swordfish

30th Mar 2025

Baywatch Nights (1995)

Heat Rays - S1-E22

Factual error: Donna jumps off the bridge (which is relatively low down), into shallow water. She then narrowly avoids being hit by a huge ocean liner. There's no way such a huge ship would be in such shallow water - for starters, it couldn't cross under the bridge, being far too big. (00:03:12)

swordfish

21st Mar 2025

House, M.D. (2004)

Son of Coma Guy - S3-E7

Factual error: Given Gabriel has been in a coma for a decade, it is astonishing that once he wakes up he has no trouble speaking, and his muscles haven't atrophied at all— in fact, his muscles are remarkably toned.

swordfish

21st Mar 2025

House, M.D. (2004)

Son of Coma Guy - S3-E7

Factual error: It is debatable whether Tritter has enough evidence for a court to grant civil forfeiture against House. However, the evidence absolutely wouldn't warrant (even with a sympathetic court) freezing the bank accounts of four other doctors and seizing Wilson's car. Tritter's evidence is that the doctors have prescribed House Vicodin. There's no evidence of a broader conspiracy to traffic. No court would grant this, and any lawyer (including the hospital's own lawyers) could easily challenge it.

swordfish

21st Mar 2025

House, M.D. (2004)

Merry Little Christmas - S3-E10

Factual error: Wilson rolls House onto his back and leaves him lying on his back. Any doctor (especially one as good as Wilson) would never do that when there is a risk of vomiting (you can see in the background that House has already thrown up). If House were to vomit again while lying comatose on his back, he would risk choking to death on his vomit. (00:41:07)

swordfish

21st Mar 2025

House, M.D. (2004)

Merry Little Christmas - S3-E10

Factual error: Tritter states he reviewed the pharmacy log and spotted the dead man's meds being collected. Regardless of Tritter's status as a cop, this is a violation of patient-physician confidentiality. No hospital would allow him log access without a court order (which he doesn't have, would take ages to be granted and requires a very high evidential threshold), and even then it is likely this work would be allocated to the DEA rather than local police like Tritter. (00:42:30)

swordfish

21st Mar 2025

House, M.D. (2004)

Words and Deeds - S3-E11

Factual error: Chase and Foreman suggest the evidence of the pharmacy log is inadmissible at court due to patient-doctor confidentiality, but Cameron states House was neither the patient nor the doctor in question, and so confidentiality does not apply. Cameron's point is irrelevant: since the patient (who has died) and doctor in question (Wilson) did not consent to Tritter's reading the log, confidentiality still applies. As such, Tritter did not validly acquire this evidence, and it is indeed inadmissible. (00:04:18)

swordfish

20th Mar 2025

House, M.D. (2004)

Whac-A-Mole - S3-E8

Factual error: There is no way that Tritter could have Wilson's bank accounts frozen on such shallow evidence. Courts require serious evidence before granting an asset freezing injunction. Given no formal charges have been filed against Wilson, they won't grant an injunction. Asset freezes are to stop someone moving money overseas/spending funds; there's no suggestion Wilson has been paid by House for the meds or might move money offshore. No court in the US will grant an asset freeze on so little evidence.

swordfish

20th Mar 2025

House, M.D. (2004)

Whac-A-Mole - S3-E8

Factual error: The pharmacist refuses to provide Wilson with the medicines he has prescribed to his patients, since Tritter has had Wilson's DEA number/license suspended. However, DEA licenses/numbers are only in relation to controlled substances. Wilson is an oncologist; the chemotherapy medications he would be prescribing aren't controlled substances, and as such, not having a DEA licence wouldn't prevent him from writing scripts for these (although he couldn't prescribe any strong pain meds). (00:10:38)

swordfish

19th Mar 2025

House, M.D. (2004)

