History InformedAbility / LiveActionTV

* ''Film/StarTrekGenerations'': A member of Guinan's race, Dr. Soran, mentions that he's from a race of listeners, and [[BreakThemByTalking all he does is talk]].

* ''Series/{{Smallville}}'': Lana got a scholarship to an art school in Paris. None of her artwork has been shown, and that was the only time she's ever shown any interest in art. Lana could offer several more examples of this trope. She was often praised by other characters as being brave, intelligent, kind, etc. Suffice it to say that many viewers never noticed her actually exhibiting any of these character traits.

** Occurs in-universe during the episode "Bullet Points", when Skyler and Walter are getting ready for dinner with Marie and Hank so the two of them can fully divulge their full "gambling addiction" cover story to the two of them. The two do their research, going to a Gamblers Anonymous meeting, and having Walt practice card-counting strategies just in case they ask him to show them his skills. Walter doesn't doesn't manage to get a hang of how to card-count convincingly, so Skyler just comes up with the explanation that Walt is a recovering addict that wants to avoid cards.

** Some of the claims get truly outsize, as higher levels (such as Ultimate [[Series/KamenRiderKuuga Kuuga]]) could supposedly destroy the world. A Rider's actual power level is best described as "As strong as it takes to have trouble with but eventually beat the MonsterOfTheWeek." And then you have first-appearance beef-ups, where a character or power will be utterly invincible the first time and then never, ever again. Biggest offender here is Double.[[note]]Remember world-destroying Ultimate Kuuga - who never got to show that kind of power, but ''did'' prove he could be a DestructiveSaviour at least once or twice, unlike most of these examples, ''at non-Ultimate forms?'' Well, here's three words that should leave you [[BringMyBrownPants in the need for clean trousers]]: RISING Ultimate Kuuga. Rising Ultimate Kuuga ''and'' the also-potentially-apocalyptic Series/KamenRiderDecade are being utterly schooled by Shadow Moon - himself grossly overpowered here as he was always about evenly matched with his own non-godlike rival Series/KamenRiderBlack - and Shadow Moon is easily kabong'd by Series/KamenRiderDouble. If this scene is taken at face value, then Double is strong enough to curbstomp the entire cast of Manga/DragonBall Z while beating up [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] {{Superman}} for his lunch money. We ''never'' see him as such in his own series, and it could be argued that his enemies are just the strongest ever - until you see he's also normal-Rider-strength the next time he and Decade team up. Surprise, surprise.[[/note]] Outside of power levels, there's Series/KamenRiderOOO's "full combos can drive you nuts" thing, which has never been seen to happen (unless it's Putotyra, the feral, dinosaur-based mode, which is ''always'' uncontrollable, but that activates on its ''own'' when Eiji's under enough duress) and yet using one is still treated as being so dangerous you'd rather take your chances with a monster who overpowers you than risk using one.

* On ''Series/{{Arrow}}'', Curtis Holt is apparently a bronze medal winning Olympic decathlete, which is constantly referenced by the other characters. This should means that he is among the world's best when it comes to running, jumping and throwing ability. However, he is very much portrayed as a {{Nerd}} stereotype and is shown to be pretty physically inept (for instance, claiming that Oliver's signature 'salmon ladder' pull-ups are impossible).

* ''Series/BreakingBad'': Skylar is supposedly an amateur writer who hopes to get published. This comes up all of twice in the first two seasons and never in the third and fourth seasons. No evidence of her writing ability is ever depicted. She does, however, prove to be a ConsummateLiar as the series progresses.

* ''Series/TheAdventuresOfBriscoCountyJr'': Pete Hutter has a nasty reputation. It's repeatedly said that "no one touches Pete's piece", in tones of horror that suggest what ''does'' happen to someone who touches Pete's gun. In practice, lots of people (or at least, Brisco, repeatedly) touch Pete's piece, and all Pete does about it is sit there, gibbering in shock that someone was mad enough to touch his piece.

* Entourage: Vinny Chase’s acting ability. Several times on the show, he is constantly spoken of as one of the greatest, if not THE greatest, actors of his generation (his friend Eric reveals that Time Magazine referred to his as “the next Johnny Depp”, in the pilot no less). However, anytime he is actually shown acting, he comes across as no better than any other run of the mill, teen idol.

