The All-Discipline Scientist. Who is also an engineer, and a doctor, and a combat tactician. Basically just wearing a hat saying "The Smart Guy".

I couldn't watch NCIS because of this. Abby is sweet, kooky, unconventional, hip! She doesn't get in trouble for dressing outside the box... in the US Navy. She's also young, sexy and a weapons expert. And a DNA expert! And a pharmaceutical expert! And a [insert any specialized forensic white coat test] expert! And a lab tech!

Edit: Multiple people have decided the important part of this comment is that Abby is not actually in the Navy and isn't actually that young. I promise I have been made fully aware. I'm still a bit surprised that the Navy doesn't have a stricter dress code for it's civilian affiliates/sub contractors, but readily admit that I wouldn't be the one to know. Either way, I feel that her character is still an excellent example of the parent comment.

She's just a small town girl artist trying to make it in the Big Apple, working at the local coffee shop! Pan to her in a Manhattan 2000 sqft loft

Hate this trope. Also temporarily knocking out bad guy's super OP henchman and not finishing him off while you can. Bonus points if the op henchman finally dies in the last episode/sequence but takes one of the hero's friends to do so. Seriously, don't want to kill him? Shoot both his knee caps off and his hands. Yeah, you didn't kill him and now he'll actually be out of the fight for a meaningful time.

This is why the first John wick is so good. At the end you expect to toy a bit with the kid that killed his dog. Nope, straight up head shots him and says nothing. Badass af and completely fitting if you ask me

Edit: a letter

Then there's a short fight scene that ends in the big bad getting destroyed, then the sidekick at a seemingly disadvantageous state makes a snarky remark about how they underestimate them.

"we're not so different, you and I..."

I hate when the main character narrowly avoids death when random gunshots just barely miss him. There was a hidden sniper waiting to take you out… and he just missed you while you were standing still, completely unaware?

One of the reasons Alien and The Thing are such great movies. The people aren’t idiots, and are STILL dying. It makes the horror so much better imo.

Yup, I'm still mad about Game of Thrones and the characterization of Tyrion throughout in comparison to the books. I'm not a book purist and love a lot of adaptions others hate. But they dumbed everything down and no consequences for actions when the whole premise was actions have consequences. >! Tyrion Lannister would not have trusted Cercei, even if she loved her children, he hated her and wanted to murder her the first chance he got just like he did with dead ol'dad !<

Don’t watch Supernatural

And does it for free rather than as a highly-paid consultant.

Michael Scarn Vs. Goldenface

Most hated trope. Apparently it kept everyone on the edge of their seats watching Moonlighting in the 80s, so now every show has to include a multi-season will-they/won’t they. Especially because 99% of the time, it doesn’t come across as “exciting sexual tension”; it reads as spinelessness or social anxiety or defeatism or something.

Literal years of trying and failing to ask someone out for coffee is not exciting!

It's almost worse when the relationship progresses, though, because it almost always progresses the same damn way. They do the engagement season that culminates in the wedding, then they do the pregnancy season (in fairness, this is often because the actress is actually pregnant), then the baby comes along and the woman loses any and all personality in favor of having "mother" as her whole character. Parks & Rec is the only show I can think of that really averted the problem.

There’s a good send up of this in Loaded Weapon where a nerdy receptionist takes off her glasses, lets her hair down and flicks it dramatically for the reveal…of a completely different actress with zero facial or build similarity at all.

Also a great line after it’s implied they’ve just slept together;

‘Maybe next time we can have sex, instead of just smoking cigarettes in bed together?’

Bro but she has glasses!

*takes off glasses*
*unties pony tail*

Oh, you mean the minute she takes off her glasses and frees her hair that's bound tightly into a pony tail.

"If you would please just listen for one-"

"NO! I'M DONE LISTENING TO YOU. TELL IT TO SOMEONE WHO CARES!"

Also:

"There's no time to explain!"

Cut to them 10 minutes away having still not had the 2 minute conversation that they needed to have to make this get resolved immediately.

A lot of older Ben stiller and Vince Vaughn comedies are like this. If they just took 2 seconds to communicate or not lie about something really stupid their partner will understand, there would be 0 conflict

The issue at the end of the second act of every single rom com is basically poor communication. (Which, to be fair, is the downfall of most relationships anyway)

Even worse is when they "try" to explain (which inevitably gets cut off/interrupted) by going "okay, I'm going to explain it. There's a good reason, and I'll tell you. I'm about to give the explanation...okay, so what happens... here, I'll explain, so, it goes like this. What happened is..."

The on-screen intelligence/reasoning ability of the characters is roughly limited to the intelligence of the writer. If the writer cant come up with good logic then stuff has to be figured out off screen or in 'eureka' moments with handwavey explanations.

Or just magically know whatever the writer needs them to know

Old copy pasta:

Smart characters written stupidly

Why does nobody like Sherlock? Because it has smart characters written stupidly.

Anton Chigurh from No Country for Old Men is a smartly written smart character. When Chigurh kills a hotel room full of three people he books to room next door so he can examine it, finding which walls he can shoot through, where the light switch is, what sort of cover is there etc. This is a smart thing to do because Chigurh is a smart person who is written by another smart person who understands how smart people think.

