What are some of the things shown in American movies & tv shows that are far away from reality about USA?

50 comments

  1. Rule of thumb, if it seems ridiculous, it probably is just made up by Hollywood

  2. There’s a tendency in movies and tv to shortcut a lot of the unnecessary or mundane things like saying goodbye on the phone or taking your shoes off when you enter the house.

  3. I have never walked into a bar filled with black people and have the record scratch whole everyone stares at me in stunned silence.

  4. Almost everything. Just to stick to one category:

    Guns that can shoot 50 rounds before reloading. Pistols that blow someone off their feet. Grenades that explode in huge fireballs. People getting shot and dying instantly. Etc etc etc.

  5. I’ve been to NYC many times, and the closest I’ve come to seeing a super hero was a guy in a cheap costume in Time Square.

  6. We don’t have superheroes protecting our major cities, but neither do we have supervillains or space aliens threatening them.

  7. High schoolers looking like young adults in their 20s or 30s. Many times, high school characters are often played by 20 or 30-somethings, and occasionally 18 or 19 year olds, to minimize potential issues related to child labor and parental intervention.

  9. Almost everything… and I’m not even joking, even the things in movies that are true for most Americans, Hollywood over exaggerates it

  10. The big one is waiters and bartenders in cities like New York and LA being able to afford incredible apartments

  11. No one has a massive breakfast prepared every morning for the whole family, only for a few bites to be taken out of it before running out the door. And that’s because no mother (since it’s always the mom on TV/the movies) gets up at 5am just to labor making a feast 7 days a week.

    Most kids get a bowl of cereal or maybe the standard scrambled eggs and toast.

  12. Most major plot points. Also things that seem weird in personal conversations or contriving to allow them. Also apartment sizes, especially for young people in expensive areas.

  13. A lot of distances and times are depicted as much closer than they really are. Getting around Los Angeles is a slow process due to all the traffic but people in shows will make it look like everything is right around the corner. it doesn’t depict the non-stop waiting in traffic lights.

  14. We say goodbye before hanging up the phone

    We rinse our toothbrush and mouth after brushing our teeth

    No one in a big city has apartments or condos that big unless they’re in banking

    99.99% of friend groups don’t have the money to just pop on over to another county together for a wedding or group vacation

  16. For me it’s the clothes. Even people in TV that are supposed to have no money seem to somehow have great fashion sense. In reality people mostly just wear simple clothes unless they are going out for an occasion.

  18. Sadly, my life doesn’t come with a soundtrack. On a road trip through West Virginia, “Country Roads” only lasts 3 minutes.

    I get that this should be an obvious thing, but even as a very well-traveled Xennial American who has lived in many states and countries, I still find myself disappointed in the expectation vs reality of a place. When you visit a place, it doesn’t have filters. A film crew hasn’t cleared out all the other people just for you. Your road trip isn’t edited to a 3-minute clip with all the most beautiful scenes.

    I know, I know, this sounds so obvious. But I remember standing in Oia, Santorini for the world-famous sunset, hearing people from all over the world, ANGRY that the sunset was so quick, ANGRY that there were so many people there, ANGRY at the tourists (as they themselves were literally tourists). I saw young couples who had packed a whole picnic scene to photograph, frustrated there was standing room only.

    I think certain locations in America do such a great job marketing themselves, such that tourists don’t form an accurate picture, which leads to disappointment.

  19. Nobody is ever shown working on family sitcoms.

    They mention a profession, but their home and lifestyle are usually that of a much wealthier income than their mentioned income.

  21. The one that always gets me is how so many shows (especially ones in rural or semi-rural areas it seems) that have characters driving around in extremely pristine vintage cars or pickups. One I saw recently had a character who was struggling to make ends meet on his ranch driving around in a 1970s Ford pickup that looked like it had rolled off the assembly line yesterday. **Or** the characters are driving around in a brand new (highest trim level of course) F-150, RAM (looking at you Yellowstone), or Silverado pickup.

