Best TV character mistakes of all time

Please vote as you browse around to help the best rise to the top.

More 3rd Rock from the Sun character mistakes
The Mandalorian picture

Chapter 9: The Marshal - S2-E1

Character mistake: Cobb Vanth says that he's never seen anything but the dragon's head and had no idea about the size of the dragon...but at the beginning of the episode we could see the beast pass through town (conveniently right in the main road without damaging anything else) and its enormous lengthy body was perfectly noticeable. (00:31:20)

Sammo

More The Mandalorian character mistakes
Star Trek: Picard picture

Remembrance - S1-E1

Character mistake: Picard and Data are playing poker at the beginning of the episode. Before the actual faces of the players are revealed, we are shown close-ups of their hands as they put down the chips for the bet. When Picard says his first line in the series it's "See", and it is literally true, because in the previous shot, Data put his 5 cards down on the table and face up. (00:00:50)

Sammo

More Star Trek: Picard character mistakes
The Wire picture

Unto Others - S4-E7

Character mistake: When Cutty quits the truant officer job and walks out of the office, he runs into his old girl from way back. She calls him David instead of Dennis. (00:51:00)

More The Wire character mistakes
30 Rock picture

Live from Studio 6H - S6-E19

Character mistake: Tina Fey fumbles her line and has to start it again. The original line should have been "How long do you think you're going to get away with this? Hazel or Jenna will know we're missing." Instead the second part of the line is "Henna or Jay; Hazel or Jenna will know we're missing!" (00:04:05)

More 30 Rock character mistakes
More Gunsmoke character mistakes
The Punisher picture

One-Eyed Jacks - S2-E5

Character mistake: When Frank is starting to show Amy how to take the gun from him he removes the magazine and makes the statement "clip empty" - any Marine, certainly one as well trained as him would never refer to that as a "clip" - it is a magazine. A "clip" is a device intended to help rapidly load ammunition into a magazine.

More The Punisher character mistakes
Law & Order picture

Remand - S6-E10

Character mistake: McCoy asks his witness, an expert geneticist, what the odds are that a DNA sample presented in evidence does not match that of the defendant. He answers "About one in two hundred." That is idiotic. If the DNA samples are identical the chances that the the sample presented in evidence does not come from the defendant is about one in two billion, not one in two hundred! A bright high school senior would know that, never mind an expert geneticist.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: If the odds are 1 in 200, that means the accuracy of the DNA is 99.5%. If the odds are 1 in 2 billion, that means the accuracy of the DNA is 99.9999999995%, which simply isn't true.

Bishop73

In fact as any geneticist (i.e, anyone like me) will tell you the chances of two identical DNA "fingerprints" coming from two different and unrelated individuals are around one in two thousand million. Two billion. In fact the odds are much higher than that but we scientists don't like to make claims that sound unlikely or fantastic. The accuracy of DNA fingerprinting is, as you point out, 99.9999999995%. You correction is wrong and the posting is correct.

Except that's not what happened in the scene or what happens in real life. You simply don't understand what you're arguing. You're not a geneticist.

Bishop73

More Law & Order character mistakes
The A-Team picture

Blood, Sweat, and Cheers - S4-E8

Character mistake: In the scene where Jack is phoning Col. Decker to give him the A-Team's location, the camera zooms to a wanted poster of the three members. The poster lists Faceman as the rank of Captain, instead of Lieutenant.

matt_58

More The A-Team character mistakes
Scream Queens picture

Blood Drive - S2-E6

Character mistake: Zayday makes incorrect statements about blood types. She mentions that, since Chanel #5 is type O-, her parents must also be O-; in actuality, they could each be type A or B (genotypes AO or BO, respectively) and could also have Rh+ blood as long as they also carry the recessive Rh- allele. Zayday also says that the child of two O+ parents must be O+, but actually the child could also be O- (again, if the parents carry the Rh- allele).

DavidK93

More Scream Queens character mistakes
Peaky Blinders picture

Season 5 generally

Character mistake: Several times Tommy addresses Sir Oswald Mosley as Mr Mosley instead of the correct Sir Oswald. Mosley never corrects him, which given his snobbishness portrayed throughout the series seems highly unlikely.

Necrothesp

More Peaky Blinders character mistakes
Henry Danger picture

Dream Busters - S1-E19

Character mistake: When Charlotte is going into Henry's dream for the first time, while she is talking, in the background, you see Henry move his head and open his eyes.

More Henry Danger character mistakes
Lucifer picture

#TeamLucifer - S1-E12

Character mistake: When trying to decipher what the letters from the dermal implants spell, Lucifer rearranges the letters and says "Hilii Fircus, it means 'children of the goat.'" However, the correct phrase was Filii Hircus, not Hilii Fircus. (00:13:27)

More Lucifer character mistakes
More Vigil character mistakes
More Murder, She Wrote character mistakes
Hey Arnold! picture

Married - S5-E16

Character mistake: The first time Arnold tries Rhonda's marriage predictor test, he says his favorite number is five, but Rhonda actually makes six moves. The second time, Arnold says it's three, but Rhonda counts off four.

AidanN

More Hey Arnold! character mistakes
The Dead Zone picture

Collision - S3-E3

Character mistake: When Johnny is at the hospital, having a vision of his mother, Gene Purdy and Sarah is waiting for news of him following his accident, he states that a vision earlier was related to his accident 'Nine years ago'. Later, when he is in the ambulance on the way to where his accident occurred, he asks the paramedic if it was the same ambulance. The paramedic replies, 'Yeah, I've been driving the same rig for nearly eight years'.

More The Dead Zone character mistakes
More Home Improvement character mistakes
Eastenders picture

Show generally

Character mistake: 27/1/15 Max tells his two daughters to get in his car to go to Emma's funeral. Max's car is a Mercedes SLK which is only a two seater, and therefore wouldn't seat three people.

More Eastenders character mistakes
The Man in the High Castle picture

The New World - S1-E1

Character mistake: When Juliana puts the film on the projector she loads the reel backwards.The film is supposed to drop from the front of the reel, not the back.

More The Man in the High Castle character mistakes

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.