suspending disbelief only goes so far

Re: Hawaii Five-0, the episode where Mary gets kidnapped and the toolbox gets stolen.

Yes, it was a repeat last night, but I missed it the first time around, so I figured, “Hey, good times! An episode I can watch without worrying about what happens next!”

And really, I’m happy to suspend disbelief on any number of ginormous plot points. I’m fine with it. But they make *such a point* of having all the v.cool technology, and then Steve tries to decode a cipher by, get this, READING A BOOK.

My Problems With the Cipher Thing:

1. The whole concept of decoding a cipher based on any kind of frequency statistics only works if the content to be decoded is A) in the language you think it is, and B) regular words (aka NOT A NAME).

Unless Steve was studying frequency based on the assumption that it was in Japanese and was somehow analyzing it against common Japanese names, there’s no way he could have made any kind of (correct) progress.

2. You know how long it should have taken him to decode? About ten seconds, after Mary ID’d it as coming from Sherlock Holmes. I typed “sherlock holmes stick figure code” into google, and kapow! Success. Done. No library trip required.

I guess what I’m trying to say is this:

Dear Show,
It makes me sad to think the team isn’t pulling up lolrus pics on that giant tabletop screen of theirs. And really, how hard would it have been to have that scene actually make sense?
Thanks, Me

Mirrored from The Marci Rating System.