Meta: the paradox(?) of crime-fighting shows

[rodlox]

Today, I came across a series description for a tv show that I follow and tend to enjoy...but today's description made me stop and think {and from there, my brain roped in comparisons with other shows}

Disclaimer: I have not yet seen the s2 pilot of Alphas.

Comments

[fae_boleyn]

I'd say there's a definite connection. It reminds me a little of the Civil War arc in Marvel Comics (one of the few comics I've read since my friend let me borrow it). One of the catalysts to the awful mess that became was the idea that superheroes, since no one knew their real identities, couldn't be held accountable. The police, like in the L&O shows, can't really run off half-cocked even if they want to. I'm an SVU girl and they all came close a few times, until the point when Detective Lake, a single-season main character, actually did haul off and kill someone who got away with a crime. And, last we saw him he was being arrested for murder. Police are tied to the government, they have rules they must follow and people to answer to, so there's only so far they can go.

Secret groups, meanwhile, get around that by the nature of their secrecy. Sometimes that's great, because the lack of red tape can make them more efficient - another superhero example is Daredevil, and how he would take down criminals who were able to manipulate the legal system. But it definitely raises a risk for abuse, which is why, as you say, it's so surprising to see characters continue to act like vigilantes when they're known to the general population.

Someone like Dresden, I think, is a case of extenuating circumstances and conflict of interest - he actually is accountable to the High Council, which means he can't be entirely accountable to the cops, even though they know who he is. But again, it's a case of accountability, and who owes it to whom. Anita Blake has some of that as well; she is a federal agent by book eleven in the series, and works with the cops from book one, but she also has to work within the rules of the supernatural communities she's tied to. One of the underlying themes (when the porn doesn't overtake the plot) is that issue of balancing the two.