Stop Making Me Pause the Damn Story to Read the Story

Ted Lasso has a message to read. Unfortunately, so do we. A scene from Season 3, Episode 4 of Ted Lasso.

Because Nothing Kills a Good Story Like Making Me Leave It

Am I the only person who gets irrationally annoyed when a TV show or movie flashes a text message on someone’s phone for approximately 1.7 seconds and expects me to read the damn thing?

Apparently not.

I Googled it, and for once, the internet made me feel completely normal. There are Reddit, Facebook and Quora discussions devoted to the very same complaint: text messages that are too small, too fast or simply impossible to read without pausing the show.

Well, hello, my people.

I understand why filmmakers do it. Showing the actual phone screen can feel more natural than slapping a giant digital text bubble across the screen. It looks modern. It looks realistic. And sometimes the message is an important part of the story.

But here’s my problem: if you make me pause your story to read your story, you’ve taken me out of your story.

That’s a problem.

The magic of a good movie or television show is that, for a while, I forget I’m sitting on my couch. I’m not thinking about the laundry, my phone or whether I remembered to move something from the freezer. I’m in the story. I’m watching the characters. I’m waiting to see what happens next.

Then someone pulls out a phone.

A message appears.

I squint.

The camera moves.

The message disappears.

What the hell did that say?

So I rewind. I pause. I lean forward.

And suddenly I’m no longer immersed in your carefully crafted drama. I’m conducting a forensic examination of a fictional person’s text messages.

That’s not what the storyteller intended.

And yes, I know what you’re going to say: “Just pause it.”

I did.

That’s the problem.

I shouldn’t have to interrupt the rhythm of the story because an important piece of information was displayed in microscopic type for the length of a sneeze.

Storytelling is about momentum. One moment pulls us into the next. A good story makes us forget we’re watching actors on a set and lets us become emotionally invested in what happens to the people on the screen.

Anything that makes us stop and think about the mechanics of watching can chip away at that illusion.

I don’t think filmmakers need to eliminate on-screen texts. Just give us a fighting chance. If the message matters, make it readable. Leave it on the screen long enough for an actual human being to read it. And if it’s three paragraphs long, perhaps reconsider whether you really need me to read the whole damn thing.

Because I came to watch your story, not take a reading-comprehension test.

So here’s my modest request to the people making the movies and shows I love:

Let me stay in the story.

If I have to pause it, rewind it and squint at somebody’s phone to figure out what just happened, you’ve already made me leave. If you make the audience leave the story to understand the story, that’s not realism.

That’s lazy storytelling.

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