6 Completely Pointless Details In TV Shows (That Will Blow Your Mind)
The devil's in the details.
In many ways, TV shows are more complicated than films. Rather than dealing with a mere two hours with which to spin a yarn, TV shows have dozens of hours, larger casts, wider-reaching stories, and considerably lower budgets to deliver entertainment beamed out in the form of easily digestible and highly addictive content.
As we spend comparatively so much more time in the fictional worlds of television than films, the lengths TV shows go to in their depictions of real life sometimes beggars belief. It’s impressive and rewarding to see a show that takes itself seriously, with incredible attention paid to historical accuracy or fully fleshed out world building that all contribute to viewer investment in the medium.
It is these details that make a show feel real.
Some details however, for a whole host of reasons, end up being pretty much pointless. Details that were either so obscure, or so fleeting, that their absence would hardly have changed a thing. However, that doesn’t mean they don’t deserve their moment in the spotlight for making their way onto a show anyway. This an ode to those delightfully, obsessively complex, entirely pointless, easily missable details.
6. The Historically Accurate Ice Cubes In Mad Men
Widely regarded as among the greatest television series’ of all time, Mad Men’s obsessive levels of commitment and zealous dedication to historical accuracy reflect its lofty status. Perhaps in no other form is this better exemplified, however, than the historically accurate ice cubes used in the show.
Ice machines didn’t exist back in the 1960s, and in the pursuit of accurate representation the show-runners emulate the production of ice cubes to fit the setting in which they are used. When a scene is taking place in a hotel, the cubes used are exactly one-inch-square, which was sourced from a specialist in Los Angeles as to what hotels would be serving at the time. In someone's home, on the other hand, the cubes are made from vintage metal trays sourced specifically for production. In these instances, the ice cubes are more rectangular.
Impressive as the levels of accuracy may well be, it does leave us wondering whether or not it would have made too much of a difference if they’d have just grabbed a 2kg bag of ice from the local Walmart and called it a day.