Why Does It Have to Beep and Boop?
There are many, many people who are binge watching Manifest on Netflix right now. It has currently racked up 2.05 billion watch minutes and in second place across all streaming services is Loki (Disney+) with a measly 713 million watch minutes.
I’m guilty of contributing to those watch minutes. Recently, Netflix added a “play something” button which is pretty brilliant. This is how I found Manifest.
Manifest was the first show that popped up and I had heard of it before so I gave it try. The show hooked the wife and I in, so we were committed to see where it was going.
Sadly, the show was cancelled after 3 seasons so we knew going in we may not get any closure. But, with its popularity on Netflix, there has been a #SaveManifest campaign going that started to receive murmurs of reviving the show.
Even the sci-fi king himself, Steven King, is on board.
I hope they revive it for a 4th season, provide closer, and then shut it down. Please, please don’t let it drag on like the adaptation of King’s Under the Dome.
This is not a Manifest review.
The show is intriguing enough to get to the end. It has some Lost vibes but I do think Lost had better writing and acting. It also had closure. OFC it was purgatory, how else would they explain the smoke monster?!
While binging the show, there is something that bugs me. It’s something that bugs me in most shows that includes some kind of computer or technology usage.
There is something that these type of shows do to “prove” to the audience that the characters are using the technology; the thing invariably beeps and boops for no reason.
There is a scene in Manifest where Mick is trying to find a suspect in the NYPD database and the software is quickly going through all the faces. With each face that passes, it gets a high-pitched beep. Now, in what real-world situation would this software need to beep as it was doing a search? Unrealistic.
Listen, I’m fully aware that I’ve singled out this “unrealistic” part of the show that is about an airplane that went missing for 5.5 years and reappeared. I get it.
This Scene Should Win an Award /s
There was an NCIS episode that might have the worst computer usage scene ever.
Ignoring the fact that there are two people using the keyboard in hopes to thwart the hackers who are probably using 3+ people on the same keyboard (it’s a losing battle), the computer is having a beeping fit. Look audience, things are happening on the computer!
To top it off, the solution to getting hacked was to unplug the computer. Fixed. Next problem.
The Bourne Identity Standard
I’m a big fan of the Bourne Identity, especially the first one. Not only is the soundtrack fantastic but the movie is one of the most “realistic” action movies I’ve ever seen.
I think showrunners should consider this realism when it comes to modern computer usage in their show. We live in 2021 where most of us know how computers work and we know computer usage when we see it.
Making the computer beep, boop, skeeeerrttt, whizzzzzz diminishes the credibility of what you’re trying to portray. Imagine using these computers in a real-life cubicle setting, it would be maddening.
There is a show called You that worked in computer usage quite well and it’s only of the most realistic implementations I’ve seen. The screen is overlaid on the screen as he uses the computer or phone.
Solutions
I would like to know who the user-interface designers are for these faux computer interfaces. Some of them are quite good visually, no beeping necessary.
I think these shows would be better off not even showing what the character is looking at. They can verbalize what’s going on and make it look like someone is actually using the computer like a normal human-being.
For example, in the NCIS scene, what would being hacked actually look like? They might open a malicious email attachment or try to open some rogue file and get hit with an error message holding their files hostage until they pay $1M in Bitcoin. Zero beeps.
Perhaps the only use for audio during a hack would be this.