It's the Little Things...

...that seem to bug me the most. Or maybe it's just this week.

Anyway~

Last night Hubs and I were watching Criminal Minds. The Behavioral Analysis Unit of the FBI gets called to a different part of the country each week to investigate cases that have the local authorities stumped. The BAU looks at the details of the crimes and draws up a profile of the person who most likely committed the crimes.

This week's episode was about a serial arsonist who also enjoyed watched his victims burn. The show was interesting, but it was supposed to take place in San Francisco. Now, San Francisco is fairly easy to recognize and there were the obligatory set shots as the plane bearing our intrepid BAUers flew over The City.

That was the last I saw of San Francisco.

The SFFD uniforms looked wrong. The SFPD uniforms looked wrong. Most of all, the houses where the victims lived were completely wrong. San Francisco homes are not single level ranch houses surrounded on all four sides by lush lawns, even in the wealthy areas of town. Because the real estate is so expensive, most houses are built flush with their neighbors, with the living area on top of the garage. Those homes that aren't built flush are older--certainly not 1950-1960's ranch houses.

And the neighborhoods were too flat. Not everyone lives on a hill, but it's difficult not to see one in the background. And the "harbor district" with the warehouses? Doesn't exist here.

I understand location shoots are expensive, but this episode didn't even make the effort to be realistic about the location. Whoever was in charge should have just made it some generic California-ish sounding town. (It's not that difficult--just slap a Spanish name on it, especially one that begins with San or Santa.)

Does anyone else notice these things or is it just me?