There’s nothing like coming home, sitting on the couch and watching that show where a couple of forensic scientists pull a bloody corpse out of a trash bin.
If that one is too gruesome, all you have to do is change the channel and watch the one where suspects are questioned about an incident similar to the aforementioned crime and the equally gruesome things that happened to the victim before she (and I say she, because the victims on all these shows are almost always women) bites the dust.
Or if that doesn’t entice you, you could get crazy and watch the show where the woman sees a bloody corpse being put into the bin before it happens, only to solve the mystery (how unpredictable!) 45 minutes later. If none of these seems interesting, you’ve only got 15 other choices. And yes, they all have a bloody corpse and garbage can involved in there somewhere.
Now that the sarcastic yet painfully true part of this article is over, I want to address the main problem with network television: crime dramas. There are too many of these suckers plaguing the primetime slots of major television networks.
And the sad thing is, more and more keep popping up as time goes on. Is it because they fill up the primetime slots and in return get the highest ratings, or because networks are emulating each other by cloning their programming? I think it’s a mixture of both, but I know this cycle is in dyer need of breaking. After all, how many formulaic crime dramas do you have to make before realizing they’re all mediocre?
Granted, there are a few crime dramas that won’t kill you to watch. The original “CSI” and “Law and Order” offered original writing in their prime but follow those played out find-a-corpse or catch-the-rapist formulas these days.
Other programs have tried to remedy the trend by adding something “original” to the formula, like psychic powers or a cutesy interrogator or a blooming romance divided only by a festering body. Ah, how compelling.
Many are saying the portrayals on crime dramas can potentially increase violent behavior in viewers. You know, like how “Mortal Kombat” led kids to decapitate each other in the early ’90s. The real issue isn’t what the shows can cause someone to do, but what the shows are doing to viewers already. I remember a time when primetime television involved a place where everyone knew your name, and your whole family could gather around the TV set and enjoy each other’s company. Now more mature primetime programs, namely crime dramas, are alienating parents from their kids in the ideal spot of time they can spend time with one another each day.
Crime dramas need to do one of two things. One: drop off the face of the Earth and join “The Ashlee Simpson Show” in the abyss of the worst shows to ever hit television. Or they could start writing better scripts. I’m rooting for the first option.