Just accept it, enjoy the show

I hate to break this to you, but scripted TV shows are not real life.

If you want to see real life, look out the window. Spy on your neighbors. (OK, don't do that.)

But even the most realistic of scripted programs are just that — scripted. And you have to accept their version of reality.

Take, for example, the Fox series "Prison Break." Before the show premiered, the show's basic premise was questioned by one of my cynical TV-critic colleagues.

(Imagine that! A cynical TV critic!)

My colleague wondered whether we were supposed to believe that, in order to break his brother out of prison, the main character would actually commit a crime, intentionally get caught and then get sent to exactly the same prison as that incarcerated sibling.

After fussing around a bit with explanations of how a convicted criminal can request a prison assignment (although it's no sure thing), creator/writer/executive producer Paul Scheuring got to the heart of the matter: "If we didn't have that, then we might not have this show."

And the same can be said of any scripted television show, be it comedy or drama. If you don't accept certain conceits in the premise, you don't have a show.

Pick a show — any show — and that holds true. "Everybody Loves Raymond" often reflected real-life family dynamics, but if you were bothered by the fact that Ray never actually seemed to go to work or that he was a sportswriter despite apparently having no knowledge of the English language, the show didn't work.

All the "CSIs" (and the CSI clones) depend on speed-of-light technology that doesn't exist. (At least not at the speed of light.) Legal dramas dating back to the start of television compress events and shorten trials in ways that defy reality.

And that's easy to accept compared to the monsters that populate shows ranging from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" to "Supernatural."

Hey, Jack Bauer is about to save The World As We Know It for the fifth time in a single day when the new season of "24" premieres in January.

You need look no further than "24" for a show that proves that suspension of disbelief is required. I love the show, but if you step off that roller-coaster ride and look at it logically, it's ridiculous. Particularly when it's all supposed to take place in one 24-hour period.