Best crime TV character mistakes of all time

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The Sopranos picture

Nobody Knows Anything - S1-E11

Character mistake: When Tony tells Dr. Melfi he feels as though a safe might fall on his head, she replies, "a feeling of pending doom." A woman of her intellect and education should know the proper word is "impending." "Pending" means something awaiting a conclusion. "Impending" means about to occur.

djm

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Death in Paradise picture

Murder from Above - S7-E1

Character mistake: A computer display of currency transactions shows the word "withdrawal" spelled as "withdrawl." (It is also spelled correctly higher up on the display). (00:25:05)

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Sons of Anarchy picture

Orca Shrugged - S5-E5

Character mistake: Tig gets bit on the right butt cheek. Tara tells Chibs to give him a local, which is a numbing injection so she can stitch him up. Problem is that Chibs does the injection in the left butt cheek. You are supposed to give the injection close to the wound to numb it before stitches.

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Knight Rider picture

Deadly Maneuvers - S1-E3

Character mistake: The sign in front of the tank Lt. Ladd is trapped in reads "ORDINANCE TESTING FIELD, DANGER.", but an ordinance is a type of decree or law. They probably meant 'ordnance', which is another word for artillery.

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Law & Order picture

Remand - S6-E10

Character mistake: McCoy asks his witness, an expert geneticist, what the odds are that a DNA sample presented in evidence does not match that of the defendant. He answers "About one in two hundred." That is idiotic. If the DNA samples are identical the chances that the the sample presented in evidence does not come from the defendant is about one in two billion, not one in two hundred! A bright high school senior would know that, never mind an expert geneticist.

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

Suggested correction: If the odds are 1 in 200, that means the accuracy of the DNA is 99.5%. If the odds are 1 in 2 billion, that means the accuracy of the DNA is 99.9999999995%, which simply isn't true.

Bishop73

In fact as any geneticist (i.e, anyone like me) will tell you the chances of two identical DNA "fingerprints" coming from two different and unrelated individuals are around one in two thousand million. Two billion. In fact the odds are much higher than that but we scientists don't like to make claims that sound unlikely or fantastic. The accuracy of DNA fingerprinting is, as you point out, 99.9999999995%. You correction is wrong and the posting is correct.

Except that's not what happened in the scene or what happens in real life. You simply don't understand what you're arguing. You're not a geneticist.

Bishop73

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The A-Team picture

Blood, Sweat, and Cheers - S4-E8

Character mistake: In the scene where Jack is phoning Col. Decker to give him the A-Team's location, the camera zooms to a wanted poster of the three members. The poster lists Faceman as the rank of Captain, instead of Lieutenant.

matt_58

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The Wire picture

Unto Others - S4-E7

Character mistake: When Cutty quits the truant officer job and walks out of the office, he runs into his old girl from way back. She calls him David instead of Dennis. (00:51:00)

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The Punisher picture

One-Eyed Jacks - S2-E5

Character mistake: When Frank is starting to show Amy how to take the gun from him he removes the magazine and makes the statement "clip empty" - any Marine, certainly one as well trained as him would never refer to that as a "clip" - it is a magazine. A "clip" is a device intended to help rapidly load ammunition into a magazine.

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Charlie's Angels picture

Waikiki Angels - S5-E6

Character mistake: At the Life Guard Trials, Kelly is the first Angel to arrive. She finishes 20th. Then, four other competitors arrive (21st / 22nd / 23rd / 24th). Then, Kris arrives. The judge says to her "You're 23." (00:11:15)

Great_Captain

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The Twilight Zone picture

The Odyssey of Flight 33 - S2-E18

Character mistake: The real speed that was reported was 3,000 knots. At one point, the plane encountered a bright flash, and violent shaking. The Captain surmised that they broke the sound barrier. 3,000 knots equates to over 3,000mph. The sound barrier (Mach 1) is about 767mph, and the captain would know that.

Movie Nut

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Law & Order: UK picture

Vice - S1-E3

Character mistake: When Brooks and Devlin talk to Teddy, the forensic scientist, Teddy puts his rubber glove on incorrectly, with the thumb hanging off the pinkie side of his hand. (00:09:45)

Cubs Fan

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Sherlock picture

The Great Game - S1-E3

Character mistake: In the opening scene, Sherlock makes a point to correct Barry's poor grammar. But later, when talking to Watson, Sherlock uses poor grammar by saying "who's sleeping with who." It should be "who's sleeping with whom." Not a mistake Sherlock would make.

Bishop73

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Magnum, P.I. picture

The Big Blow - S3-E21

Character mistake: The party is supposed to be "One of the premiere social events of the season", but the only people invited (Higgins knows for sure who is gonna come, so it's not like there's low attendance because of the weather) are a Prince from a fictional European state nobody knows about with his commoner wife, the editor of a poetry magazine that needs Robin's funds to survive, a sports star and Robin's accountant. 5 people in total, already all in Robin's pocket, and nobody else in attendance. While you could say that having royalty and a golden glove winner is certainly noteworthy, those people don't meet anyone else. Hardly a 'social event'. (00:04:00)

Sammo

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