Suspension of Disbelief

I've had a bit more time on my hands recently, thanks to the fact that I don't have to go to work every day.  So sometimes, when I need a break from pretending I know how to do anything about fixing up or cleaning up our house...  I've watched a few things on hulu when the tour hasn't been on and I came across the pilot episode of "Covert Affairs" recently after hearing a review of it on NPR.  I can't say that I shared the same rather effusive feeling about the show but I was entertained.  I think it is pretty interesting to find that Adidas has paid for all the athletic product placement.

What I struggle with is the typical willingness of shows to just ignore the laws of physics and engineering in the simplest of ways, ways that are maddening to me.  Just like watching Goose die in Top Gun in a way that is as unlikely as me winning the lottery and the fact that they couldn't take the time to learn that Migs are always odd-numbered, the car chase in the pilot was unbelievably ridiculous.  Literally.

The young female agent in her first week on the job finds herself being chased by a black BMW after leaving work.  She manages to evade the Beamer with some fancy moves, decides to counter chase for a bit, then ends up stuck when her car kind of craps out.

Now, here's the good part.  She drives what looks very much like a 2003-04 Volkswagen Golf, a few years before but very similar to this baby:

This hot little ride will do 0-60 in about 8.5-9.5 seconds depending on the model, but hers was certainly not the R32 so we are looking at no faster than 8.5.  Quarter mile in about 16.7 seconds in case you were wondering.  Of course, it is a well-engineered German automobile and so it handles pretty well and it's a stick, which was a nice touch.

The opponent in all this fun on the roads?  Another German car, a BMW no less.  Looked like a very late model 5-series, but missing the tell-tales of an M.  So it doesn't look faster or anything:

Of course it also doesn't drive faster.  Because that would make the chase academic wouldn't it.  The fact that the BMW does 0-60 in just about 5.3 seconds.  Even if the driver is a bit slow, let's give them 6.0 seconds.  That will still cover the quarter mile in just about 14 seconds.  So if the chase lasts more than a mile or two, she would have needed a rather large lead in order to get away from this puppy.  Given the greater mass of the BMW and its far superior handling, etc., the chase should have been over just about the time it began.

As I said, I was entertained, but I do get tired of the idiotic nature of so many car-chase/stunt/war scenes and find it irresistible on those rare occasions when the director or whoever controls this sort of thing gets it right.