Is there a word or phrase that applies to books, movies, etc. that go like this?

[raccoon]

Protagonist goes into a bar gets into a fight and leaves. Protagonist is going home and runs into somebody he owes money to gets into argument and manages to put him off. Protagonist goes home and somebody has broken into the home and is still there…

If there’s a word or phrase for this kind of thing (I am being serious) what is it?

[blm]

1. Pulp?

[yonder]

2. A "should've-stayed-home-and-worked-the-garden" book/movie?

Seriously, don't have an answer.

[viva la]

3. "Frustrating?"

I know what you mean-- it's that device of "3 encounters"-- where the same basic thing (encountering 3 times an 'adversary", and each time ends differently, and the last one is the worst.

I heard it called "snowball disasters" with the idea that each one ratchets up the tension.

Weirdly (or maybe not so), I have a recurring dream where I run home, desperate to get away from "bad stuff," and get home and make this big sigh of relief because I'm safe, only to discover that the worst is actually waiting for me.

(Suddenly I realize this is the end of Gone with the Wind, where Scarlett loses Melanie, realizes she could get Ashley if she wants him, and then runs through the fog to get home to be dumped by Rhett.)

[haele]

4. Noir.

Typically a monochromatic movie, where both antagonists and protagonists are painted in shades of dark grey.
No one is a hero. The plot divergence line in noir films is that ether the very flawed protagonist eventually does (or tries to do) the right thing in the end, or everything spirals out of control and the protagonist meets his fated end.
Tarantino tends to do bloody in your face noir. But most noir tends to be a lot more subtle and character driven.
On edit - there are a lot on noir books out there, also. The tend to be "failed,/amateur detective" or street level gangster type of novels.

Haele

[Hugin]

7. I learned something.

Thanks.

[Hugin]

5. A plot device? Drama?

It moves the story along. Stories that chronicle someone quietly reading in a corner booth for two hours are seldom blockbusters.

Except for Samuel Beckett… He had an inscrutable knack.

[Tommy Carcetti]

6. From TVTropes.com: Trouble Follows You Home

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TroubleFollowsYouHome#:~:text=Basically%2C%20this%20is%20when%20a,plot%20or%20be%20a%20finale.

Trouble Follows You Home

There's You Can't Go Home Again, there's Stranger in a Familiar Land, and then there's this.

Basically, this is when a character who wants to escape some nastiness, or probably he just defeated the nastiness, and finally returns home... and sees that the nastiness is there, too.

It can happen in the middle of the plot or be a finale. In case of the former, it can trigger Let's Get Dangerous! or give the unlucky homecomer a level in badass when he finally decides to give the nastiness a fight. In case of the latter, it can be a Shoot the Shaggy Dog ending.

[viva la]

9. I love that website

TV Tropes is a real treasure trove.

I also thought the real significant point was he comes back to his sanctuary and is attacked there.

[sarcasmo]

8. Bad.