It's about time!

[yendi]

There are a lot of TV cliches and shortcuts that drive me nuts. The unfilled coffee cups that characters wave around, the ending of all phone calls without saying goodbye, etc.

But one of my big ones is the fact that everyone can spell every name they hear.

Typical moment from CSI:

Brass: The vic's name was Gryzzyksimflwitcz.

Sanders (typing at computer without hesitating): There are three other folks named Gryzzyksimflwitcz in Clark County.

This drives me fucking nuts. Even common names have variant spellings.

So I was happy today when 'song and I watched the pilot episode of The Eleventh Hour the new show on BBC America with Patrick Stewart and Ashley Jensen. About halfway through the show, Jansen's character has gotten a name that could be useful, and brings to it the attention of Stewart's character. Stewart, at the computer, hesitates until she spells it for him.

I know that they don't bother spelling names on shows to save time (and ditto with the lack of phone manners). But it's the sort of thing that just annoys me to no end (and in the day and age of the three-minute musical montage, it's not like most shows don't have lots of other fat that could be trimmed instead). I'm glad to see at least one show that gets it right.

(And yes, I know that the show isn't technically new, as it debuted in the UK in February, but it's new in the US).

Comments

[thelastrobot.livejournal.com]

One thing I do like on TV shows that happens from time to time is when something happens that doesn't matter at all.

Like, in the first season of The West Wing, there's this part at the very beginning of a scene, where Fitzwallace says to some guy, "You know what I'm thinking? I'm thinking this is different coffee than we usually have." Oh, man. I laughed for days. I love it because it's just...a thing. It's just a thing that happened. As things do.

[yendi]

That's one of the things I love about Sorkin in general -- he actually understands that real conversations do have wasted words.

[thelastrobot.livejournal.com]

Oh, Sorkie. You're the best.


That's what I said to him when we were having dinner last week. At Spago.

[robyn-ma.livejournal.com]

...My last name is Gryzzyksimflwitcz... *pouts*

[yendi]

I thought you used one of the alternate spellings?

[robyn-ma.livejournal.com]

It's pronounced 'Hfuhruhurr.'

[cscottd.livejournal.com]

My name's Raymond Luxury Yacht... but it's spelt "Throatwobbler Mangrove". :)

[ckd]

You probably knew this already, but Eleventh Hour is out on DVD in R1.

[yendi]

I don't know if I liked it enough to buy yet. I figure I'll catch the other episodes first.

Other things that annoy me

[popfiend.livejournal.com]

1.)There's always parking.

2.)Women all wearing clip on earrings which they take off when answering the phone.

3.)Women perfectly made up with nary a hair out of place when going to sleep and waking up.

Re: Other things that annoy me

[chris-walsh.livejournal.com]

Find William Goldman's book Which Lie Did I Tell? He goes kind of into Last Action Hero mode and writes some fake screenplay pages of Big Action Film Star having trouble getting parking, to have fun with that cliched time-saver.

Re: Other things that annoy me

[yendi]

Don't forget sheets that cover women completely, but only cover men up to the waist!

[tablesaw]

Remember that episode of House where it was all a dream, and House knew everything the Cottages knew and vice-versa, before anyone said anything?

CSI is the fever dream of Coma Guy.

[yendi]

And it's all a sub-dream of Tommy Westphal's.

[rowancat.livejournal.com]

You can add:
Silencers on revolvers.
People *never* picking up offed bad guys weapons when their
own *have* to be out off ammo and spare magazines.
Using lockpicks without a tension tool to turn the keyway cylinder.
No pedestrian traffic on busy sidewalks in cities.
Notebook computers that boot up instantly. Well, ok, maybe they're
always kept in sleep mode.
No one has even a trace of peripheral vision in horror/thriller
films... let alone that sixth sense that tells you someone is behind you or even in the same room.

[yendi]

I was thinking about the pedestrian one while watching Afterlife -- same idea, but this time, it was a supermarket that was empty.

[allroads.livejournal.com]

You think they'd hand the guy a post-it note with the spelling on it. They'd be much faster.

[yendi]

In this context, it wasn't really possible or practical -- one character ran got the information in a hallway of a hotel, and ran to the other character's room.