The Sternberg Report: Binge Viewing

There are several top-notch original streaming series featuring spies, whether they be current or former CIA operatives, British MI-5 agents, or members of other international organizations. Some are action-packed from start to finish, while others are more deliberately paced. Here are six that are among the most bingeworthy. There are some spoilers ahead, but I tried not to give away too much.

Hanna (Prime Video 2019-2021)

Based on the 2011 film of the same name, the first season introduces us to 15-year-old Hanna (Esme Creed-Miles), who has been raised in the Romanian forest by her ex-spy “father” (Joel Kinnaman). He trained her to be a hunter and killer, as well as an expert in hand-to-hand combat. Hanna was part of a secret government experiment to create genetically superior female assassins. He rescued her when she was a baby and they went into hiding (after the CIA killed her mother). Now discovered, they must evade the relentless pursuit of off-the-book CIA agents led by Marissa Wiegler (played by Mirielle Enos, who teamed with Kinnaman in AMC’s The Killing).

The second season revs up the stakes and emotional content as Hanna and her one-time pursuer, Marissa, now an apparent ally, try to free Hanna’s new friend Clara (Yasmin Monet Prince) from the secret and secluded boarding school known as The Meadows. The school is designed to train elite assassins by molding young girls into amoral killing machines. They develop undercover identities in preparation to become sleeper agents around the world, blending into society until they are activated and ordered to kill their targets. Mirielle Enos shines in the role of Hanna’s former adversary and new mother figure and protector, as she plays a complex cat and mouse game with her former employers.

In the third and final season, Hanna and Marissa continue their efforts to bring down The Meadows, while at the same time trying to protect the many targets of the female assassins, who are now in the field all over the world. These targets are all under 30, some as young as 13, whom the CIA has determined are potential “subversives” and pose a future threat. Ray Liotta joins season 3 (in one of his last roles) as the boss in charge of The Meadows, known only as The Chairman.

The action is constant and thrilling during the six-episode final season (the previous two seasons each had eight episodes), as seconds and picking up on the smallest, seemingly insignificant details, separate escape and disaster. A single sideways glance, alerts the viewer that they sense danger and are about to either spring into action or go into hiding. As they use their wits, situational awareness, and a trove of other talents to out-maneuver and out-fight numerous teams of agents with orders to kill, Creed-Miles and Enos give performances that elevate this beyond what could have been just another cliched action series. Season 3 was reportedly the final season, but the ending sets the stage for more if they ever decide to continue the series.

Jack Ryan (Prime Video 2018- )

John Krasinski is the fifth actor to portray Jack Ryan, a CIA analyst first introduced in a series of best-selling Tom Clancy novels in the 1980s. This is the character’s first incarnation for television, and the best since Harrison Ford starred in the popular feature films, Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger. It covers his early years in the CIA, as he’s just starting to make a name for himself (updated to take place in present day).

The first season sees Jack being pulled from his financial analyst desk job into the field with his boss, James Greer (Wendell Pierce) to investigate Islamic extremists and go after a terrorist mastermind. Jack is the only one to notice suspicious monetary transactions, and persuades his skeptical bosses that this requires further investigation. We quickly discover that despite no field experience, Jack can take care of himself just fine (he fights off a hired killer), as they race to prevent a chemical attack in the U.S. and an assassination attempt on the President.

The second season takes Jack to Venezuela, where he goes against company orders to help topple the corrupt President and his thugs, free political prisoners held in a secret jungle compound, and uncover a global conspiracy. He is once again teamed with James Greer, as well as CIA station chief Mike November (Michael Kelly), as the three of them go rogue to bring down the bad guys despite being ordered by their higher-ups to leave the country after the U.S. embassy is evacuated.

Season 3 finds Jack investigating a plot to recreate the former Soviet Union by detonating a nuclear explosion in a former Soviet country and blaming the West. Once again, Jack defies his superiors’ orders to stand down, and once again he takes down the evildoers, aided by James Greer and Mike November (now a private “consultant”).

Part of the character’s appeal is that Jack Ryan is no Jason Bourne-type super spy. He’s a regular guy (although smarter than most) who works in an office. As a former marine he can defend himself if he needs to, but he wins the day more with his head than his fists. A buffed John Krasinski, a long way from his The Office days, always looks like he’s observing, thinking, and evaluating every situation in real time. Jack Ryan’s unwavering confidence that his analysis is correct and worth risking everyone’s lives, despite skepticism from his bosses and colleagues, provides the catalyst for his rogue actions that invariably end up saving the day.

The fourth and final season has already been filmed – so there won’t be a three-year wait as there was between season’s two and three.

The Old Man (FX, Hulu 2022- )

Spy thriller based on the 2017 Thomas Perry novel of the same name. Jeff Bridges is spot on as Dan Chase, a highly trained former black ops CIA operative who has been living off the grid for 30 years. When he kills an intruder who breaks into his home, he goes on the run and into hiding – “they found me” he tells his daughter Emily (who is living under a secret identity for her own protection). Harold Harper (the always great John Lithgow), FBI Assistant Director for Counter-Intelligence, with whom Chase has a complicated past, is assigned to track him down and bring him in. He is assisted by his protégé, Angela Adams (Alia Shawkat), who has a secret connection to Chase – the details of their relationship unfold over the first few episodes.

Dan Chase was a feared and brutal CIA assassin working to undermine the Soviet Union in Afghanistan during the 1980s. (Bill Heck, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Bridges, plays a young Dan Chase in flashbacks). He was like a ghost, never seen by the enemies he eventually slaughtered. His nickname was “the beast who eats everything.”

He winds up crossing an Afghan warlord Faraz Hamzad (Pej Vahdat) he had been working with, and escapes to the U.S., where he takes an assumed name and disappears, building a life with his wife and young daughter. Years later, Faraz (Navid Negahban), now powerful, feared, and virtually untouchable, seeks revenge on Chase.

The current older version of Dan Chase might be a bit rusty, but he has not lost any of his survival instincts or fighting skills, which are on full display in several intense, well-choreographed combat sequences. He also has two Rottweilers, who spring into action whenever their master is attacked.

When the government discovers where he is Harper sends a hitman, Julian Carson (Gbanga Akinnagbe),to kill him. Chase manages to escape and goes into hiding. He rents a room from lonely divorcee, Zoe (Amy Brenneman). But this puts her in danger, so she is forced to accompany him when he has to go on the run again. The highly trained Carson continues to pursue Chase, which put him and Zoe in even greater jeopardy.

What otherwise might have been a generic spy thriller is elevated to something much more exciting by the stellar cast. Jeff Bridges’ age (and acting chops) makes his tortured, flawed, and seemingly gentle (but brutally efficient) anti-hero a compelling character. John Lithgow has perfected an air of tension and menace, which are on full display here. And the emotional depth of his conflict – should he help Chase or kill him – will keep you guessing.

Alia Shawkat manages to hold her own with the two award-winning veterans, as FBI agent Angela Adams. While Harper has been her mentor at the FBI, she also has a deep connection to Chase, of which Harper is not initially aware. The always good Amy Brenneman brings a world-weary, attitude to the role of Zoe, not sure whether to help Chase or run as far away from him as possible.

The series is genuinely thrilling and thoroughly entertaining. Bridges is just as believable in his more gentle, weary (and wary) everyday demeanor as when he is fighting off younger assassins sent to kill him. It’s been renewed for a second season.

The Recruit (Netflix 2022- )

This fun political spy thriller stars Owen Hendricks (Noah Centineo) as a fledgling CIA lawyer who gets thrust into dangerous political and international waters when Max (Laura Haddock), a former agency Russian asset threatens to expose secret information unless she is exonerated. She had been abandoned by CIA higher-ups and is now in prison. As Owen negotiates with Max, he finds himself in peril from within and without his organization – everyone has their own agenda and it’s nearly impossible to know who to trust, even among his CIA colleagues. When the CIA decides to re-insert Max as an asset, the chaos and danger escalate dramatically.

Owen might be in over his head when it comes to field operations and knowing agency protocols, but he is a brilliant lawyer, whose smarts (and bravado) get him out of one precarious situation after another (until it doesn’t). He and Max, who is his intellectual match but can also be unpredictable and brutally violent, form an uneasy alliance. Twists and turns ensue.

The series seamlessly shifts from workplace comedy to tension-filled drama. The Recruit dropped in December 2022. My wife and I were scrolling through Netflix’s original series (the streamer still has by far the best user interface), and came across this gem – which I had never heard of. Netflix has a tendency to debut excellent series with virtually no promotion, which wind up becoming word-of-mouth hits. It’s been renewed for a second season.

