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why I hate tv crime shows

C

chiangmaifalcon

New Member
The vast majority of murderers and their victims are poor, yet in every tv crime show I see they are rich. This is true of all the CSI shows and most all of the others now that NYPD Blue is off the air. Is this because tv audience only wants to see rich people, or that when poor people get killed, no one cares?
These rich killers are not only rich, but young and beautiful. They have it made already, so why are they constantly killing people?

Not only are the criminals and victims all young and beautiful, but so are the cops. I have worked with some very attractive female officers, but on tv they are all beautiful and look like fashion models, which is crap. And the pretty boy male cops they have would not last 10 minutes on the street. Not only would they get beat up regularly, they would probably get raped.
 
I don't think it has to do with their wealth, more so with their appearance. Most people don't want to watch crime shows about ugly people (no matter their wealth) and prefer looking at beautiful people, whether they are the criminals, victims, or the cops. And I don't know much about the demographics on murder victims, but I don't think getting killed or being a murderer is a prerogative for the poor people alone.

I don't like the CSI shows much because they always have happy endings and I think they're too predictable. I do like watching Law & Order and/or Criminal Minds, they're a little darker I think. Not sure about realism though.
O and speaking of the poor and ugly, if you watch the earlier Law & Order seasons you'll see that the victims and murderers fall in both categories. I don't know about the more recent seasons though.
 
chiangmaifalcon said:
These rich killers are not only rich, but young and beautiful.
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That's why people watch it and that is why the networks keep making them. People like eye candy and CSI is full of eye candy. Even the science is eye candy as it has no resemblance to real science. But all the lights sure are pretty.

And most of the music we hear on the radio, especially in the pop genre, is ear candy. There isn't a whole lot of talent involved, but the tunes are catchy. It is "easy to digest" entertainment.

And frankly, I don't see anything wrong with it. I mean, they aren't my favorite shows by any stretch of the imagination but on occasion I enjoy some mindless fun and enjoy watching pretty bodies running around from one beautiful scene to another.
 
It's TV. Heck, even "reality" TV is manipulated and is nothing like actual reality. You have to just suspend belief
 
Most of these shows are watched, at least, by me for escapism. I don't look at them for reality for the reality of police work is a lot of boredom intermixed at times with frustration and other times with intense pucker factor.
As we have discussed before these shows have nothing to do with police work and while I see it as escapism, I realize damage is being done in the legal system as many lay people sitting as jurors have become enamored with DNA and how it solves crimes on TV and expect it in real life.
 
When I referred to Shield, I mean that it is not one of the shows I am talking about. There were no rich or beautiful people on that show. Homicide is another one that was more like reality, as was NYPD Blue and Hill Street Blues. Sipowicz was like the best example of what real cops are like. As was Dennis Farina in Crime Story, which figures since he really was a cop in Chicago.
 
Contrarytwo said:
Most of these shows are watched, at least, by me for escapism. I don't look at them for reality for the reality of police work is a lot of boredom intermixed at times with frustration and other times with intense pucker factor.
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I agree. And I'm a sucker for crime shows. I watch most of them: CSI, CSI New York (I stopped watching CSI Miami cause I think it's crappy); the various Law & Order's, NCIS, Criminal Minds, and even watch reruns of Murder, She Wrote. And not all the victims and murderers there are beautiful people, but most are. Why? Cause no one would watch a show with ugly people... And of course all the main characters are handsome, they're the main characters!

Also I don't think it would be that easy to find ugly actors to appear in every episode simply cause I imagine there aren't that many ugly actors out there. Let's face it, it's not an easy career and looks matter, whether you agree with it or not.

And it's not just a matter of tv series. Usually the victims in crime movies are also beautiful. And the murderer is usually a well known beautiful actor/actress or a disguised well known beautiful actor/actress so they don't look so beautiful. I'm sure I could come up with more examples, but right now Monster comes to mind...
 
I watch CSI Miami only once in awhile because of the god looking cast.

And focusing on beautiful people happens in real life as well. Just check out the murder/disappearance cases that are focused on by the national media...unfortunately, good looks matters on many levels...even to the media.

