Best drama TV character mistakes of all time

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

Smallville picture

Tomb - S5-E14

Character mistake: While Clark and Chloe are at Daily Planet, Clark asks her what is wrong with her mother. Chloe responds that her mother left when she was twelve years old. In the episode Lineage, Chloe and Clark are looking for Rachael Dunleavy and Chloe says her mother left when she was five.

More Smallville character mistakes
The Sopranos picture

Nobody Knows Anything - S1-E11

Character mistake: When Tony tells Dr. Melfi he feels as though a safe might fall on his head, she replies, "a feeling of pending doom." A woman of her intellect and education should know the proper word is "impending." "Pending" means something awaiting a conclusion. "Impending" means about to occur.

djm

More The Sopranos character mistakes
More The Magician character mistakes
The Orville picture

Old Wounds - S1-E1

Character mistake: After Mercer's speech to the entire crew he dismisses everyone except for the senior staff but everyone, including the senior staff, starts walking away as if they were dismissed as well.

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

Suggested correction: They were walking away, but not as if they were dismissed. The group of senior officers and Mercer are in a completely different part of the room (or possible an entirely different room). Notice the doorway where Mercer is standing. At the beginning, he's in the doorway and it has a white boarder and a 2nd set of doors. Then he's standing in front of a doorway with a blue boarder and no 2nd set of doors.

Bishop73

More The Orville character mistakes
Fear the Walking Dead picture

Pilot - S1-E1

Character mistake: After Nick kills Calvin, and Travis arrives, Nick calls Travis "Nick" before correctly calling him Travis in his next line of dialogue.

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

Suggested correction: Travis is the one who says "Nick".

More Fear the Walking Dead character mistakes
More Pretty Little Liars character mistakes
More Adam-12 character mistakes
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.

More Sons of Anarchy character mistakes
Gilmore Girls picture

Written in the Stars - S5-E3

Character mistake: This mistake happens in the town meeting scene. They are talking about the two business owners that dated, then moved when it ended badly. It hurt the town's economy. First it was said that Faye sold flowers and the guy sold candy. Then they said that Faye sold candy.

More Gilmore Girls character mistakes
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine picture

The Way of the Warrior (2) - S4-E2

Character mistake: During the Defiant's flight to save the Cardassian officials, Worf says something to the effect of, "I've never been aboard a Federation ship equipped with a cloak before". However, he was aboard the Enterprise during the Pegasus incident, where The Ship was temporarily equipped with a cloaking device.

More Star Trek: Deep Space Nine character mistakes
Degrassi: The Next Generation picture Video

With or Without You - S8-E6

Character mistake: When Sav asks Ali if she wants people to think she's not good enough for their family, Ali accidentally calls Sav "Ray" when she responds: "Yes, Ray, that's exactly what I want." Raymond "Ray" Ablack is the name of the actor who plays Sav. (00:17:31)

HappyAccidents

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

Suggested correction: Actually she says: "Yes. Right, that's exactly what I want." Not "yes Ray."

I know the subtitle says "right", but I hear "Ray" as well. Plus, it fits better in the line for her to use someone's name. Usually when someone is sarcastically agreeing they'll say "yeah, right" or "yes, [person's name]."

Bishop73

Yeah, it doesn't really make sense for her to say, "Yes, right" like that, and neither the intonation of her voice nor movement of her mouth match it either. The subtitles most likely said "right" to cover up the mistake.

HappyAccidents

More Degrassi: The Next Generation character mistakes
More NYPD Blue character mistakes
More Agatha Christie's Poirot character mistakes
The O.C. picture

Season 2 generally

Character mistake: Marissa said to Ryan (in episode "The Brothers Grim") that the last time she was in Chino, she "saved his ass". She was referring to Thanksgiving, but that's not the last time she was in Chino. The last time she was in Chino was in "The Nana" when she ran there after finding out about Luke and her mother's affair.

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

Suggested correction: She saved his ass when she talked to Eddie about letting him stay. So her phrasing is correct.

More The O.C. character mistakes
More Merlin 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
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)

More Death in Paradise 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
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
More Gunsmoke 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.