Slow Horses (Apple TV+ 2022- )

Based on Mick Herron’s 2010 novel of the same name. British MI-5 agents who screw up, are exiled to Slough House, a decrepit London building that serves as an administrative purgatory, where drudgery and paperwork are the tasks of the day. Known derisively as “slow horses,” these outcasts report to the notorious Jackson Lamb (played with relish by Gary Oldman). Seemingly past his prime, slovenly, borderline alcoholic, and contemptuous of those he is forced to oversee, Lamb’s acerbic and obnoxious demeanor belie the keen mind of a legendary intelligence officer (still respected by the higher-ups at MI-5). As the opening song, Strange Game (by Mick Jagger) goes, “Surrounded by losers, misfits and boozers…”

The motley crew of agents who were deposited at Slough House because of embarrassing failures or just bad luck are a surprisingly talented bunch (when properly motivated), and somehow keep being pulled into investigations of major threats to Britain.

In season 1, when MI-5’s Deputy Director-General Diana Taverner (Kristen Scott Thomas) tries to blame Slough House for a failed MI5 false-flag operation that results in potential disaster, the slow horses spring (or trot) into action in an effort to uncover the truth and save a hostage (and themselves) in the process – all the while trying to stay one step ahead of elite MI5 operatives determined to stop them and blame them for the mission’s failure.

Season 2 may be even better than the first season, as they no longer needed to spend time introducing us to all the characters and the dynamics of Slough House (each season is just six episodes). We get right down to business here. When former field agent Richard Bough (Phil Davis) recognizes a man who tortured him during the Cold War, he follows him to a bus, where he dies of an apparent heart attack. Jackson Lamb finds Bough’s hidden phone under his seat with the single word message, “cicada,” on the screen, and gets his team to investigate. Cicada is a theory that Russian sleeper agents have been embedded in British society, which MI-5 had previously dismissed as a hoax.

The agents are in considerably more danger as one of their own dies suspiciously and they investigate and go all out to find the killers, and at the same time discover the Russians’ plans and race to stop them before they set off a chemical attack on the streets of London.

Part taut conspiracy thriller, part workplace comedy, the sharp writing and Gary Oldman’s terrific performance make Slow Horses a winner. It’s been renewed through a fourth season.

Tehran (Apple TV+ 2020- )

Israeli spy thriller about a young Mossad agent, Tamar Rabinyan (Niv Sultan) on her first field mission in Iran’s capital. She was born in Iran, but moved to Israel when she was a child. She’s an expert computer hacker, whose undercover mission is to infiltrate Tehran under a false identity and help disable a nuclear reactor before it goes online. The plan is to neutralize Iranian air defenses so that the Israeli Air Force can bomb a nuclear plant to prevent Iran from developing an atomic bomb.

Through the first two seasons, virtually every episode is fraught with tension and anxiety as Tamar is exposed, goes into hiding, and is hunted by Faraz Kamali (Shaun Toub), lead investigator of Iran’s feared Revolutionary Guard.

Tamar’s season 2 mission is to assassinate the newly promoted head of the Revolutionary Guard. Glenn Close joined the cast in season 2 as one of Tamar’s key allies. When the Mossad calls off the mission after an initial failure, they decide to proceed anyway, with tragic results – leaving Tamar trapped in Iran with no one to trust.

This is one of those rare series that attempts to show the humanity of both sides – and also the ruthless disregard for the collateral damage to innocent life in the pursuit of what each side sees as its righteous cause. No one on either side is safe. The series is captivating, intense, and exhilarating.

The show received an award for best drama series at the 2021 International Emmy Awards. It’s been renewed for a third season, with Hugh Laurie set to join the cast..

Posted at 09:50 AM in Binge Viewing, Streaming, Television, TV Programming | Permalink | Comments (0)

Netflix Isn't Back (It Never Left) 11/22

By any normal metric, Netflix has enjoyed continuous and unparalleled growth and success since House of Cards became the first major streaming hit in 2013. The streamer has gained subscribers every year and has consistently had the most popular streaming shows on any platform – even during two years of pandemic-related program production delays, and with several major new players entering the arena.

But Netflix is not evaluated by the “normal” metrics used by traditional media companies. Rather than being judged on how well they are actually doing, the industry plays the ridiculous expectations game. If in a single three-month period (quarter) Netflix does not do quite as well as it predicted, it’s considered disastrous (and its stock price will plunge) – regardless of how well the company is actually performing. While this is how the equities market works, it is an illusion and delusion fed into by too many media reporters.

Linear networks are treated by the media industry and the press in almost a completely opposite, but equally irrational way. A broadcast network’s viewership can decline by 10% or more in a season, but if it happens to have higher ratings than four other declining networks, headlines abound about how well that network is performing. More illusions and delusions.

In the past three years, Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, and Paramount+ were joined by powerful new competitors. Disney+ and Apple TV+ debuted in November 2019, followed by HBO Max (Warner Bros. Discovery) in May 2020 and Peacock (Comcast) in July 2020. In 2022, according to a study by Hub Entertainment Research, 50% of TV consumers subscribe to three or more streaming services among Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, HBO Max, and Disney+ (compared to 28% in 2020). The average number of TV sources used has risen from 3 in 2018 to 7.4 in 2022 (this includes live TV, traditional pay TV, SVOD, and free streaming services).

With deep-pocketed companies such Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, Comcast, and Apple, bursting onto the streaming scene and producing a significant number of high-quality and popular programming, combined with rising inflation and several streaming price hikes, the fact that Netflix lost less than 1% of its subscribers and continues to dominate any list of the most viewed streaming series, is a remarkable accomplishment and a sign of ongoing strength.

Instead, because it happened to lose a marginal number of subscribers during two quarters over the past 10 years, headlines shouted about how much trouble Netflix (and streaming in general) was in, and its stock price plunged. Only on Wall Street is doing as well or poorly as you predicted more important than actually doing well. And the press by and large follows suit. In reality, the steaming business in general, and Netflix in particular, never waned and remains stronger than ever. In the most recent quarter, Netflix gained over 2 million subscribers and issued a positive outlook for the next quarter. Headlines proclaimed, “Netflix is back.” In reality, it never left. Six months after the company’s stock suffered a sharp decline, it has again soared – partly because it beat lowered expectations and partly because an industry financial analyst or two, changed their stance on the company from irrationally bearish to bullish. It never should have declined in the first place. Imagine what would happen if a broadcast or cable network, in today’s splintered viewing environment, only lost 1% of their audience in a given year (much less the past 10 years)? Their executives would be dancing in the streets.

Part of the problem might be the designation of Netflix as part of the group of tech stocks, known as FAANG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google). While Netflix may have been a technology company when the term was coined in 2013, it has long since transitioned to a more traditional media entertainment company (it is now in more than 75 million U.S. homes). Of all Netflix’s streaming competitors, only Apple is considered a tech company, and producing and distributing scripted TV series and movies is not its core business.

Netflix recently announced that beginning with the fourth-quarter earnings report, it will no longer be providing predictions of subscriber growth, focusing instead on revenue. Halleluiah!

Most television viewers (unless they invest in the company) care little about whether a steaming service grew revenue by 10% over last year while the “market” expected it to grow by 20%. Nor do they necessarily care if a streamer lost 1% of its subscriber base when pundits were expecting a 1% gain. What they do care about is what is available for them to watch or binge, and whether they can do it on their own schedule. And in that regard, this is truly a new golden age of television, at least for those who can afford to subscribe to multiple streaming services.

A number of pundits and TV critics have lately been justly touting Apple TV+, HBO Max, and Disney+ for their high-quality original content. And there is no question that all three have been extraordinarily successful in developing scripted series over the past two years. A lot of folks seem to think that they are on the verge of surpassing Netflix in the original content arena. But while they have all been impressive, Netflix still leads the way, and it’s not really that close (although recency bias might indicate otherwise). This, of course, has much to do with the several year head start Netflix had in spending billions of dollars per year on new programming. It continues to spend more than any other streaming service, although virtually all of them have upped their spending significantly over the past year or two, and will continue to do so.

While Netflix does not have the huge library of a Disney, Warner Bros., Paramount, or NBC Universal, it does have many high-profile acquired series. And just as with the streamer’s original content, its acquired shows also top the list of most watched series. For the full year 2021, the top dozen most viewed acquired series on streaming services were all on Netflix – Criminal Minds, CoComelon, Grey’s Anatomy, NCIS, Heartland, Manifest, Supernatural, Schitt’s Creek, Gilmore Girls, New Girl, Shameless, and The Blacklist.

Another sign of Netflix’s strength is its ability to turn less successful shows from linear networks or other streaming platforms into hits – Lucifer, which originally aired three seasons on Fox, has become one of Netflix’s most viewed series (seasons 4-6), CBS’s Evil became a hit when Netflix picked it up when it needed programming during the pandemic (so CBS shifted it to its own streamer, Paramount+, where it is thriving), and NBC’s Manifest, did quite well after Netflix picked it up. Longmire, which moved to Netflix after being canceled by A&E, You, which came over from Lifetime, and Cobra Kai which moved here from YouTube, became three of Netflix’s most watched original series. It just picked up the comedy Girls5Eva (after two seasons on Peacock), which will probably now become the success it deserves to be.

Netflix has spent a massive amount of money producing a massive amount of movies. While many are instantly forgettable, many others are excellent with high-profile stars, and more than a few have been nominated for Oscars. Several of Netflix’s original movies are included in the chart below.

