Best mystery TV mistakes of all time

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The Pretender picture

The Agent Of Year Zero - S4-E14

Revealing mistake: During the scene when Mr. Lyle is talking to the General (butcher character), his glove that he wears on his hand is removed to make a point about his thumb having been cut off. In the next shot, we see Mr. Lyle walking around the desk and putting his glove back on, and you can see his thumb folded under his hand as if the actor was trying to hide it and did not realize it could been seen from the camera angle.

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Remington Steele picture

Thou Shalt Not Steele - S1-E5

Plot hole: Laura successfully knocks out both bad guys, steals their van and crashes through the warehouse doors. The van doesn't stall, but inexplicably, she stops it, gets out and runs away on foot, even though the baddies are coming to and coming after her. Not the option you'd expect a kidnap victim to choose: most people would floor it and keep on driving. (00:23:40)

Jean G

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Röd Snö picture

Show generally

Continuity mistake: When Anne and Evert are driving toward the Norwegian/Swedish border, Anne pulls back the rug in the back of the sled, and discovers the dead Bjørn. He is then flat on his back, staring upwards. Moments later, when the Swedish border guards pull back the rug to look at the corpse, he is face down. No one touched him, and the sled did not bump enough to roll the body completely over.

Twotall

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Jericho picture

Heart of Winter - S1-E14

Continuity mistake: Just before the robbery, Jake throws some water bottles and a flashlight over a small mound into the bushes, to hide them from the thieves. But when Mimi later picks them up, they are much closer to the truck, and on the other side of the mound. In fact, the bottles and flashlight would have been in plain sight for the robbers where she picks them up.

Twotall

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The Avengers picture

The Girl From Auntie - S4-E17

Factual error: The bad guys are supposedly auctioning off the stolen Mona Lisa. But they and their prospective buyers aren't very art savvy. The painting is more than twice the size of Da Vinci's actual masterpiece. (00:44:50)

Jean G

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The Outer Limits picture

The Human Factor - S1-E8

Continuity mistake: When the lab equipment shorts out after the earthquake, the unconscious Major Brothers is lying with his head propped up against the wall. But when Hamilton reaches him in the next shot, he's suddenly lying flat and is nowhere near the wall. (00:21:45)

Jean G

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Get Smart picture

Mr. Big - S1-E1

Continuity mistake: When Max is phoning the Chief to let him know the mission's been accomplished, he takes the oars out of the oarlocks before opening his shoephone. The oars change from being out of the oarlocks in the closeups to still being in the water in the long shots for the rest of the episode. (00:23:50 - 00:24:30)

Captain Defenestrator

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New Tricks picture

God's Waiting Room - S4-E2

Continuity mistake: When Brian and Gerry are chasing Kelly, Kelly's jacket is only zipped up at the bottom at the start of the chase, but when the camera angle changes it is zipped all the way up for the rest of the chase.

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Medical Investigation picture

Coming Home - S1-E3

Factual error: At the convalescent home, Dr. Conner asks if a lector has been to the home to give communion. Later, he describes a lector as a person who gives communion at church or to the homebound. A Eucharistic Minister or Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion gives communion in the Catholic Church.

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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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Project Blue Book picture

Show generally

Factual error: Moving vehicles with officers inside are not saluted except when the car is an official one displaying the flag of a general officer. (00:13:55)

toroscan

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Batman: The Animated Series picture

Heart of Ice - S1-E3

Other mistake: When Batman is watching the security footage of Victor Fries' accident, at first Fries is addressing the camera directly which follows him and pans according to his movements and Ferris Boyle interrupting him, which would suggest a second person was in the room with a handheld camera. But after Ferris Boyle enters the room and orders Fries' experiment terminated, there are several cuts from various angles in the room suggesting surveillance cameras. The surveillance style footage also often conveniently cuts to the face of whichever person happens to be speaking or will cut to a certain angle in order to put emphasis on the action, all of which would require multiple mounted cameras and purposeful editing by either Boyle or one of his subordinates, which would be completely illogical since they don't want anyone to see the footage in the first place. (00:12:20 - 00:13:55)

Phaneron

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Eureka picture

Phased and Confused - S3-E6

Other mistake: Captain Eureka losing his finger makes absolutely no sense. He doesn't cry out in pain, there's no blood, and where the finger ended up is completely illogical. The finger didn't just sever on its own; it's shown that severing only occurs when passing through objects. Captain Eureka goes through a wall that is a good fifteen feet away from where the finger is discovered, and it is implausible to think it could have rolled there on its own.

Knever

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Harrow picture

Alea Iacta Est - S3-E8

Revealing mistake: When Harrow and Nicholls are in what is supposed to be Queensland Police Headquarters, a window is visible with logos for Radio National and Triple J behind them. This shows that the scene was recorded at the offices of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. (00:31:04)

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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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Matlock picture

The Madam - S5-E3

Factual error: Radio talk show host David Campbell works at "WRQE 480 AM." There is no such frequency. The AM radio dial begins at 530.

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