Episode 3x21 "A touch of death" of NCIS:Los Angeles has a scene where they show the spread of a dangerous virus on a digital map should it break out. The map looked really cool and the virus spread over a pretty large area. However I noticed one mistake - the virus would not spread to Iceland apparently. The best part of Europe became blood red but Iceland remained nicely green.
-This is a definite fail since Iceland serves as a gateway for international travel between America and Europe. It would be one of the first places to be contaminated.
Numb3rs once had an episode where they found ancient remains of a human skeleton. They had the skull recreated on a computer program and a picture emerged. One of the characters took one look at the photo and said:"Yeah that guy definitely looks European".
-The person recreated in said picture was a Caucasian, that's it. And exactly how can you tell with one glance that a person is European? I at least cannot.
In last episode of NCIS they were talking about where Bodnar was situated in the world and they specifically mentioned he was believed to be in Rome. Later in the same episode McGee said they believed he was used in Western-Europe. It turns out he was in Berlin.
-Europe is a huge continent with a lot of countries and no one really knows where Western-Europe begins or ends. We´re talking about over 20 countries that fall into that category. So that is a lot of area to cover and a lot of languages to know.
In episode 2x02 (I think) of NCIS:Los Angeles, Sam Hanna plans to have Hetty send him on a military mission to Iceland because then he will have been t every place a James Bond movie has been shot
-Iceland does not have an army or a navy although the US army had a base their for some decades. So having Sam go their on a military mission today is impossible. Unless he´d be going to the place Reagan and Gorbachev met in on a history trip. And secondly, since there used to be an American army base there and Iceland is the gateway of international travel between America and Europe, he would definitely have stopped there at some point on his travels.
The oh so dear continent syndrome that every single TV show is guilty of. Whenever characters refer to having traveled to European countries, knowing a European or mention anything to a related European country they always talk about Europe. It is seldom differentiated between countries like UK, Spain, Chezch Republic, Norway, Slovenia or that. The continent is always referred to as a whole.
-I know it´s a more convenient way but still. Always referring to Europe as a whole is ignoring the fact that it is an extremely diverse continent with many countries and languages and very different cultures. Scandinavians for example are overly proud of their heritage and nationality and generally do not appreciate when people forget that. Trust me.
And it always makes me laugh when TV characters are meant to be abroad and in Europe and every single person they meet that is supposed to be from the country they are in speaks not only perfect English but with an American accent.
-Many European countries have people that speak fluent English or have at least good command of it but most people speak it with an accent, often a heavy one. And in many countries English is not spoken at all. So it would be way more realistic for the characters to be subjected to very thick accents and have to resort to acting out things most of the time. I am English student at an international University - exactly one person in my class speaks with a native British accent. The rest (me included) speak with variations of Polish/Russian/Balkan/Scandinavian/Spanish/French/Semi-American/Chinese. So most native speakers would shiver when listening to us butcher English in class or saying "What is the word for...?" :)
And just as a last bit -
Icelandic ass-cloud - this is the horrible Icelandic accent in all it´s glory
