I love fiction. Love to be immersed in a good book…or book series. Love movies, especially horror films. I’m one of those people that will suspend disbelief over things like dinosaurs jumping through rifts in time, and massive pandemics killing off entire populations…
And yet I can’t quite seem to get through a show without nitpicking the little things. I think about things that a lot of people either don’t consider, or choose not to consider.
Like, I love a good period piece just like most other people. I totally got sucked into Game of Thrones, along with everyone else…
And yet those steamy and/or romantic sex scenes…
Yeah, those… All I can think of is how not only did hardly anyone have perfect, white teeth like they do in these shows, without modern dental care, most people were likely missing teeth, and what teeth they had were probably half rotten, and all bucked and twisted. And can you imagine what their breath would be like? I guess they had to ignore such things if they wanted to, you know, propagate the species. But I’m betting there weren’t nearly so many passionate kisses or face-to-face close embraces as the writers of this type of story like to imagine.
And if I’m lyin’, I’m cryin’!
I mean, I don’t know specifically what era Game of Thrones is set in, however if one were to infer anything from the clothing styles, type of ruling party, and customs, it could likely be anywhere between the 14th and 18th centuries. Personal hygiene likely left a lot to be desired back then. Apparently, people in medieval times actually did bathe quite often, and it wasn’t until the renaissance that people began to fear that frequent bathing might be “unhealthy.” Often, only visible body parts were washed, and the remaining “odors” from infrequently bathed people were covered by perfumes and the like. Now…without being too vulgar, you can just imagine which parts went unwashed. And then we’re supposed to believe in hot, steamy, romantic sex???
But let’s set that aside for a moment. Let’s focus on the visual aspect of hygiene. We are always being told that “men are visual” creatures when it comes to sex, but I’d wager both women and men take for granted some of the anachronistic hygiene practices seen in most period pieces. Like shaving.
Aside from dictates written by the Prophet Muhammad regarding hygiene and codes of conduct for those of Muslim faith, historically speaking, cosmetic shaving/hair removal was not a widespread practice, and made its way to the West around 1915. (source)
Take these hot chicks for example; I’m not picking on GOT specifically (hey, even I would probably bang Daenerys Targaryen); it just happens to suit my purposes as far as examples go. I mean, people seem to be naked a lot in this particular period piece.
“I’ve got this unidentifiable lump right…here. DO you think it’s an ingrown hair?”
They’d likely have looked more like…
this :
(wikipedia)
TO be fair, this isn’t the only type of stuff I nitpick. Having at least a small knowledge of criminal justice, I love to pick apart police procedural dramas. One of the biggest pieces of crap almost all of them try to sell is the idea that one small team personally goes through every step of crime solving, from collecting their own evidence, processing said evidence in their own lab, conducting often aggressive interviews with suspects and witnesses, and finally solving the crime and (in some cases) participating in the prosecution.
Likely I don’t have to tell most of you that not only is this not the case, it’s not really even feasible, let alone in the unusually short time span which these TV detectives clear their cases (a few days.) Oh well. I suppose if they portrayed it at the snail’s pace which some murder cases plod along, they’d lose viewers to comatose boredom. Also, if they included the real number of people it likely takes to solve most crimes, viewers would not be able to keep track with, or more importantly, “bond” with the characters. And that would never do since a lot of TV shows are successful, I would wager, because of the viewers’ attachments to certain characters. So I just have to suspend my disbelief. And it’s really not that big of a deal for me. As I may have mentioned before. I really don’t ask for much when it comes to “entertainment” TV or films. I just want to be immersed in a different kind of place for a short period of time and be…well, entertained.
So, what are some of your pet peeves when it comes to TV inaccuracies?
alienredqueen 