I want to see a medical show with porters, social workers, music therapists, dietitians, pharmacists and radiology techs. Every medical show makes it seem like the doctors are the ones who start IVs, do every blood draw and run the MRI and CT machines. It's not true and our allied health staff deserve their flowers
I have bone to pick with all of the sex and the city characters. Carrie's is the most eggregess, even if she did somehow buy her apartment one column could not be nearly enough. I actually wonder if it was something that was scrapped from the original premise because in the pilot the opinions and 'research' part of carrie's job is much more documentary style Miranda's is just as you said, I can't imagine she would have this much free time for the amount of money she does. I think it would've been better if she was notorious for being late or could 'never' hang out on weekdays instead. Charlotte almost makes me angry in the modern day. I know that art dealers are real professions but it doesn't make sense how she got to where she is and can afford to live alone. She could be a trust fund kid and is one of the few using it responibily I don't know. Samantha both makes the most sense and is almost as extragant as Carrie. I'm thinking of the auction seen in the first movie. Her spending habits and financial choices seem more freeing then Carrie's, I don't know why. Obviously starting her own PR firm means big bucks but I don't know if that correlates to not having to think about money at all.
Even back in the late '80s I had a hard time believing that Al Bundy was single-handedly supporting a family in a suburban home outside of Chicago on a shoe store manager's salary, even if they were alway scrounging for scraps.
You mean the supposed lifetime career where over 30% of employees are no longer working in the field within 5 years. Entry level (is that post-nqt?) usually start around £28,000 (more in London) which was about the national median income in 2017, which is good starting but also flat lines fast (£39,000 seems common for "experienced" teachers, doesn't specify how much experience). If you do want wage progression you need to go for middle and then senior management and, increasingly, schools create new positions to fulfil the desire for career improvement which leads to more bureaucracy, costs etc. Also, the amount of OOH work teachers do is insane given their salary brackets.
I didn’t girl who left a really good job with great benefits and a pension to move to New York for two or three years to try her hand at acting she ended up living in an apartment she shared with four or five other people and a dog with only one bathroom lol
To be fair the Princess Diaries explained that Mia's dad was a prince and also paid her school tuition. It would also stand to reason that he paid for their house as well as paying some form of child support. After all he cant have his child living in poverty while hes in a castle
Yup, I hate the trope of working because 'you're in it because you love it". That just feeds into the toxic belief that jobs like; teaching, nursing, being a chef, while underpaid, are still worth it, because it's done by good, loving virtuous people. If the work is so valuable, then pay the workers what they are worth.
@@soniasun1and when you factor in all the hours plus their student loan debt and the fact that they don’t get paid “well” til they’re 10+ years into the field shows they’re not as well paid as people assume
In Better Call Saul first season, Jimmy is working & living out of storage room in a nail salon, meeting potential clients in coffeeshops and answering his work phone with different voices , pretending to be a receptionist/secretary to try convince people that he has a staff and that his office is being painted. He does this while driving a beat up car while arguing about his pay as a public defender. When Jimmy & Kim decide to go in together on an office setup, they remodel the office themselves and have 1 receptionist/secretary between them. Kim is so overworked handling her 1 client, a major bank which is expanding all over the southwest, that she falls asleep while driving and is nearly killed in a car accident
Yup probably the most realistic depiction of practicing law ever on screen. There's entire montages of Kim just pouring over legal precedents, documents, and contracts. I love how it was used to show Jimmy is crooked as shit. Other lawyers are doing actual legal work, while Saul is juking around the law and cutting corners. The only other series I can think of that comes close is Crazy Ex Girlfriend. A corporate attorney in New York gives up her chance at being made partner to move to the middle of nowhere California to work at a shitty law firm so she can stalk her 8th. grade boyfriend from summer camp. She's completely overqualified for the job, but it still shows all the legal aides and the multiple lawyers in the firm working on one case at a time.
Speaking as a ghostwriter, I write 3 70,000 word books/ month for clients. When I see Carrie working for 1 publication for almost nothing while living in Manhattan in the 90s...it's infuriating.
New Girl is probably the most realistic part of a teacher's lifestyle she moved in with three other people sometimes four. I'm pretty sure four people could probably afford that place if they all put it together.
It seemed like especially in the earlier seasons Schmidt was carrying the house financially though, like they weren't contributing equally for a while.
@@sidtv2542 yeah he was definitely probably getting paid the most and he definitely would like the lifestyle of having a downtown loft. And he loves Nick so much and he definitely would cover for him.
4 people could cover that apartment if 1 of them has a really good job and covers for the broke guy (aka Schmidt covering for Nick) and the other 2 have okay jobs... But often Jess was the only one besides Schmidt reliably making anything, so it was weird that they didn't have more problems
@@lindsaymorrison7519 I think they said that they all had to put in about somewhere between $1,100 a month so so it's not that bad. With the jobs they have besides Nick. And when Nick becomes a published author who's selling a lot of he's of his young adult detective noir book he could afford that place by himself.
I want to point out that the apartment was listed as a 3-bedroom (there's a whole episode with Remy the landlord) and over the years, they occasionally had 5-6 people living there. Jess could cover her share easily (she's got years of experience and a Masters so shes higher up on the pay scale)
Something Cracked pointed out a few years ago pre-pandemic (I think before they were sold off) was how a lot of movies and TV shows have shifted characters up in class. Shows like Married with Children and Rosanne are completely dated by today's standards. Affording a multiple story home with multiple cars off one parent working as a shoe salesman? That was somewhat believable in the late '80s, but was nonsense by the 2000s. Even shows like Breaking Bad seem dated. You had a four bedroom house and multiple cars off one person working as a teacher in fucking New Mexico? LMAO YEAH RIGHT! Film and TV has realized this, so now a lot of it is focused on characters from wealthy backgrounds or are at the absolute top of the food chain. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia has Frank the business mogul bankrolling everything. Mr. Robot featured people living off a lawsuit settlement or people high up in the corporate ladder. Succession is about literal multi-billionaires. Like the poorest character on that show are the corporate lawyers pulling 7 figures who own shares of the company. I think this has definitely twisted people's perception of how much work is actually done.
I've seen Millennials take Friends to mean that Gen X all lived in massive apartments in the 90s. We mocked Friends for the same reason. It's not a documentary.
Also, very few shows and films that feature schools do not show a support staff like teacher's assistants, bus aids and SECAs. Which I get since that means a bigger cast to keep track of. But still.
Jasmine in S6 in Once Upon a Time was a teachers assistant and Jessie did volunteer for a episode in Zuri’s class and there was Ashley on Abbot but yeah there needs to better representation of it
Well Feeny was an older teacher and he got the house in a period where it was a lot cheaper so I don’t consider that a flaw. Lawyers is the career is easy to show people having money to do things but it’s hard to show the free time. It’s why I am not nitpicky about career shows. Abbot Elementary is the show that has the most realistic view of my profession but even that has sitcom hijinks which I enjoy. It would be boring if we just saw people in the office filling paper work lol
To be honest I'm so over the unrealistic life standard most TV and film characters have I don't even notice it, but one thing still irritates me immensely - how do people get a call from someone during working hours and just bolt out the door to go on a wild adventure for hours and even days?!
Seriously in most professions "no call no show" after two or three days is followed by "no job." This is especially true for blue collar work or waged positions.
It happens! In fact, I just got a call from someone asking me to come to his house, so I told my boss I was leaving.... aaaaaaaand I'm fired. 😐 Welp. You were right. 🤣😅😂
"They serve the idea that our work is our worth, and often completely ignore the reality that most people are overworked and underpaid, and that our jobs shouldn't be the focus of our lives." . 100% accurate, thank you. It's depressing to hear, but at least we do get to hear someone acknowledging the truth (and it being about how others ignore said truth, which is a bonus acknowledgement-ception).
I think one show that gets real life work conditions and salaries extremely right is superstore. We get so many examples of life struggles such as when Amy is denied maternity leave, Sandra having to take multiple buses to reach work, Marcus being homeless, Mateo being taken by ICE and their numerous attempts to actually make a livable wage.
You showed a clip from The Princess Diary of Mia sliding down a fireman pole, her mother & her live in a conveted fire station. In the books, her mom is a successful artist and her dad, who is alive, pays generous child support.
