The Pantomime Factor is a device used by writers of
film and
TV dramas that has the audience shouting at the screen, when what the hero or heroine is about to do, defies imagination and
logic.
An example of The Pantomime Factor.
The heroine on a dark
night walks alone into her unlit house which clearly has had a forced entry and fails to see a figure lurking in the dark as they stumble about, never
even thinking about turning on a
light.
More impressionable observers will be shouting; "Look out behind you!" and similar warnings at the screen, but of course to no avail.