There have been plenty of complaints lately about various films and series having technological and cultural anachronisms, glaringly color and gender-blind casting, and in general enough inconsistencies and logical fallacies to utterly ruin all suspension of disbelief. But I say that those are all pikers and not trying hard enough. Let’s really crank it up to 11 here and see what we can produce.
I’ll start with: in a world that is somewhere between post-neolithic and pre-industrial, there is a largish village or small town with a market economy and such goods as mechanical clocks and window glass; one hundred miles away there are people wearing untanned bear skins tied around themselves and living in wattle wigwams.
ETA: although in hindsight this might be explicable if we postulate the existence of meth in this world.
In a Tolkeinesque ripoff, the wood-dwelling Elves are actually robots left behind by an alien species to prevent mankind from ever amounting to something. They’re eventually foiled by a talking badger.
I don’t need to crank most period pieces up, I have too much education in some period/areas so nothing Hollywood does really keeping my immersion.
[Just watched Pale Blue Eye and first off, it looks nothing like that era end of campus. No cadet would EVER REMOVE HIS COVER OUTSIDE AND RUN THROUGH THE QUAD. Do I need to repeat that LOUDER? Cadets at that time were not allowed easy access to females - the types of formal dos they can manage would be the Commandant’s Reception [formal coffeklatsch, every Sunday 4 Cadets would be picked to go to the CO’s house for formal coffee and cakes, and girls might be there if his daughters are home. Police at that point in time are doorknob shakers - they are more what we would consider roaming security guards, not really ‘investigators’ most criminals had to be caught in the act, or have a solid eye witness willing to show up in court. Costuming was decent for the most part [a major failing in some period pieces]