The wife is mad. And when the wife is mad, it’s hard to ignore her for longer than a few months. Particularly when she’s getting her PhD in virology and the issue she’s upset about is science-related. Well, I’ve reached that limit.
And on an unrelated matter, I have a need to express to you my feelings regarding science on television today. Or rather, on the television that I watch today, since I can’t talk to shows I’ve never viewed. And boy, am I mad! Get out of my way! Because nothing steams an astronomy-as-your-science-in-college man more than inaccuracies in science on television, as relayed to them repeatedly by their wife. I’m told we support one another, in all things significant and … Um, she says I believe it to be true in all things. Without limitations.
Mainly, my focus at this juncture is the new CBS procedural Eleventh Hour. To wit: Dr. Jacob Hood (Rufus Sewell) is fun. He’s intelligent, calm, incisive, and has an interesting back-story. But, and this goes to my virulent anger, what area of science does he count as his specialty? He’s gone from embryonic cloning to agriculture, virology to cryogenics, molecular structure to meteorology. I’m told that’s rather unlikely, and I call foul!
Don’t get me wrong, this show is enjoyable. It’s light, clever, and a solid entry into the procedural formula that CBS has perfected. And yes, we’ve all seen the genius whose breadth of knowledge is so wide that it’s astonishing (see: Reid, Spencer on Criminal Minds. I mean it. I’ll wait.) But, to be an expert in a range of fields so extensive that it would require numerous lifetimes to receive PhDs in them all? Would it have been so difficult to either focus the series on one area of science (microbiology can be pretty broad), or, better yet, to build a team of science experts, something I’m sure the FBI actually employs?
I’ve also been well versed at how incredulous I am every single time the show gets its science wrong. Sure, I have no idea what I’m talking about, but if my wife listens to me complain about goings on in my field (which happens a lot these days; I work in finance), then the least I can do is retain the highlights of her gripes. And boy does she have gripes. Apparently there’ve been numerous basic science flubs. Like, check with your junior high school children and you’d get it right type of things. Strange, since I assume that a show about science probably has a science advisor, not a science best-guesser, and in a pinch, maker-upper.
Not to mention, and this has also come up in the one or two episodes of House that we’ve seen while abroad and forced to watch Star World, the speed at which people conduct experiments on these shows is completely unreasonable. Like, they create antibodies overnight that in reality would be an entire five year thesis project. That much I’ve figured out myself, as I watch Dr. Hood conduct experiments in random motel rooms all across the country. Hard to fathom the accuracy, even if all the science I remember is making conductors out of exposed wire, batteries and light bulbs in the eighth grade. I know that they only have so much time on each episode, but then why not stick to plausible conceits? Or at least stick to reality, instead of starting out on sound scientific ground before launching into a wild realm of “poetic license.”
I don’t know, maybe it’s just me, and my lovely wife (or is it just her?). Or maybe we’re all quietly seething over this topic, our inner nerds grasping to find the words that our joking around in science lab left us without. Or maybe (and there’s no connection here other than how funny it was and how genuinely insulted my wife was when it happened), it’s like Michael (Steve Carell) said to Pam (Jenna Fischer) on The Office, when she showed up to work wearing glasses:
” … Those make you look so ugly. Uhh, Pam in order to get hotter you take the glasses off. You’re moving in the wrong direction … I can’t even hear you. It’s just noise coming out of an ugly scientist.”
Hey, I shook my fist for her, so aren’t I allowed one knock on her profession?
Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Mar 25, 2009 @ 15:11 EST5EDT
if you want to see science on tv done properly check out Regenesis
*POST AUTHOR*
Thanks! I’ll recommend it to my wife!
My boyfriend is a biochemist and I’m a law student. We pretty much can’t watch anything science-y/medical-y or lawyer-y without getting annoyed. Too bad for us that he likes Law & Order and I like Grey’s Anatomy. At least we can agree upon the amazingness of the Amazing Race.
*POST AUTHOR*
My wife was very into Medical Investigation (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0411011/), though I’m not sure if there’s any way to get a hold of it now. Supposedly it was very accurate in it’s science, and still a good show. Who knew?
I’m finishing a PhD in molecular biology and have similar issues with Eleventh Hour. I love Rufus Sewell, but there is no way one man could be an expert at that level in everything. The speed of experiments in House is another ridiculous thing. Although I do enjoy watching actors trying to look adept with scientific equipment. The background of Walter’s lab in Fringe looks like a Sigma catalogue.
*POST AUTHOR*
How about the time to human trial for Meredith and Derek’s neurological trials? My brother-in-law is a biomedical engineer, and has been working with rats for years in his research…the FDA does require some amount of lab work and success before using human guinea pigs!
Yes! It’s like if they are holding a pippette, then they must know what they are talking about, even if they don’t know how to use it. I also love it when they are dressed completely inappropriatly for the task at hand, such as wearing the wrong gear (like chemical for a biological situation), etc.
It’s also a problem in books. My two favorite mistakes were when a popular author confused acidic and basic (I mean, really! How hard is that to check?), and when a flu virus was “weaponized” to make it more virulent– the only problem being that the new virus would not be infectious. Granted, that requires a little more knowledge, but still, you would think the author would make a little more of an effort!
Scientists are not alone. My sis was an FBI agent, and for years she refused to watch any show that focused on agent because she found their portrayal to be so incredibly inaccurate. Guess it all depends on your field and your ability to suspend disbelief. I work in an office, and I can honestly say it is nothing like The Office, or Drew Carey. Or Better Off Ted. And thank God, because if it was like my job, I’d never watch!
Ah finally you guys understand why back in the day I turned off “Bones” because of the ridiculous face-rendering technology they used. I got past it now and watched the whole show but still – sometimes I’m just royally pissed at what they are trying to get away with, that you have to have the intelligence of a four year old to accept what they are doing.
But also don’t get me started on the people who translate “The Simpsons” into german. There are errors there not a single english speaking person on earth would make – ok maybe those guys in Hong Kong writing the manuals for every kitchen appliance but for god’s sake it’s “The Simpsons” can it be THAT hard to sit someone who’s done 12 years of school down to translate instead of a village idiot? But I digress.
Science/Technology is also why I dropped CSI Miami and NY. Both shows just went to far when it came to their gizmos. Stuff that’s only been in Nokia ads was used and I simply had it there too. You can’t use things that aren’t developed.
A friend of mine has a flowchart with two ants in front of it, one with a long white beard. Everything looks pretty solid except one big rectangle in the middle with no description. The younger ant asks “What happens here?” and the old one answers “A miracle”. That’s round about the flowchart they use on all of these shows ;-)
Just to vent– last week’s NCIS (where Abby is taken to an FBI lab to “figure out” what a scientist was working on and then complete the project– all in less then 24 hours, of course–) was too ridiculous for me not to comment on. Even forgetting about the science and the realisticness for a second, what was with “nuclAYasomes”? The show really can’t get someone who knows such things to tell the actor how to pronounce a word correctly???