Factual errors in entertainment

[Bolletje]

So, just curious how many of you have the same pet peeve as I do.
I love watching series and movies, a lot. I'm a sponge for knowledge of all kinds (and random facts that are pretty useless) and love watching shows with medical, (pseudo)scientific, or historical subjects.
What gets me every time is when a show gets something wrong. Either a fact, or the pronunciation of a word. This annoys me to the point where I can't help but comment on this (which is delightful for whoever happens to be watching with me) and I have to grab my trusty phone to find out whether I'm indeed right where the show isn't. I'm incredibly satisfied whenever I can confirm that I'm right and the show got it wrong. Bit of a superiority complex there, I guess? When I turn out to be right though, and it's an informative show, I immediately lose interest because they can't be bothered to check their facts. Which is really annoying when watching shows with someone else, as I'll either start fiddling with my phone or just wander off and start doing something else.

For this same reason I tend to keep my mouth shut whenever my friends have a discussion about a subject I'm more knowledgeable about, because I know I come off snobby and condescending when I explain why they're wrong. I never engage in a discussion about facts unless I know for a fact I am right, because I won't defend something I don't fully believe in and I won't make a statement about a subject I don't fully understand.
I loathe arrogant ignorance and have a hard time hiding my emotions when someone brags or "preaches" about subjects they don't really know anything about. Keeping my mouth shut at moments like that is one of the hardest things in daily life for me. It's gotten me into trouble at work and in social situations more times than I can count.

Wrapping up, I'm curious if this is something that sounds familiar to you guys.
And if so, do any of you have any sage advice for being able to enjoy TV and conversations without getting carried away by facts and Being Right?

 

[Bolletje]

Rereading my post I realize it makes me look like a horrible person. So a little additional clarification: I have no problem whatsoever with people not knowing things, or not sharing my interests, or not having a high IQ.

Just people that boast about knowledge that isn't actually there, and flashy pseudoscientific shows failing at facts and pronunciation.

Hope that takes my arrogance-factor down a notch

 

[Suzanne]

I am not a great tv watcher anyway, but I am very like you with health things and I am detecting that I get a bit too forceful, so trying to back off a bit.

No, you do not come across as arrogant. Actually the opposite. You humbly acknowledge your attitude and trying to deal with it, which I admire.

When ever I hear something said wrong, my instant urge is to correct, but I am terrible with prounouncing names, so I try not to say anything.

When I hear medical people stating wrong information, I get wound up and want to immediately let them know they are wrong.

I know I wind people up, so trying to back down.

 

[xudo]

I'm terrible for this. My husband often gets annoyed watching things with me because I will continually point out any errors. Especially so with anything to do with planes and/or planes crashes and accidents, as this is one of my special interests.

 

[Alcyon]

True story: earlier today I was thinking about making a thread about this very thing!

It drives me craaazy!!! I can grant a writer an initial premise; say, a zombie outbreak. But I can't handle when impossibility is heaped upon impossibility; a zombie outbreak could last for a matter of weeks and then for various reasons it would be all over. Guns that never need loading, a universe filled with humanoid bipeds that we can communicate with, simple science ignored...I could go on ad nauseum.

Off the top of my head, I can think of two reasons why it bothers me so: first, it insults my intelligence; they assume I won't notice the mistake(s). Second, it's just so lazy, I often come across instances where I could see the story being much better, more meaningful, and more complex if it was more realistic.

I can feel my blood pressure rising just thinking about it!

 

[Full Steam]

Conversely I've started writing sci-fi stories and got stuck when I can't absolutely explain a particular science or situation.

That's normally the end of the piece as I go to figure it out and can't, and the thought of carrying on when it's not reconcilable is impossible.

Maybe that why there are so many error - Aspies don't write sci-fi (or at least don't finish it!)

 

[Bolletje]

True story: earlier today I was thinking about making a thread about this very thing!

It drives me craaazy!!! I can grant a writer an initial premise; say, a zombie outbreak. But I can't handle when impossibility is heaped upon impossibility; a zombie outbreak could last for a matter of weeks and then for various reasons it would be all over. Guns that never need loading, a universe filled with humanoid bipeds that we can communicate with, simple science ignored...I could go on ad nauseum.

Off the top of my head, I can think of two reasons why it bothers me so: first, it insults my intelligence; they assume I won't notice the mistake(s). Second, it's just so lazy, I often come across instances where I could see the story being much better, more meaningful, and more complex if it was more realistic.

I can feel my blood pressure rising just thinking about it!

I think you nailed the two most important reasons this annoys me too. Lazy writing and having my intelligence insulted.

