# Accurate portrayals of your profession in fiction **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 24, 2021, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accurate-portrayals-of-your-profession-in-fiction/954871 "2021-11-24T12:14:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2021, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accurate-portrayals-of-your-profession-in-fiction/954871/81 "2021-11-29T22:09:59Z")
The show was also very realistic in that a lot of the squad did not survive the war. Salt died because because the contraption for disposing of the butterfly bomb got hung up, and the junior officer (a Quaker CO) was killed on the pier when he stepped on an unmarked pressure mine (“No bloody blue dot!”). The Bomb Disposal units had some brilliant ways of dealing with unexploded munitions, but (sadly!) they didn’t always work. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2021, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accurate-portrayals-of-your-profession-in-fiction/954871/82 "2021-11-29T22:20:11Z")
> [@carrps](#): > > “Yarkii” (яркий), the word Putin used, does indeed mean “brilliant.” But not in an intellectual sense, according to Russian experts. > > “The word means someone who’s bright, colorful. It means ‘brilliant’ if you’re thinking about a bright light, but it’s not ‘brilliant’ if you’re thinking about someone’s intelligence,” Angela Stent, director of the Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies at Georgetown University, told NBC News. I would have to see a tape of the actual circumstances, but I think “flashy” is a somewhat kinder interpretation. Either way, I don’t think I’d want to be referred to that manner. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2021, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accurate-portrayals-of-your-profession-in-fiction/954871/83 "2021-11-29T23:24:17Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I loved the sequence that opened every episode, where they followed the life of a bomb from the foundry where the metal was cast to the time when it was dropped over Britain, all with that haunting theme music playing in the background. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/llW1o-W3G5Y/hqdefault.jpg "Danger UXB Opening Theme") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llW1o-W3G5Y) ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2021, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accurate-portrayals-of-your-profession-in-fiction/954871/84 "2021-11-29T23:33:52Z")
Yep, that’s it! Brings back a lot of memories and still gives me chills! Thanks for posting it! 👍 ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2021, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accurate-portrayals-of-your-profession-in-fiction/954871/85 "2021-11-29T23:37:56Z")
That was a great show. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2021, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accurate-portrayals-of-your-profession-in-fiction/954871/86 "2021-11-30T00:22:53Z")
An episode that really sticks in my mind is the one where an Australian naval officer is called in to help dispose of a huge parachute mine dropped by the Luftwaffe that could take out an entire city block. The mine’s timer is triggered, and he has less than a minute to insert the widget that will stop it. In one of the series’ most heart-stopping moments, it slips out of his fingers and falls to the floor. All he can do is turn to Anthony Andrews and say **"RUN!!!"** The camera follows Andrews as he runs through the streets like a bat out of Hell, while the Australian gets down on his hands and knees and tries to find the widget amongst all the debris scattered on the floor of the flat. Jesus, talk about butt-clenching tension! I was on the edge of my seat watching that scene and shaking like a leaf! Everything turned out okay, though. The Australian found the widget and inserted it at the last second. The mine didn’t go off, and he and Andrews got to live another day. At the end of the show, I was almost as wrung out as they would have been. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2021, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accurate-portrayals-of-your-profession-in-fiction/954871/87 "2021-11-30T00:37:19Z")
Getting way off topic here but I watched a video on bomb disposal in London after the blitz and they interviewed one of the fellows and he said “either I get it right and live, or I’ll never know about it!” Which I guess is correct. Being within inches of a large bomb when it went off would literally mean your brain was destroyed before your nerves had time to register anything had happened. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2021, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accurate-portrayals-of-your-profession-in-fiction/954871/88 "2021-11-30T00:44:26Z")
At the start of the series, one of the new guys asks an officer “Does it hurt, sir?” when the bomb goes off. IIRC, the officer replies “We don’t know. No one’s ever been able to tell us.” ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2021, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accurate-portrayals-of-your-profession-in-fiction/954871/89 "2021-11-30T00:48:08Z")
