Markup View

Author: Nakuyabi

Dec 5th 2013 at 10:15:18 AM

Yes, solving a crime case too easily would definitely qualify: as one of the investigators in ''MinorityReport'' points out, the cops' discovery of an "orgy of evidence" actually makes him ''more'' skeptical that they're pursuing the right suspect (and he's right, sort of).

TheSchlubPubSeductionDeduction certainly qualifies as a sub-trope, as does HoneyTrap, but this trope also covers financial and political and other kinds of situations. ''StarTrekEnterprise'', for instance, had an automated alien repair station in "Dead Stop" that was willing to fix all the rather extensive damage to the Enterprise NX-01 for a mere 200 liters of warp plasma, which Captain Archer rightly suspected was an awfully unlikely bargain. A shop owner in ''ConeHeads'' rightly suspected that this unusually diligent new worker he'd hired had to be an illegal alien (though he didn't guess just ''how'' alien) since he was such an unbelievably perfect employee.

It occurs to me this trope should probably be considered to apply to both the characters and the viewers, since both are likely to have their suspicions about impossibly perfect situations, and to call out anyone who ''doesn't'' have any suspicions about it for either carrying the IdiotBall or possibly being TheMole.