And the third season of The Wire just finished a few weeks back (screening midnights Tuesday on TV2). For me that one's near the top of the stack, and, ahem, what I've seen of the fourth season is good too.

Speaking of The Wire, why the hell do they screen it so late at night? It's easily the best police procedural on television, so you'd expect it to get a better slot.

BTW, Gary, you forgot "The Shield" - which is the only police drama I'm watching ATM.

The Wire is a very large cut above most of the others noted in the parent post, which are basically crime-porn (but crime-porn that is doing very well for TV3). But I assume programmers look at it and assume "ooh ... a bit hard to get into if you've never seen it before ..."

You see, it is shows about public service which are what people want to watch.

Why are there so many shows about doctors and nurses (ER, Grey's Guts, Chicago Hope, etc), political operatives (The West Wing, Commander'n'Cheaf), naughty firemen... the list goes on.

Funny comedies about lawyers might also count as associated with the US justice system, but perhaps that is not what you are getting at.

So what is it about public service that makes for such voluminous scheduling? Perhaps it is hard to write interestingly about the internal workings of a tax accountancy firm.

In good news, I have heard that the prevalence of forensic science shows on TV has ensured that there a glut of students willing to learn their periodic tables coming through the schools.

Agreed about The Wire: possibly the best show about crime the US has produced this Century.

RB: Crime porn? Interesting term - guess that makes me a crime pervert? Which was kind of what I was getting at - I love this stuff, yet it doesn't make me feel wonderful about myself that what I love is seeing crimes played out and then solved in minute detail. Maybe it is simply the banal knowledge that good will prevail by the end of the hour.

Incidentally, I _would_ count shows essentially about lawyers - so, the _Practice_, _Boston Legal_ and the like - in the same category: they're all about part of the criminal justice system, after all, just a different angle. The phonomenon that Conor points to does make me wonder whether there will also be a whole lot more people wanting to be lawyers, cops, and the like now.

I also find Conor's argument that it's shows about people serving the public more broadly (doctors, teachers, politicians, etc) that dominate the airwaves - some kind of celebration of public service.

I like it instinctively, though let's not kid ourselves that there will be lots of shows about, say, tax inspectors or people who dish out the dole or, God forbid, who-knows-what-the-Hell-they-do bureaucrats. We might like people who do obvious good stuff for the public; but a broader affirmation of the good of the state? Not so much.

I can see it now: "Wonks", in which a band of heroic Wellington policy analysts... analyse policy. While drinking that good Wellington coffee. Lots of sweeping shots of Parliament (even though they all work in anonymous office buildings in Molesworth St and on the Terrace), and of people walking meaningfully down corridors (even though NZ buildings aren't really big on corridors; we prefer open plan), and of the protagonists yelling at one another across a desk. Problems will be solved by the end of the episode and come from across the entire sphere of government, even though things are handled by seperate ministries. Antagonists will include Treasury, who don't solve problems, only apply their free market ideological blinkers (and are better paid for it), and a mysterious caped supervillan (with cat) known only as "the perkbuster".

Maybe if it was done as a variant of "survivor"...?

I can see it now: "Wonks", in which a band of heroic Wellington policy analysts... analyse policy.

Brilliant!

This reminds me of when I was an IT pleb working for a sharebroking firm in the 80s & 90s (I started in the first week of October 1987, things sure got interesting quickly).

But a british show about a sharebroking/money market type company came on air, all sexy money market dealers & financial analysts. And one unsexy IT guy who kept shouting "I've got it! I'll do a core memory dump!" and stuff like that.

And I realised that the chances of a show focussing on sexy computer operaters & programmers was still a long way away.

Still, I expect to see one some time before a show about policy analysts.

:)

It's funny how you describe _House_.

From a writing perspective _House_ is exactly the same (_exactly the same_) as a whodunnit. In fact the reason House is called House is becuase he's like Holmes (get it?)

Hadyn - as much as I enjoy House, I would add to your comment that from a writing perspective it is exactly the same every episode, full stop. The formula goes something along the lines of:

1/ One difficult case that presents early in the episode, generates at least 3 mis-diagnoses, requires multiple tests and re-tests, leads to at least one near-death crisis, and then is resolved through a masterful intervention (usually by the title character) with 8 minutes of the episode to spare.

2/ One or two simple cases that provide the opportunity for humour on House's part.

