A Trope I Dislike

[lightofdaye]

As TV Tropes would have it the Ten Minute Retirement, where the main character decides they will no longer do what the series is about. No heroics for them. And of course it usually ends with them getting back in the saddle by the end of the episode and hero0ing up. Which means their previous hestiancy was just a big ol' waste of the watchers time.

I remember being especially annoyed with this mid-Series 7 of Doctor Who, it didn't help that his impetus for his retirement was the loss of his companions, Amy and Rory, in an equally horribly contrived episode.

But mostly this post is brought to you by Walter White who has started and stopped cooking meth at least three or four times by episode 2 of season 3.

Comments

[tamlane.livejournal.com]

That's it! That's the entire reason I could never get into BrBa!

Walt's conscience feels contrived to me. His entire purpose for cooking meth in the first place feels contrived. He didn't do it for his family. He did it because he was facing death and realized how void of glory and adventure and excitement his life was.

[lightofdaye]

Well I think that dichotomy between what he says he's doing and what he's actually doing deep in his creaking heart is the appeal for some.

But it just seems silly dithering for a few episodes until the next big calamity forces him back in.

[tamlane.livejournal.com]

That same dichotomy makes me melt when it's Michael Corleone.

Maybe because Michael never dithered, you know? From the moment he pulled the trigger in that trattoria, he was hardcore, and his hands just kept getting dirtier and dirtier, and he never looked back.

It's probably not fair to make the comparison, though, because I haven't watched more than a handful of episodes of BrBa.

[luna-plath.livejournal.com]

I'd say this is a pretty good comparison. I've seen all of BrBa and read/watched The Godfather and I always loved Michael whereas I hate Walt. I think part of it is that Michael never pretended that he was a good guy, he does what he does because he was born into this family and he admittedly likes it, while Walt is convinced that he's not doing anything wrong and is totally justifiable in his self-obsession.