Truth and Fiction

     My family always watched its fair share of television.
We were never daytime TV people and paid no attention to game shows or soap operas, but once prime time arrived we were ready and waiting.

          My father, a government analyst with a Masters from Princeton, loved The Honeymooners and Sid Caesar. My grandfather, a geologist with Sun Oil Company, faithfully watched Gunsmoke every Sunday night. We may have sat around the dinner table arguing about the correct pronunciation for “medieval,” but network programming was just fine with us.

          It may be my upbringing, or a reaction all those nights when I always seemed to be working on a degree or grading papers, but now an evening in front of the boob tube is just fine with me.

          Last night we watched Madam Secretary, one of our favorites. If you haven’t found it yet, I recommend it. It’s well written and acted. It also draws from current events quite often. The main character, Tea Leoni (who is excellent), is the Secretary of State for Keith Caradine, who plays the President.

          Last night focused on the 25^th Amendment as Caradine became increasingly bellicose and unreasonable, triggering nuclear brinkmanship with Russia. Since they had to wrap everything up by the end of the show, all was resolved after a bit of nail-biting, but the events were close enough to our own reality to give pause.