MovieChat Forums > Houdini and Doyle (2016) Discussion > Wish they had done more research on the ...

Wish they had done more research on the language

posted 9 years ago by fsogol
11 replies | jump to latest

In the 2nd episode, the police call a young shooter, a "terrorist."
Doyle says his wife has "tuberculosis" which was referred to as consumption in those days and says she is "non-responsive."

Reading some of Doyle's works might have kept the language in the proper times.

Seen the first two so far and will continue for a while. Houdini is the best character and Weston does a good job. Hope they don't make the police work too advanced, that was the age of cracking heads to get confessions. Researching records was an unlikely tool.

[–] KarinaGW 9 years ago

It was named as tuberculosis in 1839. Doyle was a physician. He would know that.

[–] serviceuaustin 9 years ago

The word "terrorist" (from the French "terroriste") dates to the late 1700s, and was in common usage in Europe during the French Revolution. Should an educated man such as Doyle not use big words? Would that make the show more palatable to you?

[–] fsogol 9 years ago

True, but terrorist signified a major league troublemaker, not a kid, no matter how much of a ruffian. BTW, didn't the cop said terrorist, not Doyle.

Up to 3 episodes now, Houdini said "garage in, garbage out" and "causation is not correlation."

The language is out of whack with the time period. Better attention to detail would have made the show better.

[–] dgwhyte2 9 years ago

Also in the 2nd episode Houdini says "bottom line". Now I don't know when this term came into existence but I'm fairly sure it wasn't during Houdini's time. C'mon guys.

[–] !!!deleted!!! (49761343) 9 years ago

To me, the major one that got me was "garbage in, garbage out." This is a phrase that refers specifically to computers. The writers may as well start using phrases like "selfie" if they're going to use "garbage in, garbage out" on this show.

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[–] BrainGirl78 9 years ago

I agree with "garbage in/garbage out" - it was created for computers. It would have never been used at this time.

[–] kcummings13 9 years ago

As I've said in another thread the term "garbage in/garbage out" was coined in 1957...and refers to computers.

[–] BrainGirl78 9 years ago

The term "bottom line" was used by Shakespeare, so would have been used by the general public at the time.

[–] amorehl-93-99338 9 years ago

Agreed, they don't seem to try at all to get the language right. It's very annoying and takes you right out of the story.

[–] cuechick 9 years ago

What about one of them saying "I'll play the Nickie card" not sure if I got the name right but pretty sure that is a pretty recent term. I really hate this kind of lazy writing.

[–] kcummings13 9 years ago

While I realize that the show isn't supposed to be a documentary of the period, the use of anachronistic words and expressions does tend to make my teeth ache.