Am I the only one who gets upset at the historical inconsistencies of shows?

Glaring mistakes of nearly any kind when I’m reading or watching something are nearly enough to make me give the whole project up.

It drives me to distraction when a historical narrative contradicts it’s self. I mean, if ONE thing’s not true, why am I bothering with the rest?? How do I know that anything is!

You’re not the only one! Far too often something I recognize as being anachronistically or even grammatically incorrect on TV or in a movie briefly takes my concentration off the action. It’s annoying. The only thing to do is invoke Suspension of Disbelief.

I try to maintain a certain amount of detachment and realize that these are for entertainment purposes only, not historical record.

Relax. It is entertainment not history.

I try to let things go, but it is really annoying.

I stopped watching the show Alphas less than five minutes in, because they referred to one of the characters’ ability as synaesthesia. The girl had heightened senses, not confused or crosswired senses.

That was enough to let me know they weren’t going to have the attention to detail I require from the sci-fi I enjoy.

One that gets a pass, though it still bothers me, is The Thing – the original and remake. They have a normal day and night cycle. In Antarctica. Hi, sweetie, have you seen a globe recently?

Historical inaccuracies bug the shit out of me. I’ll complain, but still watch. It’s easier to accept as suspension of disbelief than, say, failing to recognize the rotation of the earth.

@Pachyderm_In_The_Room & @ibstubro Thank you that I am not alone… I chose to ignore that the ages for everyone seems off but Nostradamus is in the wrong century, those prophecies made no sense and the whole marriage to France suddenly becoming a marriage to the illegitimate son of the king of Portugal
@Seek_Kolinahr I couldn’t sit through Alphas either and some shows like Tudors I will not even try watching because I know I will yell at the TV and that is bad since I watch these after the kids are in bed.

And I can suspend disbelief to a point, otherwise I’d never make it through Dracula, Grimm or several of the other shows I watch..including my husband’s WWE programs Now THEY require Suspension of Disbelief

I try to enjoy it for what it is.
My fiancé and my son will both sit there and pick it apart.

@Katniss I have had people do that with programs, especially comedy/mocking movies – I can NOT watch anything Mel Brooks with my son because he has a comment every two seconds. I tried watching Once Upon A Time In Wonderland with him….. had to turn it off before I duct taped a pillow over his mouth oh the joys of parenting teens that live in two disparate households

Have I got an article for you.

@glacial THANK YOU I am glad to see I am not the only one who thought the clothes were also off…..Especially that god-awful thing Nostradamus wears….

Apparently not.

Those bother me too. Why don’t they have a historian advising them?

What really drives me nuts are medical shows. I’m not in the medical field and even I know that something is just not right. If you were producing a medical drama, wouldn’t you consult with someone in that field?

Here’s one:

CSI shows and their ilk.

They zoom in 90000x on some blurry pixelly photograph, and are able to pick out the reflection from the eyes of a person sitting in the nosebleeds of a football stadium (I exaggerate slightly).

Or, the best, was one where someone actually moved an object out of the picture to see what was behind it.

Come the frak on, people.

@Seek_Kolinahr Ohhhh… BSG reference. Talk dirty to me some more. I think I’m in love.

<—May or may not be a toaster.

Hmm… Definitely see the makings for a question.

What I don’t get is why entertainment can’t also be accurate. There is no reason to get it wrong.

No, you are not alone. But if I am paying attention to that level, I ought to watch something else. The story has lost me by then.

I agree, @YARNLADY, for the most part. It’s so sloppy. THAT is what breaks my natural suspension of disbelief.

Suspension of disbelief is a gift we give the entertainer. Glaring inaccuracy is breaking that trust.

The movie “The Mothman Prophecies” starring Richard Gere is based on the actual collapse of a bridge in WV that happened in 1967. Not only were there no scenes shot in WV, but the actors used cell phones and had caller ID which had not been invented in the 60’s.
It drove me crazy watching that movie and pointing out all the discrepancies.

@chyna were the clothes and cars period for 1967?

Well, it was “loosely based on actual events”, it wasn’t a period piece. (No, the cars and clothes were modern—well, modern 1999-ish)

If they made a movie about the Manson cult and people had cell phones, I’d be pissed.

Ah, I don’t have a problem with them changing books to make a movie, as long as it’s consistent.

The things that will make me snap are inconsistencies like cell phones in a period piece, too.

I’d just turn THAT off.

Again, small things bugging me -

Michael Crichton’s book Timeline was made into a film. I saw the film first.

So. Many. Glaring. Errors.

The French were using English weapons.
Both armies were wearing uniforms. Uniforms. In 1357. * eyeroll *

Oh, and there’s the teensy tiny fact that both the French and English are speaking Modern motherfucking English. In 1357.

@Seek_Kolinahr & @ibstubro – That is why I hate watching movies to books I read, especially writers like Stephen King. There are HUGE inconsistencies and even whole sections cut out.

As a lifelong Lord of the Rings fan, I can understand that. However, no one is going to watch 30 hours of Lord of the Rings. So they have to leave some stuff out.

The modern English thing was handled in the book for Timeline – they were given translation devices. In the movie, they ignored the issue entirely. Oh, they’re English, it’ll be fine! Uh, yeah, they’re English contemporaries of Chaucer. Not quite the same.

Of course, the book had its own issues of all the characters being shocked and awed at the bright Medieval colours and complete lack of gloom and doom that people generally attribute to the “Dark Ages.” Big issue there: The time travellers were Medievalists. If anyone should have been prepared for the reality of the situation, they should have.

You’ve got me ranting. I don’t know when this will end. Hahahahaha….

@Seek_Kolinahr one that disregards the time it is set in and reminds me of Reign is Knight’s Tale with the late Heath Ledger. talk about a hot young man gone too soon The King movie that most drove me looney tunes has to be tied between The Stand (but then I read the original form manuscript that was well over 4K pages) and Bag of Bones that only covered section one and where the kids were young little kids but not the rest of the book (it was broken as 4–5 mini stories, each following a member of the children from the part that DID make it in the book, before remeeting at a funeral).

@Mitsu_Neko HOWEVER, Stephen King hated the original “Shining” so bad he remade it years later. I think the original was one of the best movies, ever, and I’ve never seen the remake, or ever heard mention of it.

Oh, and @Mitsu_Neko I read “The Shining”, too, and thought it was a tremendous book, too.

I caught part of it and Storm of the Century on TV but never finished either one. I love his works I have read especially Eye of the Dragon. But the movie of The Stand was missing such huge chunks from what I read that I kept yelling at the screen but then the parts that did make it in left it as a 6 hour and 20 minute movie. I wonder who played Flagg?

IMDB says it was Jamey Sheridan

The Shining (movie) was great.

The Shining (book) was too long, went on too many tangents. I did like the hedge animals instead of the maze, and the fact that the black dude lived. Still, I didn’t read another King book until I discovered the Bachman Books.

A Knights Tale was just good fun. It wasn’t trying to be historically accurate, so it’s cool.

I love Knight’s Tale and the blatant mess ups actually made it funnier, like a Mel Brooks movie (Men In Tights or Princess Bride)

@Mitsu_Neko I dearly love ‘High Anxiety”

@ibstubro It has been so long since I saw that one. I was watching Princess Bride last week.

The History of the World – Part One is one of my favourite movies of all time.

And that’s the Ethiopian Slim-Slam