Best action TV stupidity of all time

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The Flash picture

Crisis on Earth-X, Part 3 - S4-E8

Stupidity: After the power cuts out, Thawne realises an obvious hiding spot and races to the secret room. He sees it's empty and just...stops looking? We literally just saw The Flash take a fraction of a second to scout out an entire enemy base we're told was 22km away! While he's dawdling in the secret room, Iris and Felicity get to Kara, knock out the guards, and get her down the corridor to the lift. He could have checked the entirety of Star Labs 10 times over in that time.

Jon Sandys

More The Flash stupidity
Batman: The Animated Series picture

Heart of Ice - S1-E3

Stupidity: Ferris Boyle tries to cover up his sabotage of Victor Fries' experiment, but he opts to store the incriminating security tape of the event in a filing cabinet instead of simply destroying the footage.

Phaneron

More Batman: The Animated Series stupidity
Supergirl picture

Medusa - S2-E8

Stupidity: At the beginning, James and Winn argue in whispers about who gets to tell Kara that James is the Guardian, a secret they've been keeping from her, both of them apparently forgetting that she has superhuman hearing.

Cubs Fan

More Supergirl stupidity
Black Lightning picture

The Book of Rebellion: Chapter Three: Angelitos Negros - S2-E10

Stupidity: The SWAT van transporting Khalil comes upon the most obvious setup in the history of setups, a crashed car with a miraculously unharmed woman lying in the street next to it, one arm suspiciously out of view. And of course one highly trained SWAT agent, instead of going in with backup, circling around for a proper look, or driving around (as his teammate suggests) or anything similar, wanders over and is immediately killed for his trouble. And then of course despite being surrounded by armed cops, she somehow manages to kill all of them without a problem (offscreen of course, because there's no way to believably show her single handedly killing about 20 cops).

Jon Sandys

More Black Lightning stupidity
More Batman stupidity
Star Wars: The Clone Wars picture

Show generally

Stupidity: Whenever General Grievous fights another lightsaber-user, there's almost always a moment with all the sabers crossed dramatically in front of both participants, one preventing the other striking a killing blow. Looks good, but utterly ridiculous, because he's got 4 arms and 4 lightsabers - he could easily block the blade in front of him with one or two arms, and simultaneously swipe at their head and legs, which no-one with two arms could ever defend against. Of course that would make for a lot of very short duels.

Jon Sandys

More Star Wars: The Clone Wars stupidity
Spider-Man picture

The Return of Hydro-Man: Part 1 - S5-E7

Stupidity: When Spider-Man is working in the lab, he uses his webbing to barricade the door shut so no-one interrupts him. When Debra Whitman shows up and asks who is in there, he identifies himself as Peter Parker. When he is finished with his work, he leaves out of the window so that by the time the security guards break the door down, he has vanished. Since he used his webbing to keep the door closed, it would be pretty easy for Debra and the security guards to figure out that Peter is Spider-Man since Spider-Man's webbing is at the scene and Peter seemingly vanished into thin air.

Phaneron

More Spider-Man stupidity
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier picture

The Whole World Is Watching - S1-E4

Stupidity: The Dora Milaje arrive to take Zemo. John calmly attempts to talk them down, but it leads to a huge fight when he puts his hand on Ayo's shoulder. There are multiple instances during this fight where they totally would have stabbed John and Lamar with their spears, and are only stopped because Sam and Bucky intervene. While it's understandable they would want to obtain Zemo, attempting to kill two people to do so is completely out-of-character and goes against all of their morals and principles.

Casual Person

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: I watched the scene and I never saw any of them try to straight up murder anyone. They were very skilled and precise in their attacks (for example, pinning John) and wouldn't have murdered anyone.

Bishop73

Here's a link to the scene (https://youtu.be/cpUq-kYMPkc). I counted three times when they almost kill them. First, after Ayo knocks John to the ground after he puts his hand on her shoulder, she attempts to stab him with her spear, prompting John to pick up the shield to stop himself from getting stabbed. There is no way she could have known that he would have picked up the shield, and if he did not do that, she would have totally stabbed him.

Casual Person

Second, there is another attempt where Ayo tries to stab John, which is only avoided because Bucky grabs onto the spear with his metal arm. Third, the two other Dora Milaje get into a fight with Lamar, and there is a point where one of them is about to throw her spear at him, but Sam grabs onto the back of the spear, so she cannot stab him. These are clear attempts to kill John and Lamar and were only avoided because Sam and Bucky intervened.

Casual Person

More The Falcon and the Winter Soldier stupidity
Ahsoka picture

Show generally

Stupidity: Recurring issue when Ahsoka is fighting with dual sabers - there are often times in a duel when one saber is clashing with the other person, but she still has a hand free with her shoto that she could use to stab/slash and win the fight easily. Would make for shorter battles of course.

