TV shows that make you really, really suspend your disbelief:
Nip/Tuck: IRL, these doctors would have lost their licenses, been in jail, killed each other, or would have been killed ages ago. And they seem to forgive each other darn near everything. Of course, this is all beside the point if you suspend your disbelief on a regular basis.
Supernatural: These guys have been beaten up so many times that they would, under normal circumstances, be permanently disfigured and have brain damage as well. Not to mention the whole Hell thing.
Friends: There’s no way these folks could have afforded such spacious and nicely appointed NY apartments on what they made.
House: No frigging way would this guy be allowed to practice, no matter how great he is at diagnosing things.
Joey was a working actor who would eventually become a highly paid soap star.
Ross was a research scientist and then a tenured professor.
Phoebe didn’t live in Manhatten with the rest of them.
And Monica and Rachel lived in Monica’s grandmother’s apartment that was RENT CONTROLLED and you knew this because they mentioned it was RENT CONTROLLED once or twice a season.
According to Jim - IRL, someone with Jim Belushi’s character’s looks and personality would have an equal chance at snagging someone who looks like Courtney Thorne-Smith as the chance I could sit through an entire episode.
As with all genre shows where people deal with really crazy shit that humans don’t have to deal with in real life, they would probably so crazy they couldn’t function in society. I mean, it’s already pretty obvious that they (esp Dean) would benefit from lots and lots of therapy, but in real life they’d be gibbering messes from all the stuff they go through. Same goes for Buffy, who did eventually end up pretty much an obvious headcase.
Well, maybe he character on the show is a $cientologist as well, and she gave up on going for more attractive men because they wouldn’t put up with her crazy BS, so she snagged someone lower on the looks scale because he’d vut off his own foot to be with a woman like that.
I guess I was wrong. She does live in Manhatten, but farther away from the rest of the group. But again, she lives in a rent controlled apartment that belonged to her grandmother.
Phoebe originally lived with Monica, but moved out without telling her (this was in one of the flashback episodes). The the early seasons they made a big deal over Monica & Rachel not wanting the landlord to find out that Monica’s grandmother didn’t live there anymore.
Glee requires the same suspension of disbelief that all musicals do, that characters can break into song with full accompaniment at the drop of a hat and complete a perfect performance with no rehearsal.
You do realize that many people who are good looking happen to use some standard other than LOOKS to pick a mate … and frequently the way people act in public is not the way they act in private, and sometimes the way they act in private is not how they act in public…
I’ve got a couple of shows that I like precisely because they so thoroughly thumb their noses at reality-based premises: Glee (already mentioned – I do have to roll my eyes at the folks who keep popping into the Glee threads and point out the specific details – and they are myriad – that contradict all common sense); NCIS; The Mentalist.