Yeah, it's funny how Andi needed money from her dad for rent, yet was able to afford an entire new DESIGNER wardrobe. She didn't get all those clothes from the closet
To be fair, Andrea also got clothes Miranda didn’t want, select pieces directly from designers, and frequently raided the selections at shoots. It’s partly why everyone thought she was an idiot for dressing so frumpy. Her position came with perks and she was turning her nose up at them.
Im sorry, but hearing that lawyers and architects and other (imo) well paying jobs still might require you to have a "gig" is the most depressing thing ive ever heard
@coffeestains5213 -- Ain't that the truth. Now that underpaid higher-paying jobs make you still need a side-gig, the underpaid lower-paying jobs that used to require just one extra gig to make ends meet now requires 2-3. -__-
The answer is not that complicated. TV shows and films are highly unrealistic because the majority of writers that make it in hollywood come from privileged backgrounds (which is mentioned in this video). Most writers need a day job and to pursue screenwriting full-time, you need a safety need. So the people who end up in the writers room draw from their own experience but their reality isn't even reflective of middle class America.
The Simpsons are portrayed as a lower-middle class family with Homer being in a dead-end job as a nuclear safety inspector despite that being an easy 180k+ job field. (Not to mention that it's not possible to have a privately owned nuclear power plant.)
Ironically The Simpsons were supposed to be middle class, and at the time of airing it wasn't that far off. Marge is able to be a stay at home mom, they own their house, and while money problems are experienced they have at least 2 cars, and can support 3 kids. By that standard today I'd say they're upper middle class.
@@millersam07 well Groening doesn't seem to understand money just like he doesn't understand nuclear power. 180k in 1989 is way more than it is in 2024.
Not to mention that in real life, Homer would need at least a master's (if not a PhD). "Young Sheldon" has the same problem. They portray George Cooper as being a pathetic looser and that money is almost always tight, but in a small, Texas town, the high school football coach is often one of the wealthiest people in the town.
I minored in education during undergraduate, and we viewed a lot of films depicting teachers- some fictional, some based on real life. Looking back, I think The Freedom Writer’s Diary - one of the ones based on a true story - was pretty good at depicting the reality of the profession; the protagonist had to get multiple jobs to buy supplies, didn’t receive a lot of help from other teachers or administrators, and had to deal with underlying racial issues among the students.
The portrayal of lower middle class living in “The Middle” is one of the most accurate things I’ve ever seen. My entire childhood: half broken appliances, clutter everywhere, economizing constantly. 10/10
Hmmm idk, assuming it's split evenly, Jess Day is probably spending around 1k for rent, which is hundreds less than I have to spend on a 1bd 1ba and I'm not in downtown LA (I did a quick search for 4bd lofts in the area). The real question is how does Nick afford to live there.
Most TV apartments are only large because they have no 4th wall. You have to have space for the characters to move around and for the cameras. You couldn't film in a typical NYC walkup.
Well I guess Diane on BoJack Horseman would be a more realistic portrayal of the freelance writer lifestyle, living with Mr. PB for the first half of the series and then moving into the crappy studio apartment after the di
Actually those creatives you see on TV that live in those big metro cities would end up living in either a SRO, with their parents or a shit one bedroom apartment. On TV nobody talks about budgets, inflation, going to the Goodwill for some basic stuff and the problems with transportation. On TV everything is unrealistic hunky dory and the only thing that matters is a sex life, parties and hanging out with friends at bars.
As a teen I was always super jealous that Rory Gilmore was a grade A student despite always being outside the house and that the characters of Gossip Girl never did any homework at all.
Well Rory constantly studied (or referenced needing to study) and would get home and get straight to doing homework so I can see her being a straight A student in highschool, but she did have a suspicion amount of time for towny things lol
I was watching Reality Bites the other day. A barista affords a nice LARGE apartment in Seattle? Her city planner (still artistic) lived there too. Somehow a guy of 23 had a high position working for the city yet was paid enough to live alone. In the same apartment complex A musician with several part-time jobs also lives in the same awesome apartment complex? At least one of the characters actually had a roommate to split costs
I know that it's basically a cliché for anyone in a specific profession to hate the way Hollywood portrays their industry, but I can say with confidence as someone who has worked multiple professions which are regularly depicted in television and film, and people, back me up here, that the restaurant industry, specifically the Back of House, i.e., the kitchen, is by far portrayed the most unrealistically of all, and it's not even close. The most major violations are having the Chef always working on the line cooking, instead of what they do in real life, which is hang out in their office on their phone, go outside and smoke cigarettes, generally just hang around and make chit chat while others are actually working ( which 95% of the time is done with the aim of flirting with some waitress who is 25 years younger than him), drinking heavily and doing drugs, often bumming the drugs of his cooks or dishwasher, but giving them for free to the aforementioned 21 year old waitresses, and then occasionally getting irrationally angry when we get extremely busy during a lunch or dinner rush so that they are forced to actually do some work, typically positioning themselves as the "expediter", which just means they read the tickets immediately as they come in and call back to us whatever we need to start cooking, a technique which literally saves us between 15 seconds and maybe 2 minutes per order, depending on how chaotic things are, and how backed up we are. If we are really deep in the weeds, then he might actually begrudgingly lower himself to come back there with us to "help out on the line", which translates to getting in everyone's way and having to be babysat and told where every ingredient is and how we prepare it, which he will slowly and clumsily do, all while complaining about everything from the very system which he designed, to the waitresses not calling back certain items which take much longer to prepare, and thus often have to be started earlier, out of order that the tickets are received in order for them to be sent out simultaneously, to just flat out insulting people for no reason again, usually the waitresses, unless there's a new guy working on the line, in which case everything gets blamed on him, and if he makes the tiniest error, suddenly it's entirely his fault that we have 35 minute wait times. But by far, the most egregious way kitchens are depicted is as if they are some kind of paramilitary operation, where the Chef is the General, and his sous chefs are his officers, and everyone stands at attention all the time when he's speaking, and everyone says, "Yes chef." On top of that everyone, the chef most of all, will act like it is the single most stressful job in the world, and treats every dinner rush like they've been ambushed by the Vietcong. Then at the end of the night, they'll celebrate getting all the orders out like some miraculous video. It's usually at this point that the worst part comes in; when they start referring to people who don't work in "the industry" as "civilians" or "civvies", like they really are in the Marines or something. Then he'll go home to his gf who is concerned about his high stress (if the show even allows him a social life, because you know, cooking is SO demanding that can be impossible), and he'll start the same pseudo-military bullshit with her, telling her she just wouldn't understand in between drinking to excess, smoking cigarettes, and have 'Nam flashbacks of the time the receipt printer ran out of paper and they couldn't get it fixed for 20 minutes. It is so beyond the boundaries of reality that I've noticed that there are a lot of people who have never worked in "the undustry" who also pick up on how corny, melodramatic, and unrealistic it is. Not to mention it never shows the back of house working their second job, getting horrible hours like weekend split shifts only, where you come in the morning, prep and work through the lunch rush, only to have to clock out and go fuck off somewhere for 4-6 hours so you can come back, prep for dinner and then work the dinner rush, clean up and close. It's extremely exploitative, and almost insane to demand this of humans. In fact, before I left "the industry" many of these places had begun using AI systems to generate schedules in order to "maximize productivity while minimizing unnecessary labor costs," and these insane weekend split shifts, along with some times getting two day off, then have to work 9-10 days straight before you get your next 2 days off, because having a computer make schedules for humans is beyond cruel and insane. Total dystopian.
A recurring joke/storyline in Seinfeld involves people in Jerry's life, usually his parents, thinking that he needs money, because of his comedy act. It reaches a zenith of sorts in one episode where the residents of the condominium where Jerry's parents live vote his dad out of a leadership role. Accusations of financial impropriety were made after Jerry splurges a brand new Cadillac for his dad after getting very well paid for some gigs. But because the same perception about Jerry's career exists amongst the residents, no one believes that he paid for the Cadillac by himself.
Psychologist and radio announcer Frasier Crane. How does he afford his beautiful apartment the same with Niles Niles lives in a very exclusive building at the end of the season I don't understand how much is he making per client that's ridiculous!
