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?
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)
