# Plot Holes in World War II **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 22, 2012, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-in-world-war-ii/616463 "2012-03-22T02:30:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![DataZak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ea666f/32.png) [@DataZak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DataZak)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2012, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-in-world-war-ii/616463/181 "2012-03-27T07:28:52Z")
I heard they’re planning a spin-off set in Korea. ---
**Author:** ![MonkeyMensch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@MonkeyMensch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MonkeyMensch)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2012, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-in-world-war-ii/616463/182 "2012-03-27T12:57:44Z")
Well, my sister works in the industry and I’ve seen a copy of the original screenplay. The idea was to have the Western Allies meet up with Soviets in Berlin in a big celebration at the Reichstag. The producers were going ape at the cost overruns and insisted on the Allies stopping at the Elbe River and stopping shooting. The giveaway is that the finale has Berlin divided as per the original script! Oops! ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2012, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-in-world-war-ii/616463/183 "2012-03-27T14:25:15Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > I’ll give the WW2 producers one thumbs up. No freaking vampires or zombies. Yeah, but they used NAZIs. Come on, those have surely been overdone, everybody has NAZIs now. Couldn’t they be more original? > [@RickJay](#): > > There’s a message of substance over style, sizzle over steak. Something is wrong with that statement. “Substance over style” and “sizzle over steak” are exact opposites. “Steak” is equivalent of “substance”, “sizzle” equals “style”. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2012, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-in-world-war-ii/616463/184 "2012-03-27T15:56:55Z")
> [@DataZak](#): > > I heard they’re planning a spin-off set in Korea. Fuggedabahdit. Nobody ever watched a series based in Korea! :smack: ---
**Author:** ![kidchameleon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kidchameleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidchameleon)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2012, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-in-world-war-ii/616463/185 "2012-03-27T16:00:02Z")
> [@Ike\_Witt](#): > > It isn’t a plot hole, but I do have a complaint about wardrobe. Clearly, they went all out with the designer Nazi threads. They were stylish and let you know they were evil at the same time. However, it seems the budget was blown by using Hugo Boss and the allied troops ended up with stock uniforms. > > And wasn’t there something about the English wearing shorts and pith helmets? In a shooting war? Somebody dropped the ball there. Please, they introduce a whole nation of guys named Scott just to appeal to the cross-dressing audience. Really, do those folks buy that much? I mean, to throw whole regiments of guys in skirts? Sheesh. ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2012, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-in-world-war-ii/616463/186 "2012-03-27T16:22:43Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > The Cold War was great at first. The build up. The suspense. The understated drama. Then at the end the bad guys went “meh, fuck this, we give up, you win”. You know Stephen King was ghost writing that shit. Though it was a pretty clever way to introduce the characters to the Cold War’s sequel in the Afghanistan plotline, which totally seemed like a sideshow to the main plot at the time. ---
**Author:** ![Gedd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gedd/32/4938_2.png) [@Gedd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gedd)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2012, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-in-world-war-ii/616463/187 "2012-03-27T17:36:11Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > Fuggedabahdit. Nobody ever watched a series based in Korea! :smack: What, then after that they can do a spin off of the spin off set in Vietnam or some other random country most Americans can’t identify? ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2012, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-in-world-war-ii/616463/188 "2012-03-27T17:58:42Z")
> [@DataZak](#): > > I heard they’re planning a spin-off set in Korea. They had a spin off set in Korea, but everyone forgot about it. ---
**Author:** ![Rain\_Soaked](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e19adc/32.png) [@Rain\_Soaked](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rain_Soaked)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2012, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-in-world-war-ii/616463/189 "2012-03-27T18:57:11Z")
I don’t want to threadshit or anything but I don’t get the hate going on here. I watched the 5 seasons and thought it was reasonably well done. I didn’t like it when they went with colour later on. I think they meant it to be in black & white and the colourization detracts from the story. It did start out a bit slow but quickly picked up momentum - ending with a big bang. Sure, they took some artistic license but if they followed too closely to the real story the audience would get bored. I think they provided a good balance between story action and believability. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2012, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-in-world-war-ii/616463/190 "2012-03-27T19:34:57Z")
Don’t tell me, let me guess: your favorite episode was the one with the Maginot Line, which you didn’t think was at all cliché, not one bit, no? ---
**Author:** ![Oldeb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ea666f/32.png) [@Oldeb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oldeb)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2012, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-in-world-war-ii/616463/191 "2012-03-27T20:40:12Z")
> [@pravnik](#): > > The Audie Murphy character is just a rehash of the Alvin York character from the first one. Oh, _another_ crackshot farmboy from the American south who singlehandedly takes out dozens upon dozens of Germans? That’s really original, and just as plausible this time. Oh, god. Audie Murphy. The Wesley Crusher of WW2. At least with York they tried to make it believable. They cast a guy who was 6’ and had some muscle on him. But Murphy? The kid wasn’t even 5’6" and weighed maybe 110 when wet. And I mean kid too. He couldn’t even legally drink until the last few episodes. So we have to sit through him getting rejected from all these enlistment centers cause he’s just so eager to go to war until he finally gets in. Way to rip off Captain America there. And then just to cement his supersolider status they have him contract malaria early on. You know how many people died of malaria just last year? Over 1,000,000. But not Murphy. He just shrugs it off and spends the whole war with it, not that this slows him down any. Then afterwards he just drinks some orange juice, takes a nap, and he all good? And don’t get me started on his damn spin-off series. Oh look, now he’s a movie star! And now he’s a songwriter who gets like a dozen artists to record his songs, including _frickin_’\* Dean Martin\*. ---