There's this stereotype that psychologist are super rich and make so much out of patients, usually portrayed as greedy as well. While things would be different in every country, there are important things this does not consider: 1. In seemingly every country, training for psychologists is a very long process, often spanning a decade or even beyond, during which one makes little (or in se stages - no) money. 2. It is very rare for a psychologist to take on 40 patients! That's way too much, most take about 20-something (and that's in "good times" when there's a lot of demand). Cancellations are also a regular thing + cancellations if the psychologist is sick. No money for that. So it's not like the salary is the charge for hour × 40. 3. Taxes and other expenses such as rent for one's clinic. This would vary a lot between countries. In my country, all these expenses take close to half the pay. So overall, the income is probably less than a quarter of what people think, after years of low to no income. So no, psychologists usually won't use your money to buy a boat or mansion or whatever...
To be fair many of the 90s family sitcoms were not as lavish. Most families could realistically afford a house. "Friends" really started the trend of "average" 20-somethings living in the city and having tons of free time.
@@aladyinpurple the show is literally called “Martin” starring Martin Lawrence ,, a very popular black sitcom from the early 90s about a black couple and their friends. It’s iconic and hilarious! You should watch it.
He mentions writers, but specifically journalism is often hilariously unrealistic. My reporter friends right multiple stories per day, and have some editing and website responsibilities. Glamorous, meeting fascinating people and getting invites to fun events, but it lots of work. Also, investigative reporting is often much more sending a lot of emails and digging through financial records than skulking around cinematic locations in heels taking pictures on a smartphone. The only journalism film I’ve seen that feels remotely real is all the presidents men, and that one is focused on an absurdly glamorous case
I need to add this In movies and tv computer programmers and help desk technicians do a lot of research, dealing with customers and meeting And there are many fields Programming , help desk , web development, server management cyber security The only tv show that gets it right is Mr Robot and the IT crowd
Thank you for this video. Please do a video on unrealistic expectations of doctors ["what a doctor should look like" according to bigoted prejudiced minds - Caucasian, male, tall, well-off background etc..] plus the overstressed, underpaid physicians who do not get to eat/ drink during >13 hours shifts whether day/night as there is too much demand. Another illusion is decent pay which is completely untrue if calculated at hourly net pay without accounting for memberships, indemnity insurance, out-of-pocket expenses to attend interviews/ post-graduate examinations etc. Another important note is how altruistic the system requires physicians to be: coming in early/ leaving late post shifts without taking breaks given the shortage of professionals. Unfortunately, physician suicide is reported to be 9x the general population rate. In the UK, 1 doctor dies by suicide every 3 weeks.
The one that most jumped off the screen to me was Barba’s expensive suits on SVU. He couldn’t be making the huge salary of a lawyer in a firm because he works for the DA’s office, and we know his family is a mother who’s a teacher and raised him in a neighborhood where no one had extra money. I loved watching the character when he was a regular, but his clothes never made sense.
To be fair, Miranda does have a hard time balancing her work life balance when she becomes a mother. It’s an entire plot line you managed to skip over when using her as an example.
Ok Jerry's apartment isn't MASSIVE it's a big one bedroom, and regarding his "dining out every day" he mostly ate out that cheap diner, it wasn't like he was going to nice restaurants very often.
It is the way class is determined by likeability. When they have no available speech classes , etc. , plus, I did not pay 8% in taxes for 30 years to be homeless and paying others debts. So Erindida Rodriguez and Willow Rosenberg can sashay and imposter me for their crimes. Take my soulmates away and turn the 3 of them against each other. Plus, the isolation and not being allowed to own a company or property pisses me off. I see Christina Aguilera and those corrupt judges of Cleveland, Upper Sandusky, and Maysellsis, OH losing their homes. Why should I be punished for my looks and be mistreated for my patents deeds? If this does not change, I am creating a law codex.
I have friends who are writers. You need day jobs. And her family, stepfamily, parents, and grandparents, and class and teachers defrauded her and sold her to a murdering cult at Polaris at Old State Rd. .
I “get” what you’re communicating with the video, but I must stress how inflation has impacted our quality of life. There was a time when you can live a decent life with modest times.
Also, an unrelated point to what I just posted. Writers are usually working 2 to 3 side hustles and whatever jobs they can get, especially, if not an heir, same with most artists. Lawyers, working 3 jobs, an internship till like age 28 years old, when they get an entry level job as a notary and legal assistant as a lawyer, I initally wanted to be one in middle school. For people on corp. Job fast track, they have 2 to 4 side hustles, take every job there is, and write half the articles for local publications.
I think one of the reasons i really really love Better Call Saul is they dedicate a lot of time to showing the grind of the work like for example, they must have spent at least 10 minutes of show time showing Kim's daily routine of getting up in the morning, showering, going to work and working for way longer than everyone else and doing good at it. And on top of that how to actually get ahead she made calls on her breaks on top of everything else. And to top it off, it shows how her work is all consuming of her life and the impact her routine takes when she falls asleep at the wheel of her car. I really appreciate showing the amount of time and effort the grind of the characters. Theres a scene were Mike checks his car for a bug, like normal shows and movies will just cut to "oh i found it it", but no, they did a timelapse of this dude tearing the entire car apart and searching everything, like it really showed this dudes perfectionism and drive. This is even better when later in the show you have a scene where he pulls of an epic situation, you already know hes probably spent hours working on getting it set up and that hes not just "lucky" or you just gotta take the directors word on being a really smart guy who just figured it out and dont question it lol its actually a good reality check for me. because so much in media is seeing the result and not the work and time that went into it. its motivated me to get off my arse and stop playing video games and actually study. To get somewhere in life you really do need to put in the time and effort, make your own montage of doing work. I also love watching timelapse study videos as well which give the same feel.
Yeah cause they are paying off med school, but also, an enormous part of any physician’s salary goes towards malpractice insurance. I worked at a physician placement firm, they get paid shockingly low for how much school and debt they have. They don’t make a decent living until they’ve been at it a long while.
I get this analysis is about US-based shows, but IMO French Netflix series "10 pourcent" (awfully called in English "Call my Agent"), is quite accurate in terms of what you can really afford and treat yourself in Paris.
Please expand on college professors. Mr. Maisel, Girls, Friends and even real professors that appear on Bill Maher make is seem as if they are rolling in dough.
I love being a teacher. I absolutely love being a teacher, but God forbid I complain about the pay or being overworked without hearing people say well then leave! Or you get summers off! Why are you complaining? As I work summers just to make ends meet not to mention the other 40 hours I'm not paid just to grade and plan. We are also the first place kids turn to when they face horrible trauma. We are counselors on top of it. Oh! But I better not complain or all hell breaks loose and I'm called a shitty teacher or ingrate for simply feeling. If only people really saw the struggle. I love Abbott Elementary, but that's the tip of the iceberg.
We need a new system without the ridiculious expectations, abuse of affirmative actions, and misaportiation and discrimination of mixed jews and german and irish americans by false records, false health care records, and questionable judgements in court denying them lawyers as defendants.
I'll say I don't agree with your assessment of Seinfeld. As a born and raised New Yorker who grew up watching the show I found at Jerry's apartment seemed really normal for Manhattan. My family's apartment was bigger than what was portrayed on the show and we are just middle class but in Brooklyn. This city used to be affordable for New Yorkers. It's only in the last 15 years that it's gotten out of control for everyone. Even now, I see the B and C list comedians I follow live on their own in New York or LA.
Those B and C list comedians may have income that is not obvious or shared with their followers. Studios in NYC are teeny and $2,500+. Only murders in the building showed an accurate depiction when Mabel was looking for a studio in Manhattan.
As others here have pointed out about medical shows ignoring non-doctors, likewise, most people who are work at big law firms are not lawyers, even though shows depict things as if they are. The support staff, which includes everything from the expected legal secretaries to more varied roles like experts and paralegals, well outnumbers actual attorneys. And even those who are attorneys are not always making so much money, as most are relatively junior associates, not partners. Actual partners are always a minority at a large firm. Younger attorneys, like the late twenties aged Ally Mcbeal would not have been making bank just yet at that point in their career, and would have had law school debt to pay off too, yet the show glosses over this reality in the eagerness to depict an exaggerated version of things.
