Lummie

Show generally

Question: At some point in season 3 it is discovered that Mrs McCluskey has been keeping her dead husband's body in the freezer so that she can keep drawing his pension. For a while the other residents of the lane ostracize her because they believe she has murdered her husband. When she explains the reason why she kept him in the freezer everyone just accepts it and it is never mentioned again. However, pension fraud is a major crime. Why was she not arrested?

Answer: Sympathy most likely. The husband didn't leave anything to her upon his death, so they might have not wanted to upend her life any more.

Lummie

24th Mar 2021

Monk (2002)

Mr. Monk and the Leper - S5-E10

Question: At the end, when the doctor is pulling Monk up, the camera pans down well past Monk's feet, but was there a reason for that? Was there something on the cliff side the audience was supposed to see? It felt like the camera was about to linger on the weeds growing out, but then the camera angle cuts back to Monk's feet. Was there something I missed, or was it just bad/odd camera work?

Bishop73

Answer: From an editing background, I think it was likely to cover up the shot once Monk is being pulled up. The shot was panning down, and they likely extended the shot in the editing. The fact he was pulling up Monk with one hand is very tough to do, so they may not have had a clean shot of him pulling Adrian onto the ground. Additionally, it may have not looked right so cutting to the shot panning for a couple more seconds before showing Monks shoes would likely fit the time it would take to pull him all the way up.

Lummie

17th Apr 2021

Monk (2002)

Show generally

Question: Is it ever stated (in-universe or otherwise) if Natalie has a second job, or how she can afford everything, including all her new cars (I've seen her in at least 5 new cars, including an Audi)? She's always complaining she's broke, even after it's revealed she's a Davenport. But she also claims she doesn't take money from them. Plus, she's always trying to get Monk to pay her and/or pay her the full amount she's owed.

Bishop73

Answer: Through the entire show, I don't recall her ever mentioning another job. The two explanations I had for being able to afford those cars, was there might have been a life insurance policy after her husbands death (or Mitch left her quite a bit after he died). The other may have been she had accepted some money from her family willingly or unwillingly asked for it. But in truth, I would imagine it was for product placement in the show. Most shows like Monk tend to keep the characters moderately wealthy or financially healthy, so they can insert products or items for the characters to use. Phones, food items, cars etc.

Lummie

Answer: In one of the episodes it shows her going back home and that she came from money. Her parents are wealthy. Maybe that is the answer.

But in the show after it's revealed she comes from money, she states she doesn't take money from her parents, despite still visiting them.

Bishop73

Question: Ted's friend Dom knows a guy who can find Mary for him. Later on it's revealed that Dom is also Woogie, Mary's old boyfriend who got weird on her and is still obsessed with her. However, if Dom knew Healy could find Mary why didn't he use him himself to find Mary and stalk her again?

lionhead

Answer: Mary mentions to Dom that there was a restraining order against him, which was the first reason. But he also mentioned he spent 9 years in therapy sessions trying to get past their former relationship. This would suggest Dom hadn't considered trying to find Mary until Ted took the lead.

Lummie

1st Nov 2014

Prison Break (2005)

Season 1 generally

Question: To create a lock-down situation in the prison, Michael breaks the AC unit and the doctor later says that it's the hottest April on record. However the beginning of the episode where Lincoln sits in the electric chair and is then let out again (forgot the name of it) shows it snowing pretty heavily. Up to this point the programme has been set within one month so my question is this. Is this meteorologically possible? And if so is it probable to have heavy snowfall in the hottest April on record?

strikeand

Chosen answer: While this might be an oversight in the show itself, speaking from experience there is a possibility of snow coming and going despite being a warm month. I remember in 2014 going from a high of 8° Celsius (46F) and sunny to -16 C (3.2F) and heavy snow the very next day. The statement as you put means it's the hottest April on record, not the hottest temperatures for the entire year. It may have been unusual temperatures for that time of year and warmer than usual. The snow might have only been for a brief period and disappeared shortly after.

Lummie

23rd Dec 2014

Elysium (2013)

Question: The method of identifying citizens by a "tattoo" burned into their arm seems awfully prehistoric for such an advanced environment. The government would "know" the number of legit citizens and would know that the black market citizens were fake, right?

applejackson

Chosen answer: There is virtually no system in the world that is completely foolproof when it comes to regulating a large scale system related to identification. We only know the tattoo are for certain services. There might be more high tech security features for more restricted areas. As for whether they have an accurate count of all their citizens, they might, but again, how you go about regulating these systems is generally the tougher part. At the end of the day people required special transports to even reach Elysium, so it might have not been as big a concern.

Lummie

29th Apr 2013

Munich (2005)

Question: Is this the last movie to be shot, edited and finished on film?

Answer: It's a bit difficult to find out this sort of information as not all films released disclose what they use to edit on. Michael Kahn is perhaps the most famous editor around to edit on flatbed machines and switched to digital editing for time constraints. Many film schools still teach and use flatbed editing so you may still see short films edited on film, just not feature length movies for a variety of reasons.

Lummie

27th Sep 2008

King of the Hill (1997)

Answer: At that point in the investigation Buck was trying to frame Hank for the murder of Debbie. Buck tried incriminating him on tape and planting a shotgun shell in his truck. Using Hank's truck to go to the quarry gave him an opportunity to plant the shotgun shell. Why he picked the quarry specifically is left unknown, but it was likely one place that would be deserted and easy to speak freely.

Lummie

20th Sep 2008

The Simpsons (1989)

Answer: The only explanation I could find is that some jackets have mittens sewn to them to help prevent the wearer from losing the mittens. Whether this comment is a reflection of the mental state of the children is a possibility.

