TV & Film Film Tropes and Cliches That Make You Cringe

[M.J. Saulnier]

I want to know what makes you cringe when you're watching movies or TV. Particularly recurring tropes that always seem to pop up, despite being cheesy, nonsensical or downright foolish.


Some examples of mine would be:

When a character is sleeping at night (usually in horror films) and they hear a sound. Instead of inspecting the house and going back to sleep like a logical person, they open the front door, roaming around the property shouting, "Hello...is anyone there?" This is exacerbated when the plot has established that there is a killer on the loose, targeting said character.


When characters receive head trauma, but don't fall unconscious right away, but instead doze off for long enough to provide a POV of whatever caused the trauma looming over them. It just doesn't happen in reality. You either get knocked out, or dazed. There's no transitional period in between.


You know what, let's just say horror etiquette in general. I can't even.


What are some things that make you physically cringe when watching movies and TV?

 

[Sylvio]

Personally I don't like how fat women are usually written to be obnoxious and promiscuous in movies. It just seems like fatphobia to me

I also don't like characters who act arrogant all the time, they're mostly male and they are such a pain to watch. I guess an example could be shounen protagonists, they're always so keen on being super strong and don't consider the consequences of their actions

 

[Nue]

I guess this isn't really a trope, and it's also kinda minor, just something I find weird. Y'ever notice that women in TV and films often aren't 'allowed' to be unnattractive (unless they're the butt of a joke)?

I'm not just talking about the casting, bc that applies to both sides. I mean more like, if a female character is hurt or angry or sad, it's sort of held back so they don't make 'unnattractive' facial expressions. Or if not, it's still framed in a way where they can still look pretty. Or maybe they're given outfits that don't serve any practical use or make sense to the character and are just sort of there for eyecandy. Sometimes the character IS portrayed in this way just because that's her personality, but more often, it doesn't really matter what kind of person the character is, if they'd ever wear that outfit, if they'd actually realistically behave that way in that situation - bc that's not why it's there. Sometimes the framing is inherently sexual even when something horrific is happening; you see it a lot in slasher films.

I guess it's not a huge thing. It can get really weird tho, like with the last example I gave.. plus, like, once you start noticing that characters have no reason to act the way they are other than to be eyecandy, it gets real distracting lol

 

[ashwynne]

Building off of what N Nue said... huuuuuge cliche that makes me cringe is when female characters are wearing heels during an action segment. Any action segment. If you're actually chasing someone down, running away from someone, or doing anything physically demanding at all the FIRST thing to go would be the heels. It makes no logical sense to see these women running around in stilettos during dangerous situations and it completely takes me out of the show/movie.

 

[Nue]

Building off of what N Nue said... huuuuuge cliche that makes me cringe is when female characters are wearing heels during an action segment. Any action segment. If you're actually chasing someone down, running away from someone, or doing anything physically demanding at all the FIRST thing to go would be the heels. It makes no logical sense to see these women running around in stilettos during dangerous situations and it completely takes me out of the show/movie.

Oh my god yeah that too. It never bothered me, until I recently tried on high heels for the first time and.. now every time I see a ~badass super spy womam~ running around in HEELS when they had the choice of literally any other shoe i just. can't. take it seriously.

 

[Sylvio]

You also ever notice that in some slasher films the camera angle is looking down at the female victim instead of looking up at her killer. Almost like we're put in the perspective in the killer, kinda wack imo

 

[Aerynth]

I just hate forced romance in general. Like, the leads don't always have to end up together just because they're a man and a woman. What a concept!

 

[The_Omega_Effect]

Virtually any cliche that destroys all logical sense. The main character who is shit and inexperienced beating the main villain who is a fucking professional master simply because he is fighting for his friends or some shit.
The typical, "Your emotions make you weak! NO! MY EMOTIONS MAKE ME STRONG" type shit.
PLOT ARMOR. I fucking hate plot armor. This is the reason why I almost always find myself rooting for the villain. I don't see an intelligent main character making careful decisions which contribute to their long survival, I see a dipshit retard moving around acting like a complete fucknugget and managing to survive for no reason. Instead of following the main characters and rooting for them, I find myself going "YEAH! Kill THAT MOTHER FUCKER!" and supporting the crazy pyscho killer.
I also dislike it when there are CLEAR moral choices in the film. Like there are choices A and B, and it is written in a way where A is like "Save puppies" and B is someshit like "Commit genocide". Some shows might pretend like there are moral grays but in reality there aren't any. It is all black and white which is not realistic. I want a choice that a character makes to be actually a difficult fucking decision where it is based on the personal views and beliefs of the person who is judging whether it is a good or a bad decision overall. This was, a character making that decision over the other, equally difficult decision, gives us an even bigger insight into who the person making the decisions is. But nope, you are either a whitenight or superhitler.
Although this encapsulates most tropes, I fucking hate shit writing. Since when the fuck did we begin to tolerate shit writing. MOST movies, suck dick.
Though it is a lesser problem, I hate how sometimes, bad acting from children is tolerated. If they break the immersion and cant act the part, dont put them into the fucking movie. And also, why are children just plot devices at this point?
I could honestly keep listing shit but I don't have the time. cya.