Please stop. We all aware of the situation in Palestine, but this Video is about the struggle of getting by on a normal salary and the Problems of people outside of Palestine. Let other people have their own problems as well and their right to discuss it without dragging Palestine into literally everything. Thank you.
I know you generally focus on adult TV shows and movies, but could you do a piece on how children’s television and movie set a highly unrealistic expectation for them and how it tortures parents
Teachers are underpaid in areas where property tax is low or students parents mostly rent and not own. My cousin’s husband is a teacher and makes $80k a year at a public school in the Midwest and is a millennial
yes. I was listening to a talk about defunding teachers and one of the speakers was saying his gym teacher (when he was in school) was making upwards towards 100,000 a year. I think it's like the lawyers, it's all about the state and district you're working in (there's a range).
Better Call Saul was accurate about being a lawyer. Not the crime part but the mundane stuff. Actually, it portrayed a LESS comfortable life than real life for public defenders. Suits looks too pretty and not relatable for me. But you’re absolutely right that law is hardly glamorous. It’s grueling and mind-numbing. And I get sick of feeling like my work as a lawyer defines my worth. I’m worthless if a settlement doesn’t pan out.
I would like them to actually show someone who has to work late and not make it out like they just chose to do that. I love the Nanny and other shows from the 90’s but they always made it out like people have a choice on working long hours. Many people do not have that kind of choice.
It baffles me how teachers are treated in the US. In my country, teachers, although not wealthy per se, and definitely deserve a raise, earn a solid middle class salary. They also don't have to pay things for the classroom out of their own pocket - there's a special budget for that.
In one episode of SATC, Miranda was shown always coming home after her baby had fallen asleep, and she told her boss that she had to cut down her working hours to 55 hours a week, which is still insane. But in all the other episodes, she seems to have a lot of free time to meet up with her friends, go out to dinner, go on dates, etc. After she moves to Brooklyn, which means more time spend on commuting, one would think that she hardly had time to do anything other than working and commuting, but somehow she is now able to spend a lot of time with her family, even taking care of Steve's sick, elderly mother, and yes, still meeting up with her friends a lot. It's crazy.
@@zero1188 I mean have the plot be lead by the actual restrictions, challenges and limitations the characters face (economic, class, professional, social, etc), rather than the other way around. I.e. an arbitrary plot device that you just drop your characters into, even if they don’t fit. Those kind of obstacles aren’t limited to just heavy drama, some comedies manage to extract very funny scenarios and schemes from them. A couple that come to mind are Broad City and Always Sunny.
@@zero1188 a story can be dictated by the circumstances and conditions actually faced by the characters (economic, class, social, professional, cultural), rather than being arbitrarily directed by the needs of a plot contrivance. It doesn’t have to be a heavy drama to delve into realistic material conditions of characters, some comedies manage to mine this territory for funny scenarios and schemes. Broad City and Always Sunny come to mind.
Some of these examples would have been absolutely fine until the lifestyles portrayed. Jerry’s apartment wasn’t huge. It was a one bedroom in the early 90s. Even unemployed Kramer could afford his in the same building. So could Newman as a mailman. I was a kid in NYC in the 90s. I remember all the adults in my life, with very working or middle class jobs, having glorious apartments. As someone who spent most their life in NYC, I know people making 24k a year in big apartments, with roommates. People live on credit, people live paycheck to paycheck, and people get by. But ffs I know people with way less than any of these SINGLE CHILDFREE CHARACTERS make…. With a wife and kids to support. In NYC. There are millions of people here.
Idk scientist, either making breakthrough developments while on a huge salary from a research institute or having intrepid fully paid for expeditions to the ocean or jungle.. most of us work for councils in a tireless, desperate, underpaid effort to keep air breathable and water drinkable in our communities
Seinfeld's apartment is rent controlled. They do also cover the fact that he earns a lot, to the surprise of everyone around him, mostly his parents who think he must be broke.
What about of Penny, from Big Bang Theory. She´s a waitress and unemployed actress and she lives by herself on the same building where Sheldom and Leonard share an apartment.
Yeah, I'm surprised she wasn't mentioned. I too have wondered how much housing Leonard and Sheldon can afford. I guess since it's L.A., it's pretty expensive. My husband was weas a physics student in the Dallas area, and most of the profs lived in nice houses.
You forgot another Darren Star show, Emily in Paris. As someone who works in marketing & is about the same age as Emily, her designer lifestyle is laughable. 😂 However, it is a nice escape & the aspirational aspect & amazing designer clothes make it fun to watch.
Chicago Med and a plotline for a while where one of the residents had sonay student loans from med school that, on a junior doctor's salary, they just couldn't afford rent and such. Although in this case it was a plot device to get two love interests to move in together. The Wedding Singer also has Adam Sandler living in his sister's basement, which is realistic for his profession. I do wonder how hr an Julia would have gotten on, given she was living of waitress wages and his work would be less reliable. I also wonder how he afforded what looked like a quite lavish wedding to Linda, given she didnt work and i didnt see any parents around.
On the 90s sitcom Step-by-Step, Patrick Duffy, the contractor, lived in a dump with his 3 kids before moving in to Suzanne Summers' HUGE house with her 3 kids, despite... working as a hair dresser out of her garage?
Definitely unrealistic. Our wages haven't matched the cost of living in decades. But maybe if they did, there wouldn't be so many shows on the implausible side of the realistic-vs-unrealistic scale, at least not in this particular area.
I want to see a medical show with porters, social workers, music therapists, dietitians, pharmacists and radiology techs. Every medical show makes it seem like the doctors are the ones who start IVs, do every blood draw and run the MRI and CT machines. It's not true and our allied health staff deserve their flowers
In between all the time they spend together hooking up instead of seeing patients
I think Scrubs did that
@rosegirl3220 True. Scrubs is probably the most unexpectedly accurate depiction of a working hospital
they just show up and take credit
lol in the closet
You forgot the other ways people can afford to live on a writer/actor salary - rich parents, hook up with a director/producer
I have bone to pick with all of the sex and the city characters.
Carrie's is the most eggregess, even if she did somehow buy her apartment one column could not be nearly enough. I actually wonder if it was something that was scrapped from the original premise because in the pilot the opinions and 'research' part of carrie's job is much more documentary style
Miranda's is just as you said, I can't imagine she would have this much free time for the amount of money she does. I think it would've been better if she was notorious for being late or could 'never' hang out on weekdays instead.
Charlotte almost makes me angry in the modern day. I know that art dealers are real professions but it doesn't make sense how she got to where she is and can afford to live alone. She could be a trust fund kid and is one of the few using it responibily I don't know.
Samantha both makes the most sense and is almost as extragant as Carrie. I'm thinking of the auction seen in the first movie. Her spending habits and financial choices seem more freeing then Carrie's, I don't know why. Obviously starting her own PR firm means big bucks but I don't know if that correlates to not having to think about money at all.
Charlotte has family money. It's mentioned/alluded to several times in the show.
Even back in the late '80s I had a hard time believing that Al Bundy was single-handedly supporting a family in a suburban home outside of Chicago on a shoe store manager's salary, even if they were alway scrounging for scraps.
I think this is always very country dependent. For example teachers in the UK are unlikely to be struggling as much as USA
You mean the supposed lifetime career where over 30% of employees are no longer working in the field within 5 years.
Entry level (is that post-nqt?) usually start around £28,000 (more in London) which was about the national median income in 2017, which is good starting but also flat lines fast (£39,000 seems common for "experienced" teachers, doesn't specify how much experience). If you do want wage progression you need to go for middle and then senior management and, increasingly, schools create new positions to fulfil the desire for career improvement which leads to more bureaucracy, costs etc.
Also, the amount of OOH work teachers do is insane given their salary brackets.
I didn’t girl who left a really good job with great benefits and a pension to move to New York for two or three years to try her hand at acting she ended up living in an apartment she shared with four or five other people and a dog with only one bathroom lol
Sounds about right!
To be fair the Princess Diaries explained that Mia's dad was a prince and also paid her school tuition. It would also stand to reason that he paid for their house as well as paying some form of child support. After all he cant have his child living in poverty while hes in a castle
Yup, I hate the trope of working because 'you're in it because you love it". That just feeds into the toxic belief that jobs like; teaching, nursing, being a chef, while underpaid, are still worth it, because it's done by good, loving virtuous people.
