Best crime TV factual errors of 2020

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Perry Mason picture

Chapter Five - S1-E5

Factual error: Pete uses the term "throwing shade" when talking to Perry Mason in the middle of the episode. As this show is set in 1932, the phrase "throwing shade" did not yet exist (the phrase was first introduced in the 1990s). (00:35:00)

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Suggested correction: The phrase was not first introduced in the 1990's. While it did become popular in the 1980's, the idea of "throwing shade" as an idiom would have been around before then. A variation of the idiom is found in writings from the 1800's, for example "Mansfield Park" by Jane Austen.

Bishop73

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Ratched picture

Show generally

Factual error: The show, which is set in California in 1947, mentions the gas chamber, lethal injection and the electric chair as methods of execution in the state. Two murderers are sentenced to death by lethal injection and one is depicted being instead executed in the electric chair, which the governor states has been brought out of retirement for the occasion. In fact, California adopted the gas chamber as its sole method of execution in 1937 (having previously used hanging). Lethal injection was not used in the United States at all until 1982 and not adopted in California until 1993 (becoming the prime method in 1996). California has never used the electric chair.

Necrothesp

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FILE #1 - S1-E1

Factual error: Paul tells Shea that he has a condition called Sporadic Fatal Insomnia. Later, Shea finds a fork in a bag labelled Abby. Paul explains that Abby is his daughter, and he wants to test her DNA, because she has a 50-50 chance of contracting the disease. This is false. Sporadic Fatal Insomnia is not hereditary. Fatal Familial Insomnia is genetic and is the inherited form.

toroscan

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