Genre Savvy/Live-Action TV: Difference between revisions

* In ''[[Angel]]'', Spike is even more [[Genre Savvy]]. See episode 4: "Is this the part where I say 'Who's there?' and something creepy happens?"

** Even ''Harmony'', who would need brain-enhancing drugs to match the IQ of a bowl of cottage cheese, gets in on the act. When Angel is temporarily CEO of Wolfram & Hart's LA branch and Harmony is his secretary, there is an occasion where Angel responds to an intruder alert by ordering Harmony to call security and tell them to 'lock down the building, double guards at every entrance, no one gets in or out'. Harmony's reply is an immediate "Okay, but you know how that ''never works'', right?"

* Abed of ''[[Community]]'' is [[Genre Savvy]] beyond all reason. The other characters typically ignore him when he points out various tropes and it won't be too surprising when a WMG goes up saying that Abed knows he's fictional. It's even better than that. There's a WMG that he's a troper.

** In one episode, Abed is so [[Genre Savvy]] he has the ability to predict the future.

* In the ''[[Farscape]]'' episode "Twice Shy", Crichton and D'Argo take it for granted that the [[Damsel in Distress]] they've rescued will turn out to be a villain, and resolve to dump her on the first habitable planet they come to. However this turns out to be not so easy {{spoiler|as she's actually a giant shapeshifting spider that feeds on emotions.}}

* In ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'', characters occasionally realize where they are in the script. Thus, Wilson sometimes points out that he's just provided House with his routine epiphany, while, in one episode, House complains that the epiphany went to somebody else.

{{quote|'''Ziva''': "Tony, your dying words would be 'I've seen this film.'"}}

{{quote|'''Bomb instructor''': "Way to go, MacGyver! If that bomb were real, we'd be washing you off the streets of Baghdad right now! ''Never'' assume that a bomb timer is accurate! Bad guys watch movies, too."}}

* In one episode of ''[[Psych]]'' the characters realize they're surrounded by slasher movie cliches but then {{spoiler|even more Genre Savvy Shawn figures out all the cliches are a set up}}, but then {{spoiler|people do start dying}}.

* ''[[Eureka]]'':

** [[Ridiculously Human Robot|Sheriff Andy]] was apparently programmed for [[Genre Savvy]]. Faced with a situation where only a main character could succeed he refused to go (because he was programmed to follow the town charter, which says the sheriff cannot take unreasonable risks). Once [[The Hero|Carter]] went in Andy was able to follow and help because he knew that Carter being there increased the odds of success dramatically.

* ''[[Firefly]]'':

** Instead of lecturing a henchman who has promised to [[We Will Meet Again|hunt Mal down]] and [[The Last Thing You Ever See|kill him]], Mal simply shrugs, takes him at his word, and kicks the guy into an engine intake.

** Goldar in the movie once he sees the Zord he knows they screwed and flees

* Subverted in an episode of ''[[Smallville]]''. (A subversion, but not [[Wrong Genre Savvy]]. The character was right about what was going to happen, but still didn't realize just how dangerous it was.) A meteor crashes near two kids playing basketball. One of them goes to look in the miniature crater, but his friend warns him not to. "Hey man, don't you watch any movies?" The guy who looked in the crater gets possessed by the alien inside it and casually kills his friend. By the end of the episode, he's free of the alien's control and back to normal, but his friend is still dead. Apparently being [[Genre Savvy]] isn't enough sometimes.

* The whole reason for Maddy and David on ''[[Moonlighting]]'' not to continue their relationship was because they knew they were in a TV show that depended on the [[UST]] of the two leads.

* One episode of ''[[Ultraman|Ultraman Tiga]]'' had the leader of the human military grumbling about the fact that he ''realizes'' that no matter how much artillery they throw at any given attacking monster, it's always Tiga who ends up saving the day (normally, military leaders in [[Kaiju]] shows, and ''[[Ultraman]]'' in particular, just ''don't'' acknowledge this kind of thing). But, by the end of the episode, he's reconciled himself to it, and is happy to have Tiga around.

* From the ''[[Golden Girls]]'' episode, "That Old Feeling," which focused on Blanche's feelings upon reuniting with the brother of her late husband:

{{quote|'''Rose:''' Dorothy Zbornak, you might show a little compassion!

* On ''Chuck'' Morgan becomes Genre Saavy when he realizes he's a supporting character in a spy series. He even recognized the choreographic fight sequence Shaw engaged in and realized the failure to find Shaw's body meant he wasn't dead. He shifts to [[Wrong Genre Savvy]] when he gets the Intersect and believes he's now the main character.

* By the last few episodes of ''[[Legend of the Seeker]]'', Darken Rahl has grown genre savvy about the hero, Richard, and, as the world's nearing an end, is content to sit back in a hot-tub and relax, comfortable in the certainty that Richard will solve everything in short order.

** The teams on the Season 14 finale spent their final plane ride reviewing the previous legs to prepare for the [[Final Exam Boss]] puzzle that had been used in the previous two seasons. From that point on, taking notes on every leg became a common strategy.

** Jordan played a textbook perfect final leg on Season 16, using strategies and knowledge he got from watching the previous seasons, to upset the much stronger Jet & Cord.

** On leg 5 of Season 19, when given a clue to disassemble a spirit house and take it with them, five of the eight teams took notes on the positioning of the pieces of the house in case they have to put it back together later, and the other three had team members who at least suggested it (unfortunately, in one of those cases, the team just decided to take mental notes, and in the other two the team member making the suggestion was rebuffed, and all three doing the Road Block had to go back and look at another spirit house).

* Being in a town full of amnesiac storybook characters, and armed with a book of fairy tales allows Henry of ''[[Once Upon a Time (TV series)|Once Upon a Time]]'' to augment his already considerable [[Guile Hero]] skills. Between this and the [[Living Lie Detector]] ability he inherited from his mother, his [[Genre Savvy]] borders on superhuman.

* Being a resident of [[One Tree Hill|Tree Hill]], by Season 8, Skills has become [[Genre Savvy]] about wedding days in Tree Hill & proceeds to prepare for every possibility that could go wrong, and actually already ''had'' at some point, even threatening the congregation when the priest tells everyone present to [[Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace]].