Scripted television is unimaginable without soothing formulaic and definitely satisfying police proceedings. But the genre has evolved with the medium, becoming grittier, more realistic, and more sophisticated. Just as some argue that all war movies are pro-war movies, critics argue that police shows inevitably glorify police officers and denigrate perpetrators. doing.
Let’s take a look at some important cop shows and how the genre has changed over the decades.
“Dragnet” (debuted in 1951)
“Dragnet,” based on the radio show by creator and star Jack Webb, was one of the most popular cop shows of all time, climbing to number two in ratings for “I Love Lucy.” .
“Dragnet” set a springy template for the genre. Each episode featured a new crime for the detective partners to solve. Extensive consultations with real-life Los Angeles police (who stably provided the real-life cases upon which the episodes are based) also introduced a trend critics have characterized as an overly respectful view of law enforcement. .
“Hill Street Blues” (1981)
According to the book “Cop Shows,” after “Dragnet,” popular cop shows like “Kojak,” “Colombo,” and “Cagney and Lacey” imbued crime solvers with additional personality. But it was “Hill Street Blues” that successfully portrayed the sour tone of the job and the tolls that a cop could cost.
Critical acclaim, including five Emmys for outstanding drama, has ensured its influence on the next generation of police procedures. Jonathan Nichols-Pesick, a professor of media studies at DePauw University, said, “The sequence of structures, the ensemble cast of characters, the willingness to go dark, and the character to some extent unlikable, is what defines ‘Dragnet’. was drawing a line,” he said. .
“NYPD Blue” (1993)
Along with “NYPD Blue,” which brought the profession’s R-rated language and themes to the screen, “Law & Order” and “Murder: Life on the Streets” helped pave the way for the prestige TV craze. Each show was brought to network television based on the show’s realism and sense of place with the help of “Hill Street Blues” alumni in the early 1990s.
‘Law & Order’ ran for 22 seasons and spawned over 8 spin-offs. Meanwhile, in “Homicide: Life on the Streets,” Verite used his style of camerawork to delve into race relations in Baltimore. Over the course of 12 seasons, NYPD Blue followed Detective Andy Sipowicz’s evolution into a more enlightened view of race.
The commitment to realism had many implications. Bill Clark, a former NYPD detective and producer of “NYPD Blue,” said melodramatic storylines don’t always reflect normal police practices.
“One of the things that always pissed me off about other cop shows was the interrogation room where the cops beat the crap out of guys,” he said.
“CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” (2000)
The innovation that CSI brought to the cop show was technology, and investigators used the latest forensic know-how to solve a difficult Las Vegas case. In other senses, however, ‘CSI’ was a throwback and relied heavily on procedural constructs dating back to ‘Dragnet’.
It worked. ‘CSI’ was a top 10 show in each of its first nine seasons, making it his number one highest. The result was three direct spin-offs as well as many more imitations.
Some people theorize that the show also created a “CSI effect.” This is the unrealistic expectation of a real juror for compelling forensic evidence.
“The Wire” (2002)
There has never been a crime show like “The Wire.”
Not only did it portray issues about the aims and methods of policing, but it also denounced fundamentally corrupt systems and initiatives like the War on Drugs.
The critically acclaimed show features former Baltimore homicide detective Ed Burns and former Baltimore Sun reporter who wrote for the series Homicide: Life on the Streets, based on his 1991 book. It was created for HBO by David Simon.
Crime novelist George Pelecanos, writing for “The Wire,” said Simon’s pitch was about cops and drug dealers, rather than “thinking about inner-city issues.” However, Pelekanos added: This was not a normal thing for bad guys to be tracked down and arrested. ”
“East New York” (2022)
“East New York,” which debuted on CBS on Sunday, follows the tradition of police procedurals. But its creators want to highlight an underappreciated aspect of policing, such as how police officers build relationships with their communities.
“Catching the bad guys was what cops did in the days of ‘Dragnet’ and is still being done,” said the creator of “East New York,” the creator of “Law & Order,” NYPD Blue’ veteran William Finkelstein said. “But how do they do it? And what is their relationship with the people they police?”