Has personal, bitter experience prevented you from enjoying a film/show?

[DerekG]

Let me explain...

If you were a small business owner who was shaken down by the Mob, chances are you're probably not going to watch The Sopranos.

If you lived next door to a major drug dealer, you're probably not going to dig Weeds or Breaking Bad.

If you were ever preyed upon by a full-blown psychotic, you're probably not going to enjoy all those stalking-killer flicks.


Is there a program/movie out there that you absolutely will not watch, because it either stirs up unpleasant memories or makes you wish that the "protagonists" would just drop dead in the first ten minutes?

[Dr Morbius]

1. Pretty much every movie with Tom Cruise.

I keep wanting him to get killed right away.

And then there's Seinfeld; all four of those people are disgusting examples of humanity.

[jobycom]

14. He gets killed in Collateral.

Maybe you'll like that one.

[yankeepants]

18. The should make a movie with Tom Cruise in

which he is himself getting spontaeously bitch slapped, pummeled, and generally humiliated by intelligent women and gay men who find him insulting and repulsive.

[Touchdown]

31. That would be Vanilla Sky. He looks his best in that one too!

;)

[RainDog]

2. romantic comedies n/t

[MiddleFingerMom]

3. My best friend back around 1980 or so...

.
...set me up with her sister-in-law. "She REALLY likes you. She's been through
a TERRIBLE divorce with a jerk and she's looking for a FWB situation with someone
nice.
.
She was gorgeous, sweet, smart... very attractive in so many ways.
.
Our first date... how was I to know... I took her to see "Kramer vs Kramer".
.
She started crying uncontrollably and when I took her home, she just ran in
the house and my friend said it was probably unfixable.
.
We never did get beyond that.
.
HER bitter experience (which ended up being one of mine) keeps me from ever
watching that movie again.
.

[Touchdown]

4. In my (very) early 20s, I wiped butts in nursing homes and hospitals.

It was disgusting, thankless, and low paying. I felt like I was 50 years old back then.

I will not watch any hospital shows or Dr. shows... no matter how good. At least 50 people tried to get me into ER, they failed, and now most of them are trying to get me into Grey's Anatomy, Trauma, or some other show. I don't even watch Scrubs.

[Iggo]

12. I worked "Housekeeping" at a hospital for a couple weeks back in the 80's.

Worst job I ever had. Goes beyond making beds, as you know. Had a particularly horrifying day periodically cleaning up "stuff" in the ER during a day-long emergency.

I can still watch medical comedies like House and Scrubs. I can't watch MASH anymore, though. Trip.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

5. When the movie Requiem for a Dream came out, some friends of mine

invited me to go see it.

However, just before that, a good friend was found to have a major drug problem and got into some really bad trouble for it.

I saw the film years later, but at the time, the last thing I wanted to see was a film about drug addicts.

[MorningGlow]

6. Anything related to the mafia

I'm of Italian descent (100% Sicilian, in fact) and it pisses me off that too many people equate "being Italian" with "being in the mob". Just because someone is Italian-American does NOT mean they're automatically in the mafia. Sheesh. I also am seriously bothered by how people romanticize the mafia. Ick.

And another, in a different way--when I was single I met a guy through a singles social group based at our local art gallery. I thought he was pleasant enough. The organization held a formal New Year's Eve dance, and he started tagging along after me all night. (Most everyone came without dates.) I started to get irked with him because he glommed on a bit too tightly, and I didn't have a chance to dance with any of the other guys. He started talking about going to a movie and somehow someone mentioned Jumanji. He said we should go, and I said maybe--some sort of noncommittal answer--because I truly didn't know whether I wanted to go out with this guy or not. I was starting to think "not".

Managed to get out of there without him following me, but after that he got my phone number from the organization's rolls and left me a dozen messages about going to see Jumanji. Something struck me funny about his tone, so I had a friend who had a connection with some...er...official documentation source, let's say...check him out. (She offered and yes, we both knew it was illegal.) Turned out he was divorced, and his wife had a restraining order against him for what essentially amounted to stalking.

I did eventually get rid of him by being insistent--almost rude--that he stop calling me. But to this day I can't bring myself to watch Jumanji.

As for wishing the protagonist would drop dead, ABSOLUTELY--I watched Before Sunrise all of ONE time. Ethan Hawke's look and attitude reminded me so much of an asshat of an ex-BF that I could barely stand it--I thought the character was an idiot, not a hero. I kept wishing Julie Delpy would clock him and walk away. :D

[Tikki]

7. I have never seen "Mommie Dearest"...

I don't want to know how much that mother had in common with my mother and all....



