History ArbitrarySkepticism / LiveActionTV

* Despite not being a [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampire]], Cassidy in ''Series/{{Preacher|2016}}'' doesn't take [=DeBlanc=] and Fiore seriously when they claim to be [[OurAngelsAreDifferent agents of Heaven]].

** Ben, who has seen his friend possessed into building war robots by an intelligent computer, been taken in a bigger-on-the-inside time machine back to 17[-[[superscript:th]]-]-century Cornwall, and battled cyborgs from Earth's identical twin planet, absolutely refuses to accept that the Doctor is still the Doctor after his first regeneration, suggesting, even though he saw him transform in front of his very eyes, that someone else snuck into the TARDIS, murdered the Doctor, and took his place. Of course, this isn't helped by the fact that the Doctor isn't quite sure that he's the Doctor yet either. Possibly {{justified}} as it was the first-ever regeneration on the show, and Ben's skepticism functions both as [[MetaGuy a channel for audience feelings about the change]] as well as his own feelings of betrayal by the First Doctor's death. The novelization of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E3ThePowerOfTheDaleks "The Power of the Daleks"]] also has the Doctor {{Lampshade}} it:

'''Daniel:''' Well, [[ContinuityNod there was the time]] he got [[PlotRelevantAgeUp really old]], the time he [[AllCavemenWereNeanderthals became a caveman]], the time [[FreakyFriday we all swapped bodies]]--

** [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS2E4IncaMummyGirl Inca Mummy Girl]]" when a classmate goes missing.

** [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS2E4IncaMummyGirl Inca Mummy Girl]]".

* On ''Rabbit Hole'', when John starts showing signs of thinking that his best friend Miles Valence [[FakingTheDead might be alive]] even though he apparently committed suicide, both his father Ben and Hailey just take this a sign that he is further losing his grip on reality. This is despite the fact that Ben [[spoiler:faked his own suicide when John was a child, which Hailey knows about, and that it was originally the plan for John's team to do this as well, before they were all killed.]]

* ArtisticLicense:

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' is pretty good about averting this. The Bajoran gods-'the Prophets'- are established in the first episode to actually exist, and their status as SufficientlyAdvancedAliens is enough that most people don't bother to argue whether or not they are really gods. Their EvilCounterpart the Pah-Wraiths are also shown to exist. Played straight with Weyoun, who worships the Founders as gods, but finds believing the Prophets to be gods to be absurd. Lampshaded by this exchange:

** In "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E13DevilsDue Devil's Due]]", the crew encounters an alien woman claiming to be the Devil of several cultures, including the Klingon devil and the one of the planet they are in, which according to legend made a deal with her 1000 years ago to give her control of the planet in exchange for 1000 years of peace and she has now come to collect. The crew theorizes she might be a member of the [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien Q continuum]] or even Q himself but they quickly come to the conclusion that the Q wouldn't be interested in economic forecasts (like she requested), that Q himself would never bother with contracts, and that the tricks she showed thus far could be easily done with contemporary technology, thus she must be a con artist.
** This feels especially jarring when you hear Picard and other members of Starfleet ramble on about how gods are myths and religion is primitive and foolish. This is after they've met beings like Q who are literal [[RealityWarper reality warpers]] that are more than capable of performing every single miracle described in the Bible with nothing more than a thought. While they may not be ''actual'' gods, it's very easy to see why a developing culture could come to see them as such.

* Despite the characters in ''Series/{{Alphas}}'' living in a world where people with super-powers of almost every kind are reasonably common... everyone, even the people with complete knowledge of TheMasquerade, seems to have trouble believing that [[spoiler:Stanton Parish]] is [[Really700YearsOld about 200 years old]], and are always making snarky comments about the unlikeliness of it.

* ''Series/{{Arrowverse}}'':
** In the ''Series/{{Supergirl|2015}}''[=/=]''Series/{{The Flash|2014}}'' crossover episode, Barry is amazed at seeing Kara fly, pointing out that ''he'''s supposed to be the impossible one. Thing is, he's already seen so many different metahumans with powers, including those that could fly (e.g. Firestorm), that his surprise seems a little strange. Kara herself finds it hard to believe Barry is from another dimension, commenting that him being from another planet like she is would make more sense.

