Best crime TV character mistakes of all time

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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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Hawaii Five-0 picture

Pono Kaulike - S5-E18

Character mistake: After being asked in class, Max refers to what he does as a "vivisection of a once-living organism", which in itself is a contradiction because vivisections are performed on living organisms. What Max does is called dissection, or more specifically autopsy, because he does it to determine the cause of death.

Tanngrisnir

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Bodyguard picture

Show generally

Character mistake: When the bodyguards enter elevators, they always enter last; they should be entering first to ensure it is secure. This is particularly visible in the hotel where the elevator can stop on any floor and Special Protection Branch does not have complete control of it as an express.

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Murdoch Mysteries picture

24 Hours Til Doomsday - S9-E5

Character mistake: When first discussing the projectile Murdoch has written on his board that 2 (sin45) =1. This is obviously incorrect to anyone who's studied even basic trigonometry. (00:05:54)

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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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Dexter picture

The Angel of Death - S6-E5

Character mistake: Louis Greene, Masuka's new intern, is asked to find the person who purchased Rudy's prosthetic hand. He is unable to do so; however, as a consolation, he says "I installed a modded-up Intel chip to overclock your CPU." You can overclock your CPU, but you don't need another chip to do so. (00:44:00)

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

Suggested correction: Only K series intel CPU's can be overclocked so a CPU upgrade is understandable if the previous one was not overclockable.

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Third Watch picture

Show generally

Character mistake: In the final episode, Carlos visits Doc in the psychiatric hospital for advice concerning his upcoming marriage to Holly. While talking, Carlos refers to Doc's deceased wife as "Linda", while throughout the series, it has been made very clear that her name was Deborah.

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Batman picture

The Joker's Flying Saucer - S3-E24

Character mistake: Vertigris tells Joker he planted a bomb in the Batmobile while it was parked in front of City Hall/Police HQ. Only in this instance, it wasn't. It was parked in the alley out back, the better to hide his bomb-planting from public view, so it's strange that he'd forget this. (00:08:15)

Jean G

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Life on Mars picture

Episode 4 - S1-E4

Character mistake: Sam encounters Marc Bolan in the club and warns him to "drive carefully", aware of Bolan's future death in a 1977 car accident. However, Bolan never learned to drive and he was actually a passenger in the fatal accident. (00:07:55)

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Perception picture

Caleidoscope - S2-E4

Character mistake: The chess set in Dr. Pierce's home office is set up incorrectly. When the men are set up properly, each player has a light colored square in the right-hand corner. The board as it appears in the show is set up so that the light-colored square is in each player's left-hand corner. This "beginner" mistake puts the king and queen in the wrong positions.

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The Professionals picture

Take Away - S4-E6

Character mistake: When Cowley visits Bodie at the squat, the unwashed and dirty Bodie suggests Cowley should stand downwind of him. Downwind Cowley would smell Bodie; he should have said upwind.

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Fargo picture

The Tender Trap - S5-E6

Character mistake: Deputy Olmstead says to Lorraine Lyon, "You think that you're rich 'cause you're better than me." Surely, the line should have been "You think that you're better than me 'cause you're rich."

Leicaman

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

Suggested correction: No, she actually does mean Lorraine thinks she is rich because she is better than her. And to her, anyone who is not rich is therefore less, or else they would be rich too. It's the same type of thinking but with a different approach as what you suggest. It's about privilege.

lionhead

Interesting. I can see it either way. Thanks for the thought.

Leicaman

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Crossing Jordan picture

Four Fathers - S1-E14

Character mistake: Mahershala said the child found in the cement had "osteoportrosis", instead of osteoporosis. Then the grief counselor repeated the same incorrect word.

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

Suggested correction: They said "osteopetrosis," which is a different medical condition from osteoporosis. Osteopetrosis is a genetic condition that causes overly dense, brittle, and misshapen bones starting in infancy.

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My Name Is Earl picture

We've Got Spirit - S4-E6

Character mistake: While filming the cheerleader performance, Jasper refers to his inability of using computers ("We're gonna put this on YouTube as soon as one of us figures out how to use a computer!"). Earlier in the series, however, Jasper ordered himself a Russian wife online, so this statement is definitely off-character.

Dangar

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Numb3rs picture

Soft Target - S2-E6

Character mistake: On the roof, Don and the other agents have their weapons drawn on James Grace, who is holding Houseman hostage with the fake bomb. Once Grace is taken away, the threat is gone. But Don still has his gun pointed at Houseman, with his finger on the trigger. Houseman, while Don might think is a jerk, was innocent of any crime. There's no reason an agent like Don would have his gun pointed at him.

Bishop73

More Numb3rs character mistakes
Diagnosis Murder picture

Inheritance of Death - S1-E4

Character mistake: Jack was off by more than double when he told Dr. Nash that 200ccs was almost a pint. In actuality, a pint is 473ccs. So, 200ccs is a little less than 1/2 of a pint.

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