White Collar and the need for proof readers

[vilakins]

There are spoilers about the season finale under the cut.

Um, that was a surprisingly sudden resolution to the whole music box arc. It was really rather anticlimactic with all the ends neatly tied up and no more Adler or Kate--except for the puzzle about how Alex (I assume it was Alex; I don't see how Mozzie could have done it) managed to find the warehouse, get the stuff out, and set the explosives. In fact when did either of them find the time let alone the location?

But what really annoyed me is that the series goes to all the trouble of creating up a convincing set complete with an authentic-looking Enigma machine, and they can't get someone to check how to spell some German? On the dynamite it said "GEFABRLICH EXPLOEAVSTOFF".

Nope. Wrong. It's actually "GEFAEHRLICHE EXPLOSIVSTOFFE" they were groping for. You'd really think they'd make the effort, wouldn't you? I thought maybe it was a deliberate mistake providing a prompt to how to set the Enigma wheels, in which case I'd have been very pleased with the cleverness, but no; it was sheer slackness and stupidity (although better than the old spy series than had an intelligence centre in what was clearly a German high school).

That said, I still like the series and characters.

Comments

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

I love the literalness of the German language.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Me too! I love the language in general; it's my favourite.

[redscharlach.livejournal.com]

My favourite foreign-language blooper was from the first season of Lost (i.e. the only season I actually watched all of). They'd found a map with some writing on it in French, and it transpired that one of the American castaways could speak a bit of French so she was asked to translate it. She did so, but at one stage said "oh, that word means eternity or infinity or something."

However, the French word for eternity is "eternité" and the French word for infinity is "infinité", so I completely fail to see why she was having a problem there...

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I don't remember that, but yes, no one should have any problems with those words.