... did that sound bitter? That sounded a little bitter...
Anyways, NOSTALGIA GOGGLES
So, I watch a lot of television. In fact, that might be the most defining fact about myself. Being a TV fanatic for the last few years meant mostly charting out my night time schedule so that I could watch my shows and get all my homework done. It was not a simple task. I mean how am I supposed to do calc homework on Thursday nights when I had new episodes Big Bang Theory, Mentalist, Elementary, and Community to watch? More recently, however, I've begun to stop watching shows that are currently on television as much and focused by attention on the past: shows that have run their course or had been cut short in their prime. The switch between the old and new worlds of television programming has opened my eyes to some interesting parallels and curiosities of the medium I'm such a fan of. Time changes a lot of things but somethings can be set in stone much longer than you can ever believed possible.
Take cop shows for example. They are a stock television and movie genre that has endured through its "case of the week" formula, engaging premises, and flexibility within the genre that can make cop shows accessible to almost any audience demographic out there. Cop shows are breeding grounds for both incredibly deep, unique character and painfully cliche ones. They are shows where good triumphs over evil, but not too much that the suspense of the weekly case is ruined. Cop shows, both old and new, have gimmicks and hooks in the premises that draw the audience out of the old and expected COPS formula.
Here are a few of my favorites from both before and after I was born.
The Dark and Gritty
The Past: Homicide: Life on the Street
The Present: The Shield
Part of the allure of television is its ability to serve as a window into the lives that we as suburban homesteaders or thrifty city slickers will never get to experience. Some cop shows, in this vein, try to depict the life of a detective or uniformed officer is a gritty, off the cuff manner. Now, there are two ways that television shows have portrayed this. Take 1993's Homicide: Life on the Streets. Based off a popular non-fiction book about the life of NYPD detectives, Homicide features an impressive and varied cast of police officers that deal with the harsh underworld of New York crime in a realistic fashion. The show used a handheld camera style that made the view feel like they were part of the action, not separated by the fourth wall. Homicide went on to be the main influence for what many critics consider the quintessential American television show: The Wire. The Shield, a more modern TV show, took a different route on the gritty and realistic path. Like Homicide, The Shield showed the world of police officers in a brutal and unrelenting fashion. However, the show, like most modern dramas, kicked the intrigue and corruption up to eleven, casting most of their characters in the role of anti-hero instead of heroic. While this is still a fantastic way to represent the grittiness in cop fiction, the murky world of the officers in The Shield felt separate from the viewer, making it seem more like a feature film than a documentary. Good or bad, this style catapulted The Shield into a feverish immortality in the world of cop shows while Homicide, a marvel in its time, remains largely unnoticed by the current generation of television viewers.
The Comedy
The Past: Police Squad
The Present: Brooklyn Nine-Nine
What's the old phrase? When you can't make them cry, make 'em laugh? This is something that television has taken to heart over the years, taking serious subject matter and translating it into something to make the masses stitch their sides over. The genre of the cop show has not escaped this in the least bit. Luckily, the transition from dark drama to light-hearted comedy has had many successes in the past and in the present. From the minds behind the cult classic comedy Airplane came an 80s police comedy simply named Police Squad. Headed by the incredibly hilarious Leslie Nielsen, Police Squad parodied its gritty, realistic contemporaries from the top down. Each scene of every episode is full of jokes and gags that take multiple viewings to fully comprehend. The show only lasted a tragically short six episode seasons, but lived on in the Naked Gun series of films. Taking a look into modern cop comedy, we find the fledgling workplace comedy Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Starring many familiar faces, such as Andy Samberg, Andre Braugher, and Terry Crews, Brooklyn Nine-Nine stormed the award season, snagging many much coveted comedy awards. While lacking the heart that made shows like The Office and Parks and Rec such cultural icons, Brooklyn Nine-Nine is off to a stunningly good start with a consistent and confident first season. Samberg off-the-wall antic play perfectly off Braugher's stone-faced comic gold making a show that is both hilarious and genuinely lovable.
The Change of Location
The Past: Miami Vice
The Present: Justified
Most cop shows, including those listed above, are located in the busy, gritty cityscapes of New York, Chicago, or another major metropolis. This is simply because the setting is filled with ample opportunities for crime, corruption, and overall evil for the cops to combat. However, this is not the case for all the cop shows that have aired over the years. Miami Vice is an example that has tremendous success and has invaded pop culture in a tremendous way. The show takes the tradition buddy cop formula and places their duo in the neon-tinged beaches of South Beach instead of the back alleys of New York City. The change of scenery catapulted Miami Vice into the mainstream, creating one of the most pervasive and iconic cop shows of all time. Justified, a show I am quite fond of, took a similar track. The show takes the big city action and brings to the close knit communities of the Deep South. Timothy Olyphant plays his role as the main hero as more of a old west sheriff from a John Ford classic, in that his decisions and actions are the only thing that keep the small country towns from erupting into chaos and murder. It's a show that is instantly engaging and refuses to let go.
The Throwback
The Past: Columbo
The Present: The Good Guys
Everyone throughout all of time has had an obsession with the past. It is in our nature and nostalgia isn't something that we can just escape. The producers and writers of television are not different. Take the detective show Columbo for example. It aired in a time when, with Magnum and Rockford as contemporaries, the big personality detective was the hit thing. However, Columbo took a different route, turning the clock back to a time when the crime was the main feature instead of the cop solving it. The audience of Colombo were shown who committed the crime and how they did it in the opening scenes of every episode. All there was to do was sit back and watch Columbo find the murderer's fatal flaw in their plan. It's very entertaining television and has cemented a lifelong love for Peter Falk in me. A similar show to Colombo, The Good Guys was another quality show that fell victim to the low ratings killer. Only a season long, The Good Guys took the feel of a classic buddy cop show and applied to a comedy set in modern times, creating one of the most fresh and creative cop shows of the last five years. While starting on clumsy feet, the show grew in strength and confidence, playing to its strengths such as the strong chemistry between its cast and the out-of-order storytelling. It's a real example of the magic of television.
The Groundbreaker
The Past: Cagney & Lacey
The Present: True Detective
With how trophic and cliched the cop show genre can be, you an image how hard it can be to break out of the mold that has been set so many years in advance. However, as most of the shows on this list are proof of, sometimes a cop show can be truly groundbreaking and revolutionary. The fairly obvious example of this would Cagney and Lacey, the first cop procedural to have two female actors in the leading roles. Between this fist through the glass ceiling, the show was a killing police drama with a tight cast and memorable writing that has made the names of Cagney and Lacey so recognizable even to people who haven't seen the show. Similarly, the modern classic of a television show called True Detective has been making waves recently as a moody, atmospheric police drama that places the focus of the show squarely on the dynamic and complex characters of the two lead detectives. Although only eight episodes long, the first season of True Detective is so well thought out and executed (from the acting to the cinematography to the music choices) that it feels like a truly unique series. With a totally new cast and setting the next season, True Detective only has room to grow, expand, and become even more of a pop culture phenomenon. Jump on the train now guys.
Yeah... I watch too much TV...
Thanks for reading though guys! I hope this blog gave you the itch to watch some boys in blue bust some baddies. Say that ten times fast...
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