Best drama TV factual errors of all time

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Chicago Fire picture

A Volatile Mixture - S7-E5

Factual error: In the scene at O'Hara airport the paramedics meetup with a TSA officer. The TSA officer has a gun as a part of his uniform. TSA officers do not carry firearms. In addition, the CBP officer in the scene does not have on a proper CBP uniform. The CBP officer uniform has rank epaulets and officer has no epaulets, and the CBP uniform doesn't have a bar tie clip and the gun belt buckle is brass not stainless metal. (00:42:00)

Snag.1

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House of Cards picture

Chapter 35 - S3-E9

Factual error: When Doug Stamper sits down at his laptop and throws the contents of his cup at the screen, the image immediately freezes and distorts. This would not happen so quickly in a real world event. It may eventually happen but not instantaneously. (00:23:10)

Mike Walker

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Victoria picture

A Soldier's Daughter - S2-E1

Factual error: Captain Souter is shown lying dead in the snow following the massacre at Gandamak. In fact, Thomas Souter was one of the few who survived to be captured by the Afghans and was later freed.

Necrothesp

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Blindspot picture

Existential Ennui - S5-E3

Factual error: The episode states that there is border control between Germany and Czechia. There is no border control within the Schengen area of the EU (which includes Germany and Czechia). You can cross borders by car or fly in a plane without showing your ID.

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Beverly Hills, 90210 picture

Class of Beverly Hills - S1-E1

Factual error: In this debut episode of the show, Andrea takes a bus home to "Van Nuys." After showing the bus heading to the valley on the 405 freeway, as she exits the bus, the street sign states "Gramercy Pl" which is in L.A. (not Van Nuys or the San Fernando Valley where she is supposed to be in). In addition, her house shows 548 to be the address. All addresses in Van Nuys are either four or five digits.

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Unforgotten picture

Episode #1.1 - S1-E1

Factual error: When reviewing the phone numbers in the 1970s diary, they start '01' which was a change to UK numbers only brought in 1995.

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The ABC Murders picture

Episode #1.1 - S1-E1

Factual error: This is set in 1933. When the killer comes back to his lodgings in episode 1, Lily on the stairs is humming "Somewhere over the rainbow", which was written for The Wizard of Oz in 1939. She also happens to wear bright red shoes, which feels like yet another Wizard of Oz reference. Interesting enough, the subtitles say that she is humming a different song, "Night and day" which she openly sings throughout the series and was already a hit in 1932. (00:44:10)

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Murder, She Wrote picture

Thicker Than Water - S8-E4

Factual error: At the end of the episode after Wayne is shot, there is a brief shot of the outside of the hospital where he has been taken. The sign outside the hospital says Dalesboro, Ohio. Why would someone shot in coastal Maine end up in a hospital in Ohio?

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Narcos picture

La Gran Mentira - S1-E8

Factual error: When the news reporter Valeria comes to Pablo to say that Pacho did it, she arrives in an E39 BMW 5 series from 1995. Gustavo was killed in 1990.

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Penny Dreadful picture

Verbis Diablo - S2-E2

Factual error: Sir Malcolm tells Vanessa to wear a facemask when they go to minister to the poor as cholera is rife in the area. However, the series is set in the 1890s and it had been well-known since the 1850s that cholera was caused by contaminated food and water and not by airborne germs. As an educated man, Sir Malcolm is bound to know this.

Necrothesp

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The Looming Tower picture

Tuesday - S1-E9

Factual error: At O'Neil's retirement party, '2-Way' by Lil Romeo is playing while one of the characters is dancing. This scene is set in the summer of 2001, the song was released in April 2002, nearly a year after the retirement party took place.

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Ghost Whisperer picture

The One (2) - S1-E22

Factual error: The tail section of the crashed plane is from an early model 737, based on the curvature where the forward edge of the vertical stabilizer meets the top of the fuselage. The maximum seating capacity would have been about 130 passengers, while the number of crash victims was given as approximately twice that.

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Pride and Prejudice picture

Show generally

Factual error: During Lizzie's visit to Rosings Park, Lady Catherine presses her to stay longer, saying that if she will stay another month, she will be able to accommodate Lizzie "on the barouche-box" as far as London. This is nonsensical. What Austen actually wrote (Ch. 37) was: "And if you will stay another month complete, it will be in my power to take one of you as far as London, for I am going there early in June for a week; and as Dawson does not object to the barouche-box, there will be very good room for one of you. . ." The box is the coachman's seat on top of the carriage. Dawson is a servant, but if there were enough room inside the carriage, she would ride inside. What Lady Catherine is doing is offering Dawson's inside place to Lizzie. But in the movie, she is offering to let Lizzie ride outside next to the coachman. Not much of a treat.

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The Dead Zone picture

Cold Hard Truth - S3-E4

Factual error: When Johnny and Bruce are riding in the truck, listening to the 'shock jock', Bruce turns off the radio by turning the volume control on the left side of the radio. Johnny says he wants to hear it and turns the radio back on by turning the knob on the right, which is the tuning dial.

wizard_of_gore

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Revelations picture

Hour Six - S1-E6

Factual error: Jonah tells Richard that Saturn has a "rogue moon" in a retrograde orbit that travels "at four times the speed" of Saturn's other moons. The graphic on Jonah's computer shows that the moon in question is Phoebe, which does indeed orbit in the opposite direction from other Saturnian moons. And the graphic correctly shows Phoebe's orbit as being much further from the planet than the other moons. However, as a direct consequence of its greater orbital radius, Phoebe is actually among Saturn's *slowest* moons. It has a longer orbital period (or "month") and a slower orbital velocity than all the Saturnian moons with smaller orbital radii, of which there are twenty.

DavidK93

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