Netflix has also become one of the top streamers of anime, with well over 100 series – some are original to Netflix, but many others come from buying up the international distribution rights to existing series and movies.

Here’s a look at Netflix’s subscriber growth and notable original scripted programming by year since 2013 (not including acquired shows, documentaries, stand-up comedy specials, reality, or anime).

Netflix Yearly Subscriber Growth and New Original Scripted Programming

Year (Q3)	Subscribers (millions)	Notable New Netflix Original Scripted Program Premieres
2013	38.01	House of Cards, Hemlock Grove, Orange is the New Black
2014	50.65 (+33%)	Marco Polo, Peaky Blinders, Bojack Horseman,
2015	66.02 (+30%)	Bloodline, Daredevil, Sense8, Narcos, Jessica Jones, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Grace & Frankie, Master of None, Longmire, F Is for Family, Beasts of No Nation

Netflix Yearly Subscriber Growth and New Original Scripted Programming

Year (Q3)	Subscribers (millions)	Notable New Netflix Original Scripted Program Premieres
2016	83.28 (+26%)	Love, Flaked, Luke Cage, The OA, The Ranch, Lady Dynamite, Easy, Haters Back Off, Marseille, Stranger Things, The Crown, Black Mirror, Fuller House, Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life
2017	104.02 (+25%)	A Series of Unfortunate Events, Iron Fist, 13 Reasons Why, Free Rein, Greenhouse Academy, Alexa & Kate, Ozark, Mindhunter, The Punisher, Santa Clarita Diet, Dear White People, GLOW, Friends From College, Anne with an E, Atypical, Disjointed, She’s Gotta Have It, Godless, Dark, Suburra: One Day At A Time, Blood on Rome, Big Mouth, Castlevania, The Defenders, Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later, The Incredible Jessica James, Mudbound, Okja, The Babysitter
2018	130.42 (+25%)	Altered Carbon, Lost in Space, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, On My Block, Travelers, The Kominsky Method, Narcos: Mexico, Disenchantment, The Protector, Insatiable, Elite, Paradise PD, Maniac, The Haunting of Hill House, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Nappily Ever After, Like Father, Roma, Bird Box, Dumplin’, Lionheart
2019	158.33 (+21%)	After Life, Special, Bonding, Mr. Iglesias, Black Summer, The Order, Another Life, The Politician, Designated Survivor, Family Reunion, Raising Dion, Money Heist, The Umbrella Academy, Virgin River, The Witcher, Sex Education, Russian Doll, Dead to Me, Lucifer, You, Love, Death & Robots, When They See Us, The I-Land, Unbelievable, Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City, Triple Frontier, I Am Mother, The Highwaymen, El Camino, The Laundromat, Dolemite Is My Name, The Irishman, Marriage Story, American Son, The Guilty, 6 Underground, The Two Popes

Netflix Yearly Subscriber Growth and New Original Scripted Programming

Year (Q3)	Subscribers (millions)	Notable New Netflix Original Scripted Program Premieres
2020	195.15 (+23%)	Locke & Key, Young Wallander, Gentefied, Space Force, The Baby-Sitter’s Club, Giri/Haji, Outer Banks, Sweet Magnolias, Blood & Water, Warrior Nun, Ratched, Bridgerton, Never Have I Ever, Emily in Paris, Barbarians, Ragnarok, Selena: The Series, How to Ruin Christmas, The Stranger, Self Made, Unorthodox, The Eddy, The Haunting of Bly Manor, The Queen’s Gambit, The English Game, Hollywood, Spenser Confidential, Extraction, Da 5 Bloods, The Forty-Year-Old Version, The Old Guard, The Boys in the Band, The Trial of the Chicago 7, Hillbilly Elegy, Enola Holmes, The Devil All the Time, Mank, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
2021	213.56 (+9%)	The Chair, , Fate: The Winx Saga, Firefly Lane, Ginny & Georgia, Shadow & Bone, Sweet Tooth, Sex/Life, The Upshaws, Lupin, Squid Game, Cobra Kai, Behind Her Eyes, Halston, Brand New Cherry Flavor, Clickbait, King of Boys: The Return of the King, Midnight Mass, Maid, Colin in Black & White, True Story, Stay Close, Passing, Malcolm & Marie, Pieces of a Woman, The White Tiger, Concrete Cowboy, Army of the Dead, The Mitchell’s vs. The Machines, The Harder They Fall, The Fear Street Trilogy, Red Notice, Tick, Tick…Boom!, The Power of the Dog, Don’t Look Up, The Lost Daughter
2022	223.09 (+4%)	Vikings: Valhalla, The Lincoln Lawyer, The Sandman, Partner Track, The Imperfects, Heartbreak High, All of Us Are Dead, The Midnight Club, Manifest, Uncoupled, The Sandman, The Watcher, Blockbuster, Wednesday, Human Resources, Inventing Anna, Anatomy of a Scandal, Anatomy of a Scandal, Blood Sisters, Boo, Bitch, Keep Breathing, Echoes, Lost Ollie, Devil in Ohio, From Scratch, Dahmer, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, A Media Homecoming, The Gray Man, Lou, Blonde, The Adam Project
Programs still airing originals in bold, animation in blue, miniseries in green, feature films in red

Source: Subscribers (Q3 of each year) – Statista; Programming – The Sternberg Report

Netflix is about to do something it had shied away from, namely have a lower-priced tier that includes advertising. Starting November 3^rd, “Basic with Ads,” will cost $6.99 per month, three dollars less than its regular Basic tier (which allows one stream as well as episode/movie downloads to a single phone or tablet, and will reportedly contain 4-5 minutes of advertising per hour. Netflix’s most popular tier is its Standard plan, for $15.99 per month, which allows two streams and downloads to two phones or tablets (and is in HD). Its Premium plan costs $19.99 per month, allows for four streams and downloads, and has 4K capability. Due to licensing issues, there will initially be an unspecified number of TV shows and movies unavailable in the Basic with Ads plan (reportedly 5-10% of its content).

Netflix has made a deal with Nielsen for audience measurement, which will be provided to advertisers. Given how Netflix in the past has said that Nielsen’s streaming measurement is way off and under-reports Netflix viewing, it will be interesting to see how this works – particularly if Netflix’s internal numbers are substantially higher than what Nielsen reports (which is virtually certain to be the case).

An upcoming issue of The Sternberg Report will focus on Ad-Supported Video on Demand (AVOD) and related measurement issues. There’s little doubt, however, that this will only serve to make Netflix even more successful going forward.

Posted at 09:34 AM in Binge Viewing, Streaming, Television, TV Programming | Permalink | Comments (0)

09/27/2022

Cop Shows - The Reckoning That Never Came

More than 70 years of police portrayals on popular scripted dramas have contributed to public perception of police as the heroic good guys putting their lives on the line every day to keep us all safe. Doing whatever it takes to catch the bad guys, even if it means roughing up suspects and violating their rights, is forgivable, and often necessary, to achieve the greater good of protecting the public and bringing criminals to justice.

After George Floyd’s murder by police, captured on video for the world to see, networks and producers for the first time seemed willing (and financially motivated) to make changes in how they portray police procedure, racism, and other systemic inequities. Whether anything in these TV shows has actually changed since then remains debatable. The new broadcast TV season just began, so it will be interesting to see if there are sea or token changes in how policing is portrayed.

While it’s all well and good to hire cultural and diversity consultants to advise producers and writers on how to more responsibly portray law enforcement, the one thing that will have the greatest impact is actually having more diversity in writers’ rooms (and among showrunners) – which, of course, means more than just one lower-level person of color at the table. And not just for shows with Black leads or predominantly Black casts.

In 2017, the non-profit civil rights advocacy organization Color of Change released a major study titled, Race in the Writers’ Room: How Hollywood Whitewashes the Stories That Shape America. The report looked at 234 broadcast, cable, and streaming scripted series from the 2016-17 season. Significant findings included: 91% of television showrunners were white and writers’ rooms were more than 86% white; Black writers comprised just 4.8% of the writing staffs; two-thirds of the dramas and comedies examined had no Black writers; less than 10% of the shows had showrunners of color; most of the series employing Black writers had Black showrunners (and those series had at least five Black writers at the table), while more than 69% of writers’ rooms led by white showrunners had no Black writers.

In 2020, the same group issued another study titled, Normalizing Injustice. For three weeks in 2017-18, graduate students at the USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center’s Media Impact Project analyzed 353 episodes across 26 different “crime-related scripted TV series.” This included both linear and streaming shows – from shows such as Netflix’s Narcos, to Prime Video’s Goliath, to CBS’s Blue Bloods and NBC’s Chicago P.D. Among other things, they tried to quantify portrayals of “wrongful actions” by members of law enforcement, the so-called “good guys.” Among the 18 series where they found discernable trends, there was an average of eight wrongful acts committed by law enforcement professionals to every one wrongful act by a “bad guy.” The report also found that 17 of the 26 series studied had police, F.B.I., or military personnel as consultants.

