Monday, November 30, 2009
Trying to verify Stewie's confirmed kills
In last night's new episode of Family Guy, trying to make Brian not feel so bad about having killed a dog while drunk behind the wheel of his Prius, Stewie claims he has killed seven babies. That should have nitpickers everywhere trying to figure out who these seven babies are. Is Stewie counting himself? (He killed his future self at the end of Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story). Let's not forget that Stewie has also killed adults, such as the "man in white" and adolescents like Jeremy, Liddane's boyfriend. At the moment, any ideas on who the seven babies could be escapes me, as well as whether that count is supported or even exceeded by prior episodes.
Labels:
Family Guy,
Stewie,
Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story
Sunday, November 29, 2009
G. I. Joe: A Ridiculous American Hero
Before watching this year's G. I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, I decided to at least glance at a few episodes of the old TV series. So I watched the first episode of G. I. Joe: A Real American Hero, titled "The Cobra Strikes." It was hilarious. Next time I complain about military inauthenticity in JAG, I will remember G. I. Joe. One thing I remembered about G. I. Joe is that for some reason the elite Joe unit did not care for having some sort of uniform or uniform item unique to them; instead, like superheroes, each Joe indulges his or her own unique fashion.
In that first episode of G. I. Joe, Duke, the leader of the Joes, is talking to one of his colleagues in the middle of an active runway. Yet he complains when a fighter jet passes by and almost smears his guts all over the place. Supposedly all of the Joes are well versed in how to fly jets, and they can take off at the drop of a hat, without a preflight checklist or anything.
Later, Duke goes to a military installation where a three-star General is worried that the place could be infiltrated prior to the launch of the Army's most powerful satellite. For some reason, the General has his cover on. Then there's the bean-counting Major Juanita Hooper, who is also wearing her cover even though at that point we're supposed to understand she's not armed. The General introduces her to Duke, who, without a cover on his head (I don't think he's ever worn one in the show), salutes Major Hooper. (Hooper soon reveals herself as being the Baroness, a member of Cobra).
This show, apparently meant for children, has many scenes of practically raining gunfire, yet hardly anyone tries to obtain cover behind a rock or something, but instead just stand their ground as if the bullets were pellets. I was thinking that maybe in the world portrayed in G. I. Joe, gunfire doesn't kill. But then when Duke shows up at Cobra headquarters and every foot soldier starts shooting at him, the Cobra Commander orders them to stop because he wants Duke alive for his gladiatorial arena.
In a later scene, the animators seem to think that a helicopter maneuvers the same as a fighter jet. Enough. I could go on and on.
In that first episode of G. I. Joe, Duke, the leader of the Joes, is talking to one of his colleagues in the middle of an active runway. Yet he complains when a fighter jet passes by and almost smears his guts all over the place. Supposedly all of the Joes are well versed in how to fly jets, and they can take off at the drop of a hat, without a preflight checklist or anything.
Later, Duke goes to a military installation where a three-star General is worried that the place could be infiltrated prior to the launch of the Army's most powerful satellite. For some reason, the General has his cover on. Then there's the bean-counting Major Juanita Hooper, who is also wearing her cover even though at that point we're supposed to understand she's not armed. The General introduces her to Duke, who, without a cover on his head (I don't think he's ever worn one in the show), salutes Major Hooper. (Hooper soon reveals herself as being the Baroness, a member of Cobra).
This show, apparently meant for children, has many scenes of practically raining gunfire, yet hardly anyone tries to obtain cover behind a rock or something, but instead just stand their ground as if the bullets were pellets. I was thinking that maybe in the world portrayed in G. I. Joe, gunfire doesn't kill. But then when Duke shows up at Cobra headquarters and every foot soldier starts shooting at him, the Cobra Commander orders them to stop because he wants Duke alive for his gladiatorial arena.
In a later scene, the animators seem to think that a helicopter maneuvers the same as a fighter jet. Enough. I could go on and on.
Friday, November 27, 2009
No word shall be impossible with God
It does not make me feel like a big man to criticize a show meant for children, but I have to wonder if the educational value of a children's show is undermined by allowing opportunities for nits.
