Best drama TV deliberate mistakes of all time

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Prisoner: Cell Block H picture

Episode #1.57 - S1-E57

Deliberate mistake: After MacNelly enters the ladies room to confront the red haired lady, she shoots the woman in the chest, but there's no gunshot or bullet hole or blood anywhere. But the red haired lady dramatically collapses to the floor. Then during a closeup, glances upward at MacNelly, and then her head droops downward.

eaglegrad16

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The Rockford Files picture

Tall Woman in Red Wagon - S1-E6

Deliberate mistake: When the workers hit the coffin lid with the shovel, it is (obviously) fully buried and they moved just a little bit of soil off it. Rockford moves closer, and instantly the inside of the coffin is covered by the thinnest layer of dust, uniformly. (00:02:30)

Sammo

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Black Summer picture

The Stadium - S1-E8

Deliberate mistake: The Korean lady's Mini-Uzi never runs out of ammunition, and she's spraying it at full-auto. A Min-Uzi's cyclic rate is 950 rounds/min. One long squeeze of the trigger and the weapon's dry. Same goes for all the other weapons like the M4 carbines being fired on full-auto, they have the infinity ammo cheat code going here.

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Suggested correction: Nobody responds to what Stinky says, so there's no reason to assume that everyone understood him.

zenee

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The Outer Limits picture

The Probe - S2-E17

Deliberate mistake: Amanda survives a plane crash into the ocean, hurricane winds in a life raft, then experimentation and attacks by giant microbes inside the alien probe. Yet when she and the others are rescued at the end, not one strand of hair is loose in her 1960s "beehive" hairdo. (00:49:05)

Jean G

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Leverage picture

The Stork Job - S1-E6

Deliberate mistake: When filming the fake movie with Sophie playing the nun, many holes are made in the door, but when she slowly kneels to the ground, there isn't a hole behind her, so it seems like she's been miraculously saved. But as the scene continues, the nun starts to bleed and dies. Technically, they couldn't safely put a squib that close to her. (00:21:15)

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Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story picture

Please Don't Go - S1-E2

Deliberate mistake: When the young kid breaks out of Jeff's apartment, the ladies freak out that he's naked, when he's wearing black underwear. And then shortly after they shriek to police that he was buck naked when he wasn't.

eaglegrad16

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Chicago Fire picture

Winterfest - S10-E9

Deliberate mistake: Even though it's supposed to be Christmas time, the trees are lush with green leaves, no breath is visible when the actors talk and in the background you can see people wearing shorts and T-shirts.

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Black Spot picture

In Another Life - S2-E3

Deliberate mistake: The police force in the town is the Gendarmerie, the standard issued firearm is the Sig Sauer P2022 in 9mm. The police officers on this show carry a Beretta and not the 9x19mm one which is the model 92fs, they carry a never issued Beretta 84 chambered in .32 acp or 9mm short. Plus they use some weird holster where the gun arches out and hangs low like a cowboy holster and dangles around. Easy for a suspect to gain control of the officers gun and this happened in this episode.

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Agents of SHIELD picture

Season 6 generally

Deliberate mistake: The last season touched on Infinity War happening - this season jumps forwards a year, meaning that we should be one year into the "blip" (or snap), with half the universe missing. But The Team is all together, and the world/universe is utterly unaffected. Largely a byproduct of disagreement between the film and TV sides of Marvel, plus scheduling vagueness meaning they couldn't risk spoiling Endgame if they came back on the air before that was released. But considering the show is 100% part of the MCU, that's a pretty massive contradiction.

Jon Sandys

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The Flash picture

Going Rogue - S1-E4

Deliberate mistake: When Capt. Cold is about to shoot Joe in the train station, Eddy "shoots" a pillar next to him to make him run. Eddy then comes from behind the pillar that got shot with no cuts. He would have had to been on the complete opposite side to shoot the pillar where it was hit. (00:32:50)

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

Suggested correction: I watched the scene several times and nothing indicates the pillar was shot from the left side. It looks like the pillar was shot from behind (which is why there's no hole on the side or front), exactly where Eddie would have been standing.

Bishop73

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The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel picture

Thank You and Good Night - S1-E8

Deliberate mistake: In the Maisels' 1954 wedding reception flashback, Midge hired professional dancers who perform the "Bottle Dance" (where they slide on their knees). This famous dance, often performed at Jewish weddings and social events, was choreographed by Jerome Robbins for "Fiddler on the Roof," which debuted on Broadway in 1964. It did not exist in 1954 but, as an inside joke, while Midge watches, she says, "That's really good. They should do something with that."

raywest

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The Waltons picture

The Carousel - S9-E11

Deliberate mistake: After Elizabeth goes upstairs with the pillowcases for Cindy, in the following shots there are a few long shots of Colonel Brunson's car on the road, and a couple of those shots are flipped - noticeable due to identical trees shown the opposite way. (00:03:55)

Super Grover

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TURN: Washington's Spies picture

Mercy Moment Murder Measure - S1-E7

Deliberate mistake: When Abraham throws the secret note into the fire, he crumples it up before tossing it in. But then we see a shot of the note lying open and flat on the log before burning. Not only would the note not be able to uncrumple itself, it shows no sign of being crumpled in the first place. This was obviously done deliberately so the audience could read the note one last time.

Bishop73

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Hustle picture

Cops and Robbers - S1-E4

Deliberate mistake: When Sam first meets Mickey (who is posing as a bank robber), Mickey says he needs Sam to state that he needs Mickey's help in robbing a bank, so if Sam turns out to be an undercover cop, Mickey can plead entrapment. This is a classic error. Entrapment only exists where a cop actively persuades a criminal to do something he otherwise wouldn't have done - which is not the case here. If Mickey as a con artist knows this (which is likely), it's a deliberate mistake, otherwise it's a factual error. (00:30:09)

swordfish

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