* ''Series/{{Dexter}}'': Detective Quinn is said to be a good cop despite being wrongfully accused of being a DirtyCop in the past. Except it would be pretty hard to find any time he's done good work, but plenty where he stole money from crime scenes, slept with a witness, leaked inside info to a journalist and murderer/accomplice to a serial killer, showed up drunk at work, got high on the job, lost his gun, got into a fight with another detective, let Dexter go despite all the indications that he's a murderer[[note]]Of course, the whole department is guilty of this[[/note]] and most importantly ''murdering a suspect in the middle of the day, in the strip club he owned, in front of employees and patrons, right next to another detective''. And yet Angel was confident that he could be promoted to sergeant.

*** Averted later when Sam gets a job in the Pear store, basically to spite Freddie, who just got one himself. In an improbably short while she is promoted to be his boss. Since the job is a parody of Apple's 'Genius' it's possible she had to show ''some'' knowledge of tech to get hired in the first place.

** Her ability was shown once; she thought up the ploy to get The Arcadian Hotel demolished: [[spoiler:since the lion's head figure was "iconic", simply remove it, then there's no reason to keep the building (It wound up in Barney's apartment).]]

*** To be fair, later episodes heavily imply they just really like screwing with people, and slowly sneaking up on them certainly qualifies as that.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E4TheSontaranStratagem "The Sontaran Stratagem"]]/[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E5ThePoisonSky "The Poison Sky"]]: The Sontarans are described as being the universe's "greatest soldiers". Sure, they mop the floor with UNIT in their first encounter, but once their ''blatant cheating'' (a field that causes the copper jackets of bullets to expand in gun barrels, making the humans incapable of even fighting back) is overcome, the Sontarans are [[CurbStompBattle curb-stomped]]. ''However'', this claim comes from a TechnicalPacifist who regards the word "soldier" as an insult, and the Sontarans are clearly depicted as a MartyrdomCulture who believe WarIsGlorious. It's also stated that the Sontarans are holding back because they need the planet intact.

* ''Series/{{Coupling}}'': Jane is "the one with the breasts." Now the actress Gina Bellman is a very attractive woman but she is not ''exceptionally'' buxom. It is partly in comparison to the other two female members of the cast, however.

** He did show impeccable taste in choosing a Nina Simone record to play for Sarah in "Chuck Versus the Honeymooners".

*** Probably intended to never actually be true, or otherwise Angel's secret would have been revealed sooner. She finds out that he's a vampire only seven episodes into the series and is immediately given a secretive demeanor so it's likely he was intended to be a vampire from the beginning.

* ''Radio/OurMissBrooks'': Miss Brooks is said to be a wonderful English teacher. But given that an episode that was actually showed Miss Brooks teaching high school would be rather dull, one has to take it on trust. The few times she is shown tutoring English, it's played for life i.e. "The Yodar Kritch Award" sees her give a crash course to DumbJock Bones Snodgrass.

** Speaking of Tyrion, there's his own reputation of being a very smart, politically savvy adviser to his queen, with everybody telling Daenerys just how good he is to have around. Not a single one of his advised plans while working for her has panned out; they have all been complete disasters. It gets to the point where it doesn't make any sense for anyone to have any faith in him anymore, and yet he still gets glowing recommendations by peers. Ironically, [[TookALevelInDumbass he was genuinely pretty clever in earlier seasons,]] but someone jumping in later on would probably interpret him as somewhere between PluckyComicRelief and TheMillstone.

** Commander Riker is said to be the most gifted pilot on board the ''Enterprise'', including by Geordi, the man who actually used to fly the ship. This becomes a small plot point in the two-parter [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS6E10ChainOfCommand Chain of Command]], when new ''Enterprise'' captain Jellico, with whom Riker has a difficult relationship and who has gone so far as to relieve Riker from duty for insubordination, has to eat humble pie and ask Riker to pilot a shuttle for a clandestine mission. In practice though we hardly ever see Riker fly anything, and when we do (such as in the episode [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E17TheOutcast The Outcast]]), he's not doing anything that seems to require a particularly high level of skill. It's not until the movie [[Film/StarTrekInsurrection Star Trek: Insurrection]] that Riker gets to show some extraordinary piloting by flying the enormous ''Enterprise'' like it's a fighter plane.

* ''Series/{{Riverdale}}'': After the Season 5 TimeSkip, Jughead Jones is supposed to be a critically acclaimed writer and rising star. However, his only published book is essentially a retelling of the series with different names and has some parallels to ''Literaure/TheOutsiders''. While it is subverted (He also has severe writer’s block, is in danger of being a OneHitWonder and an ''insane'' amount of debt.), you’d think that he would have learned more writing styles and had more material from four years in a prestigious writer’s program in Iowa.

