Tropes in television and film

[Benji]

Simple question - what are your favourite and least favourite tropes on screen?

My least favourite the boyfriend/girlfriend (usually girlfriend) who wants the hero/main character to give up their life and the thing the entire film/TV show is built around in order to be safe. Like, seriously, how are you supposed to like a person who wants the entire reason you're watching to stop doing the stuff that makes you watch? They're always so whiny about it too.

My favourite is the two best friends who snipe at each other but blatantly care about one another. It's tired, and cliché, but it's also one of the most realistic tropes out there.

[Naitch]

Heroes who come out of retirement/hiding for one last job more than once and killing off entire main casts except for the franchise character, i.e. 24 for both. Although I enjoy the show these two things happening made me lose interest completely by the sixth series or so.

[Bobfoc]

It happens mainly in school dramas, but it sometimes crops up in other genres, but I really don't like the clichéd scenario in which a socially awkward male becomes infatuated with an attractive, friendly female who is in a relationship with an arrogant meathead who constantly bullies said male protagonist, culminating in a final showdown in which the female realises her mistake and the hero takes down the bully, after which true romance blossoms and the antagonist presumably goes away and never bothers anyone again. My friend at school used to think that this was the way the real world worked, leading to numerous humiliations from which he continued to learn nothing.

On the other hand, I do enjoy seeing a grizzled veteran coming out of retirement for one last hurrah. I don't know exactly what it is about watching supposedly over-the-hill heroes taking out hordes of baddies that I like so much, but it almost always makes for a feel-good vibe.

[Benjamin]

Heroes who come out of retirement/hiding for one last job more than once and killing off entire main casts except for the franchise character, i.e. 24 for both. Although I enjoy the show these two things happening made me lose interest completely by the sixth series or so.

So what you're saying is Liam Neeson isn't your thing?

[Naitch]

Is that what happens in Taken because I can't think of any other examples of that for him? If that's the case the Taken franchise doesn't appeal to me in the slightest anyway.

[apsham]

Taken series.. upcoming Run All Night movie.. A Walk Amongst The Tombstones... Non-Stop kinda.. and that's just the last two years and off the top of my head. It's basically what he does.

[Benjamin]

He's almost always a retired / aging cop who's thrown into these situations where he has to kill all the bad guys.

Either that or he stars in animated comedies.

[Your Mom]

I love the grizzled old man who is seemingly "too old for this shit" but still gets things done. So like Harrison Ford in pretty much anything

[TEOL]

My favourite trope is when it looks like the sports team is going to have to forfeit because they don't have enough players but then it turns out an adorable puppy dog is inexplicably able to play the sport to a professional standard and everyone's all 'well there ain't no rule on the books that says a dog CAN'T play!'

[Liam]

My favourite trope is when it looks like the sports team is going to have to forfeit because they don't have enough players but then it turns out an adorable puppy dog is inexplicably able to play the sport to a professional standard and everyone's all 'well there ain't no rule on the books that says a dog CAN'T play!'

Meh, not sure I quite enjoy that trope personally, bud.

[Mx. Canadian Destroyer]

One of my least favourite is when a show constantly uses the "light bulb" moment that suddenly allows them to solve the case/medical condition/whatever. House got particularly bad for it.

[Benjamin]

One that I get annoyed by sometimes is a super long scene where they tease if the main character is going to get killed... In the middle of the movie. It's like, we know you're going to be fine, just get the fuck on with it man.

[apsham]

One that I get annoyed by sometimes is a super long scene where they tease if the main character is going to get killed... In the middle of the movie. It's like, we know you're going to be fine, just get the fuck on with it man.

That murders it for me. It adds absolutely no tension and puts me into a "lets just get it over with and get to the end of the movie" mood most of the time it's done. Certain kinds of movies are exceptions but there are only a few.

[Colly]

Meh, I bet you both jizzed when

Steven Seagal

died in

Executive Decision

.

[Walker]

One of my least favourite is when a show constantly uses the "light bulb" moment that suddenly allows them to solve the case/medical condition/whatever. House got particularly bad for it.

[Jimmy]

One that I get annoyed by sometimes is a super long scene where they tease if the main character is going to get killed... In the middle of the movie. It's like, we know you're going to be fine, just get the fuck on with it man.

Yeah, I hate it when that happens in Psycho. That shower scene had no tension whatsoever

[Benjamin]

I said sometimes!

[Quom]

In action films when it looks like the hero has won and then somehow he hasn't quite and everything is extended by another 20 minutes of pointlessness.

[Sousa]

I like when everyone suddenly resolves their insecurities and quirks in the last hour because this is the serious scene now and it's time to beat the bad guy via friendship (LOOKIN' AT YOU GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY).

[Walker]

I cringe whenever we get to a "The Hero is Jesus Christ" moment. I.e. Spiderman 2 Peter Parker is "crucified" trying to stop the train, Superman falling from the sky with his body in crucifix position, all of the Matrix sequals.

I'll allow RoboCop as the only exception.