    No one is ever driving around in a 15-year old work truck, driving to town in their Corolla grocery-getter, or even in a nice (but 5 – 10 year old) pickup/SUV.

    The vehicles are either brand-new or car show quality vintage.

  22. The police drive just as poorly as the rest of us. They’re just allowed to (usually) get away with it.

  23. We do actually take our shoes off in the house unless it is at a party or we are in the house for such little time, it’s pointless to take them off

  24. Hospital floors don’t turn off the lights at night and have 1 person at the desk. I work for a hospital, and it drives me nuts to see this in every damn horror movie.

    The power can’t get shut off either. There’s back up generators because a power outage would kill everyone relying on machines to breathe.

  25. There have literally been books about this sort of thing, but a few that stand out to me:

    – Unlike TV and movies, there’s rarely ever a parking spot conveniently in front of where you want to go.

    – No-one in real life ends a phone call without some sort of goodbye.

    – Almost never happens: “Quick, turn on the TV news!” :: other character turns on the TV news and it’s right at the relevant story ::

    – In *American* TV and movies, if you see a kid or a pet, you’re pretty much certain they’ll survive whatever tragedy is in store; at worst it’ll happen off-screen. Non-American entertainment does a better job killing innocents.

    – In movies/TV, if someone coughs, they’ll be seriously sick or dying of a sickness sometime soon. If a woman throws up inexplicably, they’re pregnant.

  28. Dorm rooms.

    Dorm rooms are generally small and cramped with shared facilities.

    On TV and in movies, they are basically small apartments, and that is definitely *not* the case.

  29. Almost every portrayal of high school. I think the people who work at Hollywood were all homeschooled or something.

  31. From a thread this week: How frequently someone jumps into someone else’s car and either finds the keys above the visor or reaches under the dash and fiddles with wires for a few seconds before zooming off down the road.

  32. Female detectives/lab workers/CSI/99% of jobs don’t show up in heels with professionally done makeup.

  33. The FBI/CIA always seem hyper competent when in reality they are just normal people trying to do their job. Some do good but there are often fuck ups like in everything else in life.

  34. My extremely hot teacher, nurse, and waitress doesn’t want to have sex with me.

    Oh wait, you didn’t mean that kind of movie?

  35. We do actually use red Solo cups, but you guys all think we bathe in them.

  36. My best friend used to watch a show called Cougar Town that was set in Florida, and they were constantly wearing long sleeves. In Florida. As a Floridian, I’d probably only need long-sleeves a handful of times out of the year.

  38. When I was in high school, we barely had time between classes to even make it to our lockers, much less walk and talk and cook up high school schemes with our besties before the bell rang.

  40. People, especially high schoolers having a massive wardrobe where they have an outfit that you only see once and then never see again. In high school I had two pairs of jeans and though I had several shirts I mostly just wore three or four then put them in the wash to repeat the next week. Then again, I’m not exactly much of a fashionista…

  41. Almost all media depictions of American high schools did not match my experiences whatsoever.

    I went to high school in the early 2000s in Oregon and there was no showering after gym to be afraid of. The cliques, such as they did exist, were fluid and there wasn’t any animosity between them. The popular kids were all incredibly nice to everyone, not mean “preps”. There was a lot less bullying, most of the shithead kids directed their abuse at the administration and teachers. Still is some, but it wasn’t as open or widespread.

    Altogether it was much less dramatic than movies.

  42. Childbirth: it doesn’t happen that quickly and seamlessly. These scenarios where woman’s water breaks and 15 minutes later she is in the delivery room with her obstetrician and a team of nurses urging her along, “come on one more big push, I can see the head.” Ridiculous. Also, how quiet and ornamental newborns and babies are portrayed in cinema is equally preposterous.

  44. I love New York City apartments in movies/tv shows. Two unemployed dudes will have a massive 3k a month apartments and never cook at home

  50. Big city apartments are always way nicer than what the character can afford.

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