I've only seen one episode of Word World. The premise of the show, as I understand it, is that almost everything in the world of the show is constructed out of letters. If you need a house, all you need is get an H, an O, a U, an S, and an E, and put them together in the right order. With the letters in the right order, the desired object is magically constructed. In the episode that I watched, they made beds, with the letters B, E and D, and the Duck made himself a nest, with the letters N, E, etc. (you get the idea).
But what about the word "DOG" spelled in the window of the House? Inside, in the scene in which the animals make their beds, you can see that the glass of the window makes an O, while the two wooden window covers make, when opened to expose the glass, respectively a D and a G. So why doesn't the window turn into a dog? Or, to take the show into blasphemous territory, God?
I've only seen one episode of Word World. The premise of the show, as I understand it, is that almost everything in the world of the show is constructed out of letters. If you need a house, all you need is get an H, an O, a U, an S, and an E, and put them together in the right order. With the letters in the right order, the desired object is magically constructed. In the episode that I watched, they made beds, with the letters B, E and D, and the Duck made himself a nest, with the letters N, E, etc. (you get the idea).
But what about the word "DOG" spelled in the window of the House? Inside, in the scene in which the animals make their beds, you can see that the glass of the window makes an O, while the two wooden window covers make, when opened to expose the glass, respectively a D and a G. So why doesn't the window turn into a dog? Or, to take the show into blasphemous territory, God?
Thursday, November 26, 2009
The roommate situation
In the JAG episode "A Girl's Best Friend," Chegwidden gets to beat up a shady jeweler while Harm tries to get Coates to move in to a recently vacated apartment in his building so that Matty can move in there, too. Coates at first refuses, even though she's supposedly living with three other female Petty Officers in one cramped place.
I'm not sure there's a nit here, but the situation Coates is in certainly raises some plot credibility questions. Besides a ship (women couldn't serve on a submarine), where else would the Navy cram four women to a room? In the Marine Corps in real life I know that putting four female Lance Corporals in one room is infrequent but not unheard of. At that pay grade, to live at the barracks, you have to have a roommate, unless you wind up being the last odd one (e.g., the 25th woman in a unit with 25 enlisted women living on base). But generally Marines get put two to a room. If you make Sergeant, you most likely get your own room. It would probably take some kind of construction emergency for them to have to put you with a roommate. I don't know much about the Navy base housing situation, but I would imagine that a Petty Officer 2nd Class would have at most one roommate.
But this is all with the assumption that Coates is living on a base. I suppose it's possible that four female Petty Officers would rent a civilian apartment. Since I know next to nothing about real estate prices in Virginia, I'm not sure if that scenario is realistic. It could be. In the show, Coates is convinced to accept Harm's offer when he assures her that he will only pay Matty's half of the rent.
I'm not sure there's a nit here, but the situation Coates is in certainly raises some plot credibility questions. Besides a ship (women couldn't serve on a submarine), where else would the Navy cram four women to a room? In the Marine Corps in real life I know that putting four female Lance Corporals in one room is infrequent but not unheard of. At that pay grade, to live at the barracks, you have to have a roommate, unless you wind up being the last odd one (e.g., the 25th woman in a unit with 25 enlisted women living on base). But generally Marines get put two to a room. If you make Sergeant, you most likely get your own room. It would probably take some kind of construction emergency for them to have to put you with a roommate. I don't know much about the Navy base housing situation, but I would imagine that a Petty Officer 2nd Class would have at most one roommate.
But this is all with the assumption that Coates is living on a base. I suppose it's possible that four female Petty Officers would rent a civilian apartment. Since I know next to nothing about real estate prices in Virginia, I'm not sure if that scenario is realistic. It could be. In the show, Coates is convinced to accept Harm's offer when he assures her that he will only pay Matty's half of the rent.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
More Star Trek nits
Now that the new Star Trek movie is out on DVD and BluRay, it's possible to nitpick it in greater detail. Now follow some nits that I didn't catch in my theater viewing, and some that I were on my mind but which I forgot to mention in my previous posts.
