Thursday, July 17, 2014


What is it about the crime genre?

I am really into a variety of shows on Netflix, primarily the BBC show Luther, and the french television show Spiral


These shows are extremely well written, complex story lines, morally complex so the storytelling aspects are obviously attractive; exciting and just so darn addictive! The evil contemporary and eventual friend of Luther in the show of the same name, Alice, has to be seen to be believed. She is truly despicable but soooooo amazing.  



 But what about the flip side, the horrific images, (although Luther and Spiral I would argue do not gratuitously show violence or sexual abuse) and the themes of real human cruelty.  Perhaps one of the most popular genres on Television is the Police drama so what is it?  Okay it is a lot of things, the writing and brilliant characters such I mentioned above; but what else do you think is going on?  




Are there particular shows that compel you, or that you learn from, keep thinking about?  There are still two episodes on Law and Order that I ponder and feel truly influenced my own belief system.  Media Research suggests that themes in crime drama  play a significant role in public perceptions and preferences about the role and the nature of policing in society ( so it seems we should ask ourselves why are there certain themes repeatedly explored (i.e. corruption, repeated killing of women)?   Are these themes exploitive, part of our social discourse on issues that worry us, or actually reflective of what is going on? What do you think is the appeal? It is obvious that the police drama has changed drastically since dragnet, imagine DCI Jane Tennison of Prime Suspect hanging out with those straight laced guys?  So maybe a better question is really why are we watching these shows today, what might they reveal about complex social issues of the day?  


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