CSI: Miami (2002) - 66 mistakes in entire show

Factual error: Series 5, Episode 13 : "Shock". When Nikki is found dead, electrocuted in her bath by having a tanning lamp thrown into the water with her, the lamp is shown as being on, fully lit, and mysterious blue electric lights are playing about around it. However, when the CSI crew enter the room they note that the safety on the plug tripped instantly - 'just not in time'. There should have been no power to the lamp, then.

Other: Every time they use Nikon DSLR you see how it looks when you look inside camera's viewfinder. And it's wrong. Nikon viewfinders don't have 9 focus points (I've checked at www.dpreview.com). Almost every time they shoot photos ranging from 13 to 15. Biggest number they shot was 17. Sometimes they shoot 13, 14 and then goes 13 again. Numbers are wrong also because it should represent how many shots are left to take, not how many you have shot.

Factual error: Every time the investigators deal with IP-addresses, the addresses on display are impossible. Each of the four parts of an IP-address has to be between 0 and 255. This isn't equivalent to the movie-specific 555 area code for phone numbers - having an IP address outside that range is like having a phone number which includes the % symbol - it's just impossible.

Factual error: In episode "Burned," as the firemen are putting out the fire, the water heater explodes, becoming a flying projectile. But you can see that the pilot light is still lit. The fire department would have immediately had all the gas to the home turned off, and the pilot would have gone out.

Factual error: Calleigh Duquesne frequently wears completely inappropriate clothing throughout the whole series. She often wears blouses that are so low cut that the neckline is below the lower curve of her breasts. No officer of the court in the US would be allowed to dress this way. There is no grey area here, and this is not a character mistake - first time a CSI turned up at work dressed like that, she'd be sent home to change. Second time, she'd be on suspension until she agreed to change her dress standards. Also (and this regularly happens in CSI:NY as well) she is regularly wearing high heels - also a certain no-no for as CSI.

Factual error: During many of the episodes, we often see an overhead shot one of the CSI agents in the Hummer speeding down the Miami (or Los Angeles, where it is filmed) highway systems to a crime scene or what not. If you pay close attention, there is almost never any other traffic on the highways besides them. Very unlikely if not impossible, especially in Miami (or Los Angeles).

Continuity: In Episode 'You may now Kill the Bride', when Calligh and Ryan are in the lab discussing the diamond, Calligh takes her earring off, but when she says, "The molecular structure of carbon makes it one of the hardest surfaces on Earth", her earring is back on. Then she scratches the glass with the earring she took off.

Audio problem: In episode "Born to Kill" when Ryan and Natalia are talking about the ticket he gave the suspect, Natalia's mouth keeps moving long after the words stop being said.

Continuity: They pull a man out of the swamp who they believe is still alive, but not breathing, and they sit there pounding on his chest. Not only did they not check for a pulse to determine that chest compressions were necessary, but no one was giving mouth to mouth or doing rescue breathing.

Continuity: At the very beginning of the episode, when a man catches a fish from his boat, another man places his hand on his shoulder to congratulate him,in the next shot his hand is gone.

Other: In the flashbacks of the crime, the surviving toddler continually walks through the blood, making perfect little 'blood footprints' all over the house, and a trail leading into the back yard. Accompanying him walking around is a sound effect implying that the feet in the toddler's footed pj's are made of cloth...acting like a sponge...unfortunately, not only would the footprints not be perfect and long lasting, but the pj feet were plastic.

Revealing: While Horatio and Alexx are examining the prostitute's body, you can see the corpse breath in a side view

Revealing: The compound Heptan-2-one is mentioned several times in this episode. The actress concerned persists in pronouncing the last syllable 'one' as in the number 1, whereas its correct scientific pronounciation should be as in the word 'bone' ie. sounds like 'own'. Nitpicking certainly, but a dead giveaway to any viewer with a basic knowledge of chemistry.

Factual error: Using a Draeger tube to test for nitric acid fume, the instrument made a clicking sound. This device does not click. The bellows pump is squeezed drawing air through the tube. A reaction takes place between the air contaminant and the material in the tube causing a color change. The length of stain is proportional to the concentration.

Factual error: Nitric acid is a liquid and not a gas. The gaseous precurser is NO2 which combines with water forming nitric acid, HNO3. Neither causes instant death.

Revealing: Horatio writes the symbols for sulfuric acid, H2SO4, on a clear board. Both numbers should be subscripts but he writes the 4 as a large number, suggesting a lack of basic chemistry knowledge

Deliberate "mistake": In the episode "Bunk," a man goes in the house looking for his cat. When the cat releases the fumes, it jumps down, but when the man dies, the cat is nowhere to be found. The cat is not mentioned ever again in the episode either.

Continuity: The scissors are being profiled but as seen with last scissor coming in, it's discarded after only one cut of the tape. This is NOT conclusive, as the whole blade of the scissor has to be profiled, which means he has to cut the tape at least a few times, until he has covered the whole blade, section by section

Factual error: Iodine-131 does not decay to normal Iodine. It decays to a stable isotope of the noble gas Xenon.

Factual error: I-131 (or any radioactive material) "at the end of its half life" does not instantly become non-radioactive, as was depicted in this episode. Radioactive decay is a continuous process; the half-life has no "beginning", but tells you how much time after "now" for however much is there at any time "now" to be reduced to one half that amount. Wait enough half-lives and the amount will fall to an inconsequential amount, but one is never enough