First of all, the USS Kelvin is NCC-0514. Why the leading zero? The Enterprise is not NCC-01701. Nor is Voyager NCC-074656. Or, most forcefully of all, the USS Horizon (whose crew was responsible for the cultural contamination of Sigma Iotia), was not NCC-0176. While we're on the subject of the USS Kelvin, shouldn't the crew wear an insignia other than the Enterprise's arrow? After all, that arrow was not supposed to become the official insignia for all Starfleet until after the time of the original series. Furthermore, the Kelvin crew started their service prior to Nero's temporal incursion, so the alternate timeline excuse doesn't hold water here.
I had been wondering about General Order 13, and it seems to have been made up specifically for this film. But at least it doesn't conflict with previously invented General Orders.
Why are Earth letters used at the Vulcan school for children? One would think that the Vulcans, supposed to be so far ahead of humans in mathematics and science, would have their own symbol for the mathematical constant 3.14159... Same goes for the elements of the periodic table: helium, hydrogen, lithium, etc.
Dr. McCoy's line that his ex-wife took the whole planet in the divorce is mildly amusing, but it does make me wonder about the economics of divorce in the 23rd Century. If money is supposed to be a thing of the past, along with the need to acquire material things, would there be any need for alimony in the future? Or perhaps it can be explained away as that all their friends sided with her, and thus he still had a roof and daily bread but was socially isolated because of the divorce.
In my first post I had talked about Nero's inexplicable stupidity in the face of the fact that he's smart enough to know he's in the past and that Spock exists in the past. But in viewing the film at home, it is now painfully clear that Nero is even smart enough to calculate when Spock will show up in the past!
So Uhura speaks all three dialects of the Romulan language. How exactly did she accomplish this feat, given that the mere act of a Federation ship wandering into Romulan space is an act of war? Or does Spock somehow know Romulan and taught Uhura?
I had also talked about the importance of coincidences in the film in my first post. A coincidence I had missed is that Sulu started the ship late when the cadet-manned ships went off to Vulcan's rescue. If Sulu hadn't made the amateurish mistake that caused the Enterprise to be late to Vulcan, the Enterprise would've been destroyed like the others.
But why doesn't Spock beam closer to entrance of the temple when he beams down to rescue the elders? He knows time is of the essence, yet has himself beamed down to a point where he has to run up the side of a mountain to enter the temple.
Apparently the pooch Porthos from Star Trek: Enterprise has his own fan club, and that club hoped that Scotty's reference to "Admiral Archer's prize beagle" referred to the NX-01 skipper's best friend. As for me, I'm more willing to believe that another Starfleet officer named Archer, related or not to Jonathan Archer, would also have a dog, specifically a beagle, than I am to believe that both Jonathan and Porthos were still alive and active in Starfleet in Kirk's time.
And speaking of Scotty, I'm wondering about the way he falls down with a bunch of water out of a pipe after a slight miscalculation beaming into the Enterprise at warp. The Enterprise apparently has artificial gravity similar in strength to that of Earth. On Earth, wouldn't falling out of a pipe with so much water kill you by breaking all your bones, if not by drowning?
First of all, the USS Kelvin is NCC-0514. Why the leading zero? The Enterprise is not NCC-01701. Nor is Voyager NCC-074656. Or, most forcefully of all, the USS Horizon (whose crew was responsible for the cultural contamination of Sigma Iotia), was not NCC-0176. While we're on the subject of the USS Kelvin, shouldn't the crew wear an insignia other than the Enterprise's arrow? After all, that arrow was not supposed to become the official insignia for all Starfleet until after the time of the original series. Furthermore, the Kelvin crew started their service prior to Nero's temporal incursion, so the alternate timeline excuse doesn't hold water here.
I had been wondering about General Order 13, and it seems to have been made up specifically for this film. But at least it doesn't conflict with previously invented General Orders.
