Realities that don't exist in TV land

[QueSyrahSyrah]

Inspired by the ongoing curtains thread, what realities of the world do you consistently see ignored in TV and Film?

I'll start; Car Insurance. We've been watching a show recently where the characters are forever borrowing or swapping cars with family and friends. Vanishingly unlikely that everyone has open all-driver insurance (unless that's a more common thing in America maybe?).

@WeeOrcadian People in the past may not have had many baths but they certainly washed regularly and were expected to keep clean and fresh just as we are! Nobody likes being dirty or smelling and neither did people throughout history. Any upper-class person, as in Bridgerton, may well have had a bath daily anyway (as there were the servants and the facilities to provide that) but if not, everyone would have had a large jug of hot water brought to their room every morning and they washed at a washstand - probably a full body wash which is perfectly possible with a cloth if you’re used to it (and they were). Even poorer people would have tried to wash often - sure, not a bath, but you can get very nice and clean with just a bowl of hot water and a cloth. It’s only in the last century that we’ve assumed only a bath or shower gets you clean.

Haha! I would hope that banks and government agencies have slightly more security though

One that really annoys me is in horror films when they've spent the entire film being chased by a crazed murdering maniac who never seems able to be killed and finally manage to bonk him over the head with a rolled up newspaper or something and they NEVER EVER check if he's actually dead. Its like, well he stubbed his toe quite badly- he's probably out of action now and we can turn our backs to him and hug and sit down and relax. Cue him rising from the floor and having another go.

People walking into dark houses . The light switch is by the entrance, its the first thing most people do upon entering. But no they walk off into the kitchen in darkness.

Dramatic Police interviews under caution where the cops psychoanalyse the subject to outwit them into a confession and/or aggressively confront the alleged perpetrator.

I've been an appropriate adult in many Police interviews under caution from shoplifting to murder and everything in between.

They're boring as fuck. Usually a pre-prepared list of questions which are read off in a monotone and are often answered no comment in an equal monotone. And can go on for hours. For some reason I previously thought after a few no comment responses the officers or detectives would just shut the interview down but they can't. So it just goes on and on and on.

Going into the pub and asking for 'a pint', of what?! I understand why they don't use brand names but they never even specify whether they want lager, ale, bitter, mild, stout, cider etc.

Well, ok, you go and script a TV series in which romantic dramas, family feuds or crime-solving are crowded out to the margins by characters arranging car insurance, failing to find parking spaces, going to the loo, arranging babysitters, sitting for hours in GP surgery waiting rooms, working out their notice, scrolling through their phones and letting the teabag sit for three minutes rather than getting on with the detecting/feuding/shagging etc etc.

Good point well made.

Detectives in films are always going through a painful divorce, drink and smoke too much, are insomniacs, workaholics and have personal problems. They're never happily married, tee total, and enjoy their annual leave.

Something important comes on the TV and it gets switched off before the report has even finished. People sleep when it’s clearly daylight outside. Lamps are always on, even when it’s daylight and people have been out. Everyone can see a doctor straightaway. People in soap land never have cars or washing machines and have babies who disappear. They acrimoniously split up with a partner and don’t appear to hold any grudges.

According to the official blueprints it has many, even some directly off the bridge. You never see them onscreen though. I always figured they just transported it out of you.

anything to do with food;

When there’s a FULL spread of food for breakfast or a party etc. and then everyone just leaves after a bite of toast or just as the food has arrived.

everyone leaves the table without clearing up.

nobody ever finishes a meal.

and yeah the drinking shit loads in a bar then driving after as if nothing’s happened, more US based but still annoys me no end.

Though it might make quite a good comedy sketch. Someone has probably done it, but I can imagine it being quite funny to have something riffing off a hard-boiled detective show where the lead zones out to play Candy Crush, tells her partner she can’t meet him at the suspect’s deserted warehouse because she’s just taken a lovely roast out of the oven, and who keeps popping to the loo during interrogations.

Detective rocks up at a house on his own, or with his sidekick, not usually a female officer, and tells a woman her husband has been murdered.
She looks slightly shocked but is immediately able to answer questions about him, where he's been, who he's seen.
If someone brought me this news I'd be a screaming howling wreck probably in need of sedation, not coherently chatting about who had it in for him.

When a certain street appears to have its own personal police officer that deals with absolutely everything from the minute they applied to join the force
This same street has an amazing nurse that can work in any department within a hospital that only has one bed she must wheel round and is only qualified to work on residents of the street she lives
Oh and her house has grown an extra room or she has gone off grid and just added an internal door to the wall to try and show off to the neighbours
Nobody has ever used the door or referred to its random existence

Yes this!. A day running around then they start having sex...I always think ooooh she going to get a UTI from that😭

the 'I'm bored and need to work' 2 weeks after giving birth or serious injury (grey's, station 19)

Whenever someone is on the run from the police (usually for a crime they didnt commit) they always happen to know of some distant relative/friend who lives out in the sticks, off the grid, who also just conveniently happens to keep an arsenal of weapons in their basement that they can use

This: or they do their own search, either find exactly what they need straight away, and never the annoying clunking sound of a failed action

And the number of police dramas where the arresting officer doesn't caution the suspect or gets the caution totally wrong. I mean not cautioning them would prejudice a trial, wouldn't it?

Think you might be taking this a bit too seriously or personally.

For me it's people with incredible houses.
I loved Sherwood but the cop's house was unbelievable. He was a cop, his wife was a social worker or something and it was this huge ultra modern place for two of them. Just didn't ring true to me and a lot of other shows seem to have these highly interior designed places that so called "normal" people live in.

When people turn off the lights at bedtime, it's always a full moon so their confused and sad facials expressions can be clearly read. I sleep in full darkness.

No one ever experiences pain. They get shot and just...carry on. I make more fuss about a paper cut.

Just the reality of having babies/young children really.

You see parents on TV having long adult conversations, going on dates, meeting with friends etc. all the time (who knows where they get all the childcare?). And the toddlers when present are sleeping or sitting in their pushchair and say a word or two at most.

I want to see more parents trying to have a serious conversation but being constantly interrupted by their kids, or out and about in town with a child in a pushchair that keeps yelling something completely random.

Oh wow! I've been out for a run and this has taken off. I'll read them all, but YY to the first few I've read (parking especially, DH spent all of Luther and Marcella commenting on the central London parking availability).

And presenters apparently driving along, looking left at the camera instead of at the road ahead.

Look where you are going, ffs.