Things I Learned From Watching Cop Shows

[mrissa]

1. If someone close to you is brutally murdered and you feel the urge to ask the police, “Do I need a lawyer?”, YOU NEED A LAWYER. Possibly even if they are gently murdered.

2. All people in the British Isles get their exercise by running very close to the edge of cliffs. Nobody in the UK or Ireland goes to the gym or runs on pavement or in a

Comments

[cakmpls]

#1 is valid no matter why the police want to talk to you. Seriously.

[mrissa]

It's very convenient for conversation of characters and speed of plotline that no one seems to know this. But also a bad precedent to set for people.

[ckd]

It's a great mindset to propagate...if you're the police (who investigate crimes) or a district attorney (who prosecute the offenders).

[cakmpls]

I agree. I want to scream at the TV sometimes.

[sartorias]

Number three cracked me up. (That is also the second most common reason I turn the channel, the first being serial killers.)

[zelda888]

Not limited to widows, either. Every time Inspector Morse and some witness/acquaintance-of-the-deceased start exchanging Looks, we turn to each other and chorus, "She did it!"

[mrissa]

Morse is one of my prime examples. He should use his powers of "being attracted to murderers" consciously.

[anef]

You have to understand that British coppers are very shy, and it is anathema for them to run in places where people might see them wearing lycra, and point and laugh. Hence deserted towpaths, underpasses or streets after midnight are also permissible running places. Their only other hobbies are drinking and listening to opera.

Incidentally, I think there is a different reason why Scandinavian detectives always hunt through deserted warehouses at night using only a torch. This is because Scandinavians are very ecologically conscious and do not want to waste electricity. There may even be a rule about not lighting warehouses at night. Of course it probably makes the working day very short at certain times of year.

[mrissa]

That's very ecologically considerate! Do they learn this in police training, do you think, or is it something they are each inspired in their hearts to do?

[asakiyume]

“My spouse died this morning, helloooooo Officer Friendly!” is one of the stages of grief that Kubler-Ross missed

I think you should write to her publisher and see if they can add that stage. I think it's crucial for understanding a normal progression through grief.

And No. 6. Yeah. That one bugs me tremendously. A moment of angst removes all barriers--now torture, intimidate, and menace freely. For Great Justice.

[laurel]

The absolute best bit of TV (or anything) IMHO on the subject of #1 is from "The Documentary" episode of Homicide: Life on the Street. It's from a documentary within the show (a photographer & filmmaker had been trailing the detectives and recording stuff). Writing of the episode is credited to Jim Yoshimura, Tom Fontana, and Eric Overmyer with Overmyer doing the teleplay, but IIRC some of the stuff in this scene is lifted from David Simon's Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets.

Anyway. I won't embed the video clip lest it muck up formatting here in your comments, but here's the scene on YouTube. (No worries re spoilers or anything, it's the detectives talking about one's right to remain silent, etc.) Features Andre Braugher, Kyle Secor, Clark Johnson, Reed Diamond, Richard Belzer, and Melissa Leo.

I should just revisit "The Documentary" since it's a New Year's episode. Or just because. Though this is one of the episodes I know pretty much by heart.

[mrissa]

That was interesting, thanks.

Knowing an episode by heart is no reason not to watch it. See, for example, "An Echolls Family Christmas."