Bumbling cops and outlaw heroes in TV and movies

[bandit957]

Why do TV shows and movies never have bumbling cops, sheriffs, and state troopers anymore?

When I was growing up, every funny TV show or movie had a bungling lawman. They were some of the funniest characters in the whole show.

Many of these shows also had outlaw heroes. They were the good guys, but they were always being chased by the bumbling cops, who were often corrupt.

How come they don't make TV shows and movies like this anymore?

[kphoger]

In recent decades, what has caught on instead has been police officers who go 'out of bounds' to catch the bad guy.  They're the good guys, but they break the rules, but they get the bad guy in the end.  My dad and I have discussed why this might be a trend, and we think it comes from frustration with an actual police/justice system in which the bad guys get away with crime.  The actual situation may be due to completely legitimate legal protections of the suspects and completely legitimate restrictions placed on police offers et al., but it still leaves people with an unspoken thirst for 'real justice'.

The bumbling police officer is kind of the opposite of that, so it isn't what we want to watch.

On the other hand, the outlaw hero does survive somewhat.  I'm thinking especially of Burn Notice.  And something like White Collar blends the two together.

[LilianaUwU]

Why do TV shows and movies never have bumbling cops, sheriffs, and state troopers anymore?

Because it doesn't fit the copaganda's narrative.

[Max Rockatansky]

Isn't Super Troopers getting a sequel?

[Rothman]

Hitchcock and Sully...

[Scott5114]

In recent decades, what has caught on instead has been police officers who go 'out of bounds' to catch the bad guy.  They're the good guys, but they break the rules, but they get the bad guy in the end.  My dad and I have discussed why this might be a trend, and we think it comes from frustration with an actual police/justice system in which the bad guys get away with crime.  The actual situation may be due to completely legitimate legal protections of the suspects and completely legitimate restrictions placed on police offers et al., but it still leaves people with an unspoken thirst for 'real justice'.

The more concerning possibility is the powers that be at the network trying to normalize the idea of law enforcement violating civil liberties by portraying officers doing so in a positive light. This would then prime the populace to think it's okay for real-life law enforcement to similarly break the rules because, well, that's how it works on TV. (It's not even like this is even particularly far-fetched—the Defense Department is known to contribute funding to the development of Hollywood movies that portray the US military in a positive light.)

Hitchcock and Sully...

Reno 911! is a similar somewhat-modern example.

[Max Rockatansky]

Portraying police officers violating civil rights as a positive thing in media isn't new.  The whole Dirty Harry movie series has that a backbone plot element.

[Rothman]

Portraying police officers violating civil rights as a positive thing in media isn't new.  The whole Dirty Harry movie series has that a backbone plot element.

I'd imagine going to pre-Hayes Code gangster movies as well (1920s)...

[vdeane]

The more concerning possibility is the powers that be at the network trying to normalize the idea of law enforcement violating civil liberties by portraying officers doing so in a positive light. This would then prime the populace to think it's okay for real-life law enforcement to similarly break the rules because, well, that's how it works on TV. (It's not even like this is even particularly far-fetched—the Defense Department is known to contribute funding to the development of Hollywood movies that portray the US military in a positive light.)

I think I recall hearing about a shift around 9/11 where the procedural landscape shifted from having local cop heroes with bumbling feds sometimes causing problems to having bumbling local cops who the feds have to swoop in and save.  Modern shows also seem to glorify the surveillance state and portray organizations as having more capabilities than they actually do (ex: "zoom - enhance!").  I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of "you have nothing to fear if you have nothing to hide" and other support for powerful federal law enforcement with fewer civil liberty protections than we would have accepted in the 90s come from people being accustomed to seeing such from their heroes on TV.

[kphoger]

portray organizations as having more capabilities than they actually do (ex: "zoom - enhance!")

This always cracks me up when I see it on TV.

[Scott5114]

portray organizations as having more capabilities than they actually do (ex: "zoom - enhance!")

This always cracks me up when I see it on TV.

This isn't quite as far fetched as you might think—there are surveillance cameras with zoom lenses, though of course you can only zoom them when viewing a live image, but on the other hand image rescaling is all inference so it's something that AI actually isn't terrible at—but it of course doesn't work at all like it does on TV.

[kphoger]

This isn't quite as far fetched as you might think—there are surveillance cameras with zoom lenses, though of course you can only zoom them when viewing a live image, but on the other hand image rescaling is all inference so it's something that AI actually isn't terrible at—but it of course doesn't work at all like it does on TV.

Oh, of course there are zoomable security cameras.  The company I work for installs cameras.  But, as you said, that's all before NCIS hacks into the system, pulls the video up on their computer, and hits three keys on the keyboard to zoom/enhance (!) the image.

(Hey, gee, why didn't you just enhance the video as much as possible before calling the boss over to look at it?)

[Max Rockatansky]

This isn't quite as far fetched as you might think—there are surveillance cameras with zoom lenses, though of course you can only zoom them when viewing a live image, but on the other hand image rescaling is all inference so it's something that AI actually isn't terrible at—but it of course doesn't work at all like it does on TV.

Oh, of course there are zoomable security cameras.  The company I work for installs cameras.  But, as you said, that's all before NCIS hacks into the system, pulls the video up on their computer, and hits three keys on the keyboard to zoom/enhance (!) the image.

(Hey, gee, why didn't you just enhance the video as much as possible before calling the boss over to look at it?)

How NCIS agents actually are and how actual CCTV systems work have to be some of the largest departures from day-to-day reality in popular media.

[Rothman]

I await the ability to search through a building from just a two-dimensional photo like in the original Blade Runner.

[formulanone]

portray organizations as having more capabilities than they actually do (ex: "zoom - enhance!")

This always cracks me up when I see it on TV.

This isn't quite as far fetched as you might think—there are surveillance cameras with zoom lenses, though of course you can only zoom them when viewing a live image, but on the other hand image rescaling is all inference so it's something that AI actually isn't terrible at—but it of course doesn't work at all like it does on TV.

A compact closed-circuit TV lens can actually only physically zoom so far. The glass elements inside a lens casing can only be arranged so far and/or close together until it's too obvious to be hidden. A huge stumbling block is the physics of providing a wide angle of view or actually going for a narrow view, inside a compact design which cannot easily perform both tasks without giving up sharpness, contrast, detail, focusing ability, and brightness. No one lens can yet do that accurately without sacrifices, usually a compact size being the primary factor. The camera's body also needs an image sensor's ability to quickly render the image speedily and faithfully and handle processing nearly 5.2 million images per day (given 60 frames per second) without going kaput.

Upscaling past the point of focus has come a long way (AI rendering and computation up-sampling and all that) but I wonder if it truly holds up in a court of law; it makes edumakated guesses based on a trillion validated images. At some point, a computationally upscaled image has to be relegated to circumstantial evidence if an image cannot be fully resolved on its own past the point of what the image sensor or film can do. 

[wanderer2575]

Why do TV shows and movies never have bumbling cops, sheriffs, and state troopers anymore?

I think largely because it's a one-dimensional joke that was beaten to death long ago.  James Best (who portrayed Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane on The Dukes of Hazzard) intimated that Hazzard's writers wrote the same episode every week for seven seasons.

[Molandfreak]

Why do TV shows and movies never have bumbling cops, sheriffs, and state troopers anymore?

I think largely because it's a one-dimensional joke that was beaten to death long ago.  James Best (who portrayed Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane on The Dukes of Hazzard) intimated that Hazzard's writers wrote the same episode every week for seven seasons.

Interestingly, Roger Ebert was so tired of the trope in 1988 that he gave Die Hard a negative review.