This season, 24 is set in Washington, D.C. — a nice change of pace from Los Angeles. But it would be nice if the show’s creators were more faithful to the city’s geography and idioms. Last night drove me batty, with the banter about “Red Line! Westbound! To Washington Center.” There is a Red Line on the Metro subway system. But nobody ever refers to its direction as “Westbound.” And although there’s a stop called Metro Center, there’s no “Washington Center.” Couldn’t the production team of 24 at least have someone from D.C. proofread the script for purposes of authenticity?

Samuel Taylor Coleridge once wrote about the “willing suspension of disbelief” — a behavior that proficient writers must instill in their readers when they tell fantastic tales. It requires a commitment to “a semblance of truth.” In other words, if you want to spin a yarn about characters who come back from the dead, underwater attacks on the White House, and infrared satellite surveillance from desktop computers, at least get the little things right.