Corrected entry: In a flashback showing the electoral map in the background, the states won by George Bush (Republican) are colored blue, while the states carried by Bill Clinton (Democrat) are colored red. It should be the other way around.
Corrected entry: Season 5 Episode 104 "Family 8108": In the final 10 minutes, several characters make reference to a "Distinguished Combat Medal." There is no such medal awarded to U.S. military personnel, but there is a Distinguished Service Cross. Players of certain war-oriented video games can earn a Distinguished Combat Medal, but not in real life. [[According to the West Wing Continuity Monitor, there have also been references to a DCM on the show "West Wing," but the Monitor website also notes there is no such medal.]].
Correction: Fictional medals and awards are often used out of respect for real-life combat veterans who earned real awards (especially if the show is portraying the character as the killer). As long as they remain consistent and true within the world of the show, fictionalized elements aren't mistakes.
The Badlands - S2-E1
Corrected entry: Derrick's brother, who is in the military, is wearing desert camouflage at the base. Soldiers only wear desert camouflage in arid overseas locations, not in the US.
Correction: Both Army and Marine Corps regulations at the time the episode was set authorized the wearing of the desert camoflauge pattern at all functions when prescribed by the commanding officer. See ALMAR Number 028/02 dated 5/20/02 for the Marines and Regulation 670-1 dated 9/5/03 for the Army.
Corrected entry: In the episode "Hubris", Lily finds a quote in a letter a suspect wrote to the victim, "for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them", which she says sounds a little like Shakespeare. She and a few other cops are later seen reading through several Shakespeare plays in an attempt to find it, but this is madness when you consider a) the sheer mass of his work and b) that she isn't even sure it's a quote from him. Much faster would have been to Google the phrase, which brings up several hundred pages identifying it as a line from Hamlet. Any experienced detective would think of this first.
Correction: True, it would have been easier, but she may not have thought of it. Besides, her stupidity is not a mistake.
Corrected entry: Huck's alibi is he claims he was at the movies with his girlfriend watching Bikini Beach in May of 1964. Bikini Beach with Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello wasn't released until July 22, 1964.
Correction: Character flaw. Poor recollection of an event forty years in the past. No one said it was a good alibi.
Corrected entry: Emma Stone is asking Lilly Rush to reopen the murder case of her great great great grandmother Francis Stone in 1919. Francis Stone never got married and never had kids.
Correction: It was her great great aunt.
Correction: The blue/red for Democrats/Republicans being consistent only started with the 2000 Presidential election. For most of the 20th Century red was used for Democrats, and blue for Republicans, if there was any consistent colour scheme at all. With the development of colour TV, some networks alternated the colour scheme with each election, or had their own preferred choice, such as using blue for the incumbent party. The drawn-out nature of the 2000 election meant that the electoral map was referenced for much longer than normal, and networks standardised for simplicity, and the current scheme stuck. There was apparently no particular reason for the specific associations, and the parties themselves had no official colours.