Why are Earth letters used at the Vulcan school for children? One would think that the Vulcans, supposed to be so far ahead of humans in mathematics and science, would have their own symbol for the mathematical constant 3.14159... Same goes for the elements of the periodic table: helium, hydrogen, lithium, etc.
Dr. McCoy's line that his ex-wife took the whole planet in the divorce is mildly amusing, but it does make me wonder about the economics of divorce in the 23rd Century. If money is supposed to be a thing of the past, along with the need to acquire material things, would there be any need for alimony in the future? Or perhaps it can be explained away as that all their friends sided with her, and thus he still had a roof and daily bread but was socially isolated because of the divorce.
In my first post I had talked about Nero's inexplicable stupidity in the face of the fact that he's smart enough to know he's in the past and that Spock exists in the past. But in viewing the film at home, it is now painfully clear that Nero is even smart enough to calculate when Spock will show up in the past!
So Uhura speaks all three dialects of the Romulan language. How exactly did she accomplish this feat, given that the mere act of a Federation ship wandering into Romulan space is an act of war? Or does Spock somehow know Romulan and taught Uhura?
I had also talked about the importance of coincidences in the film in my first post. A coincidence I had missed is that Sulu started the ship late when the cadet-manned ships went off to Vulcan's rescue. If Sulu hadn't made the amateurish mistake that caused the Enterprise to be late to Vulcan, the Enterprise would've been destroyed like the others.
But why doesn't Spock beam closer to entrance of the temple when he beams down to rescue the elders? He knows time is of the essence, yet has himself beamed down to a point where he has to run up the side of a mountain to enter the temple.
Apparently the pooch Porthos from Star Trek: Enterprise has his own fan club, and that club hoped that Scotty's reference to "Admiral Archer's prize beagle" referred to the NX-01 skipper's best friend. As for me, I'm more willing to believe that another Starfleet officer named Archer, related or not to Jonathan Archer, would also have a dog, specifically a beagle, than I am to believe that both Jonathan and Porthos were still alive and active in Starfleet in Kirk's time.
And speaking of Scotty, I'm wondering about the way he falls down with a bunch of water out of a pipe after a slight miscalculation beaming into the Enterprise at warp. The Enterprise apparently has artificial gravity similar in strength to that of Earth. On Earth, wouldn't falling out of a pipe with so much water kill you by breaking all your bones, if not by drowning?
Friday, November 20, 2009
Restricted to quarters means what exactly?
The show: JAG
The episode: "Back in the Saddle," from Season 9, in which Harm's return to JAG is prepared with the arrest of Commander Imes (Dana Sparks), who was supposed to replace him.
What happened: Imes has just begun with her opening statements in the case of some enlisted sailor when military policemen burst into the courtroom and arrest her. Turns out that she exploited a loophole in the law in order to practice law without having passed the bar exam. Chegwidden assigns Mac to defend Imes, who Chegwidden says is "restricted to quarters" at the Anacostia barracks. Mac goes to Anacostia to discuss the case with Imes as they take a scenic walk through the barracks. Meanwhile, Harm is fired from the CIA because in the previous episode he was filmed by a news crew completing a CIA mission. He takes up crop dusting until getting an offer from Chegwidden to have his commission reinstated.
What's wrong with that: If Imes can freely walk the base, then Chegwidden was mistaken in saying that she was restricted to quarters. I don't know if I need to tell you that "quarters" is Navy lingo for someone's room on base or aboard a ship. In the case of an officer ranking high enough, I suppose "quarters" could be used to refer to an entire house on the base.
Now, if Mac ranked higher than Imes (which she doesn't, in this episode), she could tell Imes to take a walk with her. But then, which officer restricted Imes to quarters in the first place? If that was Chegwidden, then Mac unrestricting Imes would mean that Mac is overriding an order from an Admiral. If we're to understand that Imes went straight back to her quarters after her talk with Mac, some laid-back officer might say no harm done. But does Mac strike you as a laid-back officer? Or as more of a by-the-book hard-nosed type? The talk should have taken place in Imes's quarters. Maybe the director was worrying that setting the scene in someone's quarters would make the episode feel too claustrophobic (or at least Mac's plot strand, because Harm's plot strand involves flying a biplane over wide open fields). Or maybe he didn't want to go through the trouble of dressing a set for use as an officer's quarters, given that Imes will be out of the Navy, and presumably the show, after this episode (but such a set could easily been reused for another officer's quarters with some clever redressing). Whatever the reason, the fix is simple: they could've just had Chegwidden say Imes is restricted to barracks rather than to quarters.