 

[Dragonight]

I tend to go rather nuts when a character is completely derailed for "drama." When a character is established a certain way and then just randomly changes personality it makes me insane, and it seems like only a few TV shows can go more than two seasons before completely and pointlessly changing either the protag or supporting characters. If your audience already loved (or hated!) a character as they were written, why throw all that development out the window for shock value or angst? That's just bad writing! Period!

 

[Peacemaker .45]

I’m not sure if you could a trope or cliche of films, but holy shit, the amount of inaccuracies with firearms in movies can be so annoying sometimes. There are instances that it doesn’t really matter, like in a story that isn’t completely serious. But in serious movies (or TV shows for that matter), when you have someone who is proficient in firearms get 100 things wrong, be it terminology, weapon handling, etc., it just takes me out of the immersion so much and really gets on my nerves. I’m not an expert in firearms, but I know a good amount about them that when a character is an “expert,” and botched basically everything they should know, it just kills me inside.

 

[MikaTheImpaler]

I’m not sure if you could a trope or cliche of films, but holy shit, the amount of inaccuracies with firearms in movies can be so annoying sometimes. There are instances that it doesn’t really matter, like in a story that isn’t completely serious. But in serious movies (or TV shows for that matter), when you have someone who is proficient in firearms get 100 things wrong, be it terminology, weapon handling, etc., it just takes me out of the immersion so much and really gets on my nerves. I’m not an expert in firearms, but I know a good amount about them that when a character is an “expert,” and botched basically everything they should know, it just kills me inside.

Oh! I have a similar thing!! When you have a major character who plays a string instrument (or honestly even the band in the background of one of those wedding movies) and they can't even properly hold the damn instrument! Not to mention they aren't even bowing to the beat of the music and most of them don't even move your fingers! Sorry but I didn't know the wedding march ONLY HAD ONE NOTE! If you're going to hand an actor a violin, at least take the ten seconds to teach them to hold it semi-properly. HECK.
Also nobody ever tunes their instrument in the movies before a huge performance or warms up their voice. They just get up there and start performing a freaking Concerto. Um no. Unless you want to sound like crap.

 

[rosiphaura]

Horror/Thriller movies where there is a love interest and only those two make it out alive. SO overly used and cringy

 

[Nue]

Oh man I forgot about this one that I also really hate, I'll sum it up like this:

"I hate (insert fantasy race here)."

"Wow! That's kinda shitty, you can't just hate a whole race!"

"But wait, I hate them because I have an angsty backstory where a member of (fantasy race) killed my parents/ate my pet/insert something sad here."

"Wow, I guess that justifies everything! Even though that's still bigoted, this movie/show/whatever isn't going to present it in that way at all, because this is supposed to be a lazy analogy about real life racism written by someone who doesn't actually really understand it very clearly. There's even a 50/50 chance that you'll be portrayed as entirely the good guy in this situation!"


Basically.. When fantasy media try to tackle stories about racism, but they trip up by implying (insert fantasy race here) has done something in the past to justify the hate towards them. It's really lazy and a complete misunderstanding of how prejudice can occur, buuuut it keeps cropping up in movies and shows anyway..

(Actually the way fantasy media handles fantasy races in general can be. Uhhh)

 

[FoolsErin]

Timepiece stories set in early 1900s/ late 1800sish times with a sPuNkY main girl who doesn't follow the expectations of being a proper lady, and her rebellious spunk usually gets her caught up in some wacky adventure. Actually, characters that "don't fit in" and find crazy adventure in general kind of irk me. I personally think a proper lady or a mostly normal dude getting dragged into a totally unexpected journey or something would be way more interesting, seeing them freak out and all.

