"There are eight million stories in the naked city. This is one of them."


I recently wrote up an idea I called the Film Of The Week. Unfortunately, I didn't find myself ready to write about about any of the films I saw last week. Not that I didn't have anything to say. I just couldn't muster the energy and words. So instead of painting myself into a corner with the movie of the week idea, I've decided to write whatever the hell I want. Maybe there will be movies of the week, and maybe not. How many people will actually read this anyway?

So let's talk about a neverending film and television template: the police procedural. While at one time the police procedural was fresh and gritty, a no-holds barred look at the truth of crime and criminal investigation, it is now a trite and tired concept that has been beaten into the ground. I won't say it's dead, because when done right, the police procedural can be a great story framework. The Wire, for example, used the police procedural framework to tell the story of urban life, of infrastructural collapse, of what it is to be impoverished, of ambitious politicians, and the tragedy of how chance and personal choice are friendly bedmates. The Wire was a show that required an investment of time and a reliance on the writers, that they were going to take you somewhere you'd never been before, or perhaps had been to often. It was the story of the human condition, as a is most great literature, posing as a cops-n-robbers story. Then take Law & Order, a show that is the same as breakfast on the go: it fills you up for a short while, but is ultimately forgettable. It hardly resonates beyond the credits. My favorite part of Law & Order is that unforgettable theme song. Oh, and Jerry Orbach. Probably the thing I hate most about it, and most other television-not just police procedurals, is its tidiness. This is what other people love about it, its tidiness. It follows the same beats time and time again: murder, investigation, a twist or two, arrest, courtroom, a twist or two, verdict, feeling of justice fulfilled or justice deferred, pseudo-social/moral message, Dick Wolf. This is what people want from Law & Order, little thinking, in and out in an hour flat, vicarious living.

And so the police procedural has followed in line with Law & Order. Like a travelling musician it has birthed many children, whether it knows it or not: Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, CSI, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, NCIS, Numbers, NYPD Blue, Bones. And so these bastard children, no matter how seemingly different, bare resemblance to one another. There were shows prior to Law & Order that propelled the police procedural into the omnipresent genre it is today. Shows like Hill Street Blues and Miami Vice were considered fresh and different television. Steven Bochco and Michael Mann were bringing a realism to television not commonly seen: things were not always black and white and they were often dangerous, and sometimes men where pink shirts and white blazers with their sleeves rolled up. Then came Homicide: Life on the Street, a show that, in its first season, threatened to shake the viewing public out of their comfort zone. These cops smoked and were miserable, and where Miami Vice was slick and colorful and fast, Homicide was slow and brown and concerned with the how of criminal investigation, not the why. (That's another thing that gets to me: why is everyone concerned with the "why" of the crime? Investigation is driven by "how" and evidence. Everything can't be a Sherlock Holmes or Agatha Christie mystery. More stories that end tidily.) But, as the seasons of Homicide came and went the show grew tepid, conforming to network standards that would lead to better ratings. And so it just proves that we are the lifeblood of television, us and the bogus Nielsen ratings. We're to blame for the glut of these Law & Order doppelgangers. We turn it on and we turn it off. And especially now, in this The Age Of Interconnectivity, we can reach producers and directors immediately. They may listen if there's a profit margin at the end of the message.

Now that I've rambled on for too long, I'll get back to the task at hand. To review, the police procedural has had some good manifestations, but due to its overwhelming popularity has spawned a myriad of bastard children. The police procedural is on my mind because I recently watched The Naked City, the original police procedural. I was surprised at how well it held up after so many years and after having seen so many movies and television shows about cops and the legal system. It was smarter than most shows cop shows today, it actually deserves the moniker 'gritty'. It has a twisty, seedy plot filled with unsavory characters. And Barry Fitzgerald as the no-nonesense, Irish investigator. How did he not get a franchise?

I don't know exactly what all this rambling is about. I suppose just to air out some ideas.