Now that television season is upon us, I have a confession to make. There are really only two shows that I will drop everything for. The first is Mad Men, a brilliantly-written, impeccably-acted character drama that wows me week after week. The second—::pauses and waits for the backlash::—is Make It or Break It. Yes, that’s right, the cheesy gymnastics show on ABC Family. I can’t get enough. I have a series recording set on my DVR, but that doesn’t stop me from plopping down in front of the TV every Tuesday night, wine glass in hand, to cheer on the Rock girls. These kinds of shows are guilty pleasures. If you make a show about gymnastics, dancing or cheerleading, I will watch it.
That said, as soon as I saw the ads for Hellcats, the new cheerleading show on the CW, I was all “Sign me up!” But not even 10 minutes into the first episode, I was done. Why, you ask? The terrible plotlines? The cliched stock characters—underdog, nice girl, bitchy girl? The objectification of women by way of scanty outfits? Nope. None of the above. What made me hit the off-switch is the fact that the main character is majoring in pre-law.
People! There is no such thing as a “pre-law” major. It’s called political science or history or (like I did) journalism. Or any major your college offers, really. If you’re lucky, you could even go someplace that has a major focusing on jurisprudence. But going to your “pre-law” class on Monday morning is not going to happen. It’s so unrealistic that it took me right out of the show and I was done. Willing suspension of disbelief, my ass.
What about you? Any shows, movies or books you’ve given up on just because there was one aspect—minor or major—that was so unrealistic you couldn’t move past it?
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