What's your pet peeve when it comes to tropes? What bothers you when you see it in a show or a movie?
I'll go first. Mine is the instant knockout drug. Like Dexter's intramuscular injection that causes someone to immediately lose consciousness. Or in the movie Split where there's the aerosol spray in your face that makes you instantly unconscious. Or pretty much any time someone uses chloroform.
Cliffhangers are getting out of control. It used to be that a movie or season would end by wrapping up the story and maybe throw a little teaser in at the end for next season. That's fine. But it seems like now they just try to stretch out a story or plot for as long as humanly possible.
It has gotten to the point where I will not watch a show until I either know it doesn't end in a major cliffhanger or the next season is being filmed. Not confirmed, but actively in production.
A good example is Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. I'm still mad about that ending, even more so with the next movie being delayed.
Not to mention that you really can't trust the producers to provide a consistently good product. You create a cliffhanger for an otherwise good movie and the sequel just turns out to be garbage. If the show is garbage, at least have the decency to make it garbage from start to finish, Don't betray long time fans.
Netflix reality competition shows are awful for this. Especially the Korean ones where they cut back to show like every single person's reaction to the thing before either showing it or ending the episode.
I'm already watching this shit, you don't have to manipulate me into continuing to watch it and dramatize every mundane thing. Or pad the time out.
Also Dan Brown.
Used right, it can be effective, but some shitty writers lean way to much on them.
Oh man, I was so disappointed with the show Siren: Survive the Island. I thought it had an awesome premise and was hopeful since it was Korean that it won't be your typical "reality show manufacturer drama". I was so disappointed.
I agree with you! Also unhappy to say that cliffhangers might get more common. Movie makers learn they get more sales / rentals / subscriptions with cliffhangers: because then you’re invested & curious & HAVE to see the next one :/ hate it, but that’s capitalism