** Sansa Stark's intelligence is frequently talked about in later seasons, to the point that Arya--a trained assassin and savvy character herself--calls her "the smartest person I've met". While Sansa has certainly developed from [[{{HorribleJudgeOfCharacter}} where she]] [[{{NaiveEverygirl}} started off]] and managed to survive a lot, she's also made plenty of glaring mistakes, such as nearly getting the Northern army (including Jon, her own brother) slaughtered because she didn't tell them more troops were coming, almost killing her sister thanks to falling for [[{{ObviouslyEvil}} Littlefinger's]] lies yet again, and antagonizing the North's very powerful ally Daenerys despite her being the only chance the North has to survive. She's managed a few practical matters, like bringing in grain to Winterfell, but that's hardly the work of a genius. It also doesn't help that most characters that enter her vicinity end up carrying the IdiotBall, meaning she suddenly knows how to make armour better than an actual smith and is more perceptive than practiced politician Tyrion. If anything, she dropped off a bit: she was able to keep her head down around Joffrey and manipulate him with some level of subtlety in the second season, but by the seventh, she's acting snide and needlessly defiant around someone who could boot her out at any moment.

** Sansa Stark's intelligence is frequently talked about in later seasons, to the point that Arya--a trained assassin and savvy character herself--calls her "the smartest person I've met". While Sansa has certainly developed from [[{{HorribleJudgeOfCharacter}} where she]] [[{{NaiveEverygirl}} started off]] and managed to survive a lot, she's also made plenty of glaring mistakes, such as nearly getting the Northern army (including Jon, her own brother) slaughtered because she didn't tell them more troops were coming, almost killing her sister thanks to falling for [[{{ObviouslyEvil}} Littlefinger's]] lies yet again, and antagonizing the North's very powerful ally Daenerys despite her being the only chance the North has to survive. She's managed a few practical matters, like bringing in grain to Winterfell, but that's hardly the work of a genius. It also doesn't help that most characters that enter her vicinity end up carrying the IdiotBall, meaning she suddenly knows how to make armor better than an actual smith and is more perceptive than practiced politician Tyrion. If anything, she dropped off a bit: she was able to keep her head down around Joffrey and manipulate him with some level of subtlety in the second season, but that subtlety is mostly gone in the seventh.

** Sansa Stark's intelligence is frequently talked about in later seasons, to the point that Arya--a trained assassin and savvy character herself--calls her "the smartest person I've met". While Sansa has certainly developed from [[{{HorribleJudgeOfCharacter}} where she]] [[{{NaiveEverygirl}} started off]] and managed to survive a lot, she's also made plenty of glaring mistakes, such as nearly getting the Northern army (including Jon, her own brother) slaughtered because she didn't tell them more troops were coming, almost killing her sister thanks to falling for [[{{ObviouslyEvil}} Littlefinger's]] lies yet again, and antagonizing the North's very powerful ally Daenerys despite her being the only chance the North has to survive. She's managed a few practical matters, like bringing in grain to Winterfell, but that's hardly the work of a genius. It also doesn't help that most characters that enter her vicinity end up carrying the IdiotBall, meaning she suddenly knows how to make armour better than an actual smith and is more perceptive than practiced politician Tyrion. If anything, she dropped off a bit: she was able to keep her head down around Joffrey and manipulate him with some level of subtlety in the second season, but that subtlety is mostly gone in the seventh.

** Sansa Stark's intelligence is frequently talked about in later seasons, to the point that Arya--a trained assassin and savvy character herself--calls her "the smartest person I've met". While Sansa has certainly developed from [[{{HorribleJudgeOfCharacter}} where she]] [[{{NaiveEverygirl}} started off]] and managed to survive a lot, she's also made plenty of glaring mistakes, such as nearly getting the Northern army (including Jon, her own brother) slaughtered because she didn't tell them more troops were coming, almost killing her sister thanks to falling for [[{{ObviouslyEvil}} Littlefinger's]] lies yet again, and antagonizing the North's very powerful ally Daenerys despite her being the only chance the North has to survive. She's managed a few practical matters, like bringing in grain to Winterfell, but that's hardly the work of a genius. It also doesn't help that most characters that enter her vicinity end up carrying the IdiotBall, meaning she suddenly knows how to make armour better than an actual smith and is more perceptive than practiced politician Tyrion. If anything, she dropped off a bit: she was able to keep her head down around Joffrey and manipulate him with some level of subtlety in the second season, but