The study also found that 84% of writers for the 19 crime series on broadcast TV during the 2018-19 season were white. Five series had entirely white writers’ rooms (The Blacklist, Law & Order: SVU, Blindspot, NCIS, and Blue Bloods). Five other series had 90% or more white writers (Bull, Criminal Minds, NCIS: Los Angeles, Chicago P.D., and Brooklyn Nine Nine). All of the series (except for CBS’s S.W.A.T.) had 15% or fewer Black writers, while nine (47%) had none. The networks have promised to improve these numbers.

The report also found that a large majority of police officers in TV crime dramas were white while a large majority of criminals were people of color. They also pointed out something that I never thought about before – the casting of Black actors as judges to legitimize a racist system (in the guise of inclusion), while “voiceless” Black actors are cast as criminals. While the judge thing is probably not intentional, and may just be seen as an easy way to add diversity to an episode, it is something to seriously consider.

CBS, which airs to most procedural crime dramas, has reportedly committed at least 25% of its script development budget to creators and producers who are Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC). The network has also set a goal that its writers’ rooms will be at least 40% BIPOC in the 2021-22 season, and at least 50% for 2022-23. This could theoretically cause major changes in how race is portrayed on screen. Whether or not these goals have been met is unclear.

And to be sure, there have been some noticeable changes to several series. Some are actually trying to address these issues in more than just a special episode where there’s some racist event or a racist cop where everything is resolved by episode’s end. ABC’s The Rookie, for example, has incorporated multi-episode plotlines dealing with racism on the police force, the profiling of minorities, and over-policing of Black communities. It should also be noted that aside from its star (Nathan Fillion) the main cast members are largely people of color. And the writers’ room is one of the more diverse, with almost half being non-white.

CBS shows, S.W.A.T. and The Equalizer, both with Black leads (Shemar Moore and Queen Latifah, respectively), have examined issues surrounding racism and policing in minority neighborhoods. S.W.A.T. has also had several episodes dealing with corrupt cops, racist cops, LGBTQ+ rights, and the relationship between police and the Black community.

It also dealt with a group of white supremacist cops, and how other white cops find some of their opinions “reasonable” sounding (even though they themselves aren’t perceived as racist). The Equalizer has had a number of episodes focusing on race and racial profiling, including Asian hate crimes (one of the main cast members is Asian, and she had input into the storyline).

CBS’s FBI, and NBC’s Chicago P.D. have also had several episodes dealing with racial profiling – although showing the impact on minority members of the main unit, rather than on the general public.

These are just a few of the 20 hours of police procedural dramas on the broadcast networks during the 2022-23 season. We can probably assume that the new CBS show, East New York, with its Black female lead (Amanda Warren), will have some focus on these issues as well.

But while there have been positive moves toward incremental change, the basic formula for most cop shows has remained substantially the same – even as some issues concerning race and police procedure take center stage.

And most law-enforcement shows still do no-knock warrants, which writer’s probably see as the best way to heighten the dramatic effect – I cringe every time I see a dozen or so cops on Chicago P.D., FBI, or S.W.A.T. knock down doors with guns drawn, yelling at everyone inside to not move or get down. Before Breonna Taylor, this wouldn’t have stood out to me at all. Somehow, cops on TV shows never break down the wrong doors or shoot anyone in these situations by “accident.”

That said, here is a brief history of police shows on television to see where we’ve been and where we might be going.

Over the years, there have been some common themes to most cop shows – the look and feel of these shows have evolved over time, but many of the rules of the road are essentially the same.

Here are the six basic tenets of law enforcement shows on television:

Cops are typically honest, heroic, and good

From the earliest days of television this has been a basic tenet of virtually all cop series. During the 1950s and 1960s, several of these shows (most notably, Dragnet, Highway Patrol, Adam--12, and The F.B.I.) had the cooperation of local law enforcement agencies, which often included script approval. So they exclusively showed the police perspective.

Societal upheavals in the late 1960s to mid-1970s resulted in some TV police dramas shifting their focus to generational differences. We started seeing younger cops who looked different from their older colleagues (and had differing perspectives) in shows like The Mod Squad and The Rookies. We also saw irreverent shows satirizing law enforcement, such as Get Smart. Several of these shows were populated by more women and people of color. But even if different generations of cops didn’t understand one another, they were still all good guys.

In the 1980s (Hill Street Blues, Miami Vice), 1990s (NYPD Blue, Homicide: Life on the Street), cop shows became grittier and more graphic, and we saw that some cops could be corrupt. But those were (and still are) usually presented as a few bad apples who eventually get their comeuppance. The main characters, whose exploits we follow week after week, were more heroic than ever.

When cable started airing original scripted series, we started to see more police misconduct. This began more or less in 2002 with FX’s The Shield (2002-08) and HBO’s The Wire (2002-08), which debuted a few months apart. But these types of shows are relatively rare, particularly on broadcast television. Other series that feature corrupt cops include, Low Winter Son (AMC, 2013), True Detective (HBO 2014-19), Shades of Blue (NBC, 2016-18), Training Day (CBS, 2017), City on a Hill (Showtime, 2019- ), and We Own This City (HBO, 2022).

Violent crime is on the rise, but most crimes are solved

Despite the fact that violent crime declined by 71% between 1993 and 2018 (according to the U.S. Department of Justice), a 2016 Vox-Morning Consult survey showed that roughly two-thirds of Americans thought violent crime was getting worse. While newscasts certainly contributed to this, so did the increasing number of police series that show violent crimes in every episode, leading many to believe there are daily murders and rampant crime in big cities such as New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago (the most common locales for police dramas).

During the 2021-22 television season, there more than 20 crime-based TV shows just on the broadcast networks, with several others on cable, and streaming services. Police procedurals, which usually have crimes solved by the end of the hour, provide an unrealistic view of not only the crime rate, but on the effectiveness and relative quickness of solving each case. FBI statistics for 2019 show that police nationwide cleared 45.5% of reported violent crimes and only 17.2% of property crimes. On television shows, it’s more like 95%.

Crossing the line is OK to catch the bad guys

The city (or country, or world) is only safe because of righteous avengers who are willing to do things no one else is willing or able to do. These are typified by Andy Sipowicz (NYPD Blue), Elliot Stabler (Law & Order: SVU and Organized Crime), Jack Bauer (24), Vic Mackey (The Shield), Danny Reagan (Blue Bloods), Matt Wozniak (Shades of Blue), and Hank Voight (Chicago P.D.).

Roughing up suspects is acceptable if it helps bring the bad guys to justice. Other cops stand by and do nothing – even those who are opposed to what is happening, because they know the world is safer due to the few who are willing to take morally ambiguous action. You can’t worry about constitutional or civil rights when time is running out to prevent innocent civilians from being hurt. Actions that might ordinarily be seen as deplorable are forgiven and justified when committed by popular characters who on television almost always mistreat suspects who are eventually shown to be guilty anyway. They seldom “interrogate” the innocent.

There have been some recent attempts to make it seem as if police departments on TV are instituting policies against doing anything that crosses the line, such as roughing up suspects to get them to talk. But these are generally presented as being misguided efforts from bureaucrats that invariably interfere with or prevent catching the bad guys.

Writers seem to have settled on the common refrain, “We don’t do that anymore.” In one recent episode of Chicago, P.D., for example, as Hank Voight is about to hit a suspect, one of his subordinates stops him and says, “We don’t do that anymore.” Hank glares at her for a few seconds before backing off. If only that would happen in real life. Likewise, in Law & Order: Organized Crime, when Elliot Stabler is about to beat up a suspect, Olivia Benson says, “We don’t do it this way anymore” – not because they think it’s actually wrong, but because “everything is being looked at through a different prism now.”

In Blue Bloods, when Danny is about to rough up a suspect, his female partner says, “We don’t do that anymore” (it’s usually a female cop who stops a male cop from crossing the line). We are also starting to see a cop who is about to assault a suspect being told by his partner to calm down because there are cameras everywhere and everyone has a smartphone – in other words, don’t cross the line, not because it’s wrong, but because people might record you and you could lose your job.

Chicago P.D., recently had an episode where the new police chief, who is determined to do things by the book and stop violating suspects’ rights, does not allow detectives to enter a property to catch a dangerous psychopath who had kidnapped her son. Even though they are reasonably sure where he was hiding, she insists on continuing to investigate until they have enough probable cause for a search warrant. As a result of the delay, her son is tortured and killed. The clear message of the show was that it’s fine to institute new policies to prevent cops from breaking the rules, but those who make these policies are naïve, and endangering the public by no longer permitting cops to do whatever it takes to catch the really bad guys. After they discover her son’s body, she tells Voight to do whatever it takes to catch the killer (she realizes he was right all along, and progressive policies that look good on paper can be dangerous in practice).