Jon Sandys

More Ahsoka stupidity
The Blacklist picture

The Forecaster (No. 163) - S4-E10

Stupidity: Farnsworth tells Charnquist they've been compromised by a girl listening in on their phone calls and that Charnquist needs to take care of it. He is able to identify the girl, elude FBI, tries to burn his apartment down, is able to gains access to Maggie's apartment and knock out Aram in order to kidnap Maggie. He's a killer who works for someone who has arranged dozen of murders, and knows "take care of her" means kill her. There is absolutely no reason for Charnquist not to have just killed Maggie, Aram, and Fiona. He had opportunity and he ends up killing 3 cops in order to kidnap her and kidnapping Maggie would not have solved anything.

Bishop73

More The Blacklist stupidity
Batwoman picture

Pilot - S1-E1

Stupidity: Batman and his security guy Luke Fox have the worst IT security in America, since the security network of Wayne Enterprises has had the same password for years, and it is just six letters.

Sammo

More Batwoman stupidity
Fantastic Four: The Animated Series picture

Behold, a Distant Star - S2-E10

Stupidity: When Johnny finds out his father is alive and wanted for murder, he is livid with his sister for telling him neither fact. When Sue decides to tell him the whole story, she asks Reed to pull a photo album from the drawer next to him, which contains a newspaper clipping detailing that their father was wanted for murder. If Sue didn't want Johnny to know about that, she shouldn't have placed the clipping in a photo album, and then kept the photo album in a communal area where Johnny could have easily discovered it at any time. (00:06:19 - 00:07:34)

Phaneron

More Fantastic Four: The Animated Series stupidity
CSI: Miami picture

Point of Impact - S8-E8

Stupidity: After talking to the bartender, Calleigh goes back the lab and talks to Caine, and he wonders if they got a false positive from the vic's blood alcohol. Calleigh then gives a detailed description of how that could happen; Caine already knows how (obviously this was done for the audience, to explain it, but in the context of the show, it makes no sense).

brianjr0412

More CSI: Miami stupidity
Prison Break picture

Allen - S1-E2

Stupidity: Michael is shown to test the dimensions of the Allen key against a tattoo. Why not just try it in the bolt? It would be a lot more accurate. (00:37:00)

Ssiscool

More Prison Break stupidity
Star Trek: Voyager picture

Unforgettable - S4-E22

Stupidity: When Kellin is hit with the neurolytic emitter, it erases her memories of the outside world. However, the effects aren't immediate and take some time (enough to get her to sick bay and have time to talk to Chakotay). However, she spends her time telling Chakotay to help her remember their relationship, etc. when her memory is gone instead of just making a recording of herself describing the relationship and her feeling which can then be shown to her after her memory is gone. She might not believe the recording, but seeing herself discuss the situation would be better than just relying on Chakotay (who will soon be a stranger she never met) telling her something so unbelievable.

Bishop73

More Star Trek: Voyager stupidity
CSI: NY picture

Zoo York - S2-E3

Stupidity: When Mac and Lindsay are reconstructing the stab wound found on their victim on their pig specimen, a couple of the weapons they use are long, thin knives; since they obviously don't match the circular wound, Mac at the very least would know those could be excluded by default.

Cubs Fan

More CSI: NY stupidity
Magnum, P.I. picture

Tropical Madness - S2-E6

Stupidity: The elaborate plan of the bad guy obviously involves driving Magnum increasingly crazy and create a rift between Higgins and him, but practically all the most damning episodes are outside the bad guy's control, and all the steps he takes are actually harmful towards him should have Magnum been in any way competent at his job. He couldn't have predicted that Magnum would paint the whole episode under the ridiculous light of "sumo wrestler and midget" instead of "big guy and small guy", he couldn't have predicted he'd stain himself, he'd try and force himself upon the girl, he wouldn't check the girl's background.

Sammo

More Magnum, P.I. stupidity
Continuum picture

A Stitch in Time - S1-E1

Stupidity: During a shootout in front of a bank, one of the bank robbers lays his shotgun on the trunk of a car and yells "I'm out!" However, he has 6 additional rounds in a shell holder on the side of the gun. (00:35:20)

More Continuum stupidity
Justified picture

The Promise - S6-E13

Stupidity: Markham lets Ava call her uncle's phone, and she doesn't let on that Boyd answers instead. He later says "I don't trust anyone", but he didn't demand she put the call on speaker for transparency, he's quite happy (at the time) to just hear one side of the call.

Jon Sandys

More Justified stupidity
The Mandalorian picture

Chapter 13: The Jedi - S2-E5

Stupidity: Ahsoka is fighting against the spear-wielding woman. She keeps blocking the spear using both her sabers. It would be very straightforward to block the spear with just one lightsaber (as she proves she can do just as well after she loses the smaller one) and use the second one to, for example, cut off the woman's hands.

Jon Sandys

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: This is opinion, not stupidity.

More The Mandalorian stupidity

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