Best drama TV stupidity of all time

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Bones picture

Bodies in the Book - S2-E15

Stupidity: Booth shoots the stalker's door lock...and then kicks the door in anyway. Shooting the lock achieves nothing, it wouldn't have made the door any easier to kick in, it's just him generating paperwork and an issue with his shrink.

Jon Sandys

More Bones stupidity
Another Life picture

Nervous Breakdown - S1-E3

Stupidity: After Bernie discovers a treatment for the infection, radiotherapy, everything goes back to normal. Except the contagion is airborne (which is why they were going to flush the entire ship's atmosphere), so they're just going to re-infect themselves in a few hours. And there's only one room on the ship that can be exposed to stellar radiation, so there's no way to clean the atmosphere either.

Voluble

More Another Life stupidity
Lethal Weapon picture

Dial M for Murtaugh - S3-E11

Stupidity: Eve, the assassin trying to kill the Senator, tells Cole to move or she'll shoot through him, rather than just shooting him. She already killed an agent by shooting him in the back and had plenty of time to just shoot Cole, so there's no reason for her to avoid killing him.

Bishop73

More Lethal Weapon stupidity
Lupin picture

Chapter 3 - S1-E3

Stupidity: The inspector knows that his house has been bugged; he does not know how many bugs and cameras are there, he just knows there are some. He does find a bunch of them with great ease when he gets back home - making you wonder how could he have ignored them to begin with, since all it takes is for him to raise his eyes, they are fairly big black cameras who do not camouflage at all for the most part. He then proceeds to make a phone call to the big baddie from his landline. Nobody in their right mind would do such a thing. Heck, you wouldn't want to use your home phone for such a call even if you didn't know that someone just put bugs all over your house.

Sammo

More Lupin stupidity
Better Call Saul picture

Show generally

Stupidity: Despite being a high-profile fugitive who was a local celebrity in his previous life, Saul does very little to alter his physical appearance, settling on just a mustache and glasses. Growing a beard, wearing a hairpiece, and altering his speaking voice around others would have gone a long way in preventing him from being made.

Phaneron

More Better Call Saul stupidity
Doctor Who picture

The Power of the Doctor - S13-E9

Stupidity: After the crew of the space train have taken out the Cybermen, the Cybermen begin regenerating, which one of the crew points out. This guy seems to be aware of how regeneration works, but doesn't shoot at them again. In the series, it has been shown that shooting someone during a regeneration cycle will kill them instantly, but this idea is never considered.

Casual Person

More Doctor Who stupidity
Hotel Del Luna picture

Welcome to Hotel del Luna - S1-E1

Stupidity: The Mayor realises that Man-wol has approached him and taken out her rifle to shoot him with. Yet during the entire time she takes to aim the rifle at him and fire, the Mayor makes no attempt to flee the stage for his own protection. (00:38:15)

Casual Person

More Hotel Del Luna stupidity
Mr. Robot picture

405 Method Not Allowed - S4-E5

Stupidity: Elliot and his crew are trying to take down the Dark Army and Whiterose, they are being monitored by them via surveillance vans which Elliot just burned, etc. However, with Elliot and friends trying to be secretive he somehow manages to text Phillip Price on his cell phone about Tyrell. Phones are the easiest to intercept. Whiterose doesn't trust Phillip and plans on killing Elliot once their projects transferred to Africa. (00:07:20)

More Mr. Robot stupidity
Swamp Thing picture

Worlds Apart - S1-E2

Stupidity: The bad guy kills the deputy in the swamp, then later sees a little girl who witnesses the killing run away. He then searches the boat for a weapon and runs off after her after he finds a machete, without even considering the officer's gun still in its holster. Abby proceeds to make the exact same mistake later when she finds the dead officer (meaning there's danger nearby) and hears the girl screaming and runs in the direction of the screaming without taking the gun to protect herself.