_The Verdict_ is a very good portrayal of civil personal injury work. Obviously, they take some liberties for the sake of making a movie. But, it shows the huge imbalance of power when representing an injured person against a large institution. The delays, expense, of getting to trial, and tension with clients over settlement. There are problems with lay and expert witnesses, and a difficult judge. The lawyer has risked everything and is at the end of his rope. I’ve known many lawyers who were in similar situations. (perhaps a little less dramatically) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2021, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accurate-portrayals-of-your-profession-in-fiction/954871/90 "2021-11-30T02:13:02Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > The mine’s timer is triggered, and he has less than a minute to insert the widget that will stop it. In one of the series’ most heart-stopping moments, it slips out of his fingers and falls to the floor. All he can do is turn to Anthony Andrews and say **“RUN!!!”** Maxim 2: A sergeant in motion outranks a lieutenant who doesn’t know what’s going on. Maxim 3: An explosive ordnance officer at a dead run outranks everyone. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2021, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accurate-portrayals-of-your-profession-in-fiction/954871/91 "2021-11-30T02:32:25Z")
I was a welfare caseworker for 34 years. Folks in my profession are usually played as heartless bureaucrats or wide-eyed idealists. I’ve met my share of both, but the honest portrayal would just be someone trying to do too much with too little time, constantly having to chose between tasks when, in theory, you’re supposed to do it all. The paperwork version of Lucy in the candy factory, with people yelling at you. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2021, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accurate-portrayals-of-your-profession-in-fiction/954871/92 "2021-11-30T03:41:09Z")
> [@bump](#): > > Unfortunately, _Office Space_ is at least as true as anything else as far as the experience of working in corporate IT goes. I had forgotten about this. It was a fairly accurate presentation of corporate America overall, I think. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2021, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accurate-portrayals-of-your-profession-in-fiction/954871/93 "2021-11-30T03:47:33Z")
I was wondering if the social worker / caseworker in the Netflix show _Maid_ is accurate. She went through all of the forms, couldn’t officially help the client, and then from nowhere finally found a job that she could qualify for as in “here’s the number, give the owner a call”. Was that accurate and common? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2021, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accurate-portrayals-of-your-profession-in-fiction/954871/94 "2021-11-30T04:20:31Z")
As mentioned in other threads on this subject, I was in the private security biz for over 30 years, and I have just about given up trying to find an accurate portrayal of my former profession. Fictional security officers are lazy and/or vastly overweight and/or incredibly old and/or idiots and/or cop wannabes. On the (very) rare occasions you see competently trained security officers doing a good job, it turns out they are corrupt as hell. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2021, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accurate-portrayals-of-your-profession-in-fiction/954871/95 "2021-11-30T15:58:57Z")
Didn’t see the piece in question, but working outside or around the system was as common as working within it. If I had a thing I wanted to get done that I knew my supervisor would have a problem with, I’d wait till his day off and take it to another supervisor. (Sup A if I wanted it approved, Sup B if I wanted it denied.) Did that for years. ---
**Author:** ![McCaff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/848f3c/32.png) [@McCaff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/McCaff)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2021, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accurate-portrayals-of-your-profession-in-fiction/954871/96 "2021-12-01T03:55:18Z")
While there was some mild joking about Carter’s replacement of eros for agape, what actually scared Hell’s damnation out of the Poles was the preference for a Russified vocabulary in the speech. ---
**Author:** ![McCaff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/848f3c/32.png) [@McCaff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/McCaff)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2021, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accurate-portrayals-of-your-profession-in-fiction/954871/97 "2021-12-01T04:14:20Z")
I would say it is more than merely acceptable: to Berliners then, the article was used when used figuratively. “I am Berliner” strongly implied you were born there, or had lived so long to be seen as actually one of them; “I am a Berliner” would be about the equivalent of the use of “regular” in the sentence “I’m a regular New Yorker” when used by someone from elsewhere. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2021, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accurate-portrayals-of-your-profession-in-fiction/954871/98 "2021-12-01T20:38:57Z")
So you’re saying that all of those people in the movie weren’t literally Spartacus? ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2021, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accurate-portrayals-of-your-profession-in-fiction/954871/99 "2021-12-02T05:13:06Z")
D’uh! 'Cause _I’m_ Spartacus. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accurate-portrayals-of-your-profession-in-fiction/954871/100 "2021-12-13T04:17:06Z")
Respect. My father and grandfather were both career firefighters with 65 years of service between them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accurate-portrayals-of-your-profession-in-fiction/954871.md?page=4)