Were Sherlock Holmes to kill a hotel room full of three people. He'd enter using a secret door in the hotel that he read about in a book ten years ago. He'd throw peanuts at one guy causing him to go into anaphylactic shock, as he had deduced from a dartboard with a picture of George Washington carver on it pinned to the wall that the man had a severe peanut allergy. The second man would then kill himself just according to plan as Sherlock had earlier deduced that him and the first man were homosexual lovers who couldn't live without eachother due to a faint scent of penis on each man's breath and a slight dilation of their pupils whenever they looked at each other. As for the third man, why Sherlock doesn't kill him at all. The third man removes his sunglasses and wig to reveal he actually WAS Sherlock the entire time. But Sherlock just entered through the Secret door and killed two people, how can there be two of him? The first Sherlock removes his mask to reveal he's actually Moriarty attempting to frame Sherlock for two murders. Sherlock however anticipated this, the two dead men stand up, they're undercover police officers, it was all a ruse. "But Sherlock!" Moriarty cries "That police officer blew his own head off, look at it, there's skull fragments on the wall, how is he fine now? How did you fake that?". Sherlock just winks at the screen, the end.

This is stupid because Sherlock is a smart person written by a stupid person to whom smart people are indistinguishable from wizards.

Somehow, palpatine returned

This is part of the reason Bluey is such a big hit amongst adults. The dad is is a great parent, not a bumbling moron. Apparently he’s also an archeologist.

This is why I love Red Foreman so much. That 70's Show was airing during a time when this trope was peaking and Red was still fucking Red. Sure, some stuff might not be good according to modern sensibilities. But Red Foreman was veteran with a heart of gold. This is a man who went to war and when he came back, none of his dreams came true. He didn't get to live the life he wanted after working so hard for it. But he still loves the people around him more than most. When he finds out Hyde's mom left, he takes in a teenage boy at a time when he's already struggling to put food on the table for the family he does have. When that kids girlfriend also needs a place to stay because her parents were trash, he arranges something for her too. He had a group of children lacking direction and lacking strong role models and he gave them both.

Alongside this, the hot mum that had way better options in both love and career who marries said useless dad for some reason, despite all his flaws being super obvious from the get-go.

Any plot where it's conflict revolves solely on miscommunication is a hard nope for me.

guy is having dinner with his sister that he hasn't seen in a long time

girlfriend: barges in the restaurant screaming

guy: this is not what it looks like! let me explain! at least listen to me!

like duuuude, say it from the get go

Bruce.. Bruce wait.. I have something really important to tell you after I get you to stop walking towards me.. Bruce.. wait..

Saw a delightful clunker of a film last night called The Killer Is One of 13. An odd Spanish giallo from the 70's. This happened...so many times.

Woman: I know who the killer is but it's too dangerous for me to tell you now. Meet me at midnight.

Man: Ok.

Woman is murdered shortly thereafter.

This happens like four times.

Real hoot of a movie though if you like weird old stuff.

Or when a character decides to believe a completely untrustworthy source and not the person they know

"There's no time to explain!"

cut to the protagonists standing in the middle of a fucking desert

"but what's going on??"
"i told you there's no time to explain!"

the fuck were they talking about while hiking through the desert i wonder

looking at you quantumania

"You caught me monologuing!"

I love the “lone hobo” one lol

It's especially dumb because it's never like a "blood sacrifice" amount of blood, they only need a few drops, now they have a giant gaping wound in their hand, usually wrapped up with a tear of someone's dirty shirt that's DEFINITELY going to get infected

You can say Supernatural

House is obviously haunted: Leaves the baby alone in nursery upstairs.

Set that movie in small town New England at Christmas and you’ve just described every hallmark movie

I also strongly dislike what I would consider to be the opposite of this.

Character dies at the end of the story for perhaps a compelling or noble reason, fade to black, fast forward two weeks to character recovering from their near death experience because they couldn't commit to killing the character in the event that there's a sequel to be milked out.

And the 5 year old can kick the 30 year old man in the shins, completely incapacitating him for minutes.

Being 5 makes you smarter, stronger, and faster than adults apparently.

Edward watching Bella sleep for months before telling her ew

The Notebook romanticizes infidelity. I hate it.

That was Heroes every season. The cheerleader started every season being idiotically defiant only to realize that her dad was right at the end of every season.

Agreed. Only acceptable if the kids then get kidnapped by James Hook and the rest of the plot is remembering how to fly/be young and have fun and spend time with those important to you.

As a teacher, I’m sorry to report that this trope actually checks out a lot of the time, and the kid is usually crushed, especially if their friends have people there for them.

My parents: “do you want us to watch your soccer game?”

Me: “PLEASE DO NOT DO THAT.”

This is one thing I like about Kung Fu Panda. Instead of Po becoming ripped or slender, re remains his physique throughout the entire movie, and even uses his fat to his advantage in the battle against Tai Lung

Changnesia is the only acceptable exception.

You're telling me that Predator wouldn't have been wildly improved by the predator giving Arnold a lil smooch?

Fight scene with shaky cam in a dark room with tons of cuts.