Also in other cases...would the national media be focused on a teacher who slept with a 13 year old if she was ugly or even just average? Or do they focus on the ones that are pretty, and had no reason to sleep with the child because they could obviously get what they wanted elsewhere...?

Really, just shows you how superficial of a society we have become...
 
I watch reruns of NCIS on USA and I am not ashamed to admit that I mainly watch it for Pauley Perrette and Cote de Pablo. I have it on good authority that Polly Parrot watches it for a similar reason. ai5.photobucket.com_albums_y187_sparkchaser1998_smileys_devillook.gif
 
sparkchaser said:
I watch reruns of NCIS on USA and I am not ashamed to admit that I mainly watch it for Pauley Perrette and Cote de Pablo. I have it on good authority that Polly Parrot watches it for a similar reason. ai5.photobucket.com_albums_y187_sparkchaser1998_smileys_devillook.gif
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Yes, I find Cote de Pablo mighty attractive.:innocent:
 
Actually, in a survey which was done among NYPD detectives, Barney Miller was named as most realistic detective show on tv at the time and I agree. NYPD Blue had Sipowicz who was not a pretty boy but they also had the hot female detectives and the kid from saved by the Bell. I am not against looking at beautiful women by any means. I am just saying it is not reality. I suppose my problem with this is partly because I have 3 daughters and it bothers me they are taught to believe that pretty people are only ones that matter.
 
I saw the dumbest crime show yet here the other day. it is called Prison Break and it is truly ridiculous. There is a convict in it who has death sentence, yet they let him out on a work detail. In any prison in America, any inmate on death row is locked up pretty much all the time, and any time out of their cell tehy are cuffed and shackled and have more than one guard escorting them everywhere they go.

I did watch NCIS yesterday also. Being an older guy, I sort of like Gibbs' boss, the director, although I do not know her real name.
 
chiangmaifalcon said:
I saw the dumbest crime show yet here the other day. it is called Prison Break and it is truly ridiculous.
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I wouldn't exactly classify Prison Break as a crime show. In fact, if you decide to stick with it (and in my opinion you should cause it's a really great show) you'll see the focus is on the prisoners and in their attempt to escape. In fact, some of them (not all of course) are even innocent or had a really good reason to commit the crime they commited.

And I agree with what you said about not wanting your daughters to believe that pretty people are the only ones that matter. But then why stop at crime shows? Let's examine medical shows. In House, Grey's Anatomy or Private Practice for instance all the male and female doctors are hot or at least really good looking. Do you really think that portrays the reality of american hospitals? I would guess it doesn't.

And let's not forget how the media (especially fashion magazines and advertisement) manipulate models pictures using programmes like Photoshop to slim them and remove any "imperfections".

So I think it's a much broader problem that modern societies face. What can we do to fix it? That's a hard one but in my case I would think twice before buying a product from a company whose advertisements showed anorectic women for example. And I have to say I started sympathizing a lot more with a certain brand that started advertising with real and imperfect women.
 
Another one of my problems with this show is I worked in prison in NY for a long time and believe me the inmates do not resemble those in Prison Break. However, no one would watch the show if they did, and certainly no one would want them to break out. But perhaps I am being too critical and just view it as an entertainment and not worry about stuff like this.
Landslide you are right of course. I also would not buy product with anorexic models advertising it. Probably if it weren't for my daughters I would not even think about this stuff. In Thailand this is even worse. Though most of the people, especially the poorer people in northeast and central plains and south are dark skinned, they all believe you must have white skin to be beautiful. So they spend a great deal on stuff they cannot afford to whiten their skin. These products do not even work. If you watch their tv shows, all the actors are white skinned and tall, and mostly Chinese. I tell my wife she is beautiful but she is dark skinned and doesnt believe it so she bought this whitener cream which caused her to have such terribly dry skin she now wears a surgical mask all day long as she is embarassed by this. still she continues to use this stuff because she thinks eventually she will have white skin.
Meanwhile the foreigners are all getting skin cancer lying around in the sun trying to be dark. Go figure.
 
You watch too little Crime Shows.Apparently you don't watch Dexter or The Mentalist,because this stuff hardly ever happens in these shows.
 
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