Best drama 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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Westworld picture

Les Écorchés - S2-E7

Stupidity: The highly trained, elite security officer who tracks Angela down to the backups knows exactly what she is, how dangerous she is, and what she's capable of, but still drops his guard, flirts with her, lets her get up close and personal with him, and as a result gives her a clear window to grab his grenade to blow up herself, him, and all the backups.

Jon Sandys

More Westworld stupidity
The Vampire Diaries picture

Season 4 generally

Stupidity: Damon and Stefan are trying to get Elena's humanity back - they could have just asked Rebekkah or Klaus or Elijah to compel her to turn it on.

More The Vampire Diaries 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
Little House on the Prairie picture

Laura Ingalls Wilder (1) - S7-E1

Stupidity: Charles and Caroline are dancing at the church social. Charles makes a comment about Laura getting married. Caroline responds with "I'm just dying to call you Grandpa." Mary's son just died. Charles has already been a grandfather. That comment was beyond insensitive, and just plain stupid as written. She should've said, I can't wait to call you Grandpa again.

Ellexx

More Little House on the Prairie 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
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
Boy Meets World picture

City Slackers - S3-E11

Stupidity: After Cory and Shawn fish Mr. Feeny's watch from the septic tank, he suggests they jump into the lake to clean off. Cory protests, reasoning that it's only 20° outside, to which Feeny dismissively tells them to take a sweater. They then reluctantly abide. Someone of Feeny's education should know better than to allow them to jump into a freezing cold lake. They could both get hypothermia, and they're all currently isolated in the Pocono Mountains with no nearby medical facilities.

Phaneron

More Boy Meets World 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
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
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
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
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

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