plothole

(PLAWT.hol)

n.

An obvious element missing from the plot of a movie, television show, play, or book.

Example Citation:

Is dialogue that sounds like it could be spoken by actual human beings (rather than a marketing VP) too much to ask? Can the audience NOT be insulted by having to step over gaping plotholes every third scene?

— Ty Burr, "Why 'Spider-Man' out-entertains 'Star Wars'," CNN.com, May 16, 2002

Earliest Citation:

The Eddie Capra Mysteries (NBC) bring the true whodunit back to television in a style slightly sprightlier than NBC's campy "Ellery Queen." Again, though, the audience is supplied clues as the sleuth, in this case a feisty maverick lawyer, collects them. Vincent Baggetta as Capra and Wendy Phillips as his very close neighbor Lacey Brown established a sweet rapport in the program's already televised pilot show that should help sustain interest even if the mysteries run into plotholes.

— Tom Shales, "A Day-By-Day Sampling of the New Fall TV Season," The Washington Post, September 10, 1978

Notes:

This blend of plot and pothole (1909) has been a staple of the movie and TV reviewer's vocabularly since at least the late 70s.

Related Words:

backstory

fan edit

jump the shark

multipath movie

mythic arc

storylining

Categories:

Books and Magazines

Film

Television