TV Musings
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On the radio the other day, a few of the chat-jockeys were talking. One mentioned that Mandy Patinkin is coming back to TV.

"That's great!" said the other. "He's the best actor out there, in my opinion."

When informed that the show was going to be "yet another cop show" he was dismayed.

So, what is it about "cop shows?" These days, if it's a drama, it's a cop show or it's a medical show. Many of the most watched are a combination -- see "CSI" and its variants. And even the pure medical shows have been getting fewer and farther between. By the way, "cop show" is really an oversimplification for the genre, because the shows about lawyers throwing the bad guys behind bars are really the same thing.

So, if Mandy is getting back into TV, it's a pretty good bet he's doing a "cop show."

Why cop shows? Do we want to feel that there are people out there protecting us? Probably. The state of the entertainment and political world is the constant instillation of fear into the masses. Cop shows perpetuate that -- "Look at the crazy people there are in the world, Mildred!" -- and then tell us not to worry -- "Darn good thing we have Gil Grissom out there catching them, Arnold!"

Still, I think it's not quite so simple. We have a view that "drama" happens more in those high-stress professions -- doctors have to deal with emergency situations, policemen have to risk their lives to serve and protect -- those realities lend themselves well to drama.

My office doesn't really provide the setting for drama. Oh, sure, anyone could concoct a soap opera in just about any work environment. The thing is, it would be no more "true" than it would be in a police precinct, and we don't have crooks to chase here in software development.

I was thinking back on "thirtysomething" -- it was a a fine drama that took the normal life of married parents and extrapolated into situations which are closer to home. But to maintain interest, conflict had to be more constant than happens in normal life, and eventually, the show would have had to become a soap opera to keep going, I think. I think this sort of formula could work again, for a while.

So, enough musing on this topic for now. What do you think, dear reader?