Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

GaryTheCabalGuy t1_iuj6fk7 wrote

Anytime someone talks about cop shows feeding "copaganda", I wonder if they are actually watching said cop shows. I hear this said a lot about SVU, but anybody who actually watches SVU these days would know that in recent seasons the show has made a point to highlight police corruption. They do not paint cops as being perfect. They show some stories of cops being the hero of the story, and some of them being the villain.

11

Prax150 t1_iuj9kx7 wrote

Unfortunately the truth is more complicated than most people's individual feels and it's tough for a lowest-common denominator network procedural to realistically deal with that. I agree that SVU has been doing a decent job of it since 2020. All three L&Os are more nuanced than you would think. But they're also never going to fully lean into an ACAB stance because they're trying to appeal to the largest group of people possible. And that includes not only people who are pro-cop but also people who aren't but still want comfort food TV. And a lot of the time it feels like the stories where the cops are the "bad guys" in the episodes aren't exactly going full on in the other direction. And ultimately they are portraying "good cops."

5

GaryTheCabalGuy t1_iujb1qu wrote

>But they're also never going to fully lean into an ACAB stance

And they shouldn't fully lean into it. That would be no better than the cop propaganda these police procedurals used to be. It would just be the other extreme. The mixed bag approach of portraying both good and bad cops is better IMO.

8

General-Law-7338 t1_iuj9ny7 wrote

The only show I think is pure Copaganda is Blue Bloods. The others at least show shades of grey.

2

logicalnoise t1_iuje0r7 wrote

I feel The Rookie tends to be Cop positive but mainly in the "this is how it supposed to be" sense. Fillon gets to say a bunch of stuff about cop policies and why they exist, we often get an on screen reason and then the plot does dumb fun. Same show has Smitty who is the critique of every bad unable to be fired cop persona out there.

2

Try_Another_Please t1_iuk499x wrote

I've never seen a crime show that didn't heavily deal with corrupt cops or something of the sort

1