Thursday Thoughts #29

again, a quote from Harry Dresden.

 "Get a good way out from civilisation - say, miles and miles on a lightless lake, and the darkness there is waiting. Twilight means more than time to call the children in from playing outside. Fading light means more than just the end of another day. Night is when unseen beings with no regard for what our people have built and no place in what we have deemed the natural order, look in at our world from outside, and think dark and alien thoughts. And sometimes, just sometimes, they do things." 


Draw those curtains and blinds, lock those doors. 

I watch Criminal Minds (and read murder mystery books) and I know it is just a TV show, but I still yell at potential victims. 

There's been a murder in your town. The perpetrator spent some time, perhaps days or weeks and watched the routine of the victim through his or her windows, then entered the house and hid in a closet/ bathroom/spare room/ nook off the hallway. Wherever. 

Now everyone is scared, "how could this happen?" etc. They gossip about it at the supermarket or church, maybe in the school grounds while waiting for their kids. 
Then they go home and head to the kitchen to start dinner. 

No one locks their door! 
No one sets a motion activated alarm! 
When it gets darker no one draws the blinds or curtains so they can't be seen from the outside!

Everyone has huge picture windows so the entire room or even half the house can easily be seen when the lights are on because it is dark outside. 

The show even has men and women who live alone, come home after dark because they work late or they've been on a date, perhaps a blind date. (with someone who then followed them home?) And they kick off their shoes at the door, start removing clothing on the way to their shower, by the time they get to the bedroom they're near naked. All this while the lights are on and no windows covered by blinds or curtains!  
And they didn't lock the door as they came in. 

Meanwhile I'm sitting in my chair yelling, FFS!! Lock your door! Close those curtains! Check the back door is still locked from when you (hopefully) locked it before leaving the house that morning. Phone someone to let them know you arrived home safely.
Don't wander outside alone and in the dark to your garbage bin which is way down the end of your driveway!

What about you now? 
Do you sit there and yell at your TV when the victims walk inside and head straight for the drinks cabinet before they even think of closing and/or locking the door?
Do you clench your fists and go "aaarrrgh!!!" when they send a ten year old out alone in the dark with the garbage?

I love these TV shows, I really do, and yes my doors are locked. My blinds go down as the sun goes down.

Comments

  1. You remind me of when I first started watching Dexter.. I would get freaked out walking around the house that someone would jump out and grab me.

    Criminal Minds is on my list to watch. I'm not sure how I feel about Mandy Patinkin overall though I did enjoy him on Chicago Hope, I'm not enjoying him so much on Homeland. I understand he left fairly early on, though.

    I have seen an episode or two here or there and what I have seen I have liked, so I am sure I will enjoy it. :)

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  2. I am with you 100%. Funny observations.

    We never leave our doors unlocked, and we do not expose our naked bodies in front of un-draped windows...no one deserves to be subjected to that horror.

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  3. Our doors are locked even when we're home through the day...windows on safety latch....no one wanders around naked (perish the thought) and at night we close the blinds. It's just common sense.

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  4. Hooray for Harry Dresden.
    Doors locked here. Curtains drawn. Which is indeed common sense - which is all too often rare.

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  5. Tv and movies are full of things like that. Remember old movies and if someone lit a cigarette, they would only ever take two puffs and dramatically stub it out, although men might grind it out with their shoe.

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  6. Snoskred; Dexter never freaked me out, it takes a lot to freak me, but his needy, self-doubting sister Debra annoyed the heck out of me.
    Mandy Patinkin, who played Jason Gideon, was only in the first two seasons, then the character left the team, leaving a note explaining that he just couldn't take anymore. In season three Joe Mantegna appears, playing David Rossi, a retired profiler who comes back voluntarily to help out now they are a man short. Give it another go. I didn't much like Mandy Patinkin either.

    joeh; I understand the shows have to be made this way otherwise there'd be no story, but I still shake my head when the inevitable happens.

    Delores; doors and windows locked here too, at night the blinds come down when the sun goes down and the curtains are pulled across too.

    Elephant's Child; more Harry Dresden coming your way. I have key locks on my windows and I use them as well as locking doors. Blinds and curtains both drawn. Sometimes even in daytime, because that window faces north and the sun is fierce. Drawing both and lowering the outside awning drops the inside temperature by a lot.

    Andrew; I remember that, back when cigarettes were allowed in movies and TV shows. How many times did you see them stub out a barely started cigarette only to immediately light another?

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  7. I agree. Although, if there were "sensible" people on TV, well, we wouldn't have those shows :)

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  8. Vicki; and we do need those shows, if only to inform the audience of the need for locked doors and closed curtains.

    Joanne; I do TV scary stuff, but try to avoid real life scary stuff.

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  9. Yeah...but it wouldn't be a TV show if they didn't do all of that, would it? We enjoy telling all those dumb folk off!! ;ol

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  10. Eep! Do I need a new addiction? I've just started watching Justified. I'm like, how often does one usually get shot in the course of an evening, ya know? Finally a show where most of the characters speak without an accent though...

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  11. Lee; we do enjoy that part don't we? We sit there and think "How can you be so stupid? Don't agree to meet someone you never heard of just because he said he knew your cousin in grade three!"

    Happy Elf Christine; you probably don't NEED a new addiction, but go ahead anyway. I haven't heard of Justified, probably we don't get it here in Australia. Yet.

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  12. I read murder mysteries all the time and am continually amazed by how dumb many of the characters are. If I can see the trouble coming, why can't they?!?!?!

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