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    Rather than the gruesome event itself, the suddenly-swinging chain (or lead) is usually the visual clue to the dog/goat/pony having been eaten by the escaped beast in any monster movie.

    The Jurassic Park franchise has, unsurprisingly, used this trope at least three times already.

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      We're watching Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist last night and they had the trope of faithsplaining that yes you can be a Christian and be accepting of, in this case, a gender-fluid man who usually presents as a woman. There seem to be an extraordinary amount of these accepting churches in TV shows.

      But on that note the black, gay / trans, overbearingly fabulous, narcissistic neighbour who secretly cares about the heroine but is too proud to admit it, has been lifted directly from the Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and it probably wasn't original there either.

      Also it's a show where just about everybody is in a mixed race / religion relationship, except for her parents.

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        Having been away from the boards for 15 months when the comments just up the page were posted, I've only just read these:


        Originally posted by tracteurgarçon View Post
        Saw a few minutes of one of the Lord of the Rings films last night and was becoming increasingly annoyed by the constant "SCCCCHHHHIIIINNNNGGGG" noise every time some drew a sword from their scabbard.
        The thing about the 'metallic scabbard' noise is that I think it began on the theatre stage, where the scabbards were designed precisely to create the sound – presumably to let the people at the back of the audience know for sure when a sword has been drawn. This then carried over into cinema despite not being necessary when everyone can see the screen perfectly well. And since it's been ubiquitous in so many filmed scenes for so many decades, apparently audiences now find its absence unnerving. The LotR films, which despite being fantastical prided themselves on the realism on display in terms of things like weapons and armour, were apparently actually intended to feature realistic (i.e. quiet) sword-unsheathing, but couldn't go through with it for precisely this reason...!

        As is so often the case, particularly with things in this thread, TV Tropes has a trope for the phenomenon – it's called Audible Sharpness. And the way audiences become conditioned to hear or see such stock effects (the 'whump' of punches connecting, the beeping of computers doing something, lens flare, noisy explosions in space, etc. etc.) s known there as The Coconut Effect: named for the way in which coconut shells were used to create the sound of horses' hooves so often, audiences have come to expect that sound even though it's not what horses' hooves actually sound like unless they're trotting over cobbles. Both tropes are subtropes of one called Reality Is Unrealistic.


        Originally posted by Sits View Post
        An inordinate number of people have stupid amounts of sugar in their tea and coffee. Almost as if it was supposed to create some mystique in the absence of well drawn character.
        First thing this made me think of:


        Wasn't Compo's technique to take a spoonful of sugar from the bowl, upend the bowl into his cup then replace the spoonful?

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          I could have sworn that I’d added this already but...

          Attractive (but not too attractive) female lead will indicate her free-spirited/attainable (but not too attainable) nature by wearing a beanie hat. For extra character indicators, all the way up to “kooky“, add fingerless wool mittens.

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            Can I put a word in for beanies with superfluous dangly ear bits:

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              Why does everyone in films always have duct tape? Baddies, goodies surprising baddies and capturing them, inside the home, in a car - there's always plenty of duct tape around to tie up your enemies before torturing them. And gagging them, with a piece of duct tape with suspiciously straight ends, even though you never see them with scissors.

              I wouldn't even know where to buy duct tape.

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                Do you not have vehicles like this on the road? It is indeed ubiquitous here and available even in bodegas.

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                  Originally posted by pebblethefish View Post
                  Why does everyone in films always have duct tape? Baddies, goodies surprising baddies and capturing them, inside the home, in a car - there's always plenty of duct tape around to tie up your enemies before torturing them. And gagging them, with a piece of duct tape with suspiciously straight ends, even though you never see them with scissors.

                  I wouldn't even know where to buy duct tape.
                  Erm, I have duct tape. I bought it in the supermarket around the corner.

                  I have never used it to tie up enemies or gagging them.

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                    What do you tie up and gag your enemies with then?

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                      Snakes.

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                        Apologies if this has already been noted, but the struggling kidnapee. Any time someone has been handcuffed / duct taped / otherwise restrained, and they're in the custody of 3 or 4 cops / baddies, they struggle and tug away at their captors. Like...what...if you manage to shake an arm loose, you're going to outrun them, then climb out of the underground bunker and get away while they....what...stand there and watch you? Just go compliantly and get this over with. You're probably going to get punched if you don't, and that's not going to improve the situation.

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                          See also "Lemme go...lemme go." They've gone to a lot of time and trouble, and probably aren't going to just let you go because you've repeated it.

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                            pebblethefish , for a straighter edge even without scissors, I recommend cloth tape. Sounds old school but I’ve never had any complaints. Or escapees.

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                              Originally posted by Wouter D View Post
                              Snakes.
                              On a plane?

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                                It never occurs to anyone going into a dark building to switch the fucking lights on...

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                                  Originally posted by Gangster Octopus View Post
                                  It never occurs to anyone going into a dark building to switch the fucking lights on...
                                  I blame The X Files and Se7en for propagating this. Everything was always dark and murky and no one ever switched on the lights they just used a torch. Used to do my head in.

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                                    But they had such great torches in The X-Files, how else would they get to show us?

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                                      Another one which is starting to bug me (perhaps it’s been covered already): if a suspect or potential witness is being pursued on foot in a built up area, it’s about a 50% chance they will run into traffic and be struck by a vehicle. This is almost certain to be fatal.

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                                        Or the psychic ability of a pursuing officer to know which way the perp has turned when they are already out of sight around the next corner. Or know where their perp is going enough to run down a parallel street and cross-check them at an intersection.

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                                          Something that occurred to me while watching the most recent season of Brooklyn Nine Nine is that whenever a couple are discussing having kids, and one is reluctant and the other is keen, the discussion is always, always, always resolved as the person who doesn't want kids changing their mind and deciding they do want to be a daddy/mommy after all. Because that is the only way to have worth or purpose in life.

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                                            It also provides more plot opportunities for the writers.

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                                              Originally posted by Sits View Post
                                              Another one which is starting to bug me (perhaps it’s been covered already): if a suspect or potential witness is being pursued on foot in a built up area, it’s about a 50% chance they will run into traffic and be struck by a vehicle. This is almost certain to be fatal.
                                              The 50% who don't run into traffic turn into one of those dodgy alleys with skips and fire escapes and a wire fence at one end.

                                              I've never actually seen one of those alleys in real life but there are an unlimited number in movie world

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                                                They are by no means as common in real life as they are in movies and television, but they do exist (not really in Manhattan, though)

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                                                  Originally posted by Patrick Thistle View Post
                                                  Something that occurred to me while watching the most recent season of Brooklyn Nine Nine is that whenever a couple are discussing having kids, and one is reluctant and the other is keen, the discussion is always, always, always resolved as the person who doesn't want kids changing their mind and deciding they do want to be a daddy/mommy after all. Because that is the only way to have worth or purpose in life.
                                                  SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS



                                                  See also final series of Big Bang Theory

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                                                    Originally posted by Gangster Octopus View Post
                                                    It never occurs to anyone going into a dark building to switch the fucking lights on...
                                                    So as not to draw attention to the fact they're inside?

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