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openInconsistent Nomenclature Live Action TV
Where something is named inconsistently in different episodes, possibly due to lack of collaboration between different production teams and/or no established standards.
My primary example is from The Jetsons. The machine in the Jetsons' kitchen that automatically (and instantly!) prepares meals is called a "food a racka cycle" in some episodes, and a "food-a-matic" in others. Similarly, the video telephone is called either a "Visaphone" or a "Televiewer", depending on the episode.
Also, in the prehistoric equivalent show, The Flintstones, the quarry where Fred works is known by at least 4 different names throughout the series.
Edited by SquirrelGuyopenCan't find again Live Action TV
I was looking for a movie when I came across what looked like a movie or tv series gave off game of thrones kinda vibes. There was a long haired guy that was injured and dying and a dark skinned girl that was trying to help him reach the other side to meet and talk to someone and they have to have sex for that to happen and I think the chick had wings or something or they formed while they were doing it.
openTongue of Concentration Live Action TV
A character sticks their tongue out of the corner of their mouth to indicate concentration. I just saw Adam do this in the Mythbusters episode where they test the accuracy of different gun firing poses. You see it all the time in fiction with little kids filling out tests or working on art.
openCharacter thoughts have a reverb effect Live Action TV
I have noticed in TV or movies when the audience is hearing a character's Conveniently Coherent Thoughts, it's a voice with a reverb or echo effect. Is there a trope for this?
It can be an Inner Monologue or telepathy. For example, in Star Trek when a telepath is communicating with someone it will often be a voice with a reverb effect.
openOrders change back and forth Live Action TV
The Enterprise is on its way to Altair VI, when Spock convinces Captain Kirk to take a slight detour to Vulcan and orders the bridge crew accordingly. Then the Enterprise gets new orders, requiring them to go directly to Altair VI. Kirk passes these orders to the bridge crew; he later learns that Spock has changed their order back to go to Vulcan. He restores his order to go directly to Altair VI, but is soon convinced by Spock—for reasons which are never discussed with non-Vulcans and involve a life risk for Spock—to change these orders back to go to Vulcan.
Edited by Someone1981openLine from the past in an episode with a visit to the past Live Action TV
Dr. McCoy, from Star Trek: The Original Series, is well known for I'm a Doctor, Not a Placeholder lines. In the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode where the main cast visit Dr. McCoy's time, Dr. Bashir has such a line.
openRealising Without Having to Be Told Live Action TV
Is there a trope for when a character is able to work out a big secret from context clues rather than needing to be told directly?
openPatriot driver Live Action TV
Looking for an example of a male lead character: Bosessive Business Drive Ex Convict Passionate follower of Christ Risk-taker that borders on recklessness
openDisaster Dominoes Live Action TV
A man accidentally slips in the kitchen, causing a chain reaction. As he falls, a piece of toast flies up and gets caught in the ceiling fan, spinning rapidly. The movement sparks an electrical short, leading to sparks and small blasts that burn through the wall. The electrical malfunction triggers an explosion inside the TV, causing it to burst apart with sparks and smoke. The chaos prompts the family to evacuate quickly, rushing out of the house as the damage unfolds behind them.
What TV Show/Sitcom was this on? Riddle!, Nickelodeon.
openA character tries to talk with another character, but the latter is conspicuously absent Live Action TV
I'm looking for a visual montage trope: specifically, a character looks to talk to someone else (preferably by phone), but they're unable to find them, with the screen showing a shot of the character who wants to talk and then another shot of an empty scenery that represents the receiving characters absence. It's not a Half-Empty Two-Shot because the character representation is spread across two shots, not a single one.
Example:
- In Seasons 1 and 2 of Money Heist, whenever the Professor is absent from his hangar and unable to talk on the phone with the rest of the heist team, it's common for at least one of the robbers try to call him to no avail, with the screen cutting from the robber themselves to the Professor's empty hangar with its phone ringing in the air.
openOne trope about a sudden realization, two about tv series with no clear continuity between episodes Live Action TV
1. Is there a trope specific about when someone realizes that he was wrong about something or someone? - Example: Bob and Tom were friends and colleagues. After Tom retired, Bob continued working because he was younger. A few years later, Tom discovered that Bob had gotten into trouble with the law. At first, Tom didn't believe it, even when Larry, another colleague, explained that things had changed since Tom retired and that, due to various factors, Bob had become increasingly prone to breaking the rules. Tom didn't believe it at first, but then he went to talk to Bob and realized with great sadness that Larry was right and that Bob was no longer the person he knew. Does Tom's realization have a trope? I don't think is My God, What Have I Done?, nor Heel Realization.
2. Is there a trope for the scenario in which there's a One-Shot Character that not only is present only in that episode, but the main characters talk about him like if he's an old friend they knew their entire lives, and talk about him like if he influenced it really deeply despite him never appearing before or after the episode. Even worst, sometimes the background told to explain the connection between this character and the main ones usually is in contrast to other episodes where there was another One-Shot Character with a role very similar or totally like the one of the other One-Shot Character. - Example: Bob is a lawyer and is the protagonist of a legal drama. In the 10th episode of 9th season there's the One-Shot Character called Brick that is told to be his former mentor. The one who hired him right after he graduated from law school and is the one who taught him in his first years. However, this supposed really important character appear only in this episode. Furthermore, in another episode it was explained that after graduating from law school, Bob worked from one year for an NGO, in which Brick doesn't fit at all.