Racism exists but is not systemic

There might be some individual racist cops, but they are rare and easily recognizable – and usually have links to white supremacist groups. Shows like Chicago P.D., The Rookie, FBI, and S.W.A.T.(the only police series on network TV with a Black showrunner and Black lead star), recently started having multi-episode storylines that deal with racism on the police force in ways never before seen on broadcast television. Most of these plots, however, focus on racism as seen through the eyes of Black police officers – this does provide for interesting perspectives but hardly addresses the impact of police brutality and racial profiling on the daily life of regular citizens. In most cases, the surrounding white cops seem oblivious to the issue until a Black colleague loses his or her cool.

Of course, it is still typically presented as just a few bad apples. Police brass is usually shown as being unaware that racism is a widespread problem in the department and not knowing how to deal with it. It’s up to the Black cops to educate their colleagues and superiors, often at great personal and professional risk. The white members of his unit, ordinarily presented as clever and observant, are invariably naïve on the subject of racial bias, but are virtually never actually racist themselves.

Law & Order: SVU had an episode where our hero, Olivia Benson, questions whether she unconsciously racially profiled a suspect. The main cops on TV shows never seem to consciously racially profile anyone – and by the end of the episode tend to learn their lesson.

Cops are mentored and well trained

Cops and FBI agents are taught the right way to do their jobs by veterans, mentors, or instructors. The whole theme of The Rookie, for example, is that every rookie cop is assigned a training officer who teaches them proper procedure and how to deal with suspects and potential crimes. Until they pass muster, they can’t be promoted. Quantico had a full season devoted to showing how well trained FBI agents are. The good cops, (i.e., most cops), even rookies, can stand up to the few crooked or racist cops and eventually succeed in getting them removed from the force (or at least disciplined).

The evidence is color blind

FBI series or those featuring other law enforcement agencies (such as NCIS or CSI) seldom address racial inequities. They simply follow the evidence. The evidence never lies and virtually always leads to capturing the bad guys or getting them to confess. Race has nothing to do with it. Social context is irrelevant. They seldom jump to conclusions as to where the evidence leads based on the color of someone’s skin. Most of the time, they show law enforcement rising above and fighting against racism and bias demonstrated by the general public.

In recent times, virtually all of these types of series, Criminal Minds, the various NCISs and FBIs, The Blacklist, Blindspot, Quantico, etc., feature diverse casts who are relentless in tracking down suspects, and have seemingly unlimited resources at their disposal. The bulk of the criminals in these shows range from serial killers (who are almost always white men), to white supremacists, to crazy white women, to foreign bad actors. If anyone in the main squad or precinct shows any racial insensitivity, it’s most often presented as simply a lack of understanding, and they are set straight by the appropriate minority member of their group. Of these shows, only the original FBI has consistently tackled the topic of racial bias within and without their ranks.

Here’s a look at how cop and crime shows have evolved (and not evolved) over time.

1950s/60s:

It’s Black and White: Cops are the Noble and True (and white)

On law-enforcement shows that started airing in the 1950s, cops and FBI agents were generally older white men or clean-cut younger white men who looked up to their older white male mentors. The names of these shows were simple and descriptive – Man Against Crime (1949-54), Martin Kane, Private Eye (1949-54), Treasury Men in Action (1950-55), Dragnet (1951-59), The Lineup (1954-60), Highway Patrol (1955-59), Naked City (1958-63), 77 Sunset Strip (1958-64). Shows that debuted in the early 1960s, such as The Untouchables (1959-63), The Saint (1962-69), The Fugitive (1963-67), and The F.B.I. (1965-74) were a bit more violent, but largely followed the 1950s model. Even the comedy, The Andy Griffith Show (1960-68) fit into this general mold.

Cops were honest and good, and almost never broke the rules. Both the cops and the criminals were typically white men. If the show continued to air into the early 1960s, you’d occasionally see a Black officer, detective, or secretary, and more minority criminals. If FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover’s name was mentioned, it was virtually always with reverence.

From the beginning, many crime shows built relationships with local police departments. Dragnet’s Jack Webb, who played upright “just the facts, ma’am” detective Joe Friday, submitted the show’s scripts to the LAPD’s Public Information Division and omitted anything they didn’t approve. The F.B.I. vetted every detail of the original TV series, The F.B.I., which included background checks to make sure no “criminals, subversives, or Communists” were associated with the show. The closing credits for Adam-12, stated, “Technical advice for the filming of Adam-12 was approved by the board of Police Commissioners and came from the office of … Los Angeles Police Department.”

1960s / Early 1970s

The Times They Are a Changin’ (but the cops are still noble and true)

As the country experienced the turmoil led by the Civil Rights movement, the Vietnam War, and the resulting generational rifts, the networks seemed uncertain as to how they should present crime and punishment. Cops, F.B.I. agents, and detectives were still mostly clean-cut white men, but you would occasionally see clean-cut Black officers or assistants/secretaries. Cops were still universally good and heroic, and almost always played by the rules, using their cleverness to outwit and catch the bad guys. J. Edgar Hoover was still seen as the epitome of righteous law enforcement.

The differing, mostly generational, public perceptions during the late 1960s and early 1970s is epitomized by the fact that Adam 12 (1968-75), which was as clean-cut and by-the-book as you can get, premiered the same year counterculture series, The Mod Squad (1968-73). The latter is about young undercover cops, revolutionary not just for casting a woman and a Black man in leading roles, but for also trying to address the generation gap and social issues of the time. It was actually advertised as “One black, one white, one blonde.” The Mod Squad was the first broadcast network police drama with a woman in a leading role. Anne Francis actually predated Mod Squad by a few years, starring in Honey West (1965-66), as a female private eye. The half-hour series ran for just one season.

A few other cop/detective shows debuting in the late 1960s / early 1970s, most notably Ironside (1967-75), Mannix (1967-75), and The Rookies (1972-76), also had central (although not leading) Black cast members. And, of course, Hawaii Five-0 (1968-80) had people of color in its cast. Mannix’s loyal secretary Peggy (Gail Fischer) was one of the first regular series roles for a Black woman.

For the first time in the mid-60s there were shows that satirized law enforcement – Car 54, Where Are You? (1961-63), Get Smart (1965-70), and Batman (1966-68). There were also several action spy series clearly influenced by the success of 1960s James Bond films, Dr. No, From Russia With Love, and Goldfinger. These included, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (1964-68), I Spy (1965-68), which was the first American TV drama to feature a Black actor (Bill Cosby) in a lead role, and Mission Impossible (1966-73), which also had a regular Black cast member.

In the late 1960s and 1970s, the only thing that changed about how the police treated suspects, was now they had to inform them of their Miranda rights (due to the 1966 Supreme Court decision). They would often read suspects their rights from a preprinted card. You would sometimes see suspects having to be released because they weren’t read their rights to remain silent and that anything they say can be used against them in a court of law.

1970s

The Maverick “Outsider” Cop (approach but don’t cross the line)

Represented by tough white men – McCloud (1970-77), Columbo (1971-78), Cannon (1971-76), Banacek (1972-73), Toma (1973-74), Kojak (1973-78), Jim Rockford of The Rockford Files (1974-80), Starsky & Hutch (1975-79), and Baretta (1975-78) – maverick cops who were part of the establishment, but usually played by their own rules. That was fine because it almost always resulted in getting the bad guys. As long as you “read them their rights,” everything else was O.K. These characters were no doubt influenced by Clint Eastwood’s iconic 1971 theatrical film role as Dirty Harry – and the public perception among many at the time that criminals had more “rights” than their victims. These characters were precursors to Miami Vice’s Crockett and Tubbs.

The 1970s were big on titles based on character names. In addition to the ones mentioned above, the networks aired, Dan August (1970-71), Longstreet (1971-72), McMillan & Wife (1971-77), O’Hara, U.S. Treasury (1971-72), Banyon (1972-73), Chase (1973-740, Griff (1973-74), Harry O (1974-76), and Ellery Queen (1975-76). There were a few shows featuring Black lead characters, but most were short lived – Shaft (1973-74), Tenafly (1973-74), Get Christie Love! (1974-75).

Social Issues, Minor Racial Diversity, and Women (for the male gaze)

Shows like The Mod Squad (1968-73) and The Rookies (1972-76) had more diverse casts than previous police shows. Both had Black men in leading roles. Both featured younger cops as the networks tried to appeal to younger viewers. They also took on the establishment and addressed social ills and the “generation gap” in ways not seen before on TV. Streets of San Francisco (1972-77) dealt with social issues and generational differences as well.

CHiPs (1977-83) was the first cop show on television to feature a Latino police officer in a leading role. Barney Miller (1975-82), one of the first comedies about cops, featured a diverse cast that included Black, Puerto Rican, Polish-American, and Japanese-American detectives in a New York police precinct. There were a couple of recurring female cops and detectives (female detectives were not yet a regular thing on television), and a gay cop joined the squad during its fourth season.

Police Woman (1974-78) featured a female undercover cop (who mostly went undercover as a prostitute, dancer, prison inmate, nurse, or flight attendant). Its lead, Angie Dickenson, was the first woman to star in an hour-long drama. Peggy Lipton preceded her on The Mod Squad, but she wasn’t the singular star. It also reportedly influenced many women to apply for police positions across the country. Jessica Walter starred in Amy Prentiss, playing a female detective, as part of NBC’s Mystery Movie, but it was canceled after three two-hour episodes.

