For me, it's stiff interaction between characters. If the acting is "stiff" it just feels totally fake to me and I immediately lose interest. I also hate cheesy acting lines or plots that you can sniff out within the first 30 seconds. So, nothing too special overall. Just bad acting, bad script writing and predicable plot lines are what turn me off to a show.
I could keep writing about things that annoy me on shows all day, lol. For many years I quit watching TV all together, but these days I will sometimes leave shows running in the background on my computer while I am working on other stuff - more for the ambient noise I suppose. Anyhow, here's a few more things that drive me nuts: 1. Too many commercial breaks. The average 1 hour show these days is only about 35 minutes or so of actual programming, which means you are spending nearly an equal amount of time watching commercials. The shows are so rushed and edited down, it's often not even worth it to watch them. A sitcom used to be at least 20+ minutes, now they are barely 15 minutes of actual programming. I've been paying even more attention to this since I started watching shows on services such as Hulu, where I can see the actual timeline and how much time is taken up with the commercials and how frequent they are. For example, when I watch The Chew, they can't even make it through a single recipe on there without having to cut to a commercial break, and the cooks on there are always scrambling in a mad hurry to get anything done on there in general. It's exhausting to see them frantically trying to read their scripts each segment before the time is up. 2. Playing the same commercials over and over and over again. What is the point of playing the same commercial to me 8 times during the course of one one hour show. Seriously?! I've actually written letters to some of these companies bitching them out for running their ads incessantly like that. 3. Repeating the same gag/gimmick/mannerisms over and over as if it's part of your "brand". First of all, get over the whole self-brand crap. That is so self-absorbed and obnoxious. I want to cringe every time I watch a cooking show on Food Network and Rachel Ray has to mention "EVOO" or "Stoup" or any of her other annoying catch phrases, then she smirks and giggles to herself as if she's "cute" for doing that over and over again. Jimmy Fallon is another one who annoys me, he keeps doing the same skits over and over as if he thinks we can't get enough of them or something. We don't need any more collaborations with Justin Timberlake, he doesn't need to keep interrupting the real bands that play on his show by joining in as some joke member, enough already. He's got like 5 or 6 gags that he keeps repeating.
I think everyone's annoyed with commercials but if they had even just less commercials, we probably would be paying to watch the shows. I know it's pretty stupid though when you already have a cable bill but I guess that's just how it works. I don't mind commercials a lot of the time I guess because I find something to do in between them but it is a shame that the shows are shorter nowadays.
What I hate to see most in movies or shows is too much talking and explanation, especially in movies. Shows are supposed to be more visual and details are best implied rather than explained. When the characters are talking too much just to convey an idea to the audience, then I feel as though the writers were lazy that day or worse, just plain old incompetent, and they don't deserve the money they were paid to put out such a boring show or movie. What's worse is if I somehow get tricked into paying for it and therefore feel swindled by the end when all I've seen was characters explaining things to each other and maybe a few minutes of action scenes.
@ohiotom76 With all due respect I have to disagree with you, especially on your last point. What makes The Walking Dead such a good show, what makes it special and stand out from the rest, is the characters and how the relationships have developed. It's the whole idea that these random people who wouldn't have given each other the time of day under ordinary circumstances have been thrown together in this horrific apocalypse and have come to love each other. I think that would be the only thing that would make it worth it to fight to survive in that world.
I don't like The Ring or The Grudge themed movies. Watching those pale, white and "unscary" faces makes me not want to watch it at all. I also don't like those slow mo scenes where the actor stares into nowhere or runs with their love interest in the beach being all lovey dovey, lol. Enough emoting and more dialogue please!
I am a massive fan of horror movies. I love them, but only the ones that are done right and to my tastes. All of the other are a waste of time and money as far as I am concerned lol. Horror movies, and movies in particular unless they have some really really redeeming qualities elsewhere, can't be too predictable. I like to go on a ride with movies.
The worst thing for me in a movie or TV show, the thing that really makes me stop watching it on the spot, is bad acting. I cannot watch something if the acting is not there. So that is why I usually will turn off the movie if it's a B movie. I also dislike weak plot lines.
I don't know how I missed that one lol. I suppose because I feel that it should just be a given that the acting in these shows and movies should just be good. I mean, if viewers can see that acting is bad, then surely the people who put the shows and movies together can see too. Why go ahead with production with a bad actor/actors?
The neverending movie reboots is such a major turn off for me. For instance, Spiderman, i think I've lost count on how many this movie has been made and remade. For the life of me i can't understand what these movie executives are doing with this particular character. I wish they'd leave Spiderman alone, i think it has ran it's course. Time to be more creative and produce original content.
There are several things. First, very long and boring movies turn me off. I hate the feeling when I watch a movie and, basically, nothing is happening for a long time. The second thing is about endings, particularly the happy ones. I'm too much of a logical person. I just can't believe them If there are no reasons for that whatsoever during the entire movie length.
I'm tired of seeing sex in all the movies I go see, it's like the movie theater is getting more sexual every year. Everything has to have some type of sexual content in it. I don't even go with kids anymore, when you think that you have found a great comedy movie for the family, you all go and witness some woman breast being shown, or a short sex scene that was probably meant to be humorous. Also children cursing, that's not cute, I'm tired of seeing that as well. Definitely too much humor.
Oh, I can name several things show do to make me not want to watch them: 1. follow the same template hundreds of other shows have used, thus making the new show boring. 2. using adolescent sexual humor 3. Use so many curse words to the point that they sound unnatural and 4. placing a sex scene in the show just to cater to a certain audience. The sex scene ends up seeming out of place.
I dislike a movie when idiotic things happens when the plot in question attempt to be serious. Like for example, when the ulterior motivations of a villain are not clearly defined or over explains it, when a character dies in a unlikely way only for purpose of drama, or the abuse of "plot armor" to save a main character that screwed up and got involved in a life risking situation..
When the story and/or special effects are crappy, that's when I stop watching them. A good example is Nickelodeon's Avatar. I'm a huge fan of the animated series and my brothers and I finished it. When it was made into a movie, not only were the key characters were casted with caucasian actors, the fight scenes and special effects were obviously given little budget to be produced. Imagine a martial arts movie where the fight scenes suck. It's a disgrace.
