tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/the-wire-17188/articlesThe Wire – The Conversation2021-09-08T15:03:50Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1674802021-09-08T15:03:50Z2021-09-08T15:03:50ZMichael K Williams and The Wire: how the show redefined television watching<p><em>This article contains spoilers for The Wire.</em></p>
<p>Emmy-nominated actor Michael K Williams has died aged 54, reportedly of a <a href="https://nypost.com/2021/09/06/actor-michael-k-williams-found-dead-in-nyc-apartment/">suspected drug overdose</a>. Early last year the actor <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B8CCmkpBb2g/?utm_medium=copy_link">mused on instagram</a> “How will I be remembered and what will be my legacy?”</p>
<p>Undoubtedly the actor will be remembered for his breakthrough role as <a href="https://www.hbo.com/the-wire">The Wire</a>’s Omar Little. The homosexual, morally ambiguous outlaw who hunts Baltimore drug dealers for fun was somehow larger than life yet authentically believable. </p>
<p>Armed with his signature sawed-off-shotgun, facial scar, duster jacket, and grin, Williams’s sheer presence played a key part in HBO’s 2002 series about <a href="https://drugpolicy.org/issues/brief-history-drug-war">America’s “war on drugs”</a>. This was the federal government’s zero-tolerance approach to illegal drug use that increased prison sentences for all drug-related incidents. Twenty years on, we can see how the programme redefined television and its impact in multiple ways.</p>
<h2>1. Television as Greek tragedy</h2>
<p>Unlike the then-popular <a href="https://theconversation.com/farewell-csi-the-show-that-made-forensics-fun-40857">CSI</a>-style investigative American cop show, The Wire embraces the cold-hearted nature of ancient <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/447310">Greek tragedy</a>.</p>
<p>Indifferent to individuals’ heroism and morality, the show demonstrates how the American dream remains unachievable for many. Internal politics within local government, an overworked police force and an underfunded education sector thwart individual talent and ambition. Characters are at the mercy of these institutions that stand in for traditional Greek gods. </p>
<p>Omar may be the closest the show has to a heroic figure, but his attempts for redemption are rewarded by the barrel of a child’s gun as he is unceremoniously killed for a couple of dollars. He is the Achilles falling victim to Apollo’s eventual will, as envisioned by ancient Greek playwright Aeschylus. </p>
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<h2>2. The visual novel</h2>
<p>The show’s creator, David Simon, coined the phrase “<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/10/22/stealing-life">visual novel</a>” to describe the programme’s distinctive and demanding viewing experience. Instead of each episode neatly concluding with a captured criminal, The Wire made it impossible to simply tune in at any point in the season. </p>
<p>One investigation stretches over 13 hours of television, so you have room for all the regular idiosyncrasies and nuance of how people relate and how institutions work, much like a Dickens novel. Put simply, “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/video/2009/aug/29/david-simon-edinburgh-interview-full">Fuck the casual viewer</a>” as Simon once elucidated.</p>
<h2>3. Streaming series</h2>
<p>The Wire heralded the binge-watching revolution when DVD box sets made consuming 13 hours of television in one sitting possible and irresistible. Compared to HBO’s other quality television dramas from the period – including <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/the-sopranos">The Sopranos</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/mar/09/rewatching-deadwood-still-the-most-extraordinary-rootin-tootin-tv-ever">Deadwood</a> – The Wire’s exploration of America’s war on drugs proved that television audiences had the patience and intelligence to consume a narrative that could be consumed as if it were one very long film. </p>
<h2>4. Good guys or bad guys?</h2>
<p>It’s difficult to imagine a universe where <a href="https://www.hbo.com/game-of-thrones">Game of Thrones</a> could have been commissioned had The Wire not blurred the previously clear division between hero and villain. </p>
<p>Baltimore’s police department and Barksdale’s drug-dealing crew are presented as two social structures in a pragmatic conflict with one another. A parallel ensues between Baltimore’s criminal justice system and the laws of the street and the equal pressure they apply to individuals. </p>
<p>For instance, drug kingpin Stringer Bell’s (Idris Elba) brutal murder of Omar’s lover Brandon for robbing his stash house is depicted as a logically justifiable action similar to that of the US justice system’s treatment of criminals. Without such iconic episodes, would we have been able to empathise with the callous actions of the bloodthirsty Lannisters in Game of Thrones?</p>
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<img alt="Man in suit." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420027/original/file-20210908-27-rd3frm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420027/original/file-20210908-27-rd3frm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420027/original/file-20210908-27-rd3frm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420027/original/file-20210908-27-rd3frm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420027/original/file-20210908-27-rd3frm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420027/original/file-20210908-27-rd3frm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420027/original/file-20210908-27-rd3frm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Idris Elba as drug kingpin.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.hbo.com/content/dam/hbodata/series/the-wire/character/the-street/russell-stringer-bell-1920.jpg/_jcr_content/renditions/cq5dam.web.1200.675.jpeg">HBO</a></span>
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<h2>5. Challenging the war on drugs</h2>
<p>Perhaps Williams’ and the Wire’s greatest legacy will be the key role it has played in making the world increasingly sceptical of America’s war on drugs. Season four received the <a href="https://www.metacritic.com/tv/the-wire/season-4">strongest critical reception</a> for portraying how a host of school children could be forced into a life of drug abuse against their will. </p>
<p>The series highlights underfunded social services, a lack of employment opportunities, “benevolent” drug dealers, and drug-addicted parents to compellingly reveal that not all addicts are addled layabouts through choice. Instead, these people have been worn down by a system and societal structure that was against them from the moment they were unlucky enough to be born black in the projects (the US’s social housing). </p>
<p>A testament to just how much the show changed opinion, during his first presidential campaign <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=w2F3eLZHmoA">Barack Obama said</a>, “Omar’s a great guy.” While Obama was keen to point out he was not endorsing the character’s lawbreaking, The Wire nevertheless helped instigate a global debate as to whether America’s war on drugs is worth its escalating cost in terms of human lives and taxpayer money. </p>
