Best crime TV character mistakes of all time

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Death in Paradise picture

Murder from Above - S7-E1

Character mistake: A computer display of currency transactions shows the word "withdrawal" spelled as "withdrawl." (It is also spelled correctly higher up on the display). (00:25:05)

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Sons of Anarchy picture

Orca Shrugged - S5-E5

Character mistake: Tig gets bit on the right butt cheek. Tara tells Chibs to give him a local, which is a numbing injection so she can stitch him up. Problem is that Chibs does the injection in the left butt cheek. You are supposed to give the injection close to the wound to numb it before stitches.

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Knight Rider picture

Deadly Maneuvers - S1-E3

Character mistake: The sign in front of the tank Lt. Ladd is trapped in reads "ORDINANCE TESTING FIELD, DANGER.", but an ordinance is a type of decree or law. They probably meant 'ordnance', which is another word for artillery.

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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

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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

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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)

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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.

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Batwoman picture

Down Down Down - S1-E3

Character mistake: Batwoman does everything she can to rescue the elevator falling down after the villain detonates the bomb, but does nothing for the second one Tommy blows up to make her lose her footing when she is vulnerable. There is no message from Luke telling her anything, and she is not shown having a HUD with thermal readings or something like that, so there is simply no reason why she would risk everything to stop one elevator and completely ignore the fate of the next one which could be full of civilians as well.

Sammo

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Magnum P.I. picture

Dark Skies - S5-E8

Character mistake: Higgins and TC are investigating a drug smuggler camp in Maui. TC sees a box of cigarettes and says the people in the camp must be Latino because the cigarette box is in Spanish. Wrong. The box says Cigarillos, which are small, short cigars. If the box was in Spanish it would say Cigarrillos, which is cigarettes in Spanish.

toroscan

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The Borgias picture

The Moor - S1-E3

Character mistake: In the tent Djem reaches for food with his left hand. Totally a big no-no in the Arab and many other cultures! He would never lean on his right and leave his left arm - his unclean hand free.

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Charlie's Angels picture

Waikiki Angels - S5-E6

Character mistake: At the Life Guard Trials, Kelly is the first Angel to arrive. She finishes 20th. Then, four other competitors arrive (21st / 22nd / 23rd / 24th). Then, Kris arrives. The judge says to her "You're 23." (00:11:15)

Great_Captain

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FBI: Most Wanted picture

Predators - S1-E8

Character mistake: The FBI team responds to a murder crime scene. The victim is lying face down in the bed with blood everywhere. The team leader takes the victim's wrist with his bare ungloved hand. A trained FBI agent would never touch a murder victim without gloves - one to protect himself and two not to contaminate the crime scene. (00:10:00)

Snag.1

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Law & Order: UK picture

Vice - S1-E3

Character mistake: When Brooks and Devlin talk to Teddy, the forensic scientist, Teddy puts his rubber glove on incorrectly, with the thumb hanging off the pinkie side of his hand. (00:09:45)

Cubs Fan

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