This fiction doesn't seem real

SPOILER - If you have not watched Homeland Season Two (2012), move along.  Move along.

I always get a kick out of when a supposedly unrealistic storyline is panned, only to have it pointed out that the basis of the story actually did happen in real life.

Jason Alexander complained to Larry David that George Costanza was behaving unrealistically in  particular situation until David told Alexander that the situation actually happened to him and he behaved in the manner written in the script.

I can remember at the end of West Wing Season Six some found it unrealistic that Matt Santos would nominate Leo, with his health problems, as his vice president.  It was pretty simple to point out Dick Cheney, who has had five heart attacks, won two elections for veep.

Though you may want to see an example actually found in the press...

An episode of Newsroom ran featuring election night 2010, where the Tea Party swept into Congress.  Will posed a question about the debt ceiling and was trashed in this review for being clairvoyant, indicative of the show being written sanctimoniously with the benefit of hindsight, even though there were similar questions at the time about whether the GOP would threaten the debt ceiling. 

Homeland Season Two strode into bizarre territory with its storylines, including international blackberry texting to warn about attacks, chasing down a terrorist with nothing but a pipe, and a car accident with Friday Night Lights Season Two-esque consequences.

One of the almost too unbelievable storylines was the Abu Nazir terror network trying to murder the veep via hacking into his pacemaker. In quite possibly the most -24- scene of the series, exactly that occurs.  It's ridiculous, but also highly entertaining and exciting and memorable, as shows often are with a lead or secondary character's death.

In this past Sunday's 60 Minutes, a piece focusing on Vice President Dick Cheney's health says "not that ridiculous..."

In 2007, when Cheney needed his implanted defibrillator replaced, Dr. Reiner ordered the manufacturer to disable the wireless feature - fearing a terrorist could assassinate the vice president by sending a signal to the device, telling it to shock his heart into cardiac arrest.

Cheney goes on to directly address his perception of the Homeland scene.

Well, I was aware of the danger, if you will, that existed but I found it credible. Because I know from the experience we had and the necessity for adjusting my own device that it was an accurate portrayal of what was possible.

Who'd have thought that?  I generally have a high level of suspending disbelief for television, especially my favorite shows.  If Breaking Bad wants to make a leap to bring the plot along, they get the benefit of the doubt.  If Homeland wants to do an absurd hit and run, I'll see where it goes. 

Truth stranger than fiction.  So I allow a lot of latitude when watching a show, rather than point out seemingly obvious flaws.  Because, after all, it is fiction.  And a hit and run may actually be a plot device used to drive a wedge between the politically chummy Brody and veep families. 

More than the realism of plot points, I'm interested in watching how carefully constructed characters react to these plot points.  The better the characters are constructed, the more lenient one can be with the plot's realism.  Frankly, I find it a lot more offensive to the brain when a character is acting out of character or a continuity error occurs than when the fictional plot doesn't seem like non-fiction.