Get Christie Love! (1974-75) had its roots in black exploitation films, being inspired by Pam Grier movies – Christie’s trademark line was “You’re under arrest, sugar.” Its single season was historically significant because Teresa Graves was the first Black woman to star in an hour-long drama.

Charlie’s Angels (1976-81), featuring three young female cops, became a hit and helped coin the phrase “jiggle TV” (basically scantily clad women jumping around – also known as “T & A TV”). They took their assignments from Charlie, a heard but unseen mysterious male boss. A man named Bosley acted as liaison between Charlie and his “Angels,” and supervised their assignments. Even though Farah Fawcett was only in the first season, she became pop-culture superstar.

These shows, starring women but written by men as a sort of male-fantasy TV, obviously don’t hold up well today. But their success did pave the way for women being given more substantial and authentic leading roles in police and detective series. And just as with the men, female cops were portrayed as universally good and often heroic. But in the 1970s (and much of the 1980s) female diversity, for the most part, meant simply casting both blondes and brunettes.

1980s

Women and People of Color Take Center Stage

Women were given more prominent roles in crime dramas during the 1980s, highlighted by Cagney & Lacey (1982-88), the first cop show to feature two female partners as the main characters (although as a sign of the times, the original casting was changed during the first season, with Sharon Gless replacing Meg Foster, because network executives were afraid the original pair seemed too much like lesbians).

Murder, She Wrote (1984-96) also had a female lead. Several other shows featured male/female partners – Hart to Hart (1979-84), T.J. Hooker (1982-86), Remington Steele (1982-87), Scarecrow & Mrs. King (1983-87), Hunter (1984-91), and Moonlighting (1985-89). Female cops were generally portrayed as just as heroic as their male counterparts, but tended to be more likely to follow the rules and not mistreat suspects – one rare exception was Lady Blue (1985-86), whose lead female detective was even more violent than most of her male counterparts. Way ahead of its time, neither viewers nor critics were ready to see a woman in this type of role.

21 Jump Street (1987-91), Fox’s first hit drama, in addition to making Johnny Depp a star, featured a Black woman and other people of color in leading roles. In the Heat of the Night (1988-95), based on the 1967 hit movie, featured a Black man as one of the lead characters, as did the one-season wonder, Tenspeed and Brown Shoe (1980). A Man Called Hawk (1989), with Avery Brooks as a P.I. was another one-season show with a Black lead – a spin-off from Spenser: For Hire (1985-88).

Police/Detective Shows Add Some Humor

In the early 1980s, network sitcoms were in decline (until The Cosby Show premiered in 1984). As a way of compensating, many dramas, including cop shows, incorporated comedic elements, often featuring humorous banter (romantic and otherwise) among partners. These included, Hart to Hart (1979-84), Magnum, P.I. (1980-88), Simon & Simon (1981-89), Remington Steele (1982-87), Scarecrow & Mrs. King (1983-87), Hardcastle & McCormick (1983-86), Crazy Like a Fox (1984-86), Hunter (1984-91), Moonlighting (1985-89), and Jake and the Fatman (1987-92). These types of shows typically featured white men and women – mixed-race romances, or even flirtations, were not yet acceptable on network television.

Crimes and Cops Get More Violent (and Stylish)

Police and detective shows in the 1980s were punctuated by two of the best and grittiest – Hill Street Blues (1981-87), and Miami Vice (1984-90). Both groundbreaking series included women and people of color as police officers and detectives. Both shows featured criminals who were far more brutal than those on television in previous decades. So, of course, the cops were justified in being just as brutal to bring them to justice. Hill Street Blues’ cops often faced off with street gangs (typically Black and Hispanic), while Miami Vice took on drug cartels (most often Hispanic or Asian). Vice was also known for its pulsating MTV-style soundtrack and hyper-stylized visuals.

The short-lived Crime Story (1986-88), whose style and look were similar to Miami Vice (both produced by Michael Mann), had a clear impact on Wiseguy (1987-90), which also featured unusually brutal (for the time) bad guys. All four of these series notable for their use of serialized storylines (rather than the more common close-ended episodes) that were prototypes for many of the edgier cop shows to follow.

1980s/90s

Ensemble Police Dramas Require Integrating Casts

During the 1970, ‘80’s, and ‘90s, there were several popular sitcoms with Black casts, but few dramas with central Black characters. The 1980s and ‘90s ushered in ensemble casts focusing on police precincts and squads of cops, rather than the individuals or partnerships that were more prevalent in the 1960s and ‘70s. Pioneered by Hill Street Blues (1981-87), these shows covered multiple story arcs devoted to various characters. It would have been ridiculous to have shows about detective units or police precincts in major urban areas without having key roles for Black and Hispanic characters. Ensemble cop shows in this era include, Miami Vice (1984-90), 21 Jump Street (1987-91), Law & Order (1990-2010), NYPD Blue (1993-2005), Homicide: Life on the Street (1993-99), and Brooklyn South (1997-98).

1990s

Black and Latino Characters Move into Central Roles

In the 1990s, Black and Latino cops and detectives became more commonplace on television. These shows included, In the Heat of the Night (1988-95), Law & Order (1990-2010), Gabriel’s Fire (1990-91), one of the first police series with a singular Black lead character, Street Justice (1991-93), NYPD Blue (1993-2005), Homicide: Life on the Street (1993-99), Walker, Texas Ranger (1993-2001), New York Undercover (1994-99), the first police drama on American television to feature two people of color in starring roles, The Sentinel (1996-99), Pacific Blue (1996-2000), Nash Bridges (1996-2001), and L.A. Heat (1999). Renegade (1992-97) had a Hispanic police officer team up with a Native American bounty hunter. The comedy-drama, The Commish (1991-96), was the decade’s anomaly, with a white male lead. There was also Martial Law (1998-2000), which was the only network primetime show in the U.S. headlined by an East Asian (Sammo Hung). It’s interesting to note that most of the Black and Latino cops portrayed in the 1990s were less likely to brutalize suspects than were their white counterparts.

Women continued to star in police series during the 1990s. Of the shows listed above, NYPD Blue, Homicide, New York Undercover, and Pacific Blue each have women in key roles. In addition, Profiler (1996-2000) features a female FBI agent, while Sirens (1993-95) tells the story of three female rookie cops, each of whom works with an experienced veteran who, of course, provides them with excellent training. One-season series, Angel Street (1992), teamed two female detectives, one Black and one white.

Supernatural drama combined with law enforcement, as The X-Files (1993-2002) was one of television’s signature shows of the 1990s. It paired up male and female FBI agents who investigate unsolved cases involving paranormal phenomena. Millennium (1996-99) also involved supernatural elements as an ex-FBI agent hunts down serial killers and other murderers.

2000s

Terrorism, Sex Crimes, Corruption: The End Still Justifies the Means

As the new decade got underway, NYPD Blue and the original Law & Order were still going strong. Since both series are set in New York City, both were severely affected by the events of September 11, 2001. They, along with other police/detective/FBI series had to start balancing the presumed continuing threat of Middle Eastern based terrorism, with the ensuing prejudice against Muslims by both regular citizens and law enforcement. The threat of terror attacks, both from abroad and through sleeper cells within the U.S., was an ongoing theme throughout the decade.

The aftermath of 9/11, with the U.S. government’s stance toward “enhanced interrogation,” and the new law known as The Patriot Act, the path was set for counter-terrorism and CIA shows such as 24 (2001-10), The Agency (2001-03), and Alias (2001-06), the first hour-long spy series with a female lead. All were in production before 9/11, but the events that day changed the direction these shows would take. The bottom line was that terrorism was such a threat that anything our heroes do to the bad guys is justified as long as it helps prevent the next attack or protects innocent civilians. 24, one of the most popular series on television, relentlessly sent out this message for the entire decade.

In 1999, an extension to the popular Law & Order franchise, Law & Order: SVU premiered (becoming television’s longest running drama, now entering its 24^th season). More intense than most cop shows on broadcast TV, it focused primarily on often grisly sex-related crimes. The show has received praise for bringing some of these crimes and issues (such as “no means no”) into mainstream programming, and for its star, Mariska Hargitay, who plays Olivia Benson, becoming a real-life champion for sex assault survivors’ rights. It has also received criticism for presenting an unrealistic portrayal and raising unrealistic expectations of what a real-life sex-crimes unit actually does. The show has also been criticized for clumsily handling issues of race (It has had a mostly white writers’ room) – but that’s true of a lot of series.

In 2002, ad-supported cable got into the original scripted drama arena, when The Shield (2002-08) debuted on FX. It broke many long-standing conventions and led to a gradual increase in edgier dramas on television. A decade earlier, Steven Bochco famously said he intended ABC’s NYPD Blue to be television’s first R-rated series. The Shield, with its gritty portrayal of sex, violence, and corrupt cops, really was. It employed content and language never before seen on ad-supported television. It also shone a light on police corruption and brutality throughout the police force. The LAPD was reportedly not happy with The Shield’s portrayal of police, and threatened to withdraw standard security support for the production (according to the show’s executive producer Glen Mazzara). Characters in the series therefore never refer to “LAPD” by name. They also wear fake badges on the wrong side of their uniforms.