If the work is so valuable, then pay the workers what they are worth.
The same goes for doctors. The urban myth that they are paid well but nothing is further from the truth accounting for all the hours.
@@soniasun1and when you factor in all the hours plus their student loan debt and the fact that they don’t get paid “well” til they’re 10+ years into the field shows they’re not as well paid as people assume
@@soniasun1Probably true where you’re from but from an Asian country, doctors are wealthy here.
In Better Call Saul first season, Jimmy is working & living out of storage room in a nail salon, meeting potential clients in coffeeshops and answering his work phone with different voices , pretending to be a receptionist/secretary to try convince people that he has a staff and that his office is being painted. He does this while driving a beat up car while arguing about his pay as a public defender. When Jimmy & Kim decide to go in together on an office setup, they remodel the office themselves and have 1 receptionist/secretary between them. Kim is so overworked handling her 1 client, a major bank which is expanding all over the southwest, that she falls asleep while driving and is nearly killed in a car accident
Yup probably the most realistic depiction of practicing law ever on screen. There's entire montages of Kim just pouring over legal precedents, documents, and contracts. I love how it was used to show Jimmy is crooked as shit. Other lawyers are doing actual legal work, while Saul is juking around the law and cutting corners.
The only other series I can think of that comes close is Crazy Ex Girlfriend. A corporate attorney in New York gives up her chance at being made partner to move to the middle of nowhere California to work at a shitty law firm so she can stalk her 8th. grade boyfriend from summer camp. She's completely overqualified for the job, but it still shows all the legal aides and the multiple lawyers in the firm working on one case at a time.
I love Better Call Saul for that! It shows how unglamorous starting your own practice can be while still being very entertaining
Jimmy is also extremely hard working (even if what he's working hard at is often chicanery).
Speaking as a ghostwriter, I write 3 70,000 word books/ month for clients. When I see Carrie working for 1 publication for almost nothing while living in Manhattan in the 90s...it's infuriating.
How can i become a writer?
At most she makes like $500 - $1,000 per months
@@ang5035unless it’s a weekly column and not a monthly column
New Girl is probably the most realistic part of a teacher's lifestyle she moved in with three other people sometimes four. I'm pretty sure four people could probably afford that place if they all put it together.
It seemed like especially in the earlier seasons Schmidt was carrying the house financially though, like they weren't contributing equally for a while.
@@sidtv2542 yeah he was definitely probably getting paid the most and he definitely would like the lifestyle of having a downtown loft. And he loves Nick so much and he definitely would cover for him.
4 people could cover that apartment if 1 of them has a really good job and covers for the broke guy (aka Schmidt covering for Nick) and the other 2 have okay jobs... But often Jess was the only one besides Schmidt reliably making anything, so it was weird that they didn't have more problems
@@lindsaymorrison7519 I think they said that they all had to put in about somewhere between $1,100 a month so so it's not that bad. With the jobs they have besides Nick. And when Nick becomes a published author who's selling a lot of he's of his young adult detective noir book he could afford that place by himself.
I want to point out that the apartment was listed as a 3-bedroom (there's a whole episode with Remy the landlord) and over the years, they occasionally had 5-6 people living there. Jess could cover her share easily (she's got years of experience and a Masters so shes higher up on the pay scale)
I wonder if these unrealistic tropes helped fuel this unrealistic and delusional"nO oNE WaNtS tO wOrK aNyMoRe" mindset.
Get your a$$ up and work 😂- Kim kardashian
Something Cracked pointed out a few years ago pre-pandemic (I think before they were sold off) was how a lot of movies and TV shows have shifted characters up in class. Shows like Married with Children and Rosanne are completely dated by today's standards. Affording a multiple story home with multiple cars off one parent working as a shoe salesman? That was somewhat believable in the late '80s, but was nonsense by the 2000s. Even shows like Breaking Bad seem dated. You had a four bedroom house and multiple cars off one person working as a teacher in fucking New Mexico? LMAO YEAH RIGHT!
Film and TV has realized this, so now a lot of it is focused on characters from wealthy backgrounds or are at the absolute top of the food chain. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia has Frank the business mogul bankrolling everything. Mr. Robot featured people living off a lawsuit settlement or people high up in the corporate ladder. Succession is about literal multi-billionaires. Like the poorest character on that show are the corporate lawyers pulling 7 figures who own shares of the company.
I think this has definitely twisted people's perception of how much work is actually done.
I've seen Millennials take Friends to mean that Gen X all lived in massive apartments in the 90s. We mocked Friends for the same reason. It's not a documentary.
Also, very few shows and films that feature schools do not show a support staff like teacher's assistants, bus aids and SECAs. Which I get since that means a bigger cast to keep track of. But still.
In pretty little liars the perfectionists Alison was a teachers assistant
Jasmine in S6 in Once Upon a Time was a teachers assistant and Jessie did volunteer for a episode in Zuri’s class and there was Ashley on Abbot but yeah there needs to better representation of it
Well Feeny was an older teacher and he got the house in a period where it was a lot cheaper so I don’t consider that a flaw. Lawyers is the career is easy to show people having money to do things but it’s hard to show the free time. It’s why I am not nitpicky about career shows. Abbot Elementary is the show that has the most realistic view of my profession but even that has sitcom hijinks which I enjoy. It would be boring if we just saw people in the office filling paper work lol
To be honest I'm so over the unrealistic life standard most TV and film characters have I don't even notice it, but one thing still irritates me immensely - how do people get a call from someone during working hours and just bolt out the door to go on a wild adventure for hours and even days?!
Seriously in most professions "no call no show" after two or three days is followed by "no job." This is especially true for blue collar work or waged positions.
It happens! In fact, I just got a call from someone asking me to come to his house, so I told my boss I was leaving.... aaaaaaaand I'm fired. 😐
Welp. You were right. 🤣😅😂
Don’t forget about rent control/stabilization.
Also NYC of the 90s was nowhere near as expensive as NYC today or even 15 years ago.
Can we also point out that Archer and How I Met Your Mother are the only shows in New York that seem to have people who lock their doors?
"They serve the idea that our work is our worth, and often completely ignore the reality that most people are overworked and underpaid, and that our jobs shouldn't be the focus of our lives."
.
100% accurate, thank you. It's depressing to hear, but at least we do get to hear someone acknowledging the truth (and it being about how others ignore said truth, which is a bonus acknowledgement-ception).
I think one show that gets real life work conditions and salaries extremely right is superstore. We get so many examples of life struggles such as when Amy is denied maternity leave, Sandra having to take multiple buses to reach work, Marcus being homeless, Mateo being taken by ICE and their numerous attempts to actually make a livable wage.
You showed a clip from The Princess Diary of Mia sliding down a fireman pole, her mother & her live in a conveted fire station. In the books, her mom is a successful artist and her dad, who is alive, pays generous child support.
Carrie really gave us cognitive dissonance but we should’ve seen it coming. Apart from her, there’s also Andrea Sachs.
Yeah, it's funny how Andi needed money from her dad for rent, yet was able to afford an entire new DESIGNER wardrobe. She didn't get all those clothes from the closet
@@jennyfab312 Trust fund kid?
To be fair, Andrea also got clothes Miranda didn’t want, select pieces directly from designers, and frequently raided the selections at shoots. It’s partly why everyone thought she was an idiot for dressing so frumpy. Her position came with perks and she was turning her nose up at them.
@@jennyfab312Andrea Hot the clothes from runway... The job that million girls want remember because of the clothes and work with Miranda
Im sorry, but hearing that lawyers and architects and other (imo) well paying jobs still might require you to have a "gig" is the most depressing thing ive ever heard
@coffeestains5213 -- Ain't that the truth. Now that underpaid higher-paying jobs make you still need a side-gig, the underpaid lower-paying jobs that used to require just one extra gig to make ends meet now requires 2-3. -__-
Huge misconception that Architects are paid a lot. I think people assume this because the training is a similar length to lawyers and Drs.
The answer is not that complicated. TV shows and films are highly unrealistic because the majority of writers that make it in hollywood come from privileged backgrounds (which is mentioned in this video). Most writers need a day job and to pursue screenwriting full-time, you need a safety need. So the people who end up in the writers room draw from their own experience but their reality isn't even reflective of middle class America.
