cop shows for people who don't like cop shows: 1/?

[pocochina]

Probably I should've counted tonight's post on The Wire as the first of these posts, but I didn't really think it through. STILL. TNT has (at least) three great cop shows for people who don't like cop shows. Or, at least, people (me) who do occasionally like cop shows but have certain serious concerns about the genre. Tonight's addressed concern

Comments

[percysowner]

oooooh, interesting. Is that something you think the show retained over time? It just sounds a little toothless as the critique it could be, given the way Brenda turned out - ie, someone who might or might not have had a useful field skill but clearly had no business running and setting an example for a team of people. (I do think that's something MC fixed, with Provenza getting snapped out of his own egotistical bullshit, and fairly quickly at that.)

This did not carry over in time. By the end of the first season, the male detectives, barring Taylor the African/American "comic" character (who was passed over so Brenda could take charge) had all come to accept that Brenda was JUST THAT GOOD and they took to her no holds barred, make them confess no matter what world view. Provenza started out with his male egotistical bullshit, but then he bought into Brenda's egotistical bullshit, so less sexist, but still bullshit.

The only time the gender politics really reared their head was when Brenda and Pope went head to head to become Chief of Police. On one hand Pope was the absolute definition of white, male entitlement. He was fairly clear that once Brenda knew he was going for the position, she should just step aside and let him take it. Delk, the African/American who won the job was never a consideration, like I said very much WHITE male privilege was on display. BUT Brenda was in no way, shape or form qualified to become Chief of Police. She wouldn't have been able to get confessions, she would have had to play politics. Not being able to prove herself the "smartest person in the room" to get confessions would have made her miserable. Playing politics was not only not her forte, but completely out of her skill set. Brenda Leigh was completely and totally unable to take any criticism whatsoever. She would have been a disaster as a Chief of Police. It was an act of total FAIL that Sharon Raydor came up with the idea that Brenda should be the female candidate for Chief of Police. Yes, the writing couched it in the idea that Sharon (who would have been superb in the job) couldn't get the appointment because her work in Internal Affairs made her a pariah to the department and for no reason I could see, she thought Brenda had the public face that make Brenda a credible candidate for the post. It was before the Shoot'n Newton case had become public and before Brenda's various machinations had come to light, but still.

I do give the show credit. They never changed Brenda to make her "likeable". She remained an self involved narcissist, who did appalling things. This is a rare thing to do with a female protagonist. But, as you note, it is just another show in a long line of shows that condones the gutting of our civil rights in the name of law enforcement.

I'll be interested to see what other police shows you like. I don't watch them very often, because so many are cowboy cops, as it were. Barney Miller comes to mind, but boy is that old, although one of the best law enforcement shows ever.

It's a shame, because the series really could've ended any other way and I think I'd have been able to tolerate it. You know? Having her work for the DA's office is this undeserved absolution for all of her illegal behavior.

I did hate the cop out that Brenda moves up because she is absolved of all her sins, but American TV has a hard time dealing with flawed protagonists. I wanted Brenda to find that she couldn't function with the new rules and use her mother's death as a face saving way to leave the department, not get a promotion. OTOH, IRL, people in power, like policemen do get away with slaps on the wrist and move up because examining their actions means examining the system that permits those actions. Every once in a while, someone steps far enough out of line that they can't be covered and they get exposed and the system shakes up a little, but often things do get covered up. Moving Brenda to a position where she can't continue to inflict the damage to civil rights, but where the department doesn't have to account for continuing to PERMIT her to inflict that damage for seven years in more realistic than I like.

[pocochina]

The only time the gender politics really reared their head was when Brenda and Pope went head to head to become Chief of Police. On one hand Pope was the absolute definition of white, male entitlement. He was fairly clear that once Brenda knew he was going for the position, she should just step aside and let him take it. Delk, the African/American who won the job was never a consideration, like I said very much WHITE male privilege was on display.

Yeah, I think one could argue that it caught something real there? In that women - even women with some standout talent or another - are never taught leadership skills, or encouraged to develop the confidence that can help with credibility. So then the pool of women with authority tools shrinks to natural leaders like Sharon, at least some of whom will then be penalized for their own competence. But the show did the WORST POSSIBLE thing about that, in showing us someone who was terrible for the position, and then telling us that she deserved it because OBVIOUSLY EVERYONE BOWS BEFORE HER UNQUESTIONED SKILL - it buoys up the "exceptional woman" paradigm where men can be mediocre-good but women have to be the BEST EVER in order to get recognition, and implicitly buys into all "qualified men getting passed over for Political Correctness" by telling us Brenda should be put forward because she's a woman even though Pope was more suited to administration (largely because of his male privilege).

They never changed Brenda to make her "likeable". She remained an self involved narcissist, who did appalling things. This is a rare thing to do with a female protagonist.

I know! I wanted to like it SO BADLY.

Moving Brenda to a position where she can't continue to inflict the damage to civil rights, but where the department doesn't have to account for continuing to PERMIT her to inflict that damage for seven years in more realistic than I like.

Well, that, and the DA's office are the ones who have been cleaning up her messes for years now. They're the ones with the most reason to understand her unprofessionalism for what it is. And instead they sign up to be her safety net, and take on liability for whatever wacky shit she gets up to next? It just looked to me like "yet another Brenda critic gets in line!" except this time the critic in question was the state of California.