Your most pointless TV/movie/book nitpicks

I wanted to start a thread about your pointless and ridiculous nitpicks of TV shows, movies and books.

This includes ones where you nitpicked something but turned out to be wrong about it! Those are welcome! Serious, genuine plotholes and real problems, nah, I want pointless and precise little ones that don't really matter, but that annoyed you enough to nitpick it. Did someone fire a gun that with a 8 round magazine 10 times without reloading? Did someone refer to a country that didn't exist yet? Act as if something was common in a time period when it was not? All these and more!

Here are a couple of my own pointless nitpicks:

1) Reacher (TV series) - Reacher hands someone a USB thumb drive, the "normal" kind (USB-A) to read on their laptop. This person (a thirty-something, not a child) picks up their (explicitly theirs - not borrowed or w/e) sticker-covered laptop, which implies they've had it for months if not years and used it a lot, and tries to put the USB drive in it, and is totally surprised that their laptop doesn't have a USB-A port. No. This is not thing that would happen. No-one who uses a laptop a ton and has had it a while doesn't know whether it has a USB-A port or not (even if they don't know what those are by name!). It's the most basic port and the one you absolutely know if you have or not because it's huge relative to USB-C. Not plausible!

2) Rivers of London (book series) - I forget which book this happens in, but a minor plot point hinges on the private St Paul's girls school in London being a school that has some boarders even though it's not a boarding school primarily (i.e. pupils who live at the school). There are some private schools in the UK like this (as well as full-on boarding schools where the majority of pupils board there). The book relies on it having them, and the author is fairly scrupulous in his research about real London things. Unfortunately, however, St Paul's girls does not, and has not in like, the last 30 years, had boarders. I knew this because I went to a nearby-ish school and kids talk, but I double-checked to see if that had changed, and it had not.

I am fairly sure I am the only person who picked up on, let alone cared about, either of these things!

@Whizbang Dustyboots - I appreciated your "Terminator 1 got the nightclub scene wrong because no-one was dressed cool enough for a nightclub in 1984". That's the kind of energy I'm looking for here!
 

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Whizbang Dustyboots

Gnometown Hero
Die Hard 2 starts off at Dulles Airport in Northern Virginia, west of Washington DC. John McClane picks up a PacBell cell phone to call Holly. PacBell phones were all located in California (it stands for "Pacific Bell"). In DC at the time, phones were still using the legacy AT&T brand. (AT&T later gobbled up most of the regional companies split off of it, in a triumph over anti-monopoly laws.)

McClane also has a magic drink at the airport bar that goes up and down and up and down in volume, despite never getting a refill, but it's the PacBell phones 3,000 miles away from the very specific Northern Virginia location that get me.
 

Die Hard 2 starts off at Dulles Airport in Northern Virginia, west of Washington DC. John McClane picks up a PacBell cell phone to call Holly. PacBell phones were all located in California (it stands for "Pacific Bell"). In DC at the time, phones were still using the legacy AT&T brand. (AT&T later gobbled up most of the regional companies split off of it, in a triumph over anti-monopoly laws.)

McClane also has a magic drink at the airport bar that goes up and down and up and down in volume, despite never getting a refill, but it's the PacBell phones 3,000 miles away from the very specific Northern Virginia location that get me.
Great. You've ruin ed Die Hard 2 for me.
 


payn

I don't believe in the no-win scenario
I wanted to start a thread about your pointless and ridiculous nitpicks of TV shows, movies and books.

This includes ones where you nitpicked something but turned out to be wrong about it! Those are welcome! Serious, genuine plotholes and real problems, nah, I want pointless and precise little ones that don't really matter, but that annoyed you enough to nitpick it. Did someone fire a gun that with a 8 round magazine 10 times without reloading? Did someone refer to a country that didn't exist yet? Act as if something was common in a time period when it was not? All these and more!

Here are a couple of my own pointless nitpicks:

1) Reacher (TV series) - Reacher hands someone a USB thumb drive, the "normal" kind (USB-A) to read on their laptop. This person (a thirty-something, not a child) picks up their (explicitly theirs - not borrowed or w/e) sticker-covered laptop, which implies they've had it for months if not years and used it a lot, and tries to put the USB drive in it, and is totally surprised that their laptop doesn't have a USB-A port. No. This is not thing that would happen. No-one who uses a laptop a ton and has had it a while doesn't know whether it has a USB-A port or not (even if they don't know what those are by name!). It's the most basic port and the one you absolutely know if you have or not because it's huge relative to USB-C. Not plausible!

2) Rivers of London (book series) - I forget which book this happens in, but a minor plot point hinges on the private St Paul's girls school in London being a school that has some boarders even though it's not a boarding school primarily (i.e. pupils who live at the school). There are some private schools in the UK like this (as well as full-on boarding schools where the majority of pupils board there). The book relies on it having them, and the author is fairly scrupulous in his research about real London things. Unfortunately, however, St Paul's girls does not, and has not in like, the last 30 years, had boarders. I knew this because I went to a nearby-ish school and kids talk, but I double-checked to see if that had changed, and it had not.

I am fairly sure I am the only person who picked up on, let alone cared about, either of these things!

@Whizbang Dustyboots - I appreciated your "Terminator 1 got the nightclub scene wrong because no-one was dressed cool enough for a nightclub in 1984". That's the kind of energy I'm looking for here!
I noticed the "USB" thing last week. It didnt bug me, but I did chuckle a little and was like, "yeah, ok". I have more of a problem with the going around causing wanton mayhem and murder but local police are only mildly annoyed with it. "Got my eye on you Reacher!"
 

Richards

Legend
As a 20-year USAF veteran, it irritates me to no end when authors refer to the Air Force as the "air force," "Air force," or - worst yet - "Airforce." It's two words, both capitalized. Some amazingly high-profile authors have gotten this wrong, and it always disappoints me to no end that no editor caught it.

For similar reasons, I dislike in movies and TV shows when they get military customs and courtesies wrong, like when you wear your cover (hat) and when you don't, when saluting is proper and when it isn't, and simple stuff like how long your hair can be and how far your mustache can extend. And I'm always amused when a female military member was apparently issued a miniskirt as part of her official uniform.

Johnathan
 

Ryujin

Legend
I noticed the "USB" thing last week. It didnt bug me, but I did chuckle a little and was like, "yeah, ok". I have more of a problem with the going around causing wanton mayhem and murder but local police are only mildly annoyed with it. "Got my eye on you Reacher!"
It more made me think, "Oh, a new Mac user."

My nitpick is something I've said many times; that the movie "Starship Troopers" isn't a serious adaptation of the book. I can even admit that it''s quite likely a fine movie. I just can't get around it, though.
 

payn

I don't believe in the no-win scenario
It more made me think, "Oh, a new Mac user."

My nitpick is something I've said many times; that the movie "Starship Troopers" isn't a serious adaptation of the book. I can even admit that it''s quite likely a fine movie. I just can't get around it, though.
Oh no, not this again.
would you like to know more starship troopers GIF
 

ichabod

Legned
There's an Orson Scott Card novel where the liberals try to take over the world. It happens mostly in DC, and at one point there was a chase scene up Wisconsin Ave. into Bethesda. They take a right turn onto East West Highway, going the wrong way down the one way street in front of the office I was working in at the time. Now, sure, chase scenes go the wrong way down one way roads into oncoming traffic in lots of media. But there is no indication that this is the case in the book.
 

Ryujin

Legend
As a 20-year USAF veteran, it irritates me to no end when authors refer to the Air Force as the "air force," "Air force," or - worst yet - "Airforce." It's two words, both capitalized. Some amazingly high-profile authors have gotten this wrong, and it always disappoints me to no end that no editor caught it.

For similar reasons, I dislike in movies and TV shows when they get military customs and courtesies wrong, like when you wear your cover (hat) and when you don't, when saluting is proper and when it isn't, and simple stuff like how long your hair can be and how far your mustache can extend. And I'm always amused when a female military member was apparently issued a miniskirt as part of her official uniform.

Johnathan
If we're going to get into grammar/capitalization nitpicks, then my list is going to be untenably long :ROFLMAO:
 

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