The folks at Pajiba have put together a nearly 13-minute video looking at the awful, awful, awful “shock” trope in which a character is “unexpectedly” hit by a bus or some other vehicle in television and movies.
The inclusion of “Girls” I find funny considering how recent it is and how overused this particular device has become, but at the 5:53 mark you will see exactly why I hated 2011’s One Day as director Lone Scherfig actually began the movie with the scene of Anne Hathaway riding her bicycle, essentially foreshadowing how the film was going to end. I hated that movie for a variety of other reasons, but that particular aspect of the storytelling was a major one.
I will give some leniency to some films in their use of this device. Mean Girls, for instance used it well and I think the way it was used in Constantine works, but it won’t take long before you realize just how awful this particular device is, if you didn’t know it already.
Go to Pajiba for the full run down of films and television shows used for the video.
