On a television program I watched recently, a cop, a veteran of many years, made a few mistakes.  Luckily, he survived them all.

First, he went in to unknown but potentially dangerous situation without his partner or backup

Second, he holstered his weapon when the resident–the bad guy’s girl friend–told him the baddie wasn’t there   The cop believed her because why would the murderer’s girl friend lie to the police?

Third, when the murderer came out of the bedroom (and I kind of wonder about that too because, after all, the cop had believed his sweetie so why didn’t the criminal stay hidden?  But that’s the stupidity of the criminal not the cop) the two men engaged in a fearsome gun fight.   The cop hid in the dining room with only a double layer of wallboard between him and the automatic weapon the bad guy had.  NONE OF THE BULLETS PIERCED THE WALL TO KILL THE COP!  None.  I’ve  read sad stories in which young children are killed because guns have been discharged outside their homes and the bullets have pierced brick walls.  However, in this program, they did not penetrate wall board.

Finally, after a sustained period of shooting at each other so many times that I would think that dining room wall would have been blown to tiny bits, the cop kills the bad guy with his service revolver.  Thank goodness the bad guy is always a terrible shot.

I’m picky.  I know that.  I’ve also mentioned it before because it’s a constant in my reading.   Although I don’t see problems in my own writing, errors in the novels of other or in movies or on television really jar me.  If it’s a really well-done presentation, I can forgive a lot.  But if it’s well written, why hasn’t the writer taken the time to do basic research?  And if it isn’t well written, I’ll probably never watch the show or read that author again.

Is there anything of television, in movies or that you’ve read that bothers you?  I’d love to know I’m not the only picky person around.