Euphoria (2) - S2-E21

Factual error: Cameron forces House (against his wishes) to do the biopsy on Foreman because Foreman has made her his medical proxy. This is completely incorrect; Cameron may be Foreman's proxy, but that doesn't mean she can overrule the attending doctor. Having the right of medical proxy allows her to *refuse* a test in Foreman's name (or refuse consent to any number of medical activities on Foreman), but absolutely not to order a test or operation contrary to the attending doctor's views. (00:34:45)

swordfish

19th Mar 2025

House, M.D. (2004)

Fidelity (aka: Truth or Consequences) - S1-E7

Factual error: House rules out Lyme disease from being the cause of the sickness, since he says Lyme disease presents with a rash, which the husband would have noticed. However, although a rash is a common symptom of Lyme disease, it is by no means universal. Estimates suggest that around one-third of people with the disease don't exhibit that symptom. Doctors wouldn't therefore rule out Lyme disease solely in the absence of a rash. (00:10:25)

swordfish

Factual error: There is no way that the England football team would be playing a friendly match in December. The run-up to the Christmas period is an incredibly packed schedule for the domestic clubs, so the national team would never play a friendly then. Additionally, regardless of the month, England would never play a friendly against a team they had recently played in a competitive game (the mockumentary takes place in December 2003, and England had played Turkey in a Euro 2004 qualifier in October 2003).

swordfish

7th Feb 2025

Eurotrip (2004)

Factual error: There's no way you'd encounter a pub in London dominated by a Manchester United firm/hooligan group (and dedicated to Manchester United). Yes, Manchester United has fans throughout England (including in London), but no pub in London could survive if specifically dedicated to a non-London team and firm. It would have long since been trashed by one of the London firms.

swordfish

2nd Feb 2025

Hustle (2004)

The Hush Heist - S6-E6

Factual error: The gadget Ash gets Shaun to hide inside the bank vault deposit box is essentially a large and extremely powerful electromagnet. An electromagnet powerful enough to support a grown woman's weight (which it does later in the episode, when Emma uses it) would require significant power: either from a mains supply of electricity (which isn't possible, given the device is locked inside a deposit box), or else from batteries far larger than what could fit inside the gadget as shown on screen.

swordfish

22nd Jan 2025

Hustle (2004)

Hustle mistake picture

Getting Even - S4-E3

Factual error: Ash gives Albert a slip of paper with Lily's home address, including a postcode of WC2E. That postcode is in Central London, but the house Albert then goes to is somewhere far more suburban, a long way from WC2. (00:50:21 - 00:55:22)

swordfish

23rd Nov 2024

Hustle (2004)

Missions - S2-E4

Factual error: The police visit Richard Shaw's estate agency towards the end of the episode. The establishing background shot opposite where the estate agency allegedly is is of what was then the Cable and Wireless Building (long since bought by Vodafone). That building's real-life address is in the SE1 postcode. The problem is that the business card the police officer holds with the address has a completely different postcode.

swordfish

20th Jun 2024

Chucklevision (1987)

Mind Your Manors - S20-E1

Factual error: Aunt Petunia says that the chalice was first seen in the Stone Age, and sends Paul and Barry back to where Stonehenge is just being completed. However, the Stone Age actually ended in around 3300 BC. Stonehenge is believed to have been constructed in around 2500 BC, which was the Bronze Age.

swordfish

29th May 2024

Nowhere Man (1995)

29th May 2024

Nowhere Man (1995)

Absolute Zero (Pilot) - S1-E1

Factual error: Tom's mother lives in Iowa, but the flowers/plants in her garden include types that could only live in places with warm/temperate weather all year round, which is decidedly not the case for Iowa.

swordfish

29th May 2024

Nowhere Man (1995)

29th May 2024

Nowhere Man (1995)

Gemini - S1-E25

Factual error: Tom finds a notecard with an "internet access code" that is an IP address: 271.287.291.31. The problem with this is that IP addresses cannot go above 255 as the starting three digits - it's a completely invalid address.

swordfish

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