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Has anyone tried to produce a compendium of cop shows and discuss their degree of copaganda-ness? After George Floyd’s death a lot of shows made efforts to be (or appear) more balanced (e.g. The Rookie’s changes were very obvious, and supposedly even Dick Wolf’s #copaganda factory made changes) but I’m wondering especially about the shows that seem to have been better before BLM, e.g.
- Hill Street Blues
- Homicide: Life on the Streets
- The Wire, et al
- The Closer, et al
- The Shield
The less copaganda-ish shows I gravitate towards tend to have a lot of features in common:
- the work is treated as unglamorous and often routine
- minor misconduct is common and tolerated
- major characters are sometimes incompetent and/or corrupt
- cops and their bosses often care more about closing than solving cases
- politics affects investigations
- police forces are rife with current and past prejudice
- petty rivalries handicap good work
- crimes are often stupid and petty
It’s easy to identify shows that are the opposite of these in virtually every way. Basically, just look at the highest rated cop shows.
- space age offices, gorgeous cops
- cops *might* agonize over one minor misdeed
- the cops are renowned experts
- truth and justice are all important
- political overseers are stared down by heroic leaders
- past prejudice is regrettable but we’re all good now
- minor rivalries are brushed aside for the common good
- the worst crimes
This doesn’t mean that the latter kind of show can’t be good and entertaining. I for one absolutely love The Silence of the Lambs, but it fits pretty squarely on the copaganda side.
It’s pretty revealing that, after getting super famous and learning a lot more about the FBI, Thomas Harris’s Hannibal is much more on the non-copaganda side.
Anyway, all of this is to say that after trying to watch some pretty mediocre Finnish cop shows it’s a relief to rewatch #TheCloser.