The Cinemax tv series Banshee is one of my guilty pleasures. I shouldn’t like it; the storylines are bizarre, the violence is over the top, the fight scenes are silly and the depiction of my home state (complete with the Amish) could not be depicted less realistically. Yet here I am, glued to the tv as I watch marathon episodes courtesy of Netflix.

“Suspension of disbelief” was coined in 1817 by the poet and aesthetic philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who suggested that if a writer could infuse a “human interest and a semblance of truth” into a fantastic tale, the reader would suspend judgement concerning the plausibility of the narrative. Suspension of disbelief often applies to fictional works of the action, comedy, fantasy, and horror genres. I suppose that some suspension of disbelief (SoD) is necessary to accept and enjoy any work of fiction, since all fiction is created from nothing and, as Stephen King so aptly put it, are “lies that entertain”.

As a writer I rely on SoD to some extent in everything I create but also find it difficult to willingly apply SoD to any number of other books, tv shows or movies. Game Of Thrones doesn’t work for me; I simply can’t allow myself to let loose enough to accept medieval fantasy as a legitimate form of entertainment. Fantasy and science fiction are two genres that simply fail to pull me in. I like being brought into a fictional ‘real world’ where I recognize the lay of the land, if you will. As a result, Game Of Thrones fails while Banshee or Downton Abbey grab me and won’t let go.

It goes further than that, though. Why is it as a car geek I can watch and accept post-apocalyptic Mad Max/Road Warrior but I roll my eyes and mutter under my breath at the plausibility of The Fast And The Furious or the remake of Gone In 60 Seconds? I think the answer lies in the presentation. Mad Max and the original Gone were made before CGI took over from real stunts. Everything was done by humans and did not defy the laws of physics. Though the storyline may be imperfect what my eyes see I can justify as being outlandish but not impossible.

Yet now I must come back to Banshee, a show which is more comic book than novel. What is it that draws me in and keeps me there despite my limits of SoD? I think it is a deft blending of several elements:  very talented (and attractive) actors, well choreographed fights, steamy sex scenes, violence that is gritty but not afraid to make fun of itself and-most important-really diverse and interesting characters. It is odd that my SoD threshold accepts Banshee but draws the line at the very similar Game Of Thrones. For some people I’m sure the attraction to these two shows would be polar opposite.

My fellow author Bran Gustafson wrote a novel Coyote which had enough similar elements in its description that I decided to read it. Coyote is more like Banshee than to my own novel The Strong One. Coyote takes place in a fictional southwestern state in a town that is more old west than modern outpost. The characters are generally humorless and mostly unlikable and the mood is dark, dusty and lonely. Yet like Banshee I was able to apply SoD and became completely immersed in Bran’s made up world. Not everyone will ‘get’ Coyote. Not everyone will ‘get’ my character of Brianna and why she needs to be depicted the way I chose. As writers we have a difficult task in artfully hurdling a reader’s SoD. It won’t work every time and this can be frustrating for an author. We have to accept that everyone likes different things for different reasons.