In most cases I've seen, they're older photos where they possibly have to dig through older photos from an actor's past to use, but maybe that's a different but similar issue. In other cases, the actors themselves simply aren't available anymore and the only thing they can do is cobble something up.
How about the pet dog or cat that always knows when it's in the presence of evil? It will growl and bite or hiss and claw the person. I'd be a truly evil person if that were the case.
The trope of a “completely average” protagonist with no distinct characterization or motives who barely exists in his own story beyond a conduit for the viewer to project himself onto, who somehow has everyone fall in love with him for no reason and complement for existing and doing basic things, makes me want to see blood like nothing else.
No, I avoid that kind of stuff. This is why I watched the similar but very different Diabolik Lovers instead where instead of falling in love with the protagonist, the vampires are drawn to his blood as he carries the heart of some important vampire or something.
Female version was "Ally McBeal." I mean, don't get me wrong. Calista Flockhart was an attractive woman in the day (might still be) but in a law firm with Courtney Thorne-Smith, Lucy Liu, Portia DeRossi (to name just three) in their primes, it was pretty ridiculous that every single man in Boston was drooling over the skinny neurotic girl every week.
To be fair, Courtney Thorne-Smith's character was married, Portia DeRossi's didn't come on until season 2, and Lucy Liu's later still.
Still, subject to whatever Downey was doing at the time, Ally seemed to get more desirable, not less, as the show went on.
I liked Alan Shore, by the same writer, a fair bit more. He was unethical, smug, sexually harassing, but devilishly charming in a way only James Spader can, and certainly not boring. Now, as to why Denny Crane seemed to have no troubles getting around, that remains a mystery to me.
And witty even by David E. Kelley standards. I visually resembled Spader very much during his 2002 SUPERNOVA phase. There's a bit of visual similarity still in his BLACKLIST look as well with respect to me. When BOSTON LEGAL ran during the first year, not only was I a huge Shore fan, I actually channelled Spader's wit-behavior within my first TREK forum. But after seeing Justin Timberlake in THE SOCIAL NETWORK, I realized I might have taken things a bit too far.
Mechanical watches stopping working Whenever there is something going down that takes out all electrical systems in an area all mechanical watches ( wristband, those big grandfather clocks, on belltowers etc) also stop working, it even happens when there's time travel involved. Why? These are mechanical devices, they work on physical principles that don't involve electricity and are not dependent on the flow of time. Bugs me everytime.
Somebody else might have previously mentioned this: the upset teenage daughter who leaves while running up the stairs like the tired stereotype she is. (Always during sitcoms.)
There's a subtler trope in lots of dramatic films which I don't hate.....but it's quite common. When a slew of vital characters perish separately, usually in a suspense thriller, only one funeral for one character will be visually depicted (see Godfather One, Omen II or Avengers IV, among lots of others). Fortunately A Fish Called Wanda saw great comedic value in showing two funerals instead of one.
Another really overused trope I should have called out long ago is end-punctuating an insult with the word ''bitch.''
I'm no coffee drinker but new one - someone gets up in the morning, walks into the kitchen and pours a cup of coffee from the coffee machine. Did that coffee sit overnight there ( in which case it should be horrible i assume) or who made it in the morning?