**Author:** ![Rain\_Soaked](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e19adc/32.png) [@Rain\_Soaked](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rain_Soaked)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2012, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-in-world-war-ii/616463/192 "2012-03-27T20:44:56Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Don’t tell me, let me guess: your favorite episode was the one with the Maginot Line, which you didn’t think was at all cliché, not one bit, no? Yes, I get it. You are one of those nose-in the-air snooty types that look down on the Maginot episode because it was popular and easy to get through at the time. Must everything be impenetrable to be considered good nowadays? And you know who else didn’t like the Maginot Line? Yes, that right. General Martin when he locked himself out of it. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2012, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-in-world-war-ii/616463/193 "2012-03-27T22:34:52Z")
> [@Rick](#): > > They had a spin off set in Korea, but everyone forgot about it. I hear they had some good ideas going, but it turned out to be a total mash-up. Harking back to dumb stuff, notice how they gave the Germans these [cool](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messerschmitt_Me_262) [jets](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arado_Ar_234), and the British [these](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloster_Meteor), and then they totally forgot to ever have them fight each other - which obviously both sides would be looking to use their new jets for! :smack: Logic aside though, I can sorta see why. Someone already said how the over-use of magic superweapons spoiled the later episodes, and maybe jets didn’t really belong in this story. Thoughts? ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2012, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-in-world-war-ii/616463/194 "2012-03-27T23:22:59Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > The script writers wrote themselves into a corner when they introduced the “atomic bomb”. Realistically, how could they have another war series without the atomic bomb trumping everything? \*The Cold War \*sort of handwaved this away by having America sit around with it’s thumb up it’s rear for four years until the Soviet Union secretly developed it’s own atomic bomb, and then had “strategic deterrence” be the reason why they never used them again. That’s true, but they turned it from a movie into a long-running soap opera, the longest in history really, and pretty much everyone got tired of it. So they spun off Perestroika, and a bit later the two German programs, the single episode “Tear Down This Wall”, and the “Reunification” miniseries. And they had a lot of success as well with some more bittersweet breakup tear jerkers – “Czech Means Never Having to Say Slovakia”, and “You Go, Slavia” (which itself spun off several entertaining adventure yarns, kind of like an anti-_Friends_). ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2012, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-in-world-war-ii/616463/195 "2012-03-28T00:16:54Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > Logic aside though, I can sorta see why. Someone already said how the over-use of magic superweapons spoiled the later episodes, and maybe jets didn’t really belong in this story. Thoughts? It was all the suits in finance. The cost of the new effects was high, at a time when there was plenty of stock footage to recycle. Once they planned the a-bomb finish, there just wasn’t enough money left over. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2012, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-in-world-war-ii/616463/196 "2012-03-28T02:19:03Z")
A bit meta but one of my major complaints is how the WW2 series drew all the studio funding away from one of my favorite long-running soaps, _The Sun Never Sets on the British Empire_. It straggled on a few years, but combined with the late series’ controversial plot lines and casting choices\* _Sun Never Sets_ really was only a shadow of its former self. (Although you could say the crossover episodes were quite good, and rather bittersweet in retrospect. “Their Finest Hour” indeed.) \*“The King of England Wishes to Marry A Thrice-Divorced American Woman, But The Throne Stands In The Way Of Their Love!” – oh puhleeze . . . ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2012, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-in-world-war-ii/616463/197 "2012-03-28T02:21:07Z")
And the brother who takes over the throne is a stutterer. Really? ---
**Author:** ![Anglachel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Anglachel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anglachel)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2012, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-in-world-war-ii/616463/198 "2012-03-28T02:38:12Z")
Hey, my grandad was an extra or something in one of the navy episodes. Must’ve been some sort of stuntman because he had to get rescued twice from the ocean. I also heard that some animals were harmed during the making of the films. Where’s the outrage? ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2012, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-in-world-war-ii/616463/199 "2012-03-28T02:46:13Z")
I have a few props used by Russian characters. As is typical of something one of thousands of extras will be carrying, workmanship isn’t as good as what you see in a hero gun. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2012, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-in-world-war-ii/616463/200 "2012-03-28T02:48:07Z")
\*Sun Never Sets \*had been plagued by cost overruns and cast problems for years. It was a big thing when Ireland left the show, but after India and Pakistan split there really wasn’t anyone interesting to drive the storyline anymore. Oh sure, they came up with one final moment of good drama left Egypt and Sudan, but mostly the show just stumbled along with recycled plots and a third-rate cast like Rhodesia and Cyprus. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-in-world-war-ii/616463.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plot-holes-in-world-war-ii/616463.md?page=11)