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Original poster

To get angry at tv characters pretending to drink from empty cups!

135 replies

HitsAndMrs · 15/12/2015 12:08

Soap characters especially. They drive me mad. I can see that coffee cup is empty so stop pretending to drink it.

Does anything wind you up like this?!

OP posts:
heavens2betsy · 15/12/2015 15:06

When they have lunch round the table and half the table is empty!! I know it's for the camera to get the right angles but ffs it bugs me.
Mitchell faaaamily dinners. Everyone is summoned to lunch and a hot meal is magicked out of nowhere then it all kicks off and nobody eats it and nobody has to wash up!!!

TweeterandtheMonkeyman · 15/12/2015 15:11

The empty coffee cup does irritate me, Friends was awful for that.. but some of the other stuff is understandable ,how boring would it be to listen to the end of phone calls, meeting time arrangements etc.. Oh and packing and unpacking suitcases all the time.

FancyForgetting · 15/12/2015 15:15

Characters who wear glasses when the actor clearly doesn't - whipping them off and pinching the bridge of their nose while sighing deeply to demonstrate concentration/exasperation. Especially in thrillers or similar, just before they brilliantly solve the case.

All of our family wear glasses all the time, except when sleeping or showering. Mind you, we've never solved any murders - that must be why!

BillBrysonsBeard · 15/12/2015 15:18

Yes to the never saying bye on phone calls! Who does that? It seems so rude and it's just one little word to fit in.

OnlyLovers · 15/12/2015 15:46

will, Benedict C had violin lessons in order to play those scenes in Sherlock.

Which is pretty worrying, because he's STILL totally unconvincing!

Fancy, this winds me up too. I'm very short-sighted and have milk bottle bottom glasses, and I get dreadful envy when someone is wearing some obviously clear lenses and looking utterly gorgeous in them, rather than like Penfold, which is how I look.

BertieBotts · 15/12/2015 15:48

Problem is when the actors have food/drink in their mouths they can't say their lines.

Apparently Jensen Ackles (Dean in Supernatural) is known for actually eating the food in front of him rather than pretending, people on fan sites point it out all the time, it does make for a realistic performance but most people don't chew very quickly and I suppose it's annoying for the director to have to wait for an actor to finish their mouthful so that they can say their line.

Plus if you spilled it on yourself it would be a whole costume change and annoyingness.

OverScentedFanjo · 15/12/2015 15:58

whenever I've been on stage I've always had to have real food and drink. As it is a well know irritant to see empty cups. Also we have hot food so the audience can see steam.

Adds to the fun to have to act, remember lines and pour coffee, add milk etc.

willconcern · 15/12/2015 16:08

OnlyLovers - really? He's still absolutely dreadful.

AutumnLeavesArePretty · 15/12/2015 16:11

The Big Bang drives me bonkers for empty cups, real food but empty cups.

Chillyegg · 15/12/2015 16:14

Shoes on all the time! Even when lying on a sofa or bed! So annoying and scruffy

GloGirl · 15/12/2015 16:24

People who pay for everything in wodges of cash and never get any change.

Just throw a handful of notes at the taxi driver or throw a load down on the table and leave. Dinner was £21.63? Here's 2 crumpled twenties I'm off.

Dragonglass · 15/12/2015 16:36

You may like this recent thread in chat

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/2524417-Things-that-always-happen-on-tv-programmes-and-films-that-simply-arent-true?pg=1

These points and many others were made.

StuntNun · 15/12/2015 16:38

Maybe if they had actual drinks then the actors would constantly be demanding loo breaks < clutches at straws >

Beth2511 · 15/12/2015 16:42

In fairness i used to work in a pub and could still remember most of my regulars usual drinks 2 years on....

thecatsarecrazy · 15/12/2015 17:08

The empty cup thing really pisses me off too!

OnlyLovers · 15/12/2015 17:27

will, yep, the woman who taught him was all over Twitter at the time capitalising on being Sherlock's violin teacher. Grin

NotNob · 15/12/2015 17:51

I think the exception to rule rule is Only Fools and Horses; I'm sure David Jason et al would always eat and drink proper grub.

Also irritates me when character dry the dishes - the wipes the plates over and over and over and over and they weren't even wet in the first place!

NotNob · 15/12/2015 17:52
  • urgh fat finger on phone !!
SladeGreen · 15/12/2015 18:03

It really winds me up when someone orders a glass of wine, takes one sip and then buggers off out the door again, for whatever trivial reason ("ooh I must pop in and say hello to Aunty Mavis, she has the new Argos catalogue I want to have a butcher's at, come on lets fucking go NOW.")

I mean, come on!!! Where I live, a glass of wine is no less than a fiver, FFS. It is SUCH a waste of good booze and money Angry

spidey66 · 15/12/2015 18:14

The fact that the houses in Corrie/Eastenders are actually tardises, not houses, and are able to accommodate a whole footie team.

How no one goes out of the square or street to go to work or socialise (bar the odd trip 'up west) and the incestiousness of these places. Does no one have a friend/partner who lives somewhere else?

When a character leaves for college or whatever, they are never seen again even if they left for something positive. There are characters that never have offspring visit and they don't even come back for weddings and funerals.

spidey66 · 15/12/2015 18:17

And the fact they never go to supermarkets but get all their food from the mini mart, even meat etc.

SladeGreen · 15/12/2015 23:28

Yep, and you never see any of them sneezing either, unless its the start of some terrible life-threatening illness.

RL Achooo!! (someone says "bless you," and that's it)

Soaplife Character develops Yellow Fever. Helpline is posted in the closing credits.

MistressoftheYoniverse · 15/12/2015 23:42

Fake wine that looks like Ribena/ Beer that looks like fizzy pee

Never saying goodbye when they put down the phone/ending calls properly

Never finishing a meal (especially breakfast) and leaving whole plates of food when they have to pay for it?

Yoni - 'what the heck child you better take that food on the way to school and eat it ' and 'wrap that shit up in a doggy bag I will eat it later in rage!' Grin

BreconBeBuggered · 15/12/2015 23:58

Wandering across the room for a private word, as if we'd forget the other characters the second they were out of the shot. In my house you'd have to turn the telly on and go upstairs if you didn't want anyone ear-wigging, as I don't have an invisible soundproof wall in my sitting room.

YY to leaving drinks in the pub, even if they are clearly Ribena. And don't get me started on paying someone in the caff two doors down to make you a cuppa when you have a fully equipped kitchen in your own house.

ChinaSorrows · 16/12/2015 00:05

Continuity is what REALLY bothers me
Putting down a prop
Camera angle changes, actor is holding prop
Camera angle switches back to angle 1, prop is still put down.

It drives me INSANE!!! I seem to have a curse which means I notice all this shit! "twitchy" hands (twilight)
Disappearing apples
Differences in hair and makeup between camera angles

Drives poor DH insane because I will rewind to point it out!!! Grin

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