Tikki

[Richard Steele]

8. The film "Crash".

The "personal, bitter experience " that prevented me from enjoying it
was the 90 minutes I spent WATCHING it.

[Touchdown]

17. Which one?

The one about race relations and lives intertwined?

Or the other one... about people who get sexual gratification from watching grizzly car accidents?

[pokerfan]

9. er

Personal reasons.

[fishwax]

10. I lived next door to a dealer, but I still like Weeds and Breaking Bad

:)

I don't know if this fits the category or not, but I got the call about my best friend dying while I was in the middle of watching Meet Joe Black. I've never been interested finished it.

[Catshrink]

11. I was once stalked...

Phantom of the Opera creeped me out.

[csziggy]

13. Movies/shows with shots from heights - I get vertigo

Ones with fire - I have had third degree burns and seeing fire brings back memories and reminders of the pain.

I also avoid movies/shows whose protagonists are people I would not want to be around in real life - lawyers, serial killers, mob guys, airheads, assholes and conservatives. And people with no socially redeeming qualities.

[jobycom]

15. Just about any "Drugs are funny" movies, like Cheech and Chong.

I've seen a few by accident over the years and usually laugh when I do, but in general I avoid them. My brother's pot use triggered his schizophrenia, which ruined his life and led him to try to kill me a couple of times (though to be fair, I bring that response out in everyone eventually). My other brother was a sociopath, and while drugs didn't cause that--he was just evil to start with--I still associated him and drugs and alcohol pretty closely. So in general I just don't watch such shows. It doesn't really bother me to see it in a show with some other point--like, say, Brad Pitt's cameo in "True Romance"--but when it's the whole point of the show, I avoid it.

[wickerwoman]

16. I hated "Love Actually" the first time I saw it...

released too close to 9/11 I think and it just seemed like a cheap cash in "message movie".

I saw it again years later and loved it. Now I watch it every year at Christmas. :shrug:

Also, not "preventing" but having taught ESL for years makes the first few seasons of "Lost" kind of laughable.

1.) No *way* Sun wouldn't have studied in English in high school. If she's Korean and from a wealthy family she would have had to have gone *way* out of her way not to have learned English in school.

2.) Her efforts to teach Jin and the words they do/do not understand are ridiculous. Things like he understands "fuselage" but not "dog"- can't remember the exact examples.

Pretty much any movie I watch where a character speaks fractured English and the writer doesn't know language acquisition is hilarious.

[Deep13]

19. Anything about disfunctional or abusive family life. nt

[lunatica]

20. Movies about domestic abuse

I can watch but it's really unpleasant and if given my druthers I don't. Personal experience.

[nuxvomica]

21. I couldn't watch "Philadelphia" for a while

It came out around the same time that a friend was fired for health reasons and I was so angry about that I couldn't bear to watch the movie for a few a years. I've seen it since though.

[rurallib]

22. Cheers. - My parents spent most of their waking hours in bars

and for some reason I have a hard time watching any show that revolves around funny people in a bar. They ain't funny.
Especially ain't funny when you know your parents would rather be at the bar rather than with the kids. And when your parents are dead before you reach 25 due to their lifestyle -----

[dawg]

23. Unfaithful

Obviously it happens, but i just don't understand why someone in a good relationship would cheat like that.

[bif]

24. "Mad Men" & "Devil Wears Prada"

I've spent most of my life in advertising and it's pretty unrealistic. And I worked for two people who were like Meryl Streep in "Prada". I could only watch about 5 minutes of it.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

25. Shows like TLC's Hoarders.

My mom and grandma saved EVERYTHING and I spent years cleaning out the house. They both were around in the Depression.

The people on "Hoarders" actually realize they had a problem. My mother had NO problem with her junk and she got mad at me when I told her that her junk was more important to her than her family.

Which was true.

I don't watch shows about crazy Southern women like Tennessee Williams' plays either.

Any show where women are stalked or beaten or killed. Because that is so prevalent in our society, and should not be.

[Orrex]

26. Well, Marathon Man makes it hard for me to go to the dentist

Is it safe?

[peacefreak]

27. Terms of Endearment

My brother had just died from brain cancer & Aurora's begging to just give her daughter the shot hit a little too close to home.

[hunter]

28. The Big Chill.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085244

Yeah, personal, bitter experience, maybe that's it.

Anything by David Lynch.

[Jokerman]

29. "Stuart Saves His Family"

I love the movie but sometimes his portrayal of Stuart's dysfunctional family hits WAY too close to home.

[Quantess]

30. Wedding movies. (no text)