The Simpsons are portrayed as a lower-middle class family with Homer being in a dead-end job as a nuclear safety inspector despite that being an easy 180k+ job field. (Not to mention that it's not possible to have a privately owned nuclear power plant.)
Ironically The Simpsons were supposed to be middle class, and at the time of airing it wasn't that far off. Marge is able to be a stay at home mom, they own their house, and while money problems are experienced they have at least 2 cars, and can support 3 kids. By that standard today I'd say they're upper middle class.
@@millersam07 well Groening doesn't seem to understand money just like he doesn't understand nuclear power. 180k in 1989 is way more than it is in 2024.
Not to mention that in real life, Homer would need at least a master's (if not a PhD). "Young Sheldon" has the same problem. They portray George Cooper as being a pathetic looser and that money is almost always tight, but in a small, Texas town, the high school football coach is often one of the wealthiest people in the town.
I minored in education during undergraduate, and we viewed a lot of films depicting teachers- some fictional, some based on real life. Looking back, I think The Freedom Writer’s Diary - one of the ones based on a true story - was pretty good at depicting the reality of the profession; the protagonist had to get multiple jobs to buy supplies, didn’t receive a lot of help from other teachers or administrators, and had to deal with underlying racial issues among the students.
The portrayal of lower middle class living in “The Middle” is one of the most accurate things I’ve ever seen. My entire childhood: half broken appliances, clutter everywhere, economizing constantly. 10/10
You shoudl watch Malcolm in the Middle if you haven't already. It is an excellent portrayal fo the lower middle class.
Hmmm idk, assuming it's split evenly, Jess Day is probably spending around 1k for rent, which is hundreds less than I have to spend on a 1bd 1ba and I'm not in downtown LA (I did a quick search for 4bd lofts in the area). The real question is how does Nick afford to live there.
My guess is Smitty's paying some if not all of Nick's share
I think Jess makes sense as she does live with others. But I agree about Nick. He is a bartender in a bar that isn’t exactly upscale.
@@ploefff I could definitely see Schmidt paying more than everyone else for some specific amenity, like the one parking spot assigned to their loft
Most TV apartments are only large because they have no 4th wall. You have to have space for the characters to move around and for the cameras. You couldn't film in a typical NYC walkup.
Well I guess Diane on BoJack Horseman would be a more realistic portrayal of the freelance writer lifestyle, living with Mr. PB for the first half of the series and then moving into the crappy studio apartment after the di
Actually those creatives you see on TV that live in those big metro cities would end up living in either a SRO, with their parents or a shit one bedroom apartment. On TV nobody talks about budgets, inflation, going to the Goodwill for some basic stuff and the problems with transportation. On TV everything is unrealistic hunky dory and the only thing that matters is a sex life, parties and hanging out with friends at bars.
As a former TA it’s crazy how much teachers pay for almost everything in their classroom
As much as I love a fun fashion designer character, I’ve rarely seen one who works independently.
*The least believable thing about **_Suits_** is how often people say the word **_”goddamn”_** in every day conversation.*
As a teen I was always super jealous that Rory Gilmore was a grade A student despite always being outside the house and that the characters of Gossip Girl never did any homework at all.
Well Rory constantly studied (or referenced needing to study) and would get home and get straight to doing homework so I can see her being a straight A student in highschool, but she did have a suspicion amount of time for towny things lol
They did show Rory studying a fair amount. It was mostly on Gossip girl, oc where we barely saw characters study.
@@vvieites001Well there are lot of students A’s and I are on sports teams so it’s that equivalent
I was watching Reality Bites the other day.
A barista affords a nice LARGE apartment in Seattle? Her city planner (still artistic) lived there too. Somehow a guy of 23 had a high position working for the city yet was paid enough to live alone. In the same apartment complex
A musician with several part-time jobs also lives in the same awesome apartment complex?
At least one of the characters actually had a roommate to split costs
Starbucks was created in Seattle
And she chooses the boyfriend who treats her poorly over the successful and kind one who emphasizes with her.
Reality Bites took place in Houston Texas in the early 90s. Perhaps you are confusing it with Singles?
@@georgeprchal3924 empathizes. emphazise is to press a point.
I know that it's basically a cliché for anyone in a specific profession to hate the way Hollywood portrays their industry, but I can say with confidence as someone who has worked multiple professions which are regularly depicted in television and film, and people, back me up here, that the restaurant industry, specifically the Back of House, i.e., the kitchen, is by far portrayed the most unrealistically of all, and it's not even close. The most major violations are having the Chef always working on the line cooking, instead of what they do in real life, which is hang out in their office on their phone, go outside and smoke cigarettes, generally just hang around and make chit chat while others are actually working ( which 95% of the time is done with the aim of flirting with some waitress who is 25 years younger than him), drinking heavily and doing drugs, often bumming the drugs of his cooks or dishwasher, but giving them for free to the aforementioned 21 year old waitresses, and then occasionally getting irrationally angry when we get extremely busy during a lunch or dinner rush so that they are forced to actually do some work, typically positioning themselves as the "expediter", which just means they read the tickets immediately as they come in and call back to us whatever we need to start cooking, a technique which literally saves us between 15 seconds and maybe 2 minutes per order, depending on how chaotic things are, and how backed up we are.
If we are really deep in the weeds, then he might actually begrudgingly lower himself to come back there with us to "help out on the line", which translates to getting in everyone's way and having to be babysat and told where every ingredient is and how we prepare it, which he will slowly and clumsily do, all while complaining about everything from the very system which he designed, to the waitresses not calling back certain items which take much longer to prepare, and thus often have to be started earlier, out of order that the tickets are received in order for them to be sent out simultaneously, to just flat out insulting people for no reason again, usually the waitresses, unless there's a new guy working on the line, in which case everything gets blamed on him, and if he makes the tiniest error, suddenly it's entirely his fault that we have 35 minute wait times.
But by far, the most egregious way kitchens are depicted is as if they are some kind of paramilitary operation, where the Chef is the General, and his sous chefs are his officers, and everyone stands at attention all the time when he's speaking, and everyone says, "Yes chef." On top of that everyone, the chef most of all, will act like it is the single most stressful job in the world, and treats every dinner rush like they've been ambushed by the Vietcong. Then at the end of the night, they'll celebrate getting all the orders out like some miraculous video. It's usually at this point that the worst part comes in; when they start referring to people who don't work in "the industry" as "civilians" or "civvies", like they really are in the Marines or something. Then he'll go home to his gf who is concerned about his high stress (if the show even allows him a social life, because you know, cooking is SO demanding that can be impossible), and he'll start the same pseudo-military bullshit with her, telling her she just wouldn't understand in between drinking to excess, smoking cigarettes, and have 'Nam flashbacks of the time the receipt printer ran out of paper and they couldn't get it fixed for 20 minutes.
It is so beyond the boundaries of reality that I've noticed that there are a lot of people who have never worked in "the undustry" who also pick up on how corny, melodramatic, and unrealistic it is. Not to mention it never shows the back of house working their second job, getting horrible hours like weekend split shifts only, where you come in the morning, prep and work through the lunch rush, only to have to clock out and go fuck off somewhere for 4-6 hours so you can come back, prep for dinner and then work the dinner rush, clean up and close. It's extremely exploitative, and almost insane to demand this of humans. In fact, before I left "the industry" many of these places had begun using AI systems to generate schedules in order to "maximize productivity while minimizing unnecessary labor costs," and these insane weekend split shifts, along with some times getting two day off, then have to work 9-10 days straight before you get your next 2 days off, because having a computer make schedules for humans is beyond cruel and insane. Total dystopian.
You should be a writer
Do I hear Succession's score in the background? Cultured.
Personally, I would like to watch more movies and shows be a little bit more realistic. 🤔💭
Life should be a bit less realistic.
It's because of this I wish I could make myself forget The Wire so I could watch it again for the first time.
