INTJs and Suspension of disbelief

[kepstein8888]

Do you have trouble with this while you're watching a movie or TV? Are you constantly saying "that could never happen", picking apart inconsistencies, and calling characters idiots for behaving irrationally?

[cannotseethe]

Yes! I have to work on it sometimes.

It's one reason I don't watch TV. It doesn't seem worth the effort. When I'm in a room with people watching TV, I tend to watch the people. It's more interesting to watch a bunch of people transfixed by a glowing box than it is to watch whatever's coming out of it.

Good movies get me, though, even when the characters behave irrationally. I've seen enough irrationality IRL that the on-screen version is no surprise. Then again, it takes some skill to depict irrationality in a believable way.

[LordCorbin]

Sometimes I do, but mostly I dont. Ive trained myself to slip into it when a movie comes on, which is great because I can enjoy just about everything that way. Unfortunately it makes watching with friends a real pain in the ass. The minute anyone points out something they 'thought' was illogical its like I cant turn off the analysis and the movie I just saw goes from 'entertaining' to 'colossal piece of shit'. Even more annoying when they were too ignorant to realize their nitpick wasnt inconsistent at all, they were just too dumb to get it. Then Im not only mad at the movie I just saw but Im mad at them as well for ruining my fun with their stupid. :(

[Double Victory]

Only if it's really glaring. For the most part I can enjoy an entertaining movie, but there are some things that just get under my skin no matter how hard I try to ignore it.

[Shauru]

Pretty much what Double Victory said.

I've found I'm even much better at it then a lot of people. Pirates of the Caribbean was a good source of discussion amongst a friend of mine. But I tend to recognize that if your in a world with undead pirates and an octopus faced sea captain then maybe physics work differently in that world.

It's usually when a movie tries to pride itself on being realistic and then halfway through decides to use a disproportionately large explosion at a water bottling factory that I get annoyed.

[Kisai]

'Historical' films drive me nuts. The liberal retellings of Troy, Gladiator, and 300. I want to stand up in the theater and scream "The filmmakers think you're all ##$%ing stupid!"

I also hate how glaring, enormous plot holes destroy a story.

Take I, Robot for instance:

The protagonists are running away from the now-killer robots. The streets are empty. One of the prots asks the obvious question: "Where is the army?"
Will Smith shoots back that the army is all robots, so that was taken over too by the bad guys.

Hello!? You just spent two reels having everybody point at Will Smith and laughing at him like he thought the world was flat because he thought robots were violent and now it turns out the whole military force is a robot?! What do they do, tickle people into submission?!


If I take weed and watch a movie, it stops being a cohesive story and I see it like a filmmaker does: as a series of shots. I realize which shots were not taken in the take, which were taken by second unit, and how they're edited together to make a whole. I realize that movies truly are one of the most deceptive creations ever made.

[rara avis]

It depends on why I'm watching the show. Sometimes I'm inclined to be forgiving and gloss over things, sometimes not. And when I do find inconsistencies, I may like to just sit back and feel all superior, so I enjoy it a bit anyway.

It's kind of like looking at a sketch, I suppose, versus photorealistic art. It's got some scratchy lines, some incomplete bits- but you get the gist. Is the gist good? OK, then. Is it not so good? Worthless, shred it. Nothing beats a good idea beautifully executed, but sometimes a fun sketch is OK, if the ideas are enough to carry it.

Anachronisms bug me, occasionally. And misrepresentations of stories I'm faithful to.

What I do hate is when I'm enjoying a thing, kind of glossing over small things in favor of the overall experience, and someone relentlessly has to go over and over every little thing they think was wrong.

[jndiii]

My attitude is that if it's sci-fi or fantasy, then anything goes, and the only things that can break my suspension of disbelief are poor characterizations, awful plot twists, and generally bad writing.

I have the most difficulty with "hard-core" sci-fi, because the authors almost always get something wrong. (Having a Ph.D. in astrophysics gets in the way of my enjoyment, in such cases, since it covers just about everything that they're trying to be "scientific" about.)

I don't have such a problem with historical fiction and so on, since it's obvious that the point is to tell a story with a particular background. Tweaking history a bit to make things more interesting doesn't bother me, since I could easily see it as "Oh, it really happened this way, the historians got it wrong." Even though I know that the fun story version is rather unlikely.

