Best mystery TV factual errors of all time

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The Haunting of Bly Manor picture

The Pupil - S1-E2

Factual error: The British schoolroom has a UK flag at the front. American schools might do that; UK schools don't. There's even a little one on the teacher's desk.

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JAG (1995)

JAG picture

Washington Holiday - S2-E9

Factual error: In the whole episode, Romania is depicted as a monarchy with the king in a position that allows him to make political decisions. However, Romania ceased to be a monarchy in 1947. By the time depicted in the episode (circa 1997), Romania was a republic and its head of state was the president. Members of the ex-royal family did not hold any positions in the Romanian government and were certainly not authorized to represent Romania in international events.

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NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service picture

Yankee White - S1-E1

Factual error: Air Force One landed in Wichita, Kansas. The local coroner claimed Jurisdiction for Wichita County. The city of Wichita, Kansas is in Sedgwick County, in southern Kansas. Wichita County, Kansas is in western Kansas, about 250 miles from the city of Wichita. (00:05:40)

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Forever Knight picture

Forward into the Past - S2-E4

Factual error: Nick tells fellow vampire Aristotle, "You still owe me for that time at the Battle of Hastings." Nick was brought across in 1228, or so the intro told us every week. The Battle of Hastings, as any British school kid knows, was fought in 1066, over 100 years before Nick's mortal birth. (00:29:30)

Jean G

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Fringe picture

Dream Logic - S2-E5

Factual error: When discussing whether Dr. Nayak's server could have been hacked, Agent Broyles says there was "no sign of a DDoS attack." A DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack is not a means of hacking into a server to alter data - it refers to flooding a web site with so many connections, through automated means, that legitimate visitors can't connect to it. It's a mode of attack that has no relevance to the situation they were discussing.

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The Ark picture

Hoping for Forever - S1-E10

Factual error: Trust called Proxima B an "eyeball" planet, meaning according to him a planet that does not spin on its own axis and always has one side facing the sun. That is incorrect. If only one side faces the sun it means the rotation on its axis and its revolution around the sun are the same.Otherwise, the planet would seasonally have all of its surface facing the sun once every solar year.

toroscan

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The Twilight Zone picture

Elegy - S1-E20

Factual error: The astronauts land on an asteroid said to orbit a binary star 655 million miles from Earth. This is impossible, as that distance would place them well within our solar system. In fact, they'd be inside the orbit of Saturn, where of course there aren't (nor could there be) any extraneous suns. The nearest star to our system is, in fact, trillions (not millions) of miles away. (00:02:15 - 00:04:00)

Jean G

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Alias picture

Show generally

Factual error: In the episode where Sydney is supposed to be in Helsinki, there are visible skyscrapers in the background. There are no skyscrapers in Helsinki.

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Arrow picture

The Scientist - S2-E8

Factual error: There is no way Laurel Lance would have been allowed on the prosecution team for Moira Queen's murder trial. Due to the facts that she both dated and as a lawyer represented the defendant's son, the defendant's daughter used to intern for her, and her boyfriend was one of the people killed in the Glades, it would have taken all of two seconds for the court to have her removed if she didn't willingly recuse herself, since her presence would be a major conflict of interest.

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The Wire picture

All Prologue - S2-E6

Factual error: The police "clone" the cargo dock's computer, as though it were a cell phone, so that they can watch all the cargo traffic and see when containers disappear. In reality, to "clone" a computer would simply make an exact copy of that computer's hard drive at a specific point in time. In order to see what is happening on a specific computer in real time, it is necessary to install some sort of spyware on The Target machine.

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Lost picture

Some Like It Hoth - S5-E14

Factual error: In the classroom where Jack argues with Roger next to the chalkboard we can see a poster of the periodic table of the elements. We can see some elements that wouldn't be there in 1977 since they weren't discovered until 1999.

EvilFreD

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Dexter picture

If I Had a Hammer - S4-E6

Factual error: In the newspaper article from the Trinity killers past - the report states that someone called 911 and dispatch gave them instructions. The death occurred in 1959. The first 911 call was made in 1968. (00:39:24)

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24 (2001)

24 picture

Day 4: 2:00 P.M.-3:00 P.M. - S4-E8

Factual error: When Edgar proves that Mary-Ann Taylor framed Sarah to be the rat in CTU, he claims that she remotely took control of her computer by sending the signal over "a plain old AC power line." This is not possible, unless the computers were equipped with special hardware to separate the AC from the signal. If they were, this traffic would have been observed by James Heller's assistant.

ronin692k

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Cold Case picture

Sabotage - S5-E12

Factual error: When Rush and Miller pull up to the vacant lot, the Los Angeles skyline is visible in the background. The series is set in Philadelphia. (00:21:54)

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White Collar picture

Point Blank - S2-E9

Factual error: In the scene where Mozzy is using a synthesizer to try and figure out the musical code, he starts playing random chords in frustration. Since the synthesizer is a Minimoog (a monophonic instrument) this is impossible. (00:12:45)

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