Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic Most absurd show?

What, in your opinion, is the most implausible and absurd television show currently on the air? Note: I don't mean the premise of the show, but the most implausible once you accept the premise?

This question is inspired by Bobbart's new fic When the Sky Falls. Once you accept the premise that Superman exists, the rest of the story could be plausible, unlike some of the LnC episodes. (I liked the first LnC episode with HG Wells, which was of course based on the movie Time After Time, but I got tired of him and Tempus after that.) The various Star Trek series (now only in reruns, unfortunately) are plausible if you accept the premise that humans of the future will travel in space using a "warp drive" and will encounter other species. Most of Dr. Who is plausible if you accept that an alien who looks human has a spaceship that appears to be a phone box and which allow him to travel through time and space. OK, okay, maybe I should exclude any science fiction story . . .

But the TV show that currently has me yelling "That can't happen!" at the screen is White Collar, on the USA network. It has been coming on after I watch Monk and when I'm not necessarily ready to go to bed, so I have watched a few episodes. The premise is a master criminal who is recruited to work as a consultant for the FBI. I can accept that ONLY because I saw the premier shortly after re-watching Catch Me If You Can, which is based on a true story in which that was actually the result. (At least according to the afterword where they tell what happened to the real characters.) But on White Collar they constantly have the FBI doing things that are 'way outside their authority or where they have no jurisdiction, like the writers learned everything they know about law enforcement from watching late-night TV. (Hmm, d'ya think that's where the LnC writers learned their science?)

So getting back to my original question, which show currently on TV is the most implausible and absurd? Why? And are you watching it anyway?

Heh, then I guess for me it's White Collar. I watch it because I enjoy crime, plain and simple, and I enjoy the individual characters. If I was that concerned with the jurisdiction of the FBI, then I'd go hang out at the FBI headquarters where my grandmother used to work.

We all have the most common ground in LnC, and I think that's the easiest show to talk about as far as things that are or are not very plausible. Still chuckling about the Ghosts episode myself! But that's a lot easier for me to do since we all enjoy the series anyway. There were still scenes I enjoyed in Ghosts regardless.

I'm afraid I'd inadvertently offend someone by trying to pick apart other tv shows, but I'm all ears for any LnC or similar superhero-ish discussions.

Cheerio,
JD

We're behind on our watching, but we're TIVO-ing Flash Forward. The most recent episode we saw had Mark, the brilliant young FBI agent, puzzling over who might have sent that incriminating text message revealing his dark secret to his young beautiful wife... 'cause he happened to see it on the screen of her phone when it rang, several weeks after the text was received. (it looked nothing like any text I've ever gotten, but phones vary, so I'll grant them that one, but not that it would *still* be displayed, unless she managed to set it as her wallpaper or something, to depress herself every time she used the phone) Instead of finding/investigating the phone # it came from, he went around insulting the only two people he had trusted enough to share the secret with. Um, hello??

PJ
who thinks she remembers that Aaron sent it, but who might be mis-remembering...

Nah, I don't think it gave any hints. But I hear ya about the text message.

Something else that's been bugging me about Flash Forward... Olivia said in her Flash Forward she could FEEL that she had affection for Lloyd Simcoe... implying that you actually could feel your emotions in your Flash Forward. So how come Demetri's fiance couldn't feel in her Flash Forward that she was grieving, not anxiously waiting to get hitched. I mean that's fine that she couldn't have known it was Demetri's funeral service but wouldn't she have been like, "Demetri, I saw our wedding day... I was REALLY sad for some reason though." I accept the premise of Flash Forwards but PLEASE, be consistant with them.

Steph (who thinks Flash Forward is the best new TV show this year)

Yeah, consistency would be nice, wouldn't it? Too much to ask, though. Thanks for the memory boost.

The fiancee confuses me. I mean, it sure looked like a beach wedding; she was smiling, wasn't she? But it couldn't have been his funeral; he was supposed to have been murdered on March 15th, so I have no idea who his fiancee thought she was marrying on April 29th...

And anyway, we now know that the future can be changed (better tell those Blue Hand cults) ... although changing it when you don't know which details to change can be tricky.

I guess we'll have to keep watching.

PJ

I think it was more of a memorial than a funeral. I didn't see any sign of a body, and it looked like she was about to toss a flower to the ocean in memory.

Bones is increasingly silly. For me the rot really set in during season 3, but the two-part London-based episode that began S4 showed that it had really jumped the shark. Here's part of a review I wrote on tv.com:

From there, unfortunately, the season seemed to go downhill...

I haven't posted on these boards in a very, very long time, but something about Marcus's comments about Bones has prompted me to log in and type.

Oh, Marcus! I agree so much with all that you said about Bones and London. But to all that you said, I have yet another gripe to add. What is it about American shows shot in Britain and minis?

One character struggling to get used to driving a small car is pretty much the same as another, yet this plot device gets used over and over and over again. It's not original, and it has long since ceased to be amusing.

Seeing Booth trying to drive a mini simply added to the pain that were the Bones London episodes.

Krissie

I realised when I read that that there is an additional problem with that episode - Booth has trouble driving a car in London, but it's revealed in a later episode that he spent several weeks in Japan, another country that has small cars and drives on the left.

Well, I could possibly understand a forensic anthropologist because I don't think there are many of them around. But the FBI? I haven't seen this particular episode, but I agree that it's absurd that they'd send evidence to the USA. The only way I could ever possibly see this done is if there was some really new technique being done or something. But it's just as likely that the "new technique" would be available in Britain or any other country. And if Scotland Yard did need a forensic anthropologist, I'm sure they'd first try to find one in Britain and next they'd try to find one elsewhere in Europe.

I haven't watched enough of White Collar to say anything, but I do know there are real former criminals (if I understand correctly, in White Collar, the guy was pulled out of jail) that work in helping police and private citizens learn about how to protect themselves from various types of crimes.

There are several shows that really irk me. I get so aggravated when I watch a "scientific" based show and they show someone having blood drawn or a medication being given intravenously which is usually done by on said show by some sort of medical personnel. Now, I'm pretty sure most people have had blood drawn. Have any of you ever seen medical personnel draw blood from a vein by sticking the needle in at a 90 degree angle? Oh, please. That just aggravates me to no end. The needles are put in at a 90 degree angle with injections given intramuscularly. But any kind of needle inserted into a vein is never put in at that angle. The needle would just go through the other side of the vein. The angle for insertion of needles into a vein is around 15 degrees. Don't these shows have some kind of medical personnel advising them? I've even seen this happen on so called medical shows.

On a similar theme, one show which I've slowly grown to love and yet which makes me laugh with its legal absurdities is Medium.

One scene in particular illustrates the point. A scene which I simultaneously love and which makes me laugh because it's just so absurd.

During a trial, the defence lawyer is aggressively badgering Alison on the stand, trying to make her confess to being a psychic. Finally, Alison covers the mike and engages in a private conversation with the lawyer right there in open court in which she reveals certain unsavoury secrets about him, which he wouldn't want to be made public. She then sits back and the lawyer says he has no more questions and she can go.

Hello?! Can you say mistrial?

In a similar vein, barely a week goes by on this show where there isn't some legal nonsense that makes zero sense. But despite this, I love it dearly anyway. I'm eagerly waiting for my S5 box set to arrive.

LabRat

Labby, I like Medium, too (a lot), but it is pretty absurd sometimes. I'm thinking it highly unlikely that a judge would ever sign a search warrant based on a psychic's dream. And would a district attorney's office actually have a psychic on their staff? I find it more likely the psychic would be a consultant if one was sought out.