Anson Gordon-Creed

More Swamp Thing stupidity
More Haven stupidity
The Waltons picture

The Pin-Up - S7-E17

Stupidity: After Erin leaves with the military captain to Camp Lee, John and Maryellen turn around to see John Curtiss nowhere around on the porch where Maryellen left him. So John goes off to look for him, while Maryellen goes in to check The House. John Curtiss is a one-year-old baby who couldn't open a door.

pgsgrad16

More The Waltons stupidity
Elementary picture

Alma Matters - S4-E10

Stupidity: Lilly says that she is compiling a criminal case against her employer, who recently had another whistleblower killed. Inconceivably, neither Sherlock nor Joan recognizes that this puts Lilly in mortal danger. (00:06:49 - 00:08:45)

Rich Janis

More Elementary stupidity
Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman picture

The Abduction (1) - S2-E22

Stupidity: After Walks on Cloud releases Dr Mike, she runs off and hides in a wild thicket as the Dog Soldiers and One Eye look around the area for her. A pair of buckskin are then seen scoping the area, then walking off as Dr Mike leaves her hiding spot and gets 'surprised' by One Eye, who knocks her out. She should have known better and stayed put until sunrise, as Sully taught her when it came to the Cheyenne war parties.

pgsgrad16

More Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman stupidity
Superman and Lois picture

The Perks of Not Being a Wallflower - S1-E3

Stupidity: Superman finally smashes the weirdly strong bad guy through a wall, then goes to Lois, says "he's gone", and whisks Sarah to hospital. But he has no idea if the bad guy is "gone" or not - they've just had an epic fight, he has some sort of super strength / resilience, and for all Superman knows he'll come around in 10 seconds and finish the job of murdering Lois.

Jon Sandys

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

Suggested correction: Superman knows the 'strong bad guy' is close to his own strength. After fighting him, he knows what effect the crash through the wall would have had on him, if he was knocked out, and how long he would be out for. So he knew there was little risk of the guy coming around in 10 seconds. Alternatively, he X-ray scanned the area and saw the guy was no longer there.

More Superman and Lois stupidity
American Horror Story picture

Camp Redwood - S9-E1

Stupidity: Brooke leaves her apartment window open as she sleeps, even after telling her friends that serial killers (like The Night Stalker) strike during the summer when everybody leaves their windows open.

Scott215

More American Horror Story stupidity
The Tomorrow People picture

Show generally

Stupidity: The Tomorrow People tend to enjoy walking into and walking out of most scenes rather than teleporting. In particular, when fighting and needing to run away, they'll teleport to get a better fighting vantage instead of teleporting out of the situation.

More The Tomorrow People stupidity
Days of Our Lives picture

Show generally

Stupidity: On 8/12/04, Hope specifically told everyone that when the coin was thrown into the force field, there would be a bright flash and that they shouldn't look at the forcefield when this was done. But all three times that the coin was thrown at the force field that day and the next, everyone looked right at it the whole time, and then recoiled in pain at the flash that inevitably occurred.

DavidK93

More Days of Our Lives stupidity
Will Trent picture

Two Hundred Dollars and a Bus Pass - S1-E8

Stupidity: Two police officers and a physician find an injured woman in a lab. The officers attend to the woman while the physician calls for EMTs. Wouldn't it be better if the physician looked after the injured person while the officers called for help?

Leicaman

More Will Trent stupidity
Prisoner: Cell Block H picture

Season 1 generally

Stupidity: Dr. Greg seems to catch some of the more obvious quirks of inmates attempting to take a large vial or bottle from the cabinet. Yet he doesn't seem to notice when Lizzie grabs a bottle of pills and pockets them from the rolling cart in front of him. (00:20:15 - 00:20:45)

eaglegrad16

More Prisoner: Cell Block H stupidity
Altered Carbon picture

Nightmare Alley - S2-E3

Stupidity: "Rei" comes into the circle, having been champing at the bit to "turn him into a smear on the floor." She's wielding a sword, Kovacs is unarmed, and she...slices him a bit, instead of a quick killing blow.

Jon Sandys

More Altered Carbon stupidity

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