Things you're tired of seeing in movies

The other complaint is that neither Mulder nor Scully (when they're separate) call in their locations before they just go exploring by themselves. I'm on season 6 and I've lost track of how many times Scully and Mulder have been kidnapped/captured because they just go poking around without backup or their location known!
This is apparently a big thing in the Rookie because it drives their police consultants nuts.
 
I'm with you on that. It worked better as a monster-of-the-week thing IMO.

Their extended storylines were too much like JJAbrams mystery box crap. They just provoked you with alien abduction stunts for a few weeks and then memory-wiped everything back to baseline.
Agreed. I think that goes for shows like Fringe too. Couldn't stand their mythology. I never cared about Mulder's sister, I didn't care who his father was, I didn't care about the aliens. I just wanted fun, standalone episodes, which X-Files provided in spades in early seasons. I don't think you can really do a mythology-based show long-term for the reason you mentioned. Eventually, it all becomes so absurdly obvious that something is going on unless you keep hitting the reset button and that's not satisfying to the viewer.
 
Agreed. I think that goes for shows like Fringe too. Couldn't stand their mythology. I never cared about Mulder's sister, I didn't care who his father was, I didn't care about the aliens. I just wanted fun, standalone episodes, which X-Files provided in spades in early seasons. I don't think you can really do a mythology-based show long-term for the reason you mentioned. Eventually, it all becomes so absurdly obvious that something is going on unless you keep hitting the reset button and that's not satisfying to the viewer.

I think it could work in theory but it would take pre-planning for multiple seasons. That's more restraint than Hollywood has.

The alien horror stuff in 'X-Files' really annoyed me. The average person runs out of patience with low-grade supernatural stuff pretty quickly. The original premise of the X-Files was to do it higher-quality form. But the writing felt cheap in a bad way when they got into those extended stories.

I think they were going for the Indiana Jones mojo. At the end of the movie the Ark of the Covenant remains just as 'lost' in a govt warehouse as it was in the Egyptian sand. But Mudler & Scully's longer quests were not as fun & satisfying.


The stuff with Mulder's sister & father were duds. The viewer does not care about missing people that we never got to know onscreen for a while first. And IIRC they totally cheated on that stuff at least once (with his sister?). I can't remember the details but I remember thinking it was pretty cheap/manipulative. Like when The Simpsons made principle Skinner an impostor.
 
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There was a point that it just got silly, but I'm one of the rare people who really disliked the mythology episodes and only wanted to watch the monster-of-the-week episodes. It's a lot easier to treat those as standalone episodes where you can just assume Scully never saw any of this before.
I actually don’t mind a mythology… if it’s planned out ahead of time. IMO, with some fun exceptions, most of the time a show like the X-Files spends explaining how & for what new but historical agency a formerly charred skeleton works is time spent not telling a new and interesting story—or even adding to a mythology.
 
I actually don’t mind a mythology… if it’s planned out ahead of time. IMO, with some fun exceptions, most of the time a show like the X-Files spends explaining how & for what new but historical agency a formerly charred skeleton works is time spent not telling a new and interesting story—or even adding to a mythology.

Yep. There was too much world-building around stuff that would only matter for another 3 weeks. That stuff really has to be long-term planned.


One thing that bears noting - in the early 1990s TV producers didn't really didn't plan around repeat viewing.

That was only a few years after VCRs & cable TV were widespread. People didn't usually own & re-watch whole seasons of their favorite TV shows yet (not until DVDs). That made an impact on how TV shows were done. In the pre-DVD era they didn't worry as much about continuity. Whatever they made last season was vanished into the ether of occasional summer re-runs. The producers just didn't worry about viewers being so invested & nitpicky in general.
 
Yep. There was too much world-building around stuff that would only matter for another 3 weeks. That stuff really has to be long-term planned.


One thing that bears noting - in the early 1990s TV producers didn't really didn't plan around repeat viewing.

That was only a few years after VCRs & cable TV were widespread. People didn't usually own & re-watch whole seasons of their favorite TV shows yet (not until DVDs). That made an impact on how TV shows were done. In the pre-DVD era they didn't worry as much about continuity. Whatever they made last season was vanished into the ether of occasional summer re-runs. The producers just didn't worry about viewers being so invested & nitpicky in general.

