Lessons learned from Television

Television, movies, novels or any form of entertainment only work if they can achieve some suspension of disbelief. No matter how realistic entertainment can be, there is always some pushing of the limit as to how much I’m willing to accept. Occasionally, my limit is reached by the presentation of realism that is not only unrealistic, but ridiculous. Here are some things I’ve learned from recent things I’ve seen on television.

“In post 9/11 America, airport security is so lenient that you can kidnap somebody at an airport, drag them into the back and kill them while making a lot of noise.”

In the most recent season of “Dexter,” Dexter drugged a man at the airport in broad daylight and dragged him into the luggage room where he had set up an elaborate kill room. The man screams and Dexter tells him it is after hours and nobody is going to hear him. Have the writers ever been to an airport? There are cameras, security and people everywhere. People are always traveling. I can’t even get onto a plane without stripping down to my underwear to prove I am not concealing weapons, but apparently all of this is possible.

“In the 1920s, prostitution was an extremely glamorous and competitive profession and all prostitutes were extremely beautiful women.”

“Boardwalk Empire” has always glamorized prostitution to an extent. In its last season, a brothel was basically run as a resort with the competitive edge of “America’s Next Top Model.” All of these women were not only gorgeous, but emotionally stable and friendly with hearts of gold. I’ve never been to a brothel, but I’ve seen “Cops” and I have a feeling that this is not true today if it ever was.

“Congressmen do nothing all day except plot against each other, recreational drugs, or sleep with prostitutes. Their diets also consist of ribs for three meals a day.”

There may unfortunately be more truth to this than I’d like to admit. On Netflix’s new show “House of Cards,” Congressmen are shown basically staging coups left and right, doing drugs at work, sleeping with each other and with prostitutes. There is very little work actually done and they literally eat ribs for breakfast, lunch and dinner. How is it that their digestive systems are not committing suicide? I don’t know about the ribs, but the rest may be truer than I’d like to admit.

“Law Enforcement Agencies give personality tests to their officers to ensure that they will always be paired up with a polar opposite so that they will share comedic moments of miscommunication and culture shock when they are facing dangerous situations.”

This basically applies to any show or movie that involves cops, FBI agents, etc. On “The Following,” the same applies. The FBI agents and police are all complete opposites and butt heads often. On “Dexter,” the same applies to every police officer and their partner. I realize it would be boring to watch people get along and agree on everything, but I don’t know if I would want Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker to save me if they couldn’t even agree on a plan or speak the same language.