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Cop Shows: A Critical History of Police Dramas on Television
From cops who are paragons of virtue, to cops who are as bad as the bad guys...from surly loners, to upbeat partners...from detectives who pursue painstaking investigation, to loose cannons who just want to kick down the door, the heroes and anti-heroes of TV police dramas are part of who we are. They enter our living rooms and tell us tall tales about the social contract that exists between the citizen and the police. Love them or loathe them--according to the ratings, we love them--they serve a function. They've entertained, informed and sometimes infuriated audiences for more than 60 years.
This book examines Dragnet, Highway Patrol, Naked City, The Untouchables, The F.B.I., Columbo, Hawaii Five-O, Kojak, Starsky & Hutch, Hill Street Blues, Cagney & Lacey, Miami Vice, Law & Order, Life on the Street, NYPD Blue, CSI, The Shield, The Wire, and Justified.
It's time to take another look at the "perps," the "vics" and the boys and girls in blue, and ask how their representation intersects with questions of class, gender, sexuality, and "race." What is their socio-cultural agenda? What is their relation to genre and televisuality? And why is it that when a TV cop gives a witness his card and says, "call me," that witness always ends up on a slab?
This book examines Dragnet, Highway Patrol, Naked City, The Untouchables, The F.B.I., Columbo, Hawaii Five-O, Kojak, Starsky & Hutch, Hill Street Blues, Cagney & Lacey, Miami Vice, Law & Order, Life on the Street, NYPD Blue, CSI, The Shield, The Wire, and Justified.
It's time to take another look at the "perps," the "vics" and the boys and girls in blue, and ask how their representation intersects with questions of class, gender, sexuality, and "race." What is their socio-cultural agenda? What is their relation to genre and televisuality? And why is it that when a TV cop gives a witness his card and says, "call me," that witness always ends up on a slab?
229 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 31, 2014
2 people are currently reading
14 people want to read
About the author
Roger Sabin
13 books2 followersRoger Sabin is a Professor of Popular Culture, and as well being a researcher, supervises PhD students. He also teaches across the BA and MA Culture, Criticism and Curation, and is based in the Culture and Enterprise Programme.
His writing includes books, essays and journalism (please see Research Profile), with other work involving broadcasting, consulting and curating for The Guardian, BBC and Tate Gallery. He serves on the boards of academic journals, and runs book lists for Palgrave Macmillan.
His interests and specialisms include comics studies, cultural studies, subcultural studies, cultural history and comedy studies, and he is currently researching the 19th century entertainment business.
His writing includes books, essays and journalism (please see Research Profile), with other work involving broadcasting, consulting and curating for The Guardian, BBC and Tate Gallery. He serves on the boards of academic journals, and runs book lists for Palgrave Macmillan.
His interests and specialisms include comics studies, cultural studies, subcultural studies, cultural history and comedy studies, and he is currently researching the 19th century entertainment business.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 29, 2015
Five academics from England and the U.S. write 20 highly-informed, pithy essays on the popular TV genre of “cop shows” over the past 50 years. As Sabin notes in his “Introduction” and as the essays demonstrate, with respect to such shows, the term genre does not mean generic. The cop shows over the past, post-War decades beginning with “Dragnet” through the recent “The Wire” and the current “Justified” reflect changes in American society over this time.
Introducing the essays, Sabin notes too that the cop shows uniquely reflect the “social contract” between the country’s citizens and other residents and law-enforcement and the legal system. This aspect of the shows is dealt with, but does not define or restrict the content of the essays or imply a dominating theme or perspective. For the articles necessarily varied in content considering the changes in American society including changing demographics, views toward authority, interests in different personalities and female characters, and curiosities about ways of life in cities and rural areas are as much essays on popular culture and cultural studies. In the course of the essays, one sees the low-key, quietly authoritative Sgt. Friday of “Dragnet” becomes replaced by the more individualistic characters of Kojak and Columbo, the feminist team Cagney and Lacey, the cool, atmospheric “Miami Vice,” and the more recent gritty urban dramas with ensemble casts including woman and ethnic characters. More than entertainment, in the elements of fetching, sometimes challenging characters, plots, locations, and such, the shows grappled with social interests of their day—which is the theme running through the diverse essays binding them together.
By academics followed by notes on “Recommended Episodes” and “Further Reading,” the essays are not light reading; though they are not arcane since their subject matter is so familiar, a part of American popular culture, absorbed into it. Who even though she may not have been born when he had his day is not familiar with “Dragnet” and Sgt. Friday at once conventional and inimitable?
END
Introducing the essays, Sabin notes too that the cop shows uniquely reflect the “social contract” between the country’s citizens and other residents and law-enforcement and the legal system. This aspect of the shows is dealt with, but does not define or restrict the content of the essays or imply a dominating theme or perspective. For the articles necessarily varied in content considering the changes in American society including changing demographics, views toward authority, interests in different personalities and female characters, and curiosities about ways of life in cities and rural areas are as much essays on popular culture and cultural studies. In the course of the essays, one sees the low-key, quietly authoritative Sgt. Friday of “Dragnet” becomes replaced by the more individualistic characters of Kojak and Columbo, the feminist team Cagney and Lacey, the cool, atmospheric “Miami Vice,” and the more recent gritty urban dramas with ensemble casts including woman and ethnic characters. More than entertainment, in the elements of fetching, sometimes challenging characters, plots, locations, and such, the shows grappled with social interests of their day—which is the theme running through the diverse essays binding them together.
By academics followed by notes on “Recommended Episodes” and “Further Reading,” the essays are not light reading; though they are not arcane since their subject matter is so familiar, a part of American popular culture, absorbed into it. Who even though she may not have been born when he had his day is not familiar with “Dragnet” and Sgt. Friday at once conventional and inimitable?
END
November 12, 2015
This is could be college ready for TV genres, cop shows so if you are looking for a light or entertaining read put this book down and move on to another. If however you enjoy reading "heavy" books proceed. This had a good mix of cop shows giving a good explanation of why they're included and what made them unique to their eras. A good mix of shows and I enjoyed the 'Recommended' that is included for those in the top spots.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews