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Comment by m0ngr31 | Hacker News Reader

I've been working my way through Seinfeld, and I realized most of the plot lines couldn't have happened if cell phones were commonplace back then.

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You know, that's another thing that has changed a lot. Modern TV writer just can't stop himself from using the mobile phone as a device to advance the story. We have to watch some guy in a TV show sending iMessages. That is so boring, and as a caveman from the pre-cellular era it takes me out of the show and makes me want to turn it off. A recent offender in this regard was the Amazon show "Bosch". If you made a supercut of the titular detective answering his iPhone, it would be almost as long as the series itself. This is particularly irritating since the Bosch novels were written in the 90s, before the smartphone era, in the car-phone era at the latest.

Whats interesting to me is the transition period in screenwriting. From the early 2000s to the early 2010s, characters would be shown carrying phones but would still get into situations which could be solved easily with their mobile. But they’d act as if they didn’t have it. I found interesting watching the writers adjust their tropes over time.

It’s also interesting to me that this problem, of storytelling in a world of instant communication, was first addressed in the original Star Trek. Various adventure story tropes had to be adjusted for communicators and transporters. Roddenberry et al admitted it was a headache sometimes.

Just as obnoxious is the character seen constantly vaping with a huge lightsaber of a vape. "I care a lot" was especially bad with this. What did that add to the plot?

Congrats on being able to spot product placement advertising (not sarcastic)

I love how every horror movie in the past ten years has an obligatory scene to establish some flimsy reason why their cell phone doesn't work.

To the modern net-addict human, a non-functional cell phone is a horror all by itself.

There's a modern Seinfeld twitter account, which has a bunch of zany plot lines that are only possible in the smart phone era.

Wanted to share the link just because I love this account as well: https://twitter.com/SeinfeldToday

A recent example:

George's GF wants a "no phones at dinner" rule. G: "We had a good thing going, Jerry! Now we're supposed to talk? That can only end badly!

This one is still current, and hilarious:

https://mobile.twitter.com/seinfeld2000

Curb Your Enthusiasm isn’t modern Seinfeld?

Also 'Romeo and Juliet' (tragedy occurs because a message isn't delivered), 'Assault on Precinct 13' (gang cuts the phoneline to a besieged police station) and the opening credits of Terry and June (couple can't find each other in a shopping centre)

I think a lot of movies now take place in the past to remove the mobile-phone problem.

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