A recurring joke/storyline in Seinfeld involves people in Jerry's life, usually his parents, thinking that he needs money, because of his comedy act. It reaches a zenith of sorts in one episode where the residents of the condominium where Jerry's parents live vote his dad out of a leadership role. Accusations of financial impropriety were made after Jerry splurges a brand new Cadillac for his dad after getting very well paid for some gigs. But because the same perception about Jerry's career exists amongst the residents, no one believes that he paid for the Cadillac by himself.
Psychologist and radio announcer Frasier Crane. How does he afford his beautiful apartment the same with Niles Niles lives in a very exclusive building at the end of the season I don't understand how much is he making per client that's ridiculous!
Blue collar jobs often have higher pay than most educated professions but are always depicted as lower middle class
There's this stereotype that psychologist are super rich and make so much out of patients, usually portrayed as greedy as well. While things would be different in every country, there are important things this does not consider: 1. In seemingly every country, training for psychologists is a very long process, often spanning a decade or even beyond, during which one makes little (or in se stages - no) money.
2. It is very rare for a psychologist to take on 40 patients! That's way too much, most take about 20-something (and that's in "good times" when there's a lot of demand). Cancellations are also a regular thing + cancellations if the psychologist is sick. No money for that. So it's not like the salary is the charge for hour × 40.
3. Taxes and other expenses such as rent for one's clinic. This would vary a lot between countries. In my country, all these expenses take close to half the pay.
So overall, the income is probably less than a quarter of what people think, after years of low to no income.
So no, psychologists usually won't use your money to buy a boat or mansion or whatever...
To be fair many of the 90s family sitcoms were not as lavish. Most families could realistically afford a house.
"Friends" really started the trend of "average" 20-somethings living in the city and having tons of free time.
Martin was the one of the most realistic financial examples of figuring it out in your twenties.
Which show?
@@aladyinpurple the show is literally called “Martin” starring Martin Lawrence ,, a very popular black sitcom from the early 90s about a black couple and their friends. It’s iconic and hilarious! You should watch it.
@@aladyinpurple the show is called Martin
@@beebee__😂
because nobody could ever figure out what Tommy did for a living??
He mentions writers, but specifically journalism is often hilariously unrealistic. My reporter friends right multiple stories per day, and have some editing and website responsibilities. Glamorous, meeting fascinating people and getting invites to fun events, but it lots of work. Also, investigative reporting is often much more sending a lot of emails and digging through financial records than skulking around cinematic locations in heels taking pictures on a smartphone. The only journalism film I’ve seen that feels remotely real is all the presidents men, and that one is focused on an absurdly glamorous case
I need to add this
In movies and tv computer programmers and help desk technicians do a lot of research, dealing with customers and meeting
And there are many fields
Programming , help desk , web development, server management cyber security
The only tv show that gets it right is Mr Robot and the IT crowd
Thanks for covering teachers!! But… enough of the “I teach for the outcome, not the income” sanctimonious bs. We deserve a decent salary.
Thank you for this video. Please do a video on unrealistic expectations of doctors ["what a doctor should look like" according to bigoted prejudiced minds - Caucasian, male, tall, well-off background etc..] plus the overstressed, underpaid physicians who do not get to eat/ drink during >13 hours shifts whether day/night as there is too much demand. Another illusion is decent pay which is completely untrue if calculated at hourly net pay without accounting for memberships, indemnity insurance, out-of-pocket expenses to attend interviews/ post-graduate examinations etc. Another important note is how altruistic the system requires physicians to be: coming in early/ leaving late post shifts without taking breaks given the shortage of professionals. Unfortunately, physician suicide is reported to be 9x the general population rate. In the UK, 1 doctor dies by suicide every 3 weeks.
The one that most jumped off the screen to me was Barba’s expensive suits on SVU. He couldn’t be making the huge salary of a lawyer in a firm because he works for the DA’s office, and we know his family is a mother who’s a teacher and raised him in a neighborhood where no one had extra money. I loved watching the character when he was a regular, but his clothes never made sense.
Please make a video about the show scrubs
To be fair, Miranda does have a hard time balancing her work life balance when she becomes a mother. It’s an entire plot line you managed to skip over when using her as an example.
Ok Jerry's apartment isn't MASSIVE it's a big one bedroom, and regarding his "dining out every day" he mostly ate out that cheap diner, it wasn't like he was going to nice restaurants very often.
It is the way class is determined by likeability. When they have no available speech classes , etc. , plus, I did not pay 8% in taxes for 30 years to be homeless and paying others debts. So Erindida Rodriguez and Willow Rosenberg can sashay and imposter me for their crimes. Take my soulmates away and turn the 3 of them against each other. Plus, the isolation and not being allowed to own a company or property pisses me off. I see Christina Aguilera and those corrupt judges of Cleveland, Upper Sandusky, and Maysellsis, OH losing their homes. Why should I be punished for my looks and be mistreated for my patents deeds? If this does not change, I am creating a law codex.
I have friends who are writers. You need day jobs. And her family, stepfamily, parents, and grandparents, and class and teachers defrauded her and sold her to a murdering cult at Polaris at Old State Rd. .
I “get” what you’re communicating with the video, but I must stress how inflation has impacted our quality of life. There was a time when you can live a decent life with modest times.
Also, an unrelated point to what I just posted. Writers are usually working 2 to 3 side hustles and whatever jobs they can get, especially, if not an heir, same with most artists. Lawyers, working 3 jobs, an internship till like age 28 years old, when they get an entry level job as a notary and legal assistant as a lawyer, I initally wanted to be one in middle school. For people on corp. Job fast track, they have 2 to 4 side hustles, take every job there is, and write half the articles for local publications.
I think one of the reasons i really really love Better Call Saul is they dedicate a lot of time to showing the grind of the work like for example, they must have spent at least 10 minutes of show time showing Kim's daily routine of getting up in the morning, showering, going to work and working for way longer than everyone else and doing good at it. And on top of that how to actually get ahead she made calls on her breaks on top of everything else. And to top it off, it shows how her work is all consuming of her life and the impact her routine takes when she falls asleep at the wheel of her car. I really appreciate showing the amount of time and effort the grind of the characters.
Theres a scene were Mike checks his car for a bug, like normal shows and movies will just cut to "oh i found it it", but no, they did a timelapse of this dude tearing the entire car apart and searching everything, like it really showed this dudes perfectionism and drive. This is even better when later in the show you have a scene where he pulls of an epic situation, you already know hes probably spent hours working on getting it set up and that hes not just "lucky" or you just gotta take the directors word on being a really smart guy who just figured it out and dont question it lol
its actually a good reality check for me. because so much in media is seeing the result and not the work and time that went into it. its motivated me to get off my arse and stop playing video games and actually study. To get somewhere in life you really do need to put in the time and effort, make your own montage of doing work. I also love watching timelapse study videos as well which give the same feel.
Doctors, or surgeons. In grey's Anatomy, the characters act like they barely have any money, and need roomates to pay expenses.
They would still have to pay off their expensive loans from medical school
Yeah cause they are paying off med school, but also, an enormous part of any physician’s salary goes towards malpractice insurance. I worked at a physician placement firm, they get paid shockingly low for how much school and debt they have. They don’t make a decent living until they’ve been at it a long while.
I get this analysis is about US-based shows, but IMO French Netflix series "10 pourcent" (awfully called in English "Call my Agent"), is quite accurate in terms of what you can really afford and treat yourself in Paris.
Please expand on college professors. Mr. Maisel, Girls, Friends and even real professors that appear on Bill Maher make is seem as if they are rolling in dough.
Can you do a video on how toxic student teacher relationships are ? Also Dan as a writer and also gossip girl he would have gone to jail .
Adjunct professors/lecturers, tv makes it look sooooo glamorous and lucrative.
To be fair Mirander does touch on the crazy amount of hours she works and she petitions for more pay....that is more realistic.
I love being a teacher. I absolutely love being a teacher, but God forbid I complain about the pay or being overworked without hearing people say well then leave! Or you get summers off! Why are you complaining? As I work summers just to make ends meet not to mention the other 40 hours I'm not paid just to grade and plan. We are also the first place kids turn to when they face horrible trauma. We are counselors on top of it. Oh! But I better not complain or all hell breaks loose and I'm called a shitty teacher or ingrate for simply feeling. If only people really saw the struggle. I love Abbott Elementary, but that's the tip of the iceberg.