Nothing ruins a good movie or show like a plot that just doesn't make any sense. With the exception of sort of satirical shows that subtly poke fun at their own lack of logic.
I recently watched 'Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency' and enjoyed that immensely because it doesn't have a pretense of actual science going on and it doesn't expect viewers to believe that this is real or this could happen.

 

[Bolletje]

Conversely I've started writing sci-fi stories and got stuck when I can't absolutely explain a particular science or situation.

That's normally the end of the piece as I go to figure it out and can't, and the thought of carrying on when it's not reconcilable is impossible.

Maybe that why there are so many error - Aspies don't write sci-fi (or at least don't finish it!)

I think it's mostly the not finishing part! Maybe because Aspies tend to be a wee bit perfectionist?

 

[Judge]

Don't get me started. The historical errors that are made on the History Channel and the National Geographic Channel....oh my.

 

[ksheehan88]

All. the. time.

I'm forever being told "Its just a film" or "its just a tv show"... as if that makes it ok...

The only person that doesn't do that to me my aspie mate, and that's only because he does exactly the same thing, so we can sit and point out all the wrongs together and enjoy it lol.

 

[Bolletje]

All. the. time.

I'm forever being told "Its just a film" or "its just a tv show"... as if that makes it ok...

The only person that doesn't do that to me my aspie mate, and that's only because he does exactly the same thing, so we can sit and point out all the wrongs together and enjoy it lol.

That's the best. I love hanging out with one of my friends that's NT but as much as a stickler for facts as I am. We yell at the TV. We're not that popular in movie theaters though

 

[Riley]

Oh, you are not alone, my friend. I started ranting at a Goosebumps episode featuring a PoTO parody. First off, it's Christine; Esmeralda's from The Hunchback Of Notre Dame. Second, CHRISTINE'S DAD IS DEAD! IT'S WHAT SETS OFF THE PLOT IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!

And do NOT get me started on DC Superhero Girls...Granted, I never watched it. But my opinion of DC animation after the early 2000's is very low.

 

[Judge]

I suppose the one thing I resent more than others is this mentality perpetuated by Hollywood producers that "the public won't notice such things". But we do.

And when such people allegedly producing historical documentaries begin doing the same, it makes my skin crawl.

Feature films like "Pearl Harbor" or "Braveheart" I suppose are par for the course. But tv documentaries like "The World Wars" and "Nazi Scrapbook", they better get things right rather than embarrassingly incorrect and even laughable.

 

[Sylar]

It all depends on what I'm watching. The focus of entertainment should be to entertain so I forgive mistakes to an extent as long as it doesn't create plot holes. Even if a writer did research there's always going to be some artistic license. I'm not going to withdraw from a premise that relied on the only using 10% of the brain myth as long as it's consistent within the story. Of course comedy gets the most leeway because of the rule of funny.

It also depends on what the creator was going for. Even though I said I'm more relaxed with comedy, The Big Bang Theory is always a show that will annoy when they get something wrong. There was a line about the x-men getting their name from the x in professor xavier, it resulted in a joke about Sheldon taking the C from his surname and saying his version would be called semen. That's a cheap and lazy punchline and the entire thing relies on a set-up that isn't correct. That type of mistake is also really out of character so it can't be forgiven.

It's like when Nolan did his Batman trilogy and tried to make it realistic but there were so many flaws in logic and facts that it created more problems than if he'd just done a full on comicbook movie.

 

[Alcyon]

I recently watched 'Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency' and enjoyed that immensely because it doesn't have a pretense of actual science going on and it doesn't expect viewers to believe that this is real or this could happen.

Based on your positive review, I thought I'd give this show a try. Just finished the first episode: I love it!!!!

Of course it does come from the mind of Douglas Adams, so it had a head start.

 

[StephF]

I do this a lot, it kinda annoys my friends.

 

[Nellie]

I do this ALL the time. Movies, TV, books, EVERYTHING. I've even found grammatical errors in my MENSA Select logic puzzle book!

 

[Progster]

In a novel, a British fighter pilot in World War II saying "God save the queen"!!

A documentary in which it is stated that the sun is composed of gas - actually, it's plasma.

 

[Tom]

I don't get bothered much by factual errors in entertainment. To get the one often means altering the other.

I do have a pet peeve about the 'experts' stating hypothesis as fact in documentaries. I suspect they do it for much the same reason.

 

[Robin Winter]

I'm the same way, and I'll end up missing most of whatever I'm watching because I started out making sure I was right and I end up following a chain of things online. The other thing that *really* gets me miffed is bad subtitles. I rely on subtitles because I can't filter out the rest of the sounds to make out everything that's being said, so everything is watched with them on. When I see them get words wrong, my god, I go OFF.