Best crime TV character mistakes of all time

Please vote as you browse around to help the best rise to the top.

Magnum P.I. picture

Dark Skies - S5-E8

Character mistake: Higgins and TC are investigating a drug smuggler camp in Maui. TC sees a box of cigarettes and says the people in the camp must be Latino because the cigarette box is in Spanish. Wrong. The box says Cigarillos, which are small, short cigars. If the box was in Spanish it would say Cigarrillos, which is cigarettes in Spanish.

toroscan

More Magnum P.I. character mistakes
More Dragnet 1967 character mistakes
The Borgias picture

The Moor - S1-E3

Character mistake: In the tent Djem reaches for food with his left hand. Totally a big no-no in the Arab and many other cultures! He would never lean on his right and leave his left arm - his unclean hand free.

More The Borgias character mistakes
More Castle character mistakes
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

More Charlie's Angels character mistakes
FBI: Most Wanted picture

Predators - S1-E8

Character mistake: The FBI team responds to a murder crime scene. The victim is lying face down in the bed with blood everywhere. The team leader takes the victim's wrist with his bare ungloved hand. A trained FBI agent would never touch a murder victim without gloves - one to protect himself and two not to contaminate the crime scene. (00:10:00)

Snag.1

More FBI: Most Wanted character mistakes
More Murder, She Wrote character mistakes
More Dexter character mistakes
Third Watch picture

Show generally

Character mistake: In the final episode, Carlos visits Doc in the psychiatric hospital for advice concerning his upcoming marriage to Holly. While talking, Carlos refers to Doc's deceased wife as "Linda", while throughout the series, it has been made very clear that her name was Deborah.

More Third Watch character mistakes
Batman picture

The Joker's Flying Saucer - S3-E24

Character mistake: Vertigris tells Joker he planted a bomb in the Batmobile while it was parked in front of City Hall/Police HQ. Only in this instance, it wasn't. It was parked in the alley out back, the better to hide his bomb-planting from public view, so it's strange that he'd forget this. (00:08:15)

Jean G

More Batman character mistakes
More Marvel's M.O.D.O.K. character mistakes
Life on Mars picture

Episode 4 - S1-E4

Character mistake: Sam encounters Marc Bolan in the club and warns him to "drive carefully", aware of Bolan's future death in a 1977 car accident. However, Bolan never learned to drive and he was actually a passenger in the fatal accident. (00:07:55)

More Life on Mars character mistakes
Perception picture

Caleidoscope - S2-E4

Character mistake: The chess set in Dr. Pierce's home office is set up incorrectly. When the men are set up properly, each player has a light colored square in the right-hand corner. The board as it appears in the show is set up so that the light-colored square is in each player's left-hand corner. This "beginner" mistake puts the king and queen in the wrong positions.

More Perception character mistakes
The Professionals picture

Take Away - S4-E6

Character mistake: When Cowley visits Bodie at the squat, the unwashed and dirty Bodie suggests Cowley should stand downwind of him. Downwind Cowley would smell Bodie; he should have said upwind.

More The Professionals character mistakes
More Batman: The Animated Series character mistakes
Fargo picture

The Tender Trap - S5-E6

Character mistake: Deputy Olmstead says to Lorraine Lyon, "You think that you're rich 'cause you're better than me." Surely, the line should have been "You think that you're better than me 'cause you're rich."

Leicaman

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

Suggested correction: No, she actually does mean Lorraine thinks she is rich because she is better than her. And to her, anyone who is not rich is therefore less, or else they would be rich too. It's the same type of thinking but with a different approach as what you suggest. It's about privilege.

lionhead

Interesting. I can see it either way. Thanks for the thought.

Leicaman

More Fargo character mistakes

FBI (2018)

More FBI character mistakes
More The Twilight Zone character mistakes
More New Tricks character mistakes
More Jessica Jones character mistakes

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.