swordfish

Whac-A-Mole - S3-E8

Factual error: There is no way that Tritter could have Wilson's bank accounts frozen on such shallow evidence. Courts require serious evidence before granting an asset freezing injunction. Given no formal charges have been filed against Wilson, they won't grant an injunction. Asset freezes are to stop someone moving money overseas/spending funds; there's no suggestion Wilson has been paid by House for the meds or might move money offshore. No court in the US will grant an asset freeze on so little evidence.

swordfish

Whac-A-Mole - S3-E8

Factual error: The pharmacist refuses to provide Wilson with the medicines he has prescribed to his patients, since Tritter has had Wilson's DEA number/license suspended. However, DEA licenses/numbers are only in relation to controlled substances. Wilson is an oncologist; the chemotherapy medications he would be prescribing aren't controlled substances, and as such, not having a DEA licence wouldn't prevent him from writing scripts for these (although he couldn't prescribe any strong pain meds). (00:10:38)

swordfish

Euphoria (2) - S2-E21

Factual error: Cameron forces House (against his wishes) to do the biopsy on Foreman because Foreman has made her his medical proxy. This is completely incorrect; Cameron may be Foreman's proxy, but that doesn't mean she can overrule the attending doctor. Having the right of medical proxy allows her to *refuse* a test in Foreman's name (or refuse consent to any number of medical activities on Foreman), but absolutely not to order a test or operation contrary to the attending doctor's views. (00:34:45)

swordfish

Fidelity (aka: Truth or Consequences) - S1-E7

Factual error: House rules out Lyme disease from being the cause of the sickness, since he says Lyme disease presents with a rash, which the husband would have noticed. However, although a rash is a common symptom of Lyme disease, it is by no means universal. Estimates suggest that around one-third of people with the disease don't exhibit that symptom. Doctors wouldn't therefore rule out Lyme disease solely in the absence of a rash. (00:10:25)

swordfish

Factual error: There is no way that the England football team would be playing a friendly match in December. The run-up to the Christmas period is an incredibly packed schedule for the domestic clubs, so the national team would never play a friendly then. Additionally, regardless of the month, England would never play a friendly against a team they had recently played in a competitive game (the mockumentary takes place in December 2003, and England had played Turkey in a Euro 2004 qualifier in October 2003).

swordfish

Factual error: There's no way you'd encounter a pub in London dominated by a Manchester United firm/hooligan group (and dedicated to Manchester United). Yes, Manchester United has fans throughout England (including in London), but no pub in London could survive if specifically dedicated to a non-London team and firm. It would have long since been trashed by one of the London firms.

swordfish

The Hush Heist - S6-E6

Factual error: The gadget Ash gets Shaun to hide inside the bank vault deposit box is essentially a large and extremely powerful electromagnet. An electromagnet powerful enough to support a grown woman's weight (which it does later in the episode, when Emma uses it) would require significant power: either from a mains supply of electricity (which isn't possible, given the device is locked inside a deposit box), or else from batteries far larger than what could fit inside the gadget as shown on screen.

swordfish

Getting Even - S4-E3

Factual error: Ash gives Albert a slip of paper with Lily's home address, including a postcode of WC2E. That postcode is in Central London, but the house Albert then goes to is somewhere far more suburban, a long way from WC2. (00:50:21 - 00:55:22)

swordfish

Missions - S2-E4

Factual error: The police visit Richard Shaw's estate agency towards the end of the episode. The establishing background shot opposite where the estate agency allegedly is is of what was then the Cable and Wireless Building (long since bought by Vodafone). That building's real-life address is in the SE1 postcode. The problem is that the business card the police officer holds with the address has a completely different postcode.

swordfish

Mind Your Manors - S20-E1

Factual error: Aunt Petunia says that the chalice was first seen in the Stone Age, and sends Paul and Barry back to where Stonehenge is just being completed. However, the Stone Age actually ended in around 3300 BC. Stonehenge is believed to have been constructed in around 2500 BC, which was the Bronze Age.

swordfish

Absolute Zero (Pilot) - S1-E1

Factual error: At the end of the episode, Tom is at a crossroads, theoretically in Iowa. However, the desert/scrub/mountain surroundings are scenery not found anywhere in Iowa.

swordfish

Absolute Zero (Pilot) - S1-E1

Factual error: Tom's mother lives in Iowa, but the flowers/plants in her garden include types that could only live in places with warm/temperate weather all year round, which is decidedly not the case for Iowa.

swordfish

Stay Tuned - S1-E17

Factual error: The episode is set in New York State, but at the end the road signs are all for Oregon locations.

swordfish

Gemini - S1-E25

Factual error: Tom finds a notecard with an "internet access code" that is an IP address: 271.287.291.31. The problem with this is that IP addresses cannot go above 255 as the starting three digits - it's a completely invalid address.

swordfish

Hidden Agenda - S1-E18

Factual error: Enlisted soldiers are shown saluting each other, as well as addressing a sergeant as "sir." Enlisted personnel in real life never salute each other, nor are NCOs (like sergeants) ever addressed as "sir."

swordfish

Paradise on Your Doorstep - S1-E5

Factual error: The plane Tom hijacks is a Grumman Goose. This has a maximum altitude of around 20,000 ft. When the pilot flips the pressurisation switch, the instrument panel shows the plane is only at 2500 feet! The cabin wouldn't have depressurised at such a low altitude - and even had it done so if the plane had been flying much higher, it wouldn't have had such a severe and debilitating effect so quickly on Tom as suggested in the episode - he passes out in about 3 seconds.

swordfish

The Incredible Derek - S1-E3

Factual error: A number of the soldiers on the US Army base have haircuts/hairstyles completely against army rules and regulations. This is particularly noticeable given the show is set in the late 90s, when the US Army was much stricter about haircut rules for serving military members. In real life, they wouldn't be allowed to have those hairstyles.

swordfish

Factual error: Radium Chloride (stated by the doctor to be the ingested poison) does have a slightly luminous glow to it, but absolutely doesn't have the intense shining bright green luminous glow that is shown at the end of the film in Professor Cornell's mug.

swordfish

Absolute Zero (Pilot) - S1-E1

Factual error: When Tom is locked up in an institution for the mentally ill, he is given a bed on a mixed gender ward/wing (both men and women). Wings and wards in mental institutions have not been mixed gender for more than 100 years - it is inconceivable that this practice would be existing in the 1990s in a large city in the USA.

swordfish

Whittaker Our Way Out - S3-E3

Factual error: In the flashback scene to Whittaker senior's trial at the Old Bailey (which takes place in the late 19th or early 20th century), the judge in the trial is wearing a long, full-bottomed wig. This is completely incorrect - since the late 18th century, full-bottomed wigs have only been worn by judges on ceremonial occasions, not in court. At trials, judges wear short wigs instead. (00:05:17)

swordfish