** ''Series/{{Arrow}}'': In the ''Series/{{Elseworlds 2018}}'' crossover, we find out that Batman does exist in this 'verse (though he disappeared three years before the crossover), but Oliver insists that he's just a myth made up by Gotham PD to scare criminals. It's clear that he's just jealous that there was already a BadassNormal vigilante cleaning up a WretchedHive when he started.

* ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'', to a ridiculous extent at some points. Such as when they acted as though ''[[PingPongNaivete situations they had been in before]]'' were impossible.

* In the pilot webisode of ''Series/{{Danger 5}}'', the Colonel scoffs at the idea that Hitler has bulletproof BodyguardBabes. The Colonel himself is a man with an eagle's head, fighting UsefulNotes/WorldWarII in TheSixties.
* ''Series/DarkMatter'': {{Lampshaded}} by Three in "All the Time in the World" when the others don't believe he's stuck in a GroundhogDayLoop.

** This gets a CallBack in ''Series/{{The Librarians|2014}}'', when he's asked if Dracula is real. He says Dracula isn't real... because he killed him.

* ''Series/TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower'': Waldreg scoffs at Bronwyn’s warning that something bad is occurring in their region. He tells her he won’t believe her until she brings him a clear evidence that Tirharad's residents are in danger — which may well all be a bluff, as he later admits to Theo to being enthused by Sauron’s return.

* In ''Series/{{Merlin|2008}}'', Merlin will enter the throne room, and explain whatever weird thing is going on, at which point everyone will scoff and laugh at him. All of them. This goes on for 3 seasons, even though he is always, always, always right. This is in a universe where sorcerers, dragons, and ''unicorns'' are known to exist.

* {{Lampshaded}} in ''Series/PushingDaisies''. Ned states firmly that he doesn't believe in ghosts, witches or the like, saying "this may sound strange coming from a guy who can shoot sparks from his finger, but that's what I believe." This is reasonably {{justified| Trope}}, as Ned has never before encountered anything paranormal other than his own power. Plus, it's possible that having the ability to resurrect people is ''why'' Ned doesn't believe in ghosts, as no-one he brings back ever remembers doing anything beyond dying. As ''native'' inhabitants of a blindingly colorful and relentlessly quirky existence, all the characters in ''Pushing Daisies'' surely have suspension of disbelief on a different scale than the audience.

* ''[[Series/WonderWoman1975 Wonder Woman]]'': In "Fausta, the Nazi Wonder Woman", Colonel Kesselman played by Bo Brundin was involved in the planning of Operation Fraulein to capture Wonder Woman, watched the films of [[SuperStrength what she]] [[CurbStompBattle can do]], has ordered her to be strapped to a table with restraints large enough to immobilze several football players, and has been ordered to do all of this on Hitler's personal orders. Despite this, he still scoffs at the idea of a beautiful woman doing what she can do - so much that he throws her belt of strength and magic lasso back to her! [[HilarityEnsues It was a]] [[IdiotBall bad decision.]]
--> '''Colonel Kesselman:''' And you with your supposed magic tricks! The golden lasso! The magic belt! Nonsense! ''Throws them both away''
--> '''Wonder Woman:''' ''Catches the belt and lasso then proceeds to snap the bonds of the interrogation table, wipe the floor with all of the soldiers in the room, rip the phone out of the wall, escape, beat the stuffing out of a few more soldiers, steal a plane, and leave Germany.''

** Discussed in [[Recap/DoctorWho2014CSLastChristmas "Last Christmas"]]. The Doctor points out that it's going to be incredibly hard to differentiate between [[DreamLand what's a dream and what's reality]] because he travels in a spaceship disguised as a telephone kiosk, so reality is also ridiculous.

** Lampshaded in [[Recap/DoctorWho2010CSAChristmasCarol "A Christmas Carol"]], when one character says that the fish like singing (ItMakesSenseInContext), the Doctor denies this and starts rambling about vibrating ice crystals. The fish seem to dislike this, and they bite him.

** A Lampshade of sorts is hung on this with the introduction of Donna Noble in [[Recap/DoctorWho2006CSTheRunawayBride "The Runaway Bride"]]. She appears to have this, but she actually managed to miss all of the very public incidents involving aliens over the previous few years.