3. This may be similar to the previous one, but perhaps not. Is there a trope that is used when, to give a deeper meaning to the episode, it is revealed that the protagonist has held a job for a certain period of time with which they can identify or empathize and therefore judge the current situation? But again, this information about the protagonist's past was never brought up before nor will be do so again. - Example: Bob the lawyer is the protagonist, and in 12th season episode 21 it's revealed that for a while he worked as a barista, therefore he can guess that to hide the poison, the murderer used a specific kind of cocktail whose taste would have hid the poison's taste. And again, his past as a barista is never brought up in any other episode apart from this one.
Edited by NURJIN915openActor Gone, Character Still Exists Live Action TV
Is there a trope for when an actor becomes unavailable (ie, leaves the show or dies) but the character is still implied to be around, just unseen? The example I'm thinking of is Elizabeth Peña passing in 2014, but Modern Family never alludes to Gloria's mother passing away.
openJudge bangs gavel to make ruling official Live Action TV
Usually Live-Action TV, can be Film. I looked all over Hollywood Law and Artistic License – Law, but I didn't see anything about the notion that the judge must bang the gavel in order to make a ruling official.
Some works even take it a step farther and act as if, once that gavel hits the plate, the ruling is now set in stone and can't be reversed even if irrefutable new evidence comes to light seconds later. I just watched a Dhar Mann skit showing a divorce being finalized. There was a lot wrong with the way the law was handled, but I'm focusing on the gavel. The plaintiff, Crocodile Tears and all, claimed she was entitled to 100% of everything he had, because he broke her heart. Since the defense attorney has not yet arrived with proof she cheated on him, the judge says she has "no choice" but to rule in favor of the plaintiff. She raises the gavel and then sends it into a Slow-Motion Drop, while the plaintiff smirks in triumph, the defendant wails a Slow "NO!", and the defense attorney arrives JUST before the gavel hits the plate. Of course the proof changes everything, and the ruling ends up in favor of the defendant. But the implication is that, had the gavel made contact, it would have been too late, and the ruling in favor of the plaintiff would have been a done deal the judge would be powerless to reverse.
Where should this go? Hollywood Law? Artistic License – Law? Both? Neither? Somewhere else?
Edited by UpFromAshesopenSalads are Ladylike Live Action TV
A straight couple are out to dinner, or a mixed-gender (binary) group of friends are out to lunch.
There's a chance that at least some of the ladies have a big salad on their plate, while the men are chowing down on something completely different, like a steak, burger, sandwich, etc.
I think diet culture could play a role in this, as well as the idea that "meat is manly". Not to mention hunter-gatherer culture (which was actually a bit more complicated).
There's also the fact that salads in general tend to contain more "complex" flavors women might consider a mark of maturity, and since "ladylikeness" is still a thing many believe it, being able to eat a messy dish neatly might be a form of virtue signalling? Maybe I'm reading too much into this.
openNot Choosing is a Choice Live Action TV
Is there a trope for when a character is faced with a difficult decision and they keep putting off actually making a choice between their options, only to come to the realisation or for someone to tell them that not making a choice is a choice in and of itself?
openGetting to know someone due to undisclosed connection. Live Action TV
Is there a trope for when a Character A tries to find ways to spend time with Character B because they share some sort of connection, usually a familial one, that Character B doesn't know about, usually in the build up to a Luke, I Am Your Father reveal?
openSecond Season Ensemble Cast Live Action TV
I don't know if there are enough examples of this to be a trope. Perhaps it's just a subgenre of the Ensemble Cast.
Ensemble casts are kind of a relic of network TV. Modern shows are more likely to have one or two main characters, and recurring regulars coming and going, or even have everyone be a regular and have no main character.
But I think they're finding that the reliability of ensemble casts are an essential element of comfort TV. So when a show isn't hugely successful, it'll be retooled in the second season to have an ensemble cast.
And that's the trope, where a show without an ensemble cast in the first season has one in the second season.
There's a show called Fubar, where Arnold Schwarzenegger is an aging super spy who discovers his daughter is also a spy. In the first season, they had a few sidekicks, and there was a b-plot about his ex-wife, but Arnold and the daughter were the main characters. That season ended with their identities being compromised, endangering everyone they know, so the second season features all the characters living together in a safe house.
Another is a show called Space Force, with Steve Carrel as a general working on establishing this new military wing that everyone thought was a joke. The first season was real messy, with lots of characters who you only saw once or twice. The second season coalesced them all into an ensemble cast. It was an improvement, not enough to save the show.
As a Star Trek nerd, everything comes back to Star Trek. Star Trek shows always had an ensemble cast before the streaming era. But the first Star Trek show of the streaming era, Discovery, didn't. And that was one of the big complaints about it. While Discovery never quite got to being an ensemble cast, the franchise has mostly moved back to the ensemble format. Star Trek: Picard even followed the season 2 ensemble pattern.
openUnexplained Hairstyle Change Live Action TV
Hi, I was editing the page for Player 203 aka Kim Gi-min of the third Season of Squid Game. One of the things that is apparent that his hairstyle changes in the middle of the episode "222" for no reason. In real life, this was because the actor Choi Gwi-hwa was apparently busy filming for something else and couldn't change his hair back to his original hair in Squid Game.
So what trope applies to this ? And does this go under Narm in YMMV ?
openDoomed by a defective map Live Action TV
A plane is trying to land at an airport at night. However, there's a mountain below their route, and since the mountain is not on the pilots' map, they fly too low and crash into the mountain.
Edited by Someone1981

Is there a trope for a plot that starts off with the protagonist returning home to the small town they moved away from? Usually if it’s a TV series this works as a justification for exposition since the character has to get up to speed on everything that’s happened while they’ve been away.