Television

I was recently taken aback by just how many cop shows there are, particularly detective shows. Surely if you've seen about 3 then you've seen them all.

When i see a lot of media in just one genre it tends to feel like they've just applied a new coat of paint to the same formula - never truer than cop shows, where it's like:

• What if the detective is a psychic?
• What if the detective is pretending to be psychic?
• What if the detective is a con artist?
• What if the detective is a psychic con artist?
• What if the detective is a pretending-to-be-psychic con artist?
• What if sherlock holmes had savant syndrome?
• What if Sherlock holmes was married to an asian lady?
• What if the detective is a cute single mom super genius?

Not to mention a lot of supernatural shows (e.g buffy) end up feeling like cop shows.

The Cop/Doctor/Lawyer show cycle just goes on and on. They’re known as “procedurals” and have been around forever. For some reason they’re very popular (NCIS has been on for 23 years!).

Every now and then you get an interesting riff like comedy (Car 54) or edgy (Miami Vice, NYPD Blue) or soapy (LA Law, Grays Anatomy). But usually they are just dry/drab (Dragnet and Dick Wolf).

Westerns went through the same kind of churn.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procedural_drama

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_procedural

People like the murder mystery genre, and enjoy media that lets them figure things out.

Some people use that to proliferate cop propaganda.

The strong story engine.

• The problem comes to the main characters. No messing about looking for trouble. They walk or wheel through the door right after the cold open, which has scope for wow right at the top with bangs and screams and much gushing of fluids.
• The answer is problem solving. Simple enough for a casual audience to keep up. They can try to solve it themselves.
• Stakes. This could mean death! Much wow tension.
• Stressors on main characters, creating conflict. And in the lower rent shows, sexy times.
• Clear and decisive resolution. Cured or corpsed.

Same sort of thing for police procedurals.

Fallout.

Definitely not Copaganda.

There was a statistic I saw a while back that compared conservative areas to liberal areas and while liberals are watching all manner of shows, conservatives are watching cop shows.

Like it would be Wednesday, doctor who, anime, yfmd, squid game, attorney woo, Firefly, star trek, stranger things, owl house, snl, daily show, Stargate, hacker, fallout gattaka, power rangers, Steven universe, adventure time, game of thrones, Chernobyl, the office, friends, parks and rec, community, key and Peele, house, buffy, and it's always sunny

Vs sports and a couple cop shows

Because we live in an authoritarian police state

On Prime? Fallout, Invincible, The Boys. Those are the big ones that I watch on there.

I guess super heroes could be considered cop adjacent. Even in The Boys, they're out to stop the "bag guys".

Jean-Claude Van Johnson was fun. But I guess secret agent is kind of cop adjacent too.

The Good Place is on there.

Good Omens is good. Does solving mysteries count as cop?

The first 8 seasons of Red vs Blue (I'm literally scrolling and calling out shows I recognize now)

https://jacobin.com/2022/07/copaganda-police-propaganda-public-relations-pr-communications

https://deadline.com/2008/08/why-is-lapd-trying-to-fix-a-hollywood-location-system-that-aint-broke-6725/

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/hollywood-police-a-deep-complicated-now-strained-relationship-1301211/

It's easy to write relatively compelling drama (life and death stakes), mystery (who did the thing) and excitement (chases and fights) for cop shows.

Same reason anime always involve a bureaucracy reminiscent of the Japanese school system.

It's familiar and easy to understand.

The bourgeoisie are noticing the tides shift. And are pumping out propaganda.

Besides propaganda, I don't know why exactly. Maybe it's a mixture of the detective mystery story plus that "might makes right" vibe as the detective usually doesn't "play by the rules" and he's a badass and Americans love that shit? Maybe the fantasy of having people with power also be moral and work for the greater good is just too appealing? A huge chunk of the world watches telenovelas the way that Western folk watch these shows, I think it says something about both groups, really.