re: Everyday stuff that always happens in movies and TV shows that is not realistic

People wake up without morning breath.
People—usually a high school kid— sit down for breakfast but then rush out without eating any of it.
Car keys are in the visor for some reason.
Passwords are easily guessed.

Movies get blast waves from explosions all wrong. In the movies they send the character flying, but simultaneously tears apart brick walls and buildings. The character then gets up, and they're fine. If a blast wave can tear apart bricks and metal, it's going to take limbs off of people.

Irks me when a character is watching an incredibly relevant news story on TV and as soon as the story ends he turns the tv off. Sometimes he turns it off before the story ends.

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Anytime there is a big car chase scene with multiple wrecks and speeding through stoplights with cross traffic I think about how I've never seen anything like that in real life and how is that such a common scene in movies

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I was part of one of those in downtown Denver about 10:30 at night. I was chasing after someone who had just hit and run in an intersection, broadsiding a young couple in the car right in front of me, plowing through a chain link commercial fence, then backed out and drug part of the fence and took off, dragging that fence with him, sparks flying everywhere. I took off after him, and called 911, and was giving the street intersections and descriptions so they could get this guy. He was running red lights, going the wrong way on one way streets, and I was staying right behind him. Never thought to to look in my rear view mirror. We finally got to a street where it was a one way, people were on each side on the sidewalks and all lanes were blocked at the stoplight. He had to stop. I stopped about 40 yards behind him and suddenly these black sedans go past me on each side, tires screeching and smoking to a stop behind and to each side of the guy. Men in suits surrounded the car with guns drawn and I'm on the phone with the police, "are these your guys?" I put my car in reverse, but then another stops behind me and turns on his flashing police lights.

A guy in a suit taps on the window and asks me to get out. I looked forward and the driver of the car I was chasing is on the ground and they're cuffing him. The suited guy is talking into a hand held radio, then he looks at me and says, "Holy shite, nice driving. We couldn't catch up to you."

Turned out they were all federal agents who were in Denver for the Timothy McVeigh trial, the OKC bomber. They were in a restaurant on the corner, saw it happen out the window and ran out to their cars to give chase right behind me and the hit & run guy, who, of course, turned out to be an illegal alien. That was an interesting night. The poor couple though, the driver (husband) was hurt pretty bad and taken to the hospital. That's something you never see from all those movie chases. The real world trauma it puts people through from the accidents those car chases cause.

In racing movies, and many car chases, they shift way more than reality. For example, on an oval they don't shift at all once up to speed.

In Bullitt the shifting is so over the top with the double clutches it's comical.

People make dates without ever mentioning where, what time, are we meeting there or who’s picking up who, etc.

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In Bullitt the shifting is so over the top with the double clutches it's comical.

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Yeah but Bullit is awesome.

It's a 10-minute car chase scene, plus it's S.F. Up down, Up down, S.F.hills are crazy.

To make it realistic, have way through they would have the cars rolling backwards.

Greatest car chase scene in movie history HD

The straightaways are ridiculous though toward the end of the scene. Everyone is shifting non-stop, why are you shifting, you're trying to go faster?

But that's movie car version of guns. Need to make noise to remind the audience we're trying really hard to get away.

I don't blame Bullit at all because the long take has no dialogue. So the audience needs something to propel who is trying harder...more shifting fills the bill.

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People always finding an empty parking space on the street in front of wherever they are going

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This was lampooned as early as 1985 (Albert Brooks' Lost In America)

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The way people so casually talk to detectives and then say "are we done now?" There's a John mulaney bit on it on law and order

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This has been a favorite of mine all my life, starting with the loudmouth witnesses in Dragnet reruns. They are always sassy smartasses volunteering info.

This tradition continued with Law & Order (for all intents and purposes an updated Dragnet) and its ilk, but with the addition of the witness continuing to do whatever job they're at (stacking boxes, fixing sandwiches, etc...) as if talking to the police is no big deal.

In reality, 99% of people talking to cops are very hesitant in what they say. This is natural. In fact it's used by police as a tool. If a person acts otherwise, it generally means they've interacted with police a lot and have a record.

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People with low paying jobs (if you ever see them work at all) can still afford decent apartments in Manhattan

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You don't like Friends?