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resolved Teal and Purple Early Nineties Style Live Action TV
I've seen this a lot but can't really pinpoint too many examples - stuff in the late eighties/early nineties having title cards with purple, teal, pink and yellow, with elements like swirls, triangles and squiggly line patterns in the background.
Does anyone know what I'm talking about?
resolved Ignored conversation lie test Live Action TV
A comedy/sitcom scene: Alice is telling Bob a story, but Bob's ignoring her - focusing on a football game on TV, a hot woman on the street, or, nowadays, his smartphone. So Alice starts making up ridiculous lies to test if he's listening. He continues nodding and saying vague stuff like "that's nice" as her stories grow more ridiculous.
resolved What he wanted to do to others, ends up done to him Live Action TV
A villain plans to victimize someone in a specific way, but ironically ends up as in the victim's position, usually due to a misunderstanding or mixup.
resolved Killer found by saying something only the killer would know Live Action TV
Ok so imagine crime drama where a woman is killed and they are interviewing the husband, the husband says something like "please detectives, find the man who stabbed my wife 12 times" but the cops never revealed to the husband that she was stabbed, or that it was 12 times, so how does he know? Obv it means he is the killer
resolved We were playing a videogame! Live Action TV
The cops have a bug on Alice and Bob's place. They're listening to Alice and Bobs' plan to murder someone. They're discussing techniques and weapons, comparing previous kills, mentioning locations. Then the SWAT team breaks in... and they're just talking about the Murder Simulator they're playing.
Is that a trope? I get that it's not too realistic nowadays, but TV is TV.
resolved Preying on criminals by baiting Live Action TV
A criminal pretends to be a drug dealer, prostitute or similar. When a rube becomes interested, the criminal takes him to an isolated location and robs him.
Variations include the child criminal offering sex to lure a pervert, a serial killer making sure his targets are scumbags, and the classic "using handcuffs on a horny guy, then robbing him".
The idea in those cases is the victim understands why they need to be sure nobody's seeing them, and won't tell the cops what happen, for fear of getting himself in trouble.
resolved The Fantasy Sequence is Closer to Reality Live Action TV
I've seen this, very rarely, and was wondering if there's a trope for it - a character's appearance or behavior is closer to an actor's real self during an Imagine Spot than during the show proper - for instance, an actress wears a fat suit during the show, but her character has a dream about being skinny, which is just the actress being portrayed without the suit, or an actor whose character has a heavy accent speaks with his native accent during a fantasy sequence.
resolved Convenient Innocent's Death Live Action TV
Alice is evil, so Bob the Anti-Hero kills her. Charlie then finds out, but Charlie is by-the-books, so he has to tell the cops. After all, it's still murder. Bob's in a jam now - he can't kill Charlie, cause Charlie's innocent. He can't go to jail either.
So, Charlie's on his way to the cops, when he dies in an accident, or is murdered. This is great for Bob, since he gets to follow his moral code, and get away with Alice's murder. And if Charlie was murdered, Bob can avenge him in his deadly fashion.
resolved Informed Big Budget Live Action TV
A TV series features a metafictional work that's supposed to be impressive, but since the show doesn't have a big budget, the Show Within a Show can't have one, either. Usually this applies to blockbuster movies on in-show games, that look very crappy.
resolved Betray Old-time friend for new group Live Action TV
Old friends Alice and Bob meet a group of Charlies. At first, they seem okay, so they become friends - usually it's a situation where Alice and Bob are desperate and the Charlies are helping them. But Alice starts to realize they're actually evil. She tries to leave and goes get Bob, but Bob's been converted and sides with them (sometimes even snitching on her). Usually because the group is rich and/or powerful.
resolved Fantasy First Scene Live Action TV
Is there a trope for shows where the first scene takes place in a Speculative Fiction world, then moves to the budget-friendly real world for most of it. Usually an alien who crash-lands in the first episode, or a fugitive from fantasy land.
resolved Flanderized Riches Live Action TV
A character starts the story being relatively well-off, but as he suffers Flanderization, he's retconned into being very rich, a millionaire, billionaire, or one of the richest people in the world.
resolved Minor character with implied bizarre background Live Action TV
A recurring extra is given a few lines or a minor plot thread in a long-running show, and the joke is he has knowledge and/or skills that suggest a freaky backstory, like being in witness protection or on the run from the mob/cops, having Once Killed a Man with a Noodle Implement, being Ambiguously Human, being incongruosuly intelligent (or having a Worthless Foreign Degree), having extreme or incomprehensible beliefs, et cetera. Sometimes happens to an Ascended Extra.
Edited by Mac_Rresolved Coincidental premature rejection Live Action TV
Is there a trope for the comedic scenario wherein Bob is about to ask Alice for something, but Alice, coincidentally, talks about how much she hates it when people ask her that.
For instance:
- Bob (short on cash): Alice, can you do me a favor?
- Alice: Sure, I miss spending time with you. Ever since I won all that money, a bunch of parasites showed up trying to borrow some. I want to kill them, greedy bastards.
- Bob: Right... what a bunch of jerks...
- Alice: So, what did you want?
- Bob: Nothing, just looking for my keys - oops, they're in my pocket, thanks, bye.
resolved He wasn't ''shooting'', he was ''shot'' Live Action TV
A character (usually a bad guy) points his gun to a good guy or hostage. Then, we hear a bang - we're led to believe the bad guy pulled the trigger, but actually, another good guy shot him, thus saving the target's life.
resolved Surprise Celebration Outburst Subversion Live Action TV
Alice wants to surprise Bob - either a surprise party, dinner, gift or something. Thus, she pretends she's not doing anything special, and ignores Bob's attempts at reminding her. This drives Bob mad and he goes on a rant trashing Alice, saying their relationship is over, revealing secrets and so on... then he finds out about the surprise, but it's too late.
resolved Misunderstanding Evidence Debuked Live Action TV
Alice thinks X about Bob. Throughout the episode, she sees a bunch of stuff to comfirm her hypothesis.
In the end, she (or someone she talked to) confronts Bob, and Bob explains what every piece of evidence really meant.
The example I'm thinking of, from The Nanny, Fran assumes Niles is a serial killer because he's been shopping for knives, calling the morgue and wearing sneakers. In the end, Niles reveals he's written a play - the sneakers were so he could walk on stage, the knives were props and the morgue was research. Often, the explanations are increasingly ridiculous as a form of Lampshade Hanging.
resolved Pilots Have Lots of Sex Live Action TV
Is there a trope for airplane pilots being portrayed as having lots of sex, since they can travel around the world and sleep with locals and attractive flight attendants?
Or rather, a trope that associates professions and sexual attractiveness/promiscuity?
resolved Didn't know when to stop Live Action TV
A character goes to legal or illegal casino. He starts out winning some money, gets a lot of chips, wins a fortune, but keeps gambling and gambling in hopes of getting more, until he starts losing, and ends up losing everything. Had he said he had enough, he'd go out a rich man.
An Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist is planning on cheating at a competition, only to discover he doesn't have the advantage because everyone else is cheating too (thus it once again is a real competition, to see who's the best cheater). Or, a group of people have an uneasy agreement and the protagonist plans on breaking it, only to discover everyone else is also breaking it.
A variation - the protagonist undergoes Character Development and abandons his cheating ways before the proper competition, only to get beaten by everyone else who didn't.