9 Biggest TV Show Bloopers From the Past Decade (PHOTOS)
Game of Thrones’ necklace
Even before the sloppiness of Game of Thrones’ eighth and final season, the HBO hit made blunders aplenty. Remember when Melisandre removed her choker necklace in Season 6 and revealed her true elderly age? The same character took a bath without the chocker two seasons prior and managed to keep her youthful appearance in what actress Carice Van Houten called an “oops moment.”
Game of Thrones’ coffee cup
The HBO drama became the laughing stock of the internet midway through Season 8 when viewers spotted a disposable coffee cup on a table in front of Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke). HBO later edited the cup out of streaming versions of the episode, and Clarke eventually outed Varys actor Conleth Hill as the culprit.
Game of Thrones’ water bottles
Beverage vessels strike again: In GOT’s series finale, viewers spied two water bottles beneath Samwell Tarly (John Bradley) and Davos Seaworth (Liam Cunningham) during the Dragonpit summit scene.
Downton Abbey’s water bottle
Talk about “bottle episodes”! Downton Abbey suffered a similar blooper in 2014 when a modern-day water bottle appeared on a hearth behind Robert Crawley (Hugh Bonneville) and Lady Edith (Laura Carmichael) in a promotional photo for the British drama’s 1924-set fifth season.
9-1-1’s green-screened arm
Capt. Ronnie Cooper (Leonard Roberts) should have had an amputated arm in a Season 3 episode of this first-responders procedural, but Fox viewers initially saw Roberts wearing a green-screen sleeve over his real arm.
Elsa’s legs on American Horror Story
And speaking of magically reattached limbs, double-amputee Elsa Mars (Jessica Lange) appeared with both legs intact in the finale of FX’s American Horror Story: Freak Show.
Stranger Things’ Chicago skyline
Not only did Stranger Things turn off fans with its Season 2 episode “The Lost Sister,” but the installment’s shot of the Chicago skyline bore multiple inaccuracies. One, the skyline shows many buildings built after the 1984 timeframe of Stranger Things Season 2, and two, the westward vantage point means the characters would be in the middle of Lake Michigan.
Joan’s restaurant reference on Mad Men
Another anachronism? Mad Men’s Joan Holloway (Christina Hendricks) mentioned New York City’s Le Cirque during the 1968-set sixth season of AMC’s critically-acclaimed drama, but the restaurant opened in 1974. After the episode aired, Le Cirque founder Sirio Maccioni invited Hendricks and guests to the chef’s table for a “special 1968-style” menu.
Daryl and Carol’s van on The Walking Dead
In a 2014 episode of AMC’s The Walking Dead, Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Carol (Melissa McBride) escaped a walker horde by tipping a van off the edge of an overpass. The issue? The van defied laws of physics, landing right-side-up when it should have hit the ground head-on or upside-down.
No doubt about it: Television shows wowed us during the 2010s with their narrative complexity and technological wizardry. At the same time… well, mistakes were made, as they say.
From rogue water bottles and coffee cups to historical goofs and even physical impossibilities, this gallery looks back at some of the most shameful small-screen slip-ups of the 2010s.
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