And another thing: Doesn't Harm seem just a tiny bit paranoid in assuming that his getting fired from the CIA was Webb's idea? Surely Harm knows how important secrecy is to the CIA, given that he participated in the Angelshark inquiry (in Season 8), and he understands that being plastered all over the news is not conducive to secrecy.
The episode: "Back in the Saddle," from Season 9, in which Harm's return to JAG is prepared with the arrest of Commander Imes (Dana Sparks), who was supposed to replace him.
What happened: Imes has just begun with her opening statements in the case of some enlisted sailor when military policemen burst into the courtroom and arrest her. Turns out that she exploited a loophole in the law in order to practice law without having passed the bar exam. Chegwidden assigns Mac to defend Imes, who Chegwidden says is "restricted to quarters" at the Anacostia barracks. Mac goes to Anacostia to discuss the case with Imes as they take a scenic walk through the barracks. Meanwhile, Harm is fired from the CIA because in the previous episode he was filmed by a news crew completing a CIA mission. He takes up crop dusting until getting an offer from Chegwidden to have his commission reinstated.
What's wrong with that: If Imes can freely walk the base, then Chegwidden was mistaken in saying that she was restricted to quarters. I don't know if I need to tell you that "quarters" is Navy lingo for someone's room on base or aboard a ship. In the case of an officer ranking high enough, I suppose "quarters" could be used to refer to an entire house on the base.
Now, if Mac ranked higher than Imes (which she doesn't, in this episode), she could tell Imes to take a walk with her. But then, which officer restricted Imes to quarters in the first place? If that was Chegwidden, then Mac unrestricting Imes would mean that Mac is overriding an order from an Admiral. If we're to understand that Imes went straight back to her quarters after her talk with Mac, some laid-back officer might say no harm done. But does Mac strike you as a laid-back officer? Or as more of a by-the-book hard-nosed type? The talk should have taken place in Imes's quarters. Maybe the director was worrying that setting the scene in someone's quarters would make the episode feel too claustrophobic (or at least Mac's plot strand, because Harm's plot strand involves flying a biplane over wide open fields). Or maybe he didn't want to go through the trouble of dressing a set for use as an officer's quarters, given that Imes will be out of the Navy, and presumably the show, after this episode (but such a set could easily been reused for another officer's quarters with some clever redressing). Whatever the reason, the fix is simple: they could've just had Chegwidden say Imes is restricted to barracks rather than to quarters.
And another thing: Doesn't Harm seem just a tiny bit paranoid in assuming that his getting fired from the CIA was Webb's idea? Surely Harm knows how important secrecy is to the CIA, given that he participated in the Angelshark inquiry (in Season 8), and he understands that being plastered all over the news is not conducive to secrecy.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Do action safe nits count?
In the early Ally McBeal episode "One Hundred Tears Away" (oh please, cry me a river), Ally is arrested for tripping up a woman at the supermarket in an argument over potato chips. The woman supposedly does not like ridged potato chips, yet she puts the last remaining can of Pringles back on the shelf. Ally takes the Pringles and the other woman then grabs it from her, claiming that she still intended to buy them despite putting them down on the shelf.
I watched this episode when it first aired, but it wasn't until watching it yesterday that I noticed that there's another can of Pringles visible in the shot. Just look at the right edge of your screen. This did not get past the staff at IMDb, for they also noticed this and listed it under "Goofs" for that episode.