Lummie

11th Sep 2008

The Matrix (1999)

Question: When Cypher is in the restaurant with Smith, is this before he was set free from the Matrix? I'm not too sure if it was the same for him, but I know they try and get them when they are young rather than older, so if it was during him being free, would he have been caught?

Answer: Cypher was out of the matrix when he met Smith at the restaurant. Like those on the ship, he had to plug into the system anytime he wanted to go into the Matrix. Cypher was being used as a mole by Smith to get to Morpheus. There would be no reason to take him out as he was working with them.

Lummie

10th Sep 2008

Family Guy (1999)

Show generally

Question: One of the jokes I've never really gotten - on Quahog's news show, why do Tom and Diane point out that other reporters are Asian, Hispanic, etc?

Answer: Most likely it is a joke on the reporters being a example of racial tokenism. For example Tricia Takanawa name, face, accent are of a stereotype Asian. The fact they refer to them by a race or ethnicity is more of a joke about that.

Lummie

5th Sep 2008

Blow (2001)

Question: Considering how small her role was (in relation to the film's running time), why did Penelope Cruz earn second billing behind Johnny Depp?

Cubs Fan

Chosen answer: A star's screen time does not equate to what position they are billed at on a film. It generally relates to the selling power of their name. The film's main star would obviously be Depp. Cruz however would still be higher than people like Liotta, Reubens, etc. as her name is more known. It also helps with selling the film to audiences than just a one actor film.

Lummie

Answer: While no official response from Fox as for its long delay, many have speculated the reason is due to the mixed success the series has had on DVD. The second season is generally used as the example, as the DVD set didn't contain any special features whatsoever. Generally a sign the studio is not confident of the DVD's success.

Lummie

Answer: All seasons have since been released on DVD.

15th Aug 2008

General questions

Was it ever true that actors would get paid more if they were willing to do nude scenes? If so, is it still true today (since nude scenes are not such a shocking new thing)?

Answer: There is really no definitive answer to this. The best example to say they would is Demi Moore. She was paid around 12.5 million dollars to do the film Striptease, which was substantially more than what she usually got. While the main reason behind that might have been because the quality of the film was fairly poor, it seems to be more of an artistic decision than money. Stars in arthouse and foreign films are more likely to do nude scenes and the likelihood is they are getting less in salary. While in major films it would seem unlikely. Actors who reach a certain success will generally be able to have clauses in their contracts preventing them having to do nude scenes. Studios would also be unlikely to pay more as they would not want to risk higher ratings for their films as it might hurt box office receipts. The way it might directly be true is if someone specifically demands more money if they're asked to do a nude scene - Halle Berry was reportedly paid an extra $1m for her topless scene in Swordfish (her first nude appearance), presumably because the studio thought the extra press was worth the cost.

Lummie

Chosen answer: You need to provide a little bit more information to be able to answer a question like this. In what region is it not being shown? I see it being replayed here in Australia fairly frequently. As for a general reason, there does not appear to be any for why it specifically might have been taken off the air in any country or region. Like any show certain episodes can sometimes not be replayed for long periods for unknown reasons.

Lummie

4th Aug 2008

Demolition Man (1993)

Question: When Spartan is asking about his daughter, all I hear is "(mumble-mumble) happened to her?" Does anyone know what he actually says?

Answer: He says "I had a daughter. What happened to her?"

LorgSkyegon

Answer: From the subtitles I found and what I remembered I think his exact words were "And my daughter, what happened to her?"

Lummie

I made a promise, what happened to her?

1st Aug 2008

Fargo (1996)

Question: On the DVD's front cover it says that this film is based on a true story, but I have heard a rumour that this is a complete lie and the entire film is fictional. Is this true and if so are they allowed to say it's based on truth, when it's totally made up?

Answer: That rumour is true. There is a bit of information to the story so this link will explain a bit more of the detail, Link 1 & Link 2. It is somewhat of a complicated issue but it is allowed. Texas Chainsaw massacre (which was also claimed to be true but was not) is an example of this. The technique has allowed distributors and filmmakers to make the film more enticing to audiences. While the tagline is not completely true, the fact that some elements are true means it is not totally false.

Lummie

1st Aug 2008

The Simpsons (1989)

Chosen answer: The episode is "Little Big Girl" from the 18th season.

Lummie

29th Jul 2008

King of the Hill (1997)

Show generally

Question: Has there ever been any clear indication that Luanne does or doesn't know about Nancy and John Redcorn's affair?

Answer: Yes! In Peggy's Headache when Hank told Luanne her aunt had her headaches cured by John Redcorn and she gasp and he told her to stop that and put her face back the way it was before someone sees it. She knew then. All the adults knew.

Answer: There is nothing to specify that she did or didn't know but most of the characters bar Dale and Peggy before she found out, acknowledged it was common knowledge. As Hank pointed out to Peggy about how else do you explain Joseph.

Lummie

7th Jun 2008

Lost (2004)

Season 4 generally

Question: When Claire walks off towards the end of series 4, leaving Aaron in the care of Sawyer, who then hands him over to Kate, who then takes him away from the island; how are they feeding him? Claire couldn't have bottlefed him because they didn't have formula or sterilised bottles and if she was breastfeeding, how did Sawyer and Kate and Sun take over? He can't already be eating solids as he's only 5 weeks old.

Answer: I would have to believe there was food or supplies for Aaron on the beach. They had a large number of supplies of Dharma initiative foods and the fact that Sun was preparing for her pregnancy, she might have started looking at what foods were available on the island in case they couldn't get off. As for feeding it might simply be a case of we don't see this going on. The show's episodes are generally spread over a short amount of time. There is the chance they might have not had time or hadn't got around to it on certain occasions.

Lummie

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