Best crime TV stupidity of all time

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Monk picture

Mr. Monk and the Astronaut - S4-E14

Stupidity: Steve Wagner is shown expertly constructing an elaborate hanging machine, but he adds a superfluous complication by having it triggered by a garage door remote control that he posts to the address in question. Anything could (and does) go wrong! Why doesn't he simply have it triggered by a bog standard timing device that you can buy in a hardware store for a tenner? I am not sure I'd trust him with my space shuttle.

More Monk 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
Hustle picture

Lest Ye Be Judged - S5-E3

Stupidity: The plan to infiltrate Emma into the coroner's office in a body bag is stupid. She is wearing a paramedic's uniform, and we see later when Mickey arrives, nobody is checking ID papers. How would she know that there was nobody in the room when she emerged from the body bag? If she could walk about the building without being stopped, why couldn't she simply walk in through the wide open front door in the first place?

More Hustle stupidity
Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: He was being blackmailed by Gary Roberts. He "reopened" the case as a ruse to kill Roberts.

Bishop73

More Murder, She Wrote stupidity
More Batman stupidity
Castle picture

Crossfire - S8-E22

Stupidity: When Castle and Beckett discuss the trap LokSat set for them at the dead drop and any forthcoming retribution, Beckett comments that her dad should be relatively safe from reprisal because he's on business out of town. Someone as smart as Beckett would never make such brain-deadly dumb assumption; considering how powerful and how dangerous he's supposed to be, especially with the resources of the CIA at his disposal, LokSat surely would have no trouble finding and getting to, and certainly no qualms about eliminating, Beckett's dad if it stopped her in her pursuit of him.

Cubs Fan

More Castle 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
Line of Duty picture

Episode #3.1 - S3-E1

Stupidity: Ronan Murphy is left handed. Watch carefully as he disarms himself. His weapon is replaced in his right hand. In a suspicious shooting, they never thought to check something so basic? (00:04:12)

More Line of Duty 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
Magnum, P.I. picture

Ghost Writer - S2-E11

Stupidity: TC has been circling his helicopter for ages directly over the building, but nobody inside was aware of his presence until the plot required it.

Sammo

More Magnum, P.I. 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
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
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
Death in Paradise picture

The Secret of the Flame Tree - S6-E2

Stupidity: Sylvie Baptiste is a successful writer, and she published novels after her masterpiece. The idea that she'd lose all her fame and fortune if someone published an academic paper making a completely unsubstantiated claim (if Sylvie does not have an original manuscript of the novel, neither does Lizzie) about her novel being the work of her crazy sister, is simply absurd. A good copyright lawyer or even any decent PR agency would put the appropriate spin to the accusations easily, and since her sister is certainly not gonna sue her and Sylvie is her only possible tutor, all those people supposedly very well connected with the academia and industry and shrewd in marketing their work, overreact for nothing. Even better; Humphrey has not even exposed the killer (or that it is a murder at all), and the university announces already that they plan to give a posthumous PhD to the deceased, for the paper she hasn't finished, based on an accusation with no evidence.

Sammo

More Death in Paradise stupidity
Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries picture

King Memses' Curse - S1-E13

Stupidity: The bad guys tied up, bound and gagged a 100 pounds teenager, but left the policeman they captured completely free of any restraints whatsoever in the same room (no real reason why they wouldn't have killed him).

Sammo

More Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries 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
South Park picture

The Succubus (a.k.a. Chef's Mama) - S3-E3

Stupidity: When Kenny and Cartman are sitting on the bench, Cartman can't start the tape as he has fallen asleep. Kenny then tries to wake him up, but wouldn't it have made far more sense for him to just start it himself, as he is sitting right next to it? Cartman's job was to push the play button. It was not like he had to rewind, fast forward or even eject the tape, so all Kenny had to do was just simply push the play button and tape would have started to play.

Shay

More South Park stupidity

FBI (2018)

FBI picture

God Complex - S5-E23

Stupidity: Maggie and OA are searching the building. As they walk up the stairs, Maggie is using the Harries technique, but she has both her handheld flashlight and the gun's flashlight on at the same time. This defeats the purpose of the technique. Additionally, it's daytime, so the building is lit up from natural light sources, but they still have their flashlights on. (00:13:36)

More FBI stupidity
The Twilight Zone picture

Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up - S2-E28

Stupidity: The whole plot is based upon 6 people not being able to spot the seventh (odd man out). We can eliminate the couples, the driver remembers the pretty blond getting on the bus and the crazy old guy would stick in anybodies memory, so it leaves only the sour old guy in the coat and hat as the martian.Also all the troopers has to do was ask for IDs which they do but quit after they ask the crazy old guy for his.

hifijohn

More The Twilight Zone stupidity

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