3/ One or two revelations re: the private lives of House and/or his assistants.

4/ One or two opportunities for House to be an a**hole (but he's our a**hole, so it's okay).

But like I said, I still watch it and enjoy it. I knows what I likes, and I likes what I knows.

dc_red: Absolutely! I think it might be the same reason we love skit shows (like Little Britain). Once you've seen the skit once you know what's going to happen (he's the only gay in the village) but you love it every time.

Sure, you can mix it up a little (House has to save someone he mis-diagnosed, One of the other doctors is the hero, House has to save himself) but basically you don't leave a winning formula.

I wouldn't rush to mock 'Wonks' - the first three seasons of 'The West Wing' had genuinely gripping episodes devoted to census methodologies and estate tax repeal.

Wasn't Gliding On about Wonks?

I thought we...I mean they were called AGENDAs? (Another Government Employee Not Doing Anything) Still I suppose there is already a show called Agenda.

You see, it is shows about public service which are what people want to watch.

Not so sure, Conor. In the end, I think it's much more visceral: In dice, tidy 44 minute packages the inexplicable, complex and mysterious -- death, pain, justice - becomes a tidy moral universe where the good end well, the bad get what's coming to them and things make sense. They're morality plays in a universe where we're not quite as cynical and ironic as we like to pretend.

I would add to your comment that from a writing perspective it is exactly the same every episode

Same with CSI - we check our watches to gauge whether they've got whodunnit yet, any earlier than 10 minutes before the end and it's a red herring.

I would put Numb3rs and a show not currently playing, Bones, in a slightly different category from the 'usual' crime shows - they're about the interaction between academic specialists and the FBI, and thus have a different take on things. The format of the episodes is often the same, but it seems to me that they're a lot less 'crime porny', in terms of gore. Then again, the second season of Bones seems to be turning into CSI:Museum, so I'm probably speaking too soon.

Not so sure, Conor. In the end, I think it's much more visceral: In dice, tidy 44 minute packages the inexplicable, complex and mysterious -- death, pain, justice - becomes a tidy moral universe where the good end well, the bad get what's coming to them and things make sense. They're morality plays in a universe where we're not quite as cynical and ironic as we like to pretend.

I think that's exactly right - it's nice to pretend that justice is always served and the bad guys always go to jail, rather than having to look at the reality of our imperfect justice system (here and in America).

Why exclude British TV? Or, hell, why limit it to crime shows at all? It seems to me like there are multiple different categories represented here - procedural drama and dead body particularly, and action-adventure. Dead body is more crime-gore (CSI, NCIS, House); they're also intensely mystery focused - solving the crime and catching the person responsible. And they're popular for the same reason mystery and crime novels have always been popular; prurient interest in gore and the attraction of the whodunnit. (I like these kinds of shows myself, mind you.) Procedural drama is more involved with the characters and is about convicting the bad guy - er, sorta. It seems to involve either Beating the Evil System to Get Justice, or Upholding the Righteous System to get Justice. And action adventure involves crime because we're already fascinated with it or because, well, action heroes usually break a lot of laws anyway. ;) Prison Break is one of those.

They're funny things to lump together because CSI and Prison Break are dramatically different shows but Prison Break might not have been made before CSI popularised "the crime drama". Even more than they're morality plays they're fueled by a fascination with crime and violence that isn't limited to crime dramas; while the impetus to see the bad guy get his is definitely there, the prurient curiosity is just as strong - maybe more so, hence Criminal Minds and all the rest that purport to explain how the criminal mind works.

If you want some decent crime drama - don't go past the British one - 55 Degrees North on Tv1 at 5 to 11 Tuesday nights.

I know it's good cos Tv1 always put anything non formulaic on when most people are asleep.

I know it's good cos Tv1 always put anything non formulaic on when most people are asleep

Isn't it weird? But they can be relied upon. I've never personally met a TV programmer, but its hard to escape an unflattering opinion of the people drawn to the profession.

Nice work, Gary. Now could you add up how many hours of "reality" TV we could watch each week? I'd do it myself but I'm too busy putting the finishing touches to my proposal for a new fly-on-the-wall series called.....

...sorry. I just spent 5 minutes trying to think of the most ridiculous, stultifying "reality" show possible but they've already been done for 'real'. Cheers Julie Christie.