But that's not the reason I hesitated to make a blog post about it. The thing is that the second can of Pringles falls outside of what editors of a decade ago call the "action safe." There is also an area called the "title safe," within which you must place your titles, actor credits, etc., if you want everyone who views you video to see them. The action safe area is slightly larger than the title safe area, but a similar principle applies: don't put action outside the action safe if you want all viewers to see it. For example, if you have someone waiting in ambush on the left edge of the frame, to the left of the action safe, his popping out will be as much a surprise to the viewer as it is to the ambushed character on the screen.
At least that's the case for viewers using old analog 4:3 televisions. The screens on those televisions were almost never straight-edge rectangles, but rather rounded edge rectangles. Nor was the exact shape of the rounded rectangle standardized, though generally TVs from the 1950s clipped a lot more of the edges than TVs from the 1990s.
Now, when I watch a DVD of a show like Ally McBeal on my 16:9 digital TV, with black bars on the left and right of the frame, I will see things that the show's editors probably thought no one else but them would ever see. For that reason I'm not sure that nits for things outside the action safe, or even the title safe for that matter, ought to count or not.
What do you think? Do such nits count? And where do they fit on the hierarchy of nits? Above or below freeze-frame or zoom nits?
I watched this episode when it first aired, but it wasn't until watching it yesterday that I noticed that there's another can of Pringles visible in the shot. Just look at the right edge of your screen. This did not get past the staff at IMDb, for they also noticed this and listed it under "Goofs" for that episode.
But that's not the reason I hesitated to make a blog post about it. The thing is that the second can of Pringles falls outside of what editors of a decade ago call the "action safe." There is also an area called the "title safe," within which you must place your titles, actor credits, etc., if you want everyone who views you video to see them. The action safe area is slightly larger than the title safe area, but a similar principle applies: don't put action outside the action safe if you want all viewers to see it. For example, if you have someone waiting in ambush on the left edge of the frame, to the left of the action safe, his popping out will be as much a surprise to the viewer as it is to the ambushed character on the screen.
At least that's the case for viewers using old analog 4:3 televisions. The screens on those televisions were almost never straight-edge rectangles, but rather rounded edge rectangles. Nor was the exact shape of the rounded rectangle standardized, though generally TVs from the 1950s clipped a lot more of the edges than TVs from the 1990s.
Now, when I watch a DVD of a show like Ally McBeal on my 16:9 digital TV, with black bars on the left and right of the frame, I will see things that the show's editors probably thought no one else but them would ever see. For that reason I'm not sure that nits for things outside the action safe, or even the title safe for that matter, ought to count or not.
What do you think? Do such nits count? And where do they fit on the hierarchy of nits? Above or below freeze-frame or zoom nits?
Labels:
action safe,
Ally McBeal,
potato chips,
Pringles,
title safe
Monday, November 16, 2009
More Star Trek nits forthcoming
The newest Star Trek movie comes out on DVD tomorrow. I wrote a fairly extensive blog post about it back in May, based on one theater viewing. But when I watch it again on DVD, I expect to come up with even more nits than I was able to glean from the theater viewing. Stay tuned.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Remember Pearl Burton
In last night's first episode of Family Guy (the one preceeding the Almost Live special), Brian dates a significantly older woman. Peter's reaction is completely understandable (he's a tactless idiot). But the way Lois reacts has me wondering. She laughs in much the same way she did when Brian introduced Gilliam. Indeed, the whole family objects to Brian dating an old woman. But it's not the first time Brian dates an old woman. What about Pearl Burton? Pearl Burton had completely white hair. Lois even said "She's beautiful." Granted that Lois said that of Pearl's picture from decades prior, but she certainly must've realized that Pearl would look much older. Though this doesn't quite rise to the level of a nit because it appears Lois never met Pearl in person.
In last night's second episode of Family Guy, Stewie gets to meet Miley Cyrus while Chris becomes friends with the Evil Monkey. The Evil Monkey tells the Griffins his life story, which immediately made me wonder: "How did Chris know the Evil Monkey's back story if this is his first time talking to him?" But then I remembered that in the episode in which Chris told the monkey's back story, he just said "He wasn't always evil" and then we see a cutaway to the day the monkey made partner at his firm and caught his wife in bed with another monkey; I had just assumed that Chris had actually spoken this back story. In this new episode, the Evil Monkey says what happened, rather than just introduce the clip.
