ACCOUNTANT BY DAY

Something I notice all the time on TV and in movies is that the characters often don’t really finish phone conversations and say goodbye to each other.  One of them says the last thing they wanted to say, and hangs up before the other person can say anything.  The other character doesn’t usually act like this is weird, even though it is.

If people did this in real life it would seem strange and offputting.  It seems like people on TV are always saying things like, “I’ll meet you in an hour,” and hanging up before the other person responds.  What if the other person can’t make it in an hour or just prefers not to?  It just seems more sensible to let them say something back first.  Of course, on TV the other person always can and wants to meet in an hour.

My hypothesis for this is that TV and movies would be really boring if they were just like real life, even if they would also make a lot more sense.  That is why people on TV don’t take the time to pee or say goodbye on the phone, unless it is somehow important to the story that they do these things.  It would be really boring and would cut into the storyline if every time a TV detective left the station, he was sensible and visited the restroom before getting in the car.  Likewise, nobody wants to sit around watching people talk on the phone and fiddle over details and then say their goodbyes. It isn’t important enough to the story.

I started this out just intending to talk about people on TV don’t conduct their telephone business properly most of the time, but thinking about the reason for this has led me in a surprising direction.  So the unexpected insight I draw from this topic is that maybe the little details we fuss over in day to day life are not important in the long run.  And maybe that is why we don’t usually remember them later.  We don’t remember what stupid internet surfing we did last month because it isn’t important enough to the story.

So maybe I should focus on working in more interesting bits.  If I were a character in a movie, what did I do today that was important to my story?