My friends and family are dumbfounded that I don't buy any streaming services and I don't watch any modern shows. I hate long form storytelling in TV because it results in bloated filler and an almost self-defeating adherence to a main story line.

That's not to say I don't think long form TV shows can work but the majority of the time, it's an exercise in, "How long can we drag this out?".

Just give me one-shot episodes and move on.
 
I actually don’t mind a mythology… if it’s planned out ahead of time. IMO, with some fun exceptions, most of the time a show like the X-Files spends explaining how & for what new but historical agency a formerly charred skeleton works is time spent not telling a new and interesting story—or even adding to a mythology.
If it's well done, sure, but for X-Files, all the good episodes that anyone remembers, they're all the standalone monster-of-the-week episodes. The mythology is completely forgettable.
 
I feel like the X-Files mythology stretches were a product of their time.

Today the audience has already got way too much History Channel type sources (never mind Youtube). If they just want to watch garbage alien & govt conspiracy content then there's a lot to pick from. But in the early 1990s that market had not been covered like it has now. The bar was a lot lower.
 
X Files has my favorite: "I'm skeptical, even though I've literally seen ghosts, monsters and aliens once a week for 3 years". Like, at what point do you just go: "OK... it's probably aliens".

There's an episode in season 6 where Scully is questioning Mulder's theory on a case and he just says "I'm usually right every time, so I don't know why you just don't listen." :lol:
 
That's not to say I don't think long form TV shows can work but the majority of the time, it's an exercise in, "How long can we drag this out?".
The will they won't they trope needs to end! There is an even worse version of this now in the tease will they when they never will.
The thing that drives me nuts with long form is when they do a new story and the characters have had this issue before, dealt with something similar or should have a different view point. The first 2 are the soap storyline and the last one I refer to as the Supergirl issue.
 
That's apparently what this "modern audience" that they think exists, wants. That's why several series have stopped catering to fans and started catering to the weirdos like the shippers. Apparently that's why the last SW Sequel movies changed course and they put Kylo and Rey together, because weirdo shipper fans wanted it.
 
That's apparently what this "modern audience" that they think exists, wants. That's why several series have stopped catering to fans and started catering to the weirdos like the shippers. Apparently that's why the last SW Sequel movies changed course and they put Kylo and Rey together, because weirdo shipper fans wanted it.
Except that audience doesn't exist. You've got a couple of people whining on Twitter who aren't going to go support the project regardless because they can't get a job to save their lives. Idiots on Twitter don't make movies successful, only people putting their money on the counter and butts in seats do, but that's not who modren Hollywood wants to make movies for. No wonder they're going out of business.
 
Supposedly it was him that did it. Chris Gore said he got info from someone inside the company, so we'll see. I just hope, if true, they can finally get that Blade movie back on track and actually have it star Blade.
 
Mayors giving Sheriffs or Chiefs of Police orders or being able to fire them. They can't. It's a standard storyline in Batman stories, but it doesn't work that way. (Yes, things like falling into acid and thereby becoming a maniac DO happen, duh. ;) )

I'm also looking at you, Jaws.
 
Well there's rumors that Marvel studios quietly cleaned house of idiots so maybe one studio is figuring it out.
We will see what happens, but historically this means nothing. Disney has a history of firing a bunch if low level people and saying “we are pivoting!” As if the the actor in the Timon costume at Animal Kingdom is to blame for the movies making less money. Meanwhile everyone who actually makes decisions keeps their job.
 
We will see what happens, but historically this means nothing. Disney has a history of firing a bunch if low level people and saying “we are pivoting!” As if the the actor in the Timon costume at Animal Kingdom is to blame for the movies making less money. Meanwhile everyone who actually makes decisions keeps their job.
That's true. A lot of activist directors are still there, people who say they couldn't care less about the story and are only hiring writers to match arbitrary diversity standards.
 
Mayors giving Sheriffs or Chiefs of Police orders or being able to fire them. They can't. It's a standard storyline in Batman stories, but it doesn't work that way. (Yes, things like falling into acid and thereby becoming a maniac DO happen, duh. ;) )

I'm also looking at you, Jaws.

That reminds me of a long time complaint with, again, X-Files. A lot of times local law enforcement treats them like crap. I get there's probably times where they would resent the FBI taking over an investigation, but I would imagine that, in general, jurisdiction is probably clear.
 
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