In last night's second episode of Family Guy, Stewie gets to meet Miley Cyrus while Chris becomes friends with the Evil Monkey. The Evil Monkey tells the Griffins his life story, which immediately made me wonder: "How did Chris know the Evil Monkey's back story if this is his first time talking to him?" But then I remembered that in the episode in which Chris told the monkey's back story, he just said "He wasn't always evil" and then we see a cutaway to the day the monkey made partner at his firm and caught his wife in bed with another monkey; I had just assumed that Chris had actually spoken this back story. In this new episode, the Evil Monkey says what happened, rather than just introduce the clip.
Labels:
Brian,
Chris Griffin,
Family Guy,
Lois Griffin,
Pearl Burton
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Vicissitudes of rank in Los Angeles
The show: NCIS: Los Angeles
The episode: "Keepin' It Real," first aired last night.
What happened: The crooked Marine Gunnery Sergeant Jerrold Mulhearn (Mark Rolston) attempts to switch $20 million in newly minted U. S. currency destined for shipment to Afghanistan with counterfeit money printed on paper he obtained from Agent Callen (Chris O'Donnell). The Gunny is assigned to a supply depot at Camp Pendleton. Agent Vail (Adam Jamal Craig) puts on a Marine uniform and goes to Pendleton to get Mulhearn's signature on a form, addressing him as "Sergeant." Mulhearn signs the form and gets back to barking orders at his men.
What doesn't quite add up: So Gunny Mulhearn is putting on a Drill Instructor act and he doesn't chew Agent Vail out for calling him just a Sergeant (E-5) when he's a Gunnery Sergeant (E-7)? In fact, that slip-up should've alerted Mulhearn to the fact that someone was on to him. Though I admit I didn't notice what rank insignia Agent Vail was wearing on his Marine uniform. Maybe a Marine won't complain about being called the wrong rank by a higher ranking Marine, but in the case of a Gunnery Sergeant, at the enlisted rank structure that leaves just E-8 and E-9, and someone Vail's age shouldn't attain those ranks. So if Vail was posing as a Marine officer, Mulhearn neglected to call him "sir." Hey, Bellisario: just because JAG is over doesn't mean you don't need military consultants anymore.
And another thing: I don't know how Marine SNCOICs of supply depots run their operation nowadays, but when I served as a supply clerk, I never knew of a supply chief pretending to be a Drill Instructor.
The episode: "Keepin' It Real," first aired last night.
What happened: The crooked Marine Gunnery Sergeant Jerrold Mulhearn (Mark Rolston) attempts to switch $20 million in newly minted U. S. currency destined for shipment to Afghanistan with counterfeit money printed on paper he obtained from Agent Callen (Chris O'Donnell). The Gunny is assigned to a supply depot at Camp Pendleton. Agent Vail (Adam Jamal Craig) puts on a Marine uniform and goes to Pendleton to get Mulhearn's signature on a form, addressing him as "Sergeant." Mulhearn signs the form and gets back to barking orders at his men.
What doesn't quite add up: So Gunny Mulhearn is putting on a Drill Instructor act and he doesn't chew Agent Vail out for calling him just a Sergeant (E-5) when he's a Gunnery Sergeant (E-7)? In fact, that slip-up should've alerted Mulhearn to the fact that someone was on to him. Though I admit I didn't notice what rank insignia Agent Vail was wearing on his Marine uniform. Maybe a Marine won't complain about being called the wrong rank by a higher ranking Marine, but in the case of a Gunnery Sergeant, at the enlisted rank structure that leaves just E-8 and E-9, and someone Vail's age shouldn't attain those ranks. So if Vail was posing as a Marine officer, Mulhearn neglected to call him "sir." Hey, Bellisario: just because JAG is over doesn't mean you don't need military consultants anymore.
And another thing: I don't know how Marine SNCOICs of supply depots run their operation nowadays, but when I served as a supply clerk, I never knew of a supply chief pretending to be a Drill Instructor.
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