The Pretender: Episode 3.17 The Ties That Bind (well not really). More like fictional stresses
This is only tangentially about episode 3.17 of season 3 of The Pretender, being 'The Ties that bind'.
It actually relates more to one of the Movie/TV Situations That I Always Find Stressful, namely, Hero (or Heroine) has broken into office of Villain and has hacked into Villain's computer, finds an important file (or files) and must download them to disc. Meanwhile, Villain is on his way back to the office so it's a race against the clock for Hero and audience is left goggling at the download bar going: "Come on! Come on!" as the Villain gets closer.
In this case, this episode was filmed in 1999, so Jarod's trying to download a file to a 3.5" floppy in the a drive and we all know how slow saving to one of those can be, not to mention all the noisy whirring and clicking. O the pain .....
It does make me laugh that commands and download bars are always so massively huge on television and in the movies, but I realise that having the audience squint at the screen is not ideal. :)
OK, in this episode, Jarod steals into the office of the Evil Head of Security to try to access files. He puts the floppy disk in the a drive. My computer at work doesn't even have an a drive anymore.
He starts the download .... O no, even though it's only .doc file, this could take forever!!!!
Meanwhile, in the overhead security cameras, Jarod can see that Evil Head of Security is heading back from Evil Managing Partner of Law Firm's office back to his own office ....
Meep!
Jarod is tense, and so am I ....
Evil Head of Security comes out of the lift.
Damn those floppy drives.
Jarod glances up again ..
Still only 43%
Evil Head of Security comes closer
Jarod watches him anxiously.
Evil Head of Security is momentarily waylaid ....
Jarod glances back at the download bar .... "Come on, come on!" he mutters.
In the name of Being, how large could this jolly .doc file be??
O no!! Evil Head of Security is in the corridor back to his office ...
Phew, Jarod is standing outside his office, pretending to knock with an innocent look on his face ..
Yes, Jarod escaped this time but it was tense. Floppy disks are evil. If the episode was done today, I wonder if a USB thumb drive would have been faster? I guess the worry is that the Evil Head of Security's computer might not have recognised the new hardware and might have made him download a driver for it.
I suppose he could have brought his iPod - but then what if he brought the wrong cable with him or Evil Head of Security's computer wasn't compatible with iPods? What if it causes a system error and the computer crashed, had to be rebooted and there was all that delay. What if Jarod has to restart the computer in safe mode?
Truly, watching the tense download of file is one of the most tense things possible. I suppose Jarod's lucky Evil Head of Security's computer didn't tell him his floppy disk was unformatted or had an error. Worse, it could have got stuck and he might not have been able to find a paper clip to stick in that little hole to get it out again.
I must say the the biggest cop out I hate is when hero and heroine 'pretend to be kissing' so that when Villain passes, he doesn't realise that they are not supposed to be there. It is like one of the most lame dramatic clichés ever and any Evil Overlord that falls for that one deserves to be trapped in a room watching a looping download bar for eternity .....
It actually relates more to one of the Movie/TV Situations That I Always Find Stressful, namely, Hero (or Heroine) has broken into office of Villain and has hacked into Villain's computer, finds an important file (or files) and must download them to disc. Meanwhile, Villain is on his way back to the office so it's a race against the clock for Hero and audience is left goggling at the download bar going: "Come on! Come on!" as the Villain gets closer.
In this case, this episode was filmed in 1999, so Jarod's trying to download a file to a 3.5" floppy in the a drive and we all know how slow saving to one of those can be, not to mention all the noisy whirring and clicking. O the pain .....
It does make me laugh that commands and download bars are always so massively huge on television and in the movies, but I realise that having the audience squint at the screen is not ideal. :)
OK, in this episode, Jarod steals into the office of the Evil Head of Security to try to access files. He puts the floppy disk in the a drive. My computer at work doesn't even have an a drive anymore.
He starts the download .... O no, even though it's only .doc file, this could take forever!!!!
Meanwhile, in the overhead security cameras, Jarod can see that Evil Head of Security is heading back from Evil Managing Partner of Law Firm's office back to his own office ....
Meep!
Jarod is tense, and so am I ....
Evil Head of Security comes out of the lift.
Damn those floppy drives.
Jarod glances up again ..
Still only 43%
Evil Head of Security comes closer
Jarod watches him anxiously.
Evil Head of Security is momentarily waylaid ....
Jarod glances back at the download bar .... "Come on, come on!" he mutters.
In the name of Being, how large could this jolly .doc file be??
O no!! Evil Head of Security is in the corridor back to his office ...
Phew, Jarod is standing outside his office, pretending to knock with an innocent look on his face ..
Yes, Jarod escaped this time but it was tense. Floppy disks are evil. If the episode was done today, I wonder if a USB thumb drive would have been faster? I guess the worry is that the Evil Head of Security's computer might not have recognised the new hardware and might have made him download a driver for it.
I suppose he could have brought his iPod - but then what if he brought the wrong cable with him or Evil Head of Security's computer wasn't compatible with iPods? What if it causes a system error and the computer crashed, had to be rebooted and there was all that delay. What if Jarod has to restart the computer in safe mode?
Truly, watching the tense download of file is one of the most tense things possible. I suppose Jarod's lucky Evil Head of Security's computer didn't tell him his floppy disk was unformatted or had an error. Worse, it could have got stuck and he might not have been able to find a paper clip to stick in that little hole to get it out again.
I must say the the biggest cop out I hate is when hero and heroine 'pretend to be kissing' so that when Villain passes, he doesn't realise that they are not supposed to be there. It is like one of the most lame dramatic clichés ever and any Evil Overlord that falls for that one deserves to be trapped in a room watching a looping download bar for eternity .....