Body of Proof Dark City Darkly Dumb

I have no mouth and I must scream
Apologies to Harlan Ellison for stealing the title, but I just have to vent this inanity.

Body of Proof, I must confess I do watch it and have liked it, but the episode entitled Dark City finally showed me what idiots TV writers and directors can be (and here I thought I had already known). First opening piece is of a 747 in the night sky, cut to interior view, what not even a wide body plane seats are 3-3 in economy not 9 or 10 across as in a plane as big as shown .Next we are told that there are 83 passengers on this international flight. On a plane that big and when we saw the interior shots it looked like the plane was full . . .triple that number. Next the plane depressurizes, I am thinking that it was bound for Philadelphia International as people showed up from the airport so it should have been on final approach. The shots fired would depressurize but in approach the altitude wouldn't be bad. Depressurization doesn't cause a fireball. The pilot wouldn't have to dump fuel after a long run. All of these only set you up for the shot of a rapidly flying fireball behind several tall building. Trouble is a plane a distance appears to be lumbering. This plane was moving like meteor (and on fire) and that sets up the remarkable landing, crash. the plane is going so fast that the tail section is separated by a large distance and yet people live through it in both sections.

Oh and the kid who survives in the toilet, no bruises? and the flight attendant who was in the aisle forward when the plane is depressurized somehow ends up in the tail section?

Now for the nit picks, people weren't in their seats as for landing nor being instructed as such. When Sullivan finds the tail wreckage it is brightly lit with little fires here and there. The fires wouldn't give that much light and if they were that bright why was it so darned hard to find? helicopters would be in the air . . .

Generator with wires cut. Those were some big wires, guy walks in off the street with bolt cutters? and how does super Doc put them back together with no tools? OK he watches survival shows, really?

You now what, after all that insanity I am just going to buy that Sullivan can do an emergency tracheotomy. Oh yeah, pigs do fly.

Unbrella gate, Really?

"Corporal, you will hold this umbrella for the President and his guest."
"I would be honored sir, but I cannot touch an umbrella while in uniform."

Does anyone really think that the Marine would be justified in refusing a request from the President because he is prohibited from carrying one for himself? Or do we think that immediate disciplinary action would be taken against the Marine? There are times and places when even a seemingly lawful order can be refused. I myself as an enlisted man was once able to refuse a Colonel in front of his entire staff, but military personnel doing so do it at their peril. Obviously this was not the case for the Marines in the Rose Garden, they knew that a request for the President was one that they should honor, if possible, and they did just as untold service personnel have done in the past, they obeyed a lawful order (and let us be clear even an informal request from the President is an "Order").

Conservatives who have felt powerless in the wake of several non scandals lately have jumped on this non issue to vent their rage and it is to the same avail as the attacks on Benghazi coverups. Clearly had the Marines used the umbrellas for their own protection their stripes would roll, but that was not the case. the Marine Manual so often quoted in this non debate is talking about uniform protocol - what accessories can be used and worn by the service member, not what they can and can't do in the line of duty. We could easily see the problems if the rule was as strict as the conservative pundits make it sound. We could litter a field on Camp Lejuene with the things and the Marines couldn't clean it up without calling for help? I doubt if anyone would make a call to the Commandant of the Corps. "Pick up the blankity blank umbrellas and get rid of them now!" would be the order and the umbrellas would be gone, at least I hope so. It is rather disconcerting if the Marine Corps is unable to touch those pesky things. Use as a personal item, never. Hold one as a convenience for two heads of state, it is a honor to be chosen.


"Corporal, you will hold this umbrella for the President and his guest."
"Yes, Sir! Thank you, sir."