Film and Television
Some nitpickers specialize in finding mistakes in movies and television shows. These mistakes can range from very trivial mistakes that regular viewers don't notice, to very serious mistakes which disrupt the suspension of disbelief in the show's story for even casual viewers. The types of mistakes include inconsistencies or even contradictions between episodes in a series, to plot devices and oversights, to production problems.
Nitpickers will also be inclined to find trivia in a show, including possible "inside jokes" and "signature items" added by the writers or other members of the production team.
When a recurring signature item is found in a series (such as the occurrence of the number 47 in Star Trek), nitpickers will often pore over the episodes with great diligence to find all the occurrences.
Books have been published on the subject, such as The Nitpicker's Guide for X-Philes (for fans of The X-Files) by Phil Farrand. Farrand started with four books nitpicking Star Trek and two of its spinoff series, The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. Since the beginning, Farrand has emphasized that nitpicking should be done "with good cheer."
Read more about this topic: Nitpicking (pastime)
Famous quotes containing the words film and/or television:
“The motion picture is like a picture of a lady in a half- piece bathing suit. If she wore a few more clothes, you might be intrigued. If she wore no clothes at all, you might be shocked. But the way it is, you are occupied with noticing that her knees are too bony and that her toenails are too large. The modern film tries too hard to be real. Its techniques of illusion are so perfect that it requires no contribution from the audience but a mouthful of popcorn.”
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)
“There was a girl who was running the traffic desk, and there was a woman who was on the overnight for radio as a producer, and my desk assistant was a woman. So when the world came to an end, we took over.”
—Marya McLaughlin, U.S. television newswoman. As quoted in Women in Television News, ch. 3, by Judith S. Gelfman (1976)