10 Things Television Fans Found Too Distracting
Sometimes, you have to hit pause, and go back when these distractions show up in TV shows.
People have been watching TV for the better part of a century, and that amounts to a lot of programming over the years. Television shows tend to follow set formats, and that's often not a bad thing, as viewers can sit back and enjoy mindlessly watching something entertaining without being too distracted by anything unexpected.
However, when a series strays from the norm, the viewers tend to notice, and when this happens, there's nothing to do except be distracted. Imagine sitting back to watch your favorite animated series only to discover one of the main characters is suddenly being voiced by a different actor — it makes it hard to pay attention to anything else.
Character voices are one thing, but disappearing and reappearing characters, cast member replacements, or obvious product placements can easily break a viewer's attention, and those examples are just the tip of the iceberg.
These ten issues continue to pop up every once in a while on series that typically stick around for long periods of time. When it happens, it's distracting, so there's a good chance you did a double-take when you noticed these things in your favourite shows.
10. Blatant Product Placement
Whether anyone likes it or not, television shows exist largely due to the support they receive from advertisers. Every few scenes, you can run to the bathroom or grab a snack because there will be a commercial break — it's how shows get their money, and it's something every viewer understands.
Then there's the advertising that's going on in any given scene without anyone ever knowing about it. That shirt the main character is wearing, the coffee table they're all sitting around, or even the car they're driving were all selected solely to sell viewers products, and most of the time, they go by unnoticed.
That's all well and good, but every so often, a series will opt to be less subtle about their product placements, and throw them in viewer's faces. When this happens, it's not only obvious; it's distracting and, in many cases, rather silly.
A lot of shows do this from time to time, but one of the worst perpetrators in recent history was Fox's crime series Bones. Every once in a while, the two main characters would hop into their brand new Toyota and blatantly discuss all of the car's amazing features. It was weird, it was out of place in the show's narrative, and it was incredibly distracting.