In general, if the writing is good, inconsistencies don't bother me, even if I could write a 100-page thesis on everything the author(s) got wrong. It's when the writing is bad that the inconsistencies become glaring.

[Wien1938]

Depends how deep the flaws are...

[SShack]

Yeah, ability to suspend belief depends on what you know. Superman only bugs me when they show the newspaper office stuff. His ridiculous powers don't bother me. Just the ridiculous representation of the newspaper industry. The same is probably true of most career representations in entertainment, because let's face it, most work is boring. Even journalism.

So it's easier to suspend disbelief for something that's completely impossible because intuition and imagination let's you go "What if?" rather than something that you just know is wrong.

[Taylored]

I have a problem with this as well. I ruin most movies for my wife.
For me the flaws do not necessarily ruin the movie for me, I just cannot help but pause the movie and point out the flaw.

[EarthBound]

When it comes to things like Dr. Who, I go nuts.
When it comes to things like the James Bond series, I can suspend my disbelief that shades can have x-ray vision. (Because they at least try to propose an explanation of the technology behind it.)

[Taylored]

When it comes to things like Dr. Who, I go nuts.
When it comes to things like the James Bond series, I can suspend my disbelief that shades can have x-ray vision. (Because they at least try to propose an explanation of the technology behind it.)

I am the opposite. I am able to watch an obvious fantasy without getting upset because it is not supposed to be real, but movies like Bond drive me nuts.

[Samoan Corleone]

I go nuts sometimes when watching wrestling, especially when Rey Mysterio dropkicks a guy who turns around groggily and lands ever so conveniently on the second rope, or most times John Cena wins.

[BlackMita]

It's a question of what I'm being asked to believe. When a film focuses on making things I don't care about convincing, it's a bad film, instead of a window into something more important.

As a general rule: Films that focus on specific emotions and ideas win. Films that focus on getting a specific reaction out of the audience fail. It's a self conscious composition that makes me want to withdraw from a film, and most commercial works are far too self conscious. Even if they weren't, films produced 'by committee' never seem to focus on any one thing as sincerely as one person (or a very small group) with balls can.

[lancelot]

Do you have trouble with this while you're watching a movie or TV? Are you constantly saying "that could never happen", picking apart inconsistencies, and calling characters idiots for behaving irrationally?

No, I don't have this problem. I'm a big fan of lost, star trek etc, and magic shows.

[kepstein8888]

I agree with some of the posts that shows which attempt to be realistic, but fail, are more annoying than action films or science fiction that don't even try to be realistic.

The thing that annoys me the most is the computer screens on crime shows like CSI, NCIS, and a few others. The answers seem to pop-up right away, and the messages are always dumbed-down for a TV audience, with lots of fancy graphics and pictures.

[XFire35]

I agree with some of the posts that shows which attempt to be realistic, but fail, are more annoying than action films or science fiction that don't even try to be realistic.

The thing that annoys me the most is the computer screens on crime shows like CSI, NCIS, and a few others. The answers seem to pop-up right away, and the messages are always dumbed-down for a TV audience, with lots of fancy graphics and pictures.

Computer screens get to be too. One of my biggest pet peeves is CPR - they never do it right, which really annoys me.

I can suspend belief if it fits within the storyline, but if it is stupid, then I don't hold back.

[Brittle]

The thing that annoys me the most is the computer screens on crime shows like CSI, NCIS, and a few others. The answers seem to pop-up right away, and the messages are always dumbed-down for a TV audience, with lots of fancy graphics and pictures.

That and the main characters spending all their time clowning around, being "quirky" instead of behaving like the "professionals" they're supposed to be. Seriously - any department that hired goof-offs like that would be shut down in a week!! (sorry... watched NCIS with the SO last night and was almost screaming at the screen - "STOP BLOODY FLIRTING AND START LOOKING FOR THE EVIDENCE YOU MORONS!!!!")