Scientist - a surprising amount of time is spent writing grants, i.e asking ofr money to get paid and buy equipment rather than do research
3:15 Horror Stories from Asian Female Actors. That’s an idea worth pursuing.
Like being pigeonholed, objectified, or harassed?
We need a new system without the ridiculious expectations, abuse of affirmative actions, and misaportiation and discrimination of mixed jews and german and irish americans by false records, false health care records, and questionable judgements in court denying them lawyers as defendants.
I'll say I don't agree with your assessment of Seinfeld. As a born and raised New Yorker who grew up watching the show I found at Jerry's apartment seemed really normal for Manhattan. My family's apartment was bigger than what was portrayed on the show and we are just middle class but in Brooklyn. This city used to be affordable for New Yorkers. It's only in the last 15 years that it's gotten out of control for everyone. Even now, I see the B and C list comedians I follow live on their own in New York or LA.
Those B and C list comedians may have income that is not obvious or shared with their followers. Studios in NYC are teeny and $2,500+. Only murders in the building showed an accurate depiction when Mabel was looking for a studio in Manhattan.
As others here have pointed out about medical shows ignoring non-doctors, likewise, most people who are work at big law firms are not lawyers, even though shows depict things as if they are. The support staff, which includes everything from the expected legal secretaries to more varied roles like experts and paralegals, well outnumbers actual attorneys. And even those who are attorneys are not always making so much money, as most are relatively junior associates, not partners.
Actual partners are always a minority at a large firm. Younger attorneys, like the late twenties aged Ally Mcbeal would not have been making bank just yet at that point in their career, and would have had law school debt to pay off too, yet the show glosses over this reality in the eagerness to depict an exaggerated version of things.
Free Palestine
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No
Please stop. We all aware of the situation in Palestine, but this Video is about the struggle of getting by on a normal salary and the Problems of people outside of Palestine. Let other people have their own problems as well and their right to discuss it without dragging Palestine into literally everything. Thank you.
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6:48 A beacon of hope ❤ (Also, genius casting)
I know you generally focus on adult TV shows and movies, but could you do a piece on how children’s television and movie set a highly unrealistic expectation for them and how it tortures parents
Teachers are underpaid in areas where property tax is low or students parents mostly rent and not own. My cousin’s husband is a teacher and makes $80k a year at a public school in the Midwest and is a millennial
yes. I was listening to a talk about defunding teachers and one of the speakers was saying his gym teacher (when he was in school) was making upwards towards 100,000 a year. I think it's like the lawyers, it's all about the state and district you're working in (there's a range).
Awesome video.
Better Call Saul was accurate about being a lawyer. Not the crime part but the mundane stuff. Actually, it portrayed a LESS comfortable life than real life for public defenders. Suits looks too pretty and not relatable for me. But you’re absolutely right that law is hardly glamorous. It’s grueling and mind-numbing. And I get sick of feeling like my work as a lawyer defines my worth. I’m worthless if a settlement doesn’t pan out.
Thats such a Samanta thing to say
First! 🥇☝🏾
I would like them to actually show someone who has to work late and not make it out like they just chose to do that. I love the Nanny and other shows from the 90’s but they always made it out like people have a choice on working long hours. Many people do not have that kind of choice.
It baffles me how teachers are treated in the US. In my country, teachers, although not wealthy per se, and definitely deserve a raise, earn a solid middle class salary. They also don't have to pay things for the classroom out of their own pocket - there's a special budget for that.
Love Abott elementary ❤
In one episode of SATC, Miranda was shown always coming home after her baby had fallen asleep, and she told her boss that she had to cut down her working hours to 55 hours a week, which is still insane. But in all the other episodes, she seems to have a lot of free time to meet up with her friends, go out to dinner, go on dates, etc. After she moves to Brooklyn, which means more time spend on commuting, one would think that she hardly had time to do anything other than working and commuting, but somehow she is now able to spend a lot of time with her family, even taking care of Steve's sick, elderly mother, and yes, still meeting up with her friends a lot. It's crazy.
I love the single young 20 something waitress living in a large loft apt in downtown (choose major city downtown)....😂
Character needs freedom to move where the plot needs them to be. Struggling with money take away freedom
Or you can have the plot lead by constraints? All manner of drama and comedy has been extracted from such conflicts
@@olivercoulter260 what do you mean plot by constraints?
@@zero1188 I mean have the plot be lead by the actual restrictions, challenges and limitations the characters face (economic, class, professional, social, etc), rather than the other way around. I.e. an arbitrary plot device that you just drop your characters into, even if they don’t fit.
Those kind of obstacles aren’t limited to just heavy drama, some comedies manage to extract very funny scenarios and schemes from them. A couple that come to mind are Broad City and Always Sunny.
@@zero1188 a story can be dictated by the circumstances and conditions actually faced by the characters (economic, class, social, professional, cultural), rather than being arbitrarily directed by the needs of a plot contrivance.
It doesn’t have to be a heavy drama to delve into realistic material conditions of characters, some comedies manage to mine this territory for funny scenarios and schemes. Broad City and Always Sunny come to mind.
Some of these examples would have been absolutely fine until the lifestyles portrayed.
Jerry’s apartment wasn’t huge. It was a one bedroom in the early 90s. Even unemployed Kramer could afford his in the same building. So could Newman as a mailman.
I was a kid in NYC in the 90s. I remember all the adults in my life, with very working or middle class jobs, having glorious apartments.
As someone who spent most their life in NYC, I know people making 24k a year in big apartments, with roommates.
People live on credit, people live paycheck to paycheck, and people get by.
But ffs I know people with way less than any of these SINGLE CHILDFREE CHARACTERS make….
With a wife and kids to support. In NYC.
There are millions of people here.
So many subtle lies they told us in movies and tv. No wonder why we’re all so messed ol
Idk scientist, either making breakthrough developments while on a huge salary from a research institute or having intrepid fully paid for expeditions to the ocean or jungle.. most of us work for councils in a tireless, desperate, underpaid effort to keep air breathable and water drinkable in our communities
I never considered Jerry's apartment as "huge." I live in NYC and the size/set seemed realistic, comparatively.
Seinfeld's apartment is rent controlled. They do also cover the fact that he earns a lot, to the surprise of everyone around him, mostly his parents who think he must be broke.
Most of these writers and producers have no idea about the day by day of any of these careers because they have never been in them.
Fashion designers aren’t extremely rich and don’t always have the newest designer clothing. They don’t live in the penthouse or anything no
Why Emma Stone's charcater cam always go to expensive parties?
On the show “Spaced,” all the staff of a restaurant were aspiring writers
I thought in New Girl, Schmidt carries most of the rent.
Nice pick of topic for content. 👍👍
Most stuff that happens is exaggerated
Doctors
What about of Penny, from Big Bang Theory. She´s a waitress and unemployed actress and she lives by herself on the same building where Sheldom and Leonard share an apartment.
Yeah, I'm surprised she wasn't mentioned. I too have wondered how much housing Leonard and Sheldon can afford. I guess since it's L.A., it's pretty expensive. My husband was weas a physics student in the Dallas area, and most of the profs lived in nice houses.
You forgot another Darren Star show, Emily in Paris. As someone who works in marketing & is about the same age as Emily, her designer lifestyle is laughable. 😂 However, it is a nice escape & the aspirational aspect & amazing designer clothes make it fun to watch.
Chicago Med and a plotline for a while where one of the residents had sonay student loans from med school that, on a junior doctor's salary, they just couldn't afford rent and such. Although in this case it was a plot device to get two love interests to move in together.
The Wedding Singer also has Adam Sandler living in his sister's basement, which is realistic for his profession. I do wonder how hr an Julia would have gotten on, given she was living of waitress wages and his work would be less reliable. I also wonder how he afforded what looked like a quite lavish wedding to Linda, given she didnt work and i didnt see any parents around.
On the 90s sitcom Step-by-Step, Patrick Duffy, the contractor, lived in a dump with his 3 kids before moving in to Suzanne Summers' HUGE house with her 3 kids, despite... working as a hair dresser out of her garage?
Definitely unrealistic. Our wages haven't matched the cost of living in decades. But maybe if they did, there wouldn't be so many shows on the implausible side of the realistic-vs-unrealistic scale, at least not in this particular area.