A few months after The Shield debuted, HBO premiered The Wire (2002-08). With its focus on corruption and decay in a major urban city (Baltimore), and the intersection of cops, gangsters, and politicians, it took storytelling to a new level, and demonstrated that for many people in this country, the American Dream is a fiction. The Wire remains one of the few television series that depicts systemic police brutality against regular citizens (mostly people of color) in addition to showing honest individual cops. In other words, there can be honest cops in a corrupt system, as opposed to the standard TV narrative that there can be some corrupt cops in a generally honest system.

The 2000s gave us a number of police/detective dramas with women either in leading roles – Crossing Jordan (2001-07), Karen Sisco (2003), Cold Case (2003-10), Veronica Mars (2004-07), The Closer (2005-12), In Plain Sight (2008-12) – or in equal partnerships with men – Law & Order: SVU (1999-), Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2001-11), Bones (2005-17), and Castle (2009-16). There were also several series with racially diverse departments, teams, or partners, often with women in prominent roles, including, Third Watch (1999-2005), CSI (2000-15), The District (2000-04), CSI: Miami (2002-12), Without a Trace (2002-09), NCIS (2003- ), CSI: NY (2004-13), Criminal Minds (2005-2020), Sleeper Cell (2005-06), Psych (2006-14), Flashpoint (2008-12), and Leverage (2008-12). All of these shows were successful, and all lasted for at least five years. Monk (2002-09), Numb3rs (2005-10), and The Mentalist (2008-15) were the only ones with solely white male leading characters.

2010s

A Mixed Bag of Genres – Diversity Reigns

The 2010s had a number of crime shows whose main protagonists fit into several different categories. While many of these shows could be placed in different sub-genres of police/detective series, they all had one thing in common – the ends justifies the means. Protecting suspects rights is important only until innocent people are at risk. Then, anything goes. And if your suspect turns out to be innocent, you just apologize and move on with no regrets. You were just doing your job and trying to protect the public. The greater good outweighs individual rights.

Diverse casts with female leads – Covert Affairs (2010-14), Rizzoli & Isles (2010-16), Body of Proof (2011-13), Homeland (2011-20), Unforgettable (2011-16), Jett (2019), L.A.’s Finest (2019-20) – most of these women are just as likely as men in similar shows to cross the line to bring the criminals to justice.

Diverse casts with male/female or multi-racial partners/teams – Castle (2009-16), Hawaii Five-0 (2010-20), The Chicago Code (2011), The Killing (2011-14), Elementary (2012-19), Longmire (2012-17), Banshee (2013-16), Scorpion (2014-18), True Detective (2014-19), Lethal Weapon (2016-19), C.B. Strike (2018- ), Magnum P.I. (2018- ), Rellik (2018), City on a Hill (2019- ). Banshee was the first American scripted television series with a gender-fluid character as a main cast member.

Diverse group of federal agents – Criminal Minds (2005-2020), NCIS: Los Angeles (2009- ), The Blacklist (2013- ), NCIS: New Orleans (2014-21), CSI: Cyber (2015-16), Blindspot (2015-20), Quantico (2015-18), Mindhunter (2017-19), FBI (2018- ) – most shows focusing on the FBI or other federal agencies have diverse casts, but seldom deal with racism (unless in the context of going after violent white supremacist groups), and almost never deal with police brutality. FBI, which has a Muslim lead character, is one of the few exceptions.

Diverse group of detectives – Southland (2009-13) – One of the first police/detective series to have a regular gay (although closeted) police officer. Major Crimes (2012-18) – one of the best procedural crime dramas, with a team of detectives led by a woman. Successfully balances horrific crimes and light office banter. One of the first series of its kind to highlight a gay teen character and same-sex relationships. While it does have a diverse cast, both racially and age-wise, its sole Latino detective is the one to have a temper and anger management issues, often losing his cool and needing to be reeled in by his teammates.

Bosch (2014-21) – multiple episodes have dealt with sexism (Bosch’s lieutenant is a woman), as well as police and political corruption. Chicago P.D. (2014- ) – racism and political corruption have become central themes, as the detectives continue to do whatever it takes to eliminate threats to their own and to the general public. Shades of Blue (2016-18) – Jennifer Lopez and Ray Liotta lead a crew that takes bribes and protection money, and thinks nothing of crossing any line to catch the bad guys (but they’re really decent people, who only break the rules to give their families a better life).

Diverse group of rookies – Rookie Blue (2010-15), The Rookie (2018- ) – rookie cops on TV shows are always well trained and taught right from wrong. These two shows demonstrate the difference in diversity from the beginning to the end of the decade, as many series went from token to more substantial representation of Blacks and other minorities.

Diverse S.W.A.T. team (led by a Black man) – S.W.A.T. (2017- ) – this series has dealt with racism, sexism, and homophobia better than most police dramas. Its diversity both in front and behind the camera makes it noticeably different in how it deals with these issues. When it debuted, its star, Shemar Moore, was CBS’s only lead actor of color.

Diverse group of detectives in a comedy – Brooklyn Nine Nine (2013-2021) – the first series about detectives, where the captain (who is Black) happens to be gay – and Angie Tribeca (2016-18).

White male leads – White Collar (2009-14), Justified (2010-15), Perception (2012-15), MacGyver (2016-21), Prodigal Son (2019-21). What used to be the standard in casting is now relatively rare. Instinct (2018-19) featured the first openly gay lead character (who is married to another man) in an American network television series. Justified, being on FX, which has a reputation for edgier and grittier programming, is one of the more violent cop shows, with Timothy Olyphant portraying a deputy U.S. Marshal who dispenses “his own brand of justice.”

This decade also brought us the noble police family in Blue Bloods (2010- ) – even when they occasionally cross the line, their intentions are good and they constantly question themselves – when a cop outside the family breaks the rules, the Commissioner (Tom Selleck) usually manages to boot them off the force by the end of the episode (as though police unions don’t exist), often getting them to resign (to avoid bad PR). Blue Bloods has also had a number of episodes where Black activists try to frame innocent white cops for police brutality – until the righteous Commissioner Reagan persuades them or Black civilian witnesses to come clean. In this world, the main problem is unfair public misperception of cops and Black activists who cause trouble.

And then there’s Fargo (2014- ), which defies genre labels but is certainly diverse, and features numerous women in leading roles. Each season has a different cast of quirky and often violent characters. It is one of the few (if not only) shows to present good, honest cops and corrupt, incompetent cops in relatively equal number.

2020s

George Floyd, a Year of Protests, and a Promise to Change TV Cop Shows

In the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder by a police officer, with other officers just standing by, captured on video for all the world to see, there was a backlash against the portrayal of law enforcement on TV series as universally heroic and righteous. Networks and showrunners pledged to reassess how policing in minority communities and the brutalizing of suspects is portrayed in law enforcement related series.

The popular reality show Cops, which debuted on Fox in 1989 and shifted to Spike TV, now known as Paramount Network in 2013, was canceled in 2020. Its “real-life” portrayal of harsh police tactics, particularly toward minorities, was no longer acceptable. But then the conservative Fox Nation (a subscription video on demand service companion to Fox News) picked it up in 2021. A&E Network’s Live PD, another highly rated reality show focusing on various police forces across the country, which had debuted in 2016, was also canceled in 2020. In 2022, cable network Reelz, launched On Patrol: Live (from the same producers as Live PD) with surprisingly little backlash.

Twenty police dramas have premiered since 2020. They include, Big Sky (2020- ), Briarpatch (2020), Deputy (2020), FBI: Most Wanted (2020- ), Hightown (2020- ), Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector (2020), Tommy (2020), Clarice (2021), Law & Order: Organized Crime (2021- ), Walker (2021- ), The Equalizer (2021- ), CSI: Vegas (2021- ), FBI: International (2021- ), NCIS: Hawaii (2021- ), Mare of Easttown (2021), We Own This City (2022- ), Dark Winds (2022- ), Bosch: Legacy (2022), and the upcoming The Rookie: Feds (2022- ) and East New York (2022- ). Deputy was notable for having the first character in a broadcast television series come out as non-binary.

Since 2021, the bulk of new law enforcement series have been reboots/re-imaginings of past successful properties, or franchise extension.

Of these, five have Black leads (Briar Patch, Lincoln Rhyme, The Equalizer, East New York, and The Rookie: Feds, while four others have central Black characters (Big Sky, FBI: Most Wanted, Clarice, We Own This City). The lead character in Hightown is Latina. Nine of these shows – Big Sky, Briarpatch, Hightown, Tommy, Clarice, The Equalizer, Mare of Easttown, East New York, and The Rookie: Feds – have women in lead roles (Briarpatch, The Equalizer, East New York, and The Rookie: Feds star Black women). Tommy features a lesbian police chief, and has a strong focus on sexism and homophobia. Clarice, which takes place in the 1990s, has dealt extensively with sexism and racism.

