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openStatusupdate: OMG! Live Action TV
Hi all, I'm looking to find the trope where in TV or film a character posts statuses about their mood - as a form of inner monologue/voice-over/exposition. Like: "status update: SO BUMMED :(". Mostly posted on a fictional social media and with a weird device/phone, as in Icarly.
openDesecrating a religious book Live Action TV
A person enters a house of worship (not of his own religion), picks up a holy book, and rips out the pages.
openMurder a name Live Action TV
Multiple individuals with the same name are murdered in a single day. Evidence is clear that it was the same killer.
- In Monk episode "Mr. Munk and the Three Julies", two women named Julie Teeger are murdered. Natalie Teeger, who also has a daughter named Julie, becomes extremely protective of her daughter, including stopping the daughter's driving test. Turns out this was unnecessary—the husband of one Julie murdered his wife, and murdered the other because the mailman got the two of them confused, and the second Julie had evidence which would prove the husband guilty.
- In Law & Order episode "Criminal Law", three women named Sylvia Rossi are murdered. Turns out that a criminal who was worried about being convicted had a hitman murder several people including Sylvia Rossi, but didn't specify which Sylvia Rossi he wanted killed.
openNo Title Live Action TV
is there a trope or tropes for a good guy seemingly being forced to work for the bad guys maybe under threat of death but he later reveals to the other good guys he is the bad guy leader and lied about being forced so they wont expect him
Edited by BzrkfayzopenWhen It Doesn't Make Sense That Someone Claims Not To Know Something Live Action TV
Someone says that something revealed before him is completely unknown to him and a complete surprise, and he isn't lying, despite the fact that he was around when that something occurred and it would be impossible for him to be ignorant about it.
openKill the person who reported you Live Action TV
A person is found murdered. It later turns out that he had reported an Abusive Parent to the authorities, and was probably murdered by that parent.
openHide the horse's quality Live Action TV
A person embezzled 3 million dollars in order to buy a race horse. In order to hide this fact, he intentionally caused the horse to underperform for a while.
resolved Time compressed for dramatic purposes Live Action TV
Events that, in the real world, would occur over months or years are portrayed in fiction as taking place over a few hours, days, or weeks. Some examples:
1. Trials: On television, they make it look like a person gets arrested, and then their trial happens a few weeks later. In reality, it can take months or years. They do the same thing with civil cases: The car accident happens, the next day someone gets served with a complaint, there are one or two depositions over the course of the following couple of weeks, then there is a dramatic trial. Pretty much every legal procedure show (The Practice, Law and Order, JAG, etc.) does this.
2. Medical problems: Someone goes to the hospital with a medical problem. Over the next day or two, their doctors do a long list of scans, blood tests, biopsies, and other tests. Once the problem is diagnosed, surgery is scheduled for the next day, and then after a couple of days of recovery the patient, now cured, goes home. House, MD is a prime offender.
Is there a Troupe for events that would normally take place over a long span of time being portrayed as occurring in an unrealistically short timeframe for dramatic purposes?
openConvicted because of this, but not for this Live Action TV
A healthy child dies of the flu. Investigation turns up that he and 18 others died because they got fake vaccines. The creator of these vaccines is ultimately tried for 16 of those 18, but not this child, and is convincted.
Edited by Someone1981resolved Effective life sentence Live Action TV
A person is convicted of several crimes, not one of which comes with a life sentence. However, due to the number of these crimes, he's sentenced to 240 years in prison.
openCeltic Second Sight Live Action TV
Is there a trope for characters getting premotions or visions of the future being particularly associated with Celtic culture e.g. a work set in Oireland featuring a wise old crone who claims to have "the second sight"?
openlets get married now Wedding trope Live Action TV
this must be a trope, when two characters that are engaged to eachother don't want to wait for their already planned wedding and decide to go down to city Hall now and get married. I've mostly seen it in sitcoms, I think the big bang theory had it with one of the pairs
resolved you have to overcome a fatal flaw to fight the villain at hand Live Action TV
this is more of a "do we have this trope" but I think it happens in Power Rangers a lot and it's like Die or Fly but without gaining super powers
Edit: the trope I was originally describing was Crisis Makes Perfect but after looking at it I realized I was looking for a more broad "you have to get over a Fatal Flaw in order to fight a villain"
Edited by Wild-Starfishresolved No divorce? Pay with your life Live Action TV
A particular Jewish woman wanted a divorce. Unfortunately, under the religious rules, only the husband can grant it to her; if he refuses—which he did—she remains married to him for the rest of his life. (Note that this is not Artistic License – Religion.) Once she realized that no pressure would change his mind, she payed to have him murdered.
Edited by Someone1981openBaby Played By A Blanket Live Action TV
A baby (sometimes even a young toddler) is present in a scene but the script doesn't require them to do anything (except maybe cry, babble, or coo, but that can be added in post). Very commonly in those cases, and for good reasons, the baby is not played by an actual baby, but represented by a vaguely baby-shaped rolled-up blanket (often containing a doll). Because faces are hard, the baby is usually shown from behind or completely hidden by the blanket. Examples: most sitcomes, e.g. The Office, Big Band Theory. Also the second act of Into the Woods.
openWordplay on Gladiators Live Action TV
In the latest episode of Gladiators (2024), Apollo is introduced before the Powerball event with a caption that mentions that as a kid, he wanted to be a Power Ranger. Powerball and Power Rangers both have the word Power in them, so it seems to be wordplay. Is there a trope for that kind of reference?
resolved Not actually eating Live Action TV
Whenever characters on television shows eat, it seems like they never ACTUALLY eat anything. They just move food around on the plate with their forks.
openLarge Story, Large Suppression Live Action TV
So, something I've noticed lately is that this new 8-episode format a bunch of networks are applying to seasons of series they host is simply inefficient when it comes to lore-heavy and story-focused shows. In other words, the platform isn't providing enough episodes for a story to be fleshed out, forcing the show to skip over a bunch of worldbuilding and character development/growth, which tends to hurt the execution of the show's premise.
Is there a name for that? I thought about perhaps Absurdly Short Production Time, but that doesn't feel quite right.
This feels like a YMMV type of thing due to how much it varies whether or not a person's opinion of the show is affected, but when it's so easy for most viewers to notice, it feels more like a Trivia type of thing.
The best example I can think of is First Kill: The relationship between Cal and Juliette is very intimate, but in some viewers' eyes not developed enough for any chemistry to feel real. Tess, despite clearly being an important part of Cal's life, is removed from the show at the halfway point with nary a peep from Cal (we don't even know if Cal knows about Tess's parents by the end). And by the end of the season, it's still never hinted at how legacies can die (or if they're even immortal or they just live for several times longer than humans).
A Deadly Doctor wants to do illegal experiments for AIDS treatment. In order to minimize the risk that he will be stopped, he uses orphans.