 

[Jet]

Zoom & Enhance

 

[Emotional Enigma]

I hate when minorities are cast as the side characters and they're given roles that play off their stereotypes. Black women shouldn't be shouldered with always having to be loud or sassy. Asian women shouldn't always have to appear sexy or exotic. Asian men shouldn't always have to appear geeky. The list goes on.

I also really hate when things don't even seem logical. No female fighter is going to wear sexy clothes willingly while doing any sort of heavy physical activity. Black Widow is not comfortable wearing a skin tight latex suit and heels while fighting off groups of mercenaries.

 

[Axel The Englishman]

Armour that doesn't work.

 

[adrian_]

characters coming from a certain ethnic region having no problem speaking english/russian/mandarin/dutch/etc.

because ah yes, the swedish man whos only practiced english in writing would totally know to sound out the J in jaded. they would never have any problem with that

also like military or spies or stuff like that just being fluent in twenty languages without having any plot point for it, but thats par for the course at this point

 

[M.J. Saulnier]

I honestly hate one-liner payoffs. There's nothing more lowbrow and compromising you can do in a script or to a character. Since I was young felt like that was the writer's way of doing something for a complete mouth breathers in the crowd. So at least once during the movie they can look to the person beside them and say, "Oh, I get it. Someone said something similar earlier in the film, so now it's funny to say it again."

I don't want to single any one movie out of respect, but you've all heard at least one example. When the sub-antag says to the lead protag, "Watch your step." Then later in the movie that sub-antag plummets 10 stories to their death, and the lead protag shouts after them as they fall, "Watch your step!"


It's a cancer in screen writing.

 

[Axel The Englishman]

Archery-based classes having the lowest amount of physical strength. I trust that no noodly-armed elven femboy is making good use of a longbow, let alone being able to pull the string all the way back in the first place.

 

[M.J. Saulnier]

Archery-based classes having the lowest amount of physical strength. I trust that no noodly-armed elven femboy is making good use of a longbow, let alone being able to pull the string all the way back in the first place.

 

[Anshelical]

While in some cases I believe that law enforcement can be quite lax in executing order sometimes, I don't think it's a guaranteed fact that law enforcement won't arrive on time of a big confrontation or even try to resolve the issue from the start. For example, the protagonist expresses concern about the antagonist to law enforcement around the middle of the movie, and the law enforcement turns it down as, "Oh, it's probably nothing," or something. Or at the end of the movie when everything's over, the law enforcement just so happens to arrive. Again, while some of its realism is true, to see this in almost every single movie is irritating. And this isn't just about law enforcement; it's about the interaction of the environment, too. I really dislike when movies neglect how much importance they get, when, in fact, they are very crucial to how the plot plays out.

 

[M.J. Saulnier]

While in some cases I believe that law enforcement can be quite lax in executing order sometimes, I don't think it's a guaranteed fact that law enforcement won't arrive on time of a big confrontation or even try to resolve the issue from the start. For example, the protagonist expresses concern about the antagonist to law enforcement around the middle of the movie, and the law enforcement turns it down as, "Oh, it's probably nothing," or something. Or at the end of the movie when everything's over, the law enforcement just so happens to arrive. Again, while some of its realism is true, to see this in almost every single movie is irritating. And this isn't just about law enforcement; it's about the interaction of the environment, too. I really dislike when movies neglect how much importance they get, when, in fact, they are very crucial to how the plot plays out.

It drives me bonkers when over 100 rounds have been fired from various types of weapons, and half the building has been razed to the ground - smoke spewing into the sky as flames rage all around - and the cops finally show up as the hero puts his arm around the female love interest. To make things even worse, they just walk away into the sunset, no questions asked, no inquiries about the small gang of dead antagonists laying about. It's like, "Must have been self defense, boys."

Give me a break. Realistically you could do an entire sequel about the legal shit storm that would follow.

 

[Azerate]

I'm not trying to be that asshole who harps on twilight despite it not being even remotely relevant anymore, my gripes with this trope have nothing to do with that setting, but like modern au vampires and werewolves just... I don't understand why but I've never felt good about that trope of like "hiding society of monsters in plain clothes" trope when its vampires, werewolves, etc. Similarly Vampires vs Werewolves type tropes just make absolutely no sense to me. How did that even start? It just feels like such an arbitrary trope that gets strung out a lot for kinda creepy romance plots especially.

 

[Wert]

Asshole: being an asshole, has always been an asshole for reasons unspecified.

Protagonist: You're wrong!

Asshole: holy shit, you're right. Is no longer an asshole and never struggles with changing behavior.