Maybe it's just me, but I'm curious to see if any one else has noticed.
Take a cop show, for example, any one will do. It's always night time when they enter the house.
There are no reports of power cuts, street lights are working and neighbouring homes are well lit but our trusty detective prefers to employ the use of a high-powered mini torch. Why not just turn the bloody lights on? Did the Globug preferred meter run out? With electricity prices through the roof, are they trying to save on the homeowner's power account? It might add to the drama every now and then but lately I see it happen just about every time. It's old already and seriously, who does that?
Then we have the blackmail/confession scene, soaps are the worst for this, where someone has voiced their concern or suspicion but they need proof cos no-one else believes them. It drags on for weeks, sometimes months because they never think to record them on their cell phone. Why would you provide every screen character with the latest technology-filled phone and then expect us to believe that they can't make use of it. It's as infuriating as the flat battery/no service scenario at every life-threatening moment.
Nothing tops the tea candles though. Especially popular with vampire-themed programmes and soap operas and perfect for any romantic scene, rooms are filled with the damn things. There can be 40-50 of them, sometimes more. Who the hell has the time to go around and light them all? By the time you got to the last one the first one would be burnt down and you'd have to start all over again, not to mention the fire risk. And any money you might save on conventional lighting goes into replacement candles and holders. Madness.
My personal pet peeve is all the shows that have characters who are always bemoaning their lot in life, constantly and carefully pointing out just how skint they are, yet they always have the money for booze, copious fresh coffees and cafe food and take-out. Both Coro and Shorty Street are shockers for this. If you actually added up a week's worth of visits to the pub, bars and cafes I'd be surprised if they could even make rent, let alone keep up their supply of tea light candles. Add to that the fact everyone's home fridge or kitchen bench is akin to a mini-vineyard, with bottles of wine constantly at the ready, and you can't help but wonder if the health professionals at Shortland Street have mistakenly interpreted the grapes in the wine as part of their 5 plus a day. Makes a bit of a mockery of the whole healthy living idea. Never mind random drug testing at the work place, how about some next-morning breathalyser?
Like I said, maybe it's just me and I'm being too picky but if you want to wow us with story lines that often tackle things like the sensitive current social issues we may face, don't diminish the impact of them by pairing them up with ridiculous behaviours and events that do little to mimic natural human response.
Good writers can provide ample cliff-hanger moments without reducing us to imbeciles or leading us to believe that your average homosapien spends an hour a day lighting and blowing out candles. Give us and your characters, for that matter, a little more credit than that. Reality TV already caters to that mindless crap. We want realistic ... there is a world of difference between the two, although I'm worried that the lines are becoming dangerously blurred.
-Kate Stewart is a politically incorrect columnist of no repute. She does welcome your feedback - investik8@gmail.com