Unfortunately, both Tommy and Clarice were canceled after just one season, as were Briarpatch, and Lincoln Rhyme. Of the remaining shows, only The Equalizer seems interested in addressing racial inequities in any ongoing way (I haven’t seen East New York beyond the pilot, but dealing with both racism and sexism seem to be on the agenda).

Will established police dramas continue to evolve in dealing with these issues now that full seasons are being produced post-pandemic and post-George Floyd? Or will the lessening press focus on these issues enable business-as-usual inertia? Just as important will be what new police dramas look like. Will there even be many new series in this genre that aren’t extensions of popular brands?

While there did seem to be some initial movement in this area, and there seems to be continuing progress made in diversifying writers’ rooms, there really haven’t yet been substantial changes to what makes it on air.

I watched the season premieres of the Law & Orders, FBI shows, and Chicago P.D. to see if I could notice any significant changes in how the police operated. Not so much. But this is admittedly a small sample size.

During this season’s first episode of Law & Order: Organized Crime, a detective is trying to get information from someone who says he won’t cooperate without a warrant. After the detective threatens him, he provides the information. A fairly typical scene for cop shows. But this time, the detective’s partner says, “It’s easy enough to get a subpoena, you didn’t need to do that.” Is this what the writers think of as progress, or is it just a first step toward some change in attitude?

On Chicago P.D., they seem to have settled on a certain theme. Rather than anyone actually standing up to Hank Voight when he breaks the rules, some detectives will privately talk among themselves that they don’t like what he’s doing, while some will stare at him with somber looks or tears in their eyes when he gives an order they don’t agree with. One or two of his detectives will even argue with him briefly. But when he dismisses their concerns they always wind up following him and publicly supporting him. Because they know their city is safer with him on the job.

On FBI, there were a couple of instances where they several agents busted down doors (no-knock warrants), guns drawn. Of course, no innocent people were hurt. Fairly typical. There was nothing in any of the FBI shows that were significantly different from previous seasons.

So, while there are some signs of incremental change, the networks and showrunners should not be patting themselves on the back just yet for the baby steps they are now taking after 70 years of what many refer to as “copaganda.” There’s still a long way to go. More diverse representation and perspectives in front of and behind the camera (and in the writers’ rooms) are the keys to real change.

Posted at 12:08 PM in Binge Viewing, Cable Drama, Current Affairs, Generations, Pop Culture, Streaming, Television, TV Programming | Permalink | Comments (0)

09/19/2022

Severance is the Best New Show of 2022

With the Emmy Awards airing on Monday, I thought it was a good time to provide a review of the best new series of the year. Refreshingly original, uniquely inventive, and brilliantly conceived, Severance debuted on Apple TV+ in February 2022. It sits at the top of an impressive stable of original series for the three-year-old streaming service that includes, For All Mankind, Foundation, Pachinko, See, Slow Horses, and The Morning Show.

Of course, when I say best, I don’t necessarily mean most popular. I know a number of people whose taste in television and movies are generally in synch with my own who hate Severance. And for the life of me, it’s hard to explain to them why I like this show so much. And I certainly understand why it might not be everyone’s cup of tea. I’ve never seen a series where so little actually happens in each episode (except for the unbelievably tense season finale) that is nevertheless so compelling and endlessly interesting – much of which is due to the stellar cast. It’s a wonderfully innovative series that combines multiple genres – workplace comedy, sci-fi, mystery drama, psychological conspiracy thriller, and religious allegory. For some reason, the show reminds me of the Bob Dylan classic, Ballad of a Thin Man – “You know something’s happening here, but you don’t know what it is …”

Work-life balance comes to the forefront in this mystery thriller from Ben Stiller. Office workers voluntarily undergo a medical procedure known as “severance,” which surgically divides their memories between their work and personal lives. When they are in the office, they do not recall anything about their outside lives, friends, or families. When they leave the office, they remember nothing about their jobs or co-workers. The elevator ride into and out of the office erases all memories of their other selves. Their work selves are referred to as “innies’” and their outside selves as “outies.” There is extremely tight security and full body scans upon entering the building’s elevator to prevent either version of an employee from trying to smuggle communications or clues to their other self.

While the innies and outies are technically the same people, only the outies have any life experience. The innies just exist at work, and are essentially placed into a world where they have no past and no knowledge of anything or anyone beyond the few co-workers with whom they share a windowless, blank-wall, fluorescent-lit office space, and their controlling bosses who dole out rewards if they meet production quotas (and punishments if they break the rules). Once they leave the office they have no memory of going home or going to sleep. Their experience is leaving the office and immediately returning to the office (and somehow feeling refreshed if their outies had a good night’s sleep).

Would employees be content with this situation or would they find it a torturous existence? Different people respond in dramatically different ways. To make matters even more frustrating for some, is that the innies are basically trapped. Even if they want to quit they can’t unless their outie agrees – which they virtually never do, partly because they have no idea what their innie is actually going through at work.

The series follows Mark Scout (a pitch-perfect Adam Scott), an employee at the mysterious Lumon industries, who was recently promoted to lead a team in the Macrodata Refinement division on the “severed” floor (in the basement of the building). Even the employees of this division don’t know what Lumon does. Their entire job seems to be looking at a computer screen filled with row after row numbers which they have to classify (based on how the numbers make them feel) and sort into the appropriate folders.

This darkly humorous commentary on the drudgery and insidious cult-like nature of corporate office cubicle life is amplified by the fact that these worker bees have no idea why they are performing these dull, repetitive tasks.

Mark was elevated to team leader after the previous team leader and his best friend (at work), Petey (Yul Vaquez), was fired under mysterious circumstances. Petey’s replacement, Helly R. (Britt Lower), quickly decides she doesn’t want to work there, but since her outie does (and she has no idea why) there’s no escape. Her performance is nothing short of spectacular.

The rest of Mark’s team are Irving (the always terrific John Turturro), who is a dignified stickler for company policy, and Dylan (Zach Cherry), a wisecracking follower, who enjoys the bizarre company perks employees receive for achieving certain goals (such as finger traps, waffle parties, and five-minute music/dance breaks).

In the outside world, the severance procedure is controversial, with many people protesting it as unethical. One reason Mark’s outie agreed to the procedure is because he is grieving the death of his wife. But and as his pregnant sister (Jen Tullock) tells him, “forgetting for eight hours a day is not the same as healing.” At work, with no recollection of his outside life, Mark is relatively content, although he misses Petey and is constantly trying to deal with Helly and prevent her from being punished for breaking the rules and trying to escape.

One day, in his outside life, a man he Mark recognize approaches him and says he is his co-worker Petey, and has managed, with help from a secret organization, to reverse the severance procedure (something which is supposed to be impossible). He goes on to tell him that Lumon industries is an evil company, but won’t say exactly what they do – he fears the company is searching for him and his life is in danger. This sets up almost everything that follows.

It’s Helly’s persistent and courageous rebellion that gradually nudges her seemingly content co-workers to start questioning their work and seeking answers about their outside lives – which puts them all in danger.

Patricia Arquette is chilling as Harmony Cobel, Mark’s boss at Lumon, who is also his next door neighbor, Mrs. Selvig, on the outside. Although she takes on two separate identities, we soon realize she is not severed, and is actually keeping tabs on Mark’s outie.

Christopher Walken plays another of his many wonderfully quirky characters as Burt, the severed chief of the mysterious Optics and Design division, who has a mutual attraction with John Turturro’s Irving (one of the more fascinating relationships on television). Tramell Tillman is creepy as Mr. Milchick, the constantly smiling supervisor of the severed floor, who doles out rewards and punishments. Dichen Lachman is a find as the robotic Mrs. Casey, a Lumon wellness counselor on the severed floor, who may be more than she seems.

The season finale has some major reveals and a bold cliffhanger (considering it was filmed before the show was officially renewed for a second season) – it’s among the most tense and thrilling episodes of television ever (particularly the last five minutes). There’s nothing else like this on television.

Posted at 12:05 PM in Binge Viewing, Streaming, Television, TV Programming | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Sternberg Report

Binge Viewing

07/15/2025

TV Reviews: The Good, The Too Bad, and The Ugly (Squid Game)

Great One-Season Shows to Binge

TV Reviews - The Good, The Too Bad, and The Ugly (Dept. Q, Etoile, Running Point)

TV Reviews - The Good, The Too Bad, and The Ugly (Hacks, The Last of Us, Mobland)

TV Reviews: The Good, The Too Bad, and The Ugly (Bosch: Legacy, Daredevil: Born Again)

TV Reviews: The Good, The Too Bad, and The Ugly (Paradise, Reacher, The Recruit)

03/14/2023

Streaming Finds: Spy Shows 3/23

Netflix Isn't Back (It Never Left) 11/22

09/27/2022

Cop Shows - The Reckoning That Never Came

09/19/2022

Severance is the Best New Show of 2022

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