That said, I quite happily watched Die Hard 4.0, thoroughly relishing the OTT action and impossible stunts. Sure... he's just jumped off an exploding truck onto the wing of a fighter jet... no worries!! :)

But I guess Die Hard and films of that ilk are supposed to be OTT and a bit of a piss-take - and perhaps that's where the difference lies. Films/shows that take themselves seriously and stuff up are far more irritating than those that are having a bit of fun and aren't supposed to be taken seriously. If you want to be taken seriously, get it right!!! (and don't treat your audiences like idiots!!)

[Pyroninja42]

I occasionally do. I have found some shows that are actually pretty realistic (at least to my knowledge). One example of this would be one of my favorite shows, Jericho. It was hard for me to comprehend a show that was on CBS to take in factors like radioactive fallout mixing in the rain and such.


That said, I quite happily watched Die Hard 4.0, thoroughly relishing the OTT action and impossible stunts. Sure... he's just jumped off an exploding truck onto the wing of a fighter jet... no worries!!

The part that I found unbelievable was that they sent a jet that isn't even in service yet.

[Samoan Corleone]

That said, I quite happily watched Die Hard 4.0, thoroughly relishing the OTT action and impossible stunts. Sure... he's just jumped off an exploding truck onto the wing of a fighter jet... no worries!! :)

I haven't seen 4. yet, because I've heard that there's no swearing. Shows and films catered to adults that contain violence but no swearing (or no words harder than "ass" and "damn") are always unrealistic to me. Are we supposed to believe that Jack Bauer goes a whole day of fighting terrorists and corrupt politicians without yelling "fuck this fucking shit" at least once?

[Pyroninja42]

Haha, I know, right? It's one of the reasons why I liked District 9. IMDB counted that "fuck" was dropped 137 times. That had to break some kind of record.

But in Die Hard 4, Willis did say "fuck", but only once. Any more and it would have had an R rating.

[Brittle]

Hey, I'm still struggling to believe that good ol' Jack can make it through the day without having to eat or use the toilet!!.... unless of course his lack of food and water is why he doesn't need to use the facilities..! :)

It's also very handy for him that all the bad guys live within a 10-15min drive of where he needs to be. Can you imagine how boring it would be if you all you had to watch for 3 whole episodes was Jack driving along in his car, humming along to his John Denver CD?

[Pyroninja42]

I got bored of 24 pretty fast. The were always moles in CTU and the plots always seemed to be the same and the opponents just terrorists of different ethnicities and nationalities.

[Samoan Corleone]

Haha, I know, right? It's one of the reasons why I liked District 9. IMDB counted that "fuck" was dropped 137 times. That had to break some kind of record.

But in Die Hard 4, Willis did say "fuck", but only once. Any more and it would have had an R rating.

Yes, thanks to the Censorship board, movies are getting softer and softer. That's why I watch '70s films a lot. They had politically incorrect slurs which, although reflective and realistic for their time, would make waves if the films were released today (the "good" guy on The French Connection says "Never trust a nigger"). I haven't seen District 9 yet, but I've heard it's good.

Hey, I'm still struggling to believe that good ol' Jack can make it through the day without having to eat or use the toilet!!.... unless of course his lack of food and water is why he doesn't need to use the facilities..! :)

It's also very handy for him that all the bad guys live within a 10-15min drive of where he needs to be. Can you imagine how boring it would be if you all you had to watch for 3 whole episodes was Jack driving along in his car, humming along to his John Denver CD?

I had this argument with my Jack Bauer fangirl cousin who explained that Jack eats and urinates during the parts of the show that don't focus on him. He probably drives through a time warp to get to bad guys' places in record speed during those portions too. I'm still waiting for the episode where all of CTU is deciding on who goes to McDonalds to pick up the lunch orders, and Jack bravely steps forward and says, "I'll do it." *cue ticking sceen*

[kepstein8888]

...clowning around...NCIS...STOP BLOODY FLIRTING...

I could see clowning around a bit in real life to deal with all of the death and guts. I know someone who worked in a crime lab, and the humor can get pretty sick.

Still, I can't stand DiNozzo. I hope Gibbs shoots him the next time he does his "Sorry, Boss...I didn't know you were listening..." shtick.

Even more, I'd love to see Bones clock Angela in the teeth next time she tells her how to live her life. I'm sick of her acting superior because she thinks she's more artsy and sexual than the rest of them.

[Freedom Geek]

Yeah, I have a now suspension of disbelief.