell's storyline in s3 because it was kind of... terrifying? In terms of how far even a good man will go to stay alive. But I miss his less dark period. He used to be adorable in s1 even though he still had that existential angst going on.

Thread 6

love triangles shirogiku August 16 2013, 14:13:47 UTC

I've just had an unoriginal thought - I'm sure it's from some text post - that a proper love triangle is A wants B, B wants C and C wants A and I'm not sure it even exists in smth that's not fic, soap opera or a high school comedy.

I mean, the setup I described is obviously unhappy in the beginning and possibly (melo)dramatic - but it creates so much more possible endings!

Re: love triangles istne_pieklo August 16 2013, 14:58:45 UTC

Like that song, Love and Attraction: I want her, she wants him, he wants me... I give in ;))) This is where the cool part begins XD

red_satin_doll December 11 2013, 06:21:41 UTC

The problem with pairing everyone and their mother off in a story is that it often looks like the enforcement of the idea that if you are not in a relationship, there must be something wrong with you. It especially concerns women (every girl needs a guy), but it can be done with men too. This one fills me with a special sort of irrational hatred - (and I'm not projecting onto my own life because I've been with my partner for 17 years btw.) I'll put this one alongside"a woman's life is meaningless until she becomes a mother and popping a baby out of her vag is THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT THING A WOMAN WILL EVER DO". Basically they both measure a person's worth on their relationships to others (who they fuck, marry, give birth to), without regard to anything else ( ... )

istne_pieklo December 11 2013, 11:50:30 UTC

I'll put this one alongside"a woman's life is meaningless until she becomes a mother and popping a baby out of her vag is THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT THING A WOMAN WILL EVER DO". This just sounds so barbaric in the modern world, but for all that TV-shows try to come up with more imaginative characters, it often still boils down to the pursuit of relationship. That's depressing. T_T I do enjoy love stories, don't get me wrong, and I enjoy shipping, but it has to be plausible! Relationship takes time IRL, so why can't it take time in a story? The latest example from Once Upon a Time for instance: they have recently introduced Ariel (the Little Mermaid) but instead of getting at least a couple of days with her prince as she did in the Disney movie, she basically only spoke to him once during a ball, after that he offered her to go traveling with him and she agreed, but circumstances separated them before she could even tell him she was a mermaid. Then a couple of episodes later they meet again (in-verse, it's like 28 years later!) and the ( ... )