<p>David Simon <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2011/06/wire-creator-david-simon-has-counter-offer-eric-holder/351634/">has since vowed he will write a sixth season</a> if drugs are legalised nationally in the US. From new Portuguese laws to Cleveland police’s <a href="https://www.cleveland.pcc.police.uk/how-can-we-help/community/heroin-assisted-treatment-hat/">heroin assisted treatment programme</a>, drug addiction is now starting to be treated as a health problem, as the obituaries for <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-58470253">Michael K Williams’ untimely death</a> attest. The Wire and Williams’ performance went a long way in showing that drug addiction is an illness that demands understanding and that those suffering from it need society’s help and support, not its condemnation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/167480/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ben Lamb does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Wire was a Greek tragedy, a novel and a bingeworthy social commentary.Ben Lamb, Senior Lecturer in Media, Teesside UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1613312021-06-10T14:55:01Z2021-06-10T14:55:01ZCop shows: Should they be cancelled or rebooted?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404354/original/file-20210603-25-erks1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=49%2C0%2C5521%2C3669&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A group of policemen in Marseille, France, pass in front of a bus shelter featuring a poster from the television series 'Paris Police 1900'.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The murder of George Floyd <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/how-george-floyds-death-reignited-a-worldwide-movement/a-56781938">reignited a global outpouring of grief and advocacy</a> on behalf of victims of police brutality. </p>
<p>In the year since, there have been many pieces written about the past, present and future of police on television. Some call for <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/06/04/shut-down-all-police-movies-tv-shows-now/">police shows to be cancelled</a>, but most instead <a href="https://www.vulture.com/article/police-shows-in-2020-anonymous-in-hollywood.html">reflect</a> on how to <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2020/6/11/21284719/cop-shows-canceled-the-wire-babylon-berlin">reinvent them</a>. </p>
<p>A lot of these pieces cite a <a href="https://hollywood.colorofchange.org/crime-tv-report/%22%22">2020 report</a>, which asserts that the scripted crime genre normalizes injustice. This suggests that it might not be possible to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/apr/24/tv-police-cop-shows-hollywood-legacy">reform these shows</a>. But as television plays a large role in not just reflecting, but <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/42579442?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">constructing our reality</a>, writers and producers can’t afford not to try.</p>
<p>The classic cop show is now a problematic genre, but if it can change, then perhaps real world policing can too.</p>
<h2>Informing our understanding of justice</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/03/22/how-to-write-a-tv-police-procedural-in-thirteen-easy-steps?">police procedural or “cop show</a>” has been a prime-time staple — informing our understanding of justice and the role of law enforcement in attaining it — since the days of <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043194/?ref_=fn_al_tt_3"><em>Dragnet</em></a>. </p>
<p>These <a href="https://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/network-tv">broadcast network</a> television programs remain compelling because they are predictably consistent with episodic ripped-from-the-headlines plots.</p>
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<img alt="Billboard of TV show 'The Boys'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404353/original/file-20210603-25-4eowse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404353/original/file-20210603-25-4eowse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404353/original/file-20210603-25-4eowse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404353/original/file-20210603-25-4eowse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404353/original/file-20210603-25-4eowse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404353/original/file-20210603-25-4eowse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404353/original/file-20210603-25-4eowse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption"><em>The Boys</em> follows a team of vigilantes as they combat superpowered individuals who abuse their abilities.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Brecht Bug/flickr)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
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<p>I love the <a href="https://www.flowjournal.org/2011/10/watching-while-depressed/">comforting</a> problem/solution storytelling that the police procedural offers. Boredom and anxiety have played a role in drawing me to these programs during the pandemic.</p>
<p>However, lately I find myself increasingly troubled by the implications of watching countless hours of problematic characterizations and behaviours. I research and lecture on structures of power and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtYU87QNjPw">the violence inherent in the system</a>, so I should know better. But the more I watch, the more I internalize the ideological work these programs are doing. </p>
<p>Shows like <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098844/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1"><em>Law & Order</em></a> (and <a href="https://lawandorder.fandom.com/wiki/Law_%26_Order_franchise">its many iterations</a>), <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2805096/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2"><em>Chicago PD</em></a>, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1595859/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1"><em>Blue Bloods</em></a>, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6111130/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0"><em>S.W.A.T.</em></a> and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7587890/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1"><em>The Rookie</em></a> teach us many things about policing. They reinforce how we are supposed to treat, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2020/06/08/cop-tv-shows-race/">feel about</a> and behave around police officers in our communities. </p>
<h2>Problems rooted in disparity between training and practice</h2>
<p>The current state of law enforcement is arguably a logical outcome of <a href="https://www.ualberta.ca/folio/2020/06/commentary--racist-cop-shows-and-biased-news-fuel-public-fears-of-crime-and-love-for-the-police.html">news and entertainment media</a> having spent decades equating cops with superheroes <em>who can do no wrong</em>. </p>
<p>A recent program that makes this connection abundantly clear is the irreverent (and graphically violent) Amazon Prime series <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1190634/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1"><em>The Boys</em></a>. </p>
<p>It depicts a world in which most superheroes embody capitalist excess as law enforcement celebrities with licensing deals, political aspirations and manifest destiny origin stories. In this world the sole purpose of these avatars of justice is to elevate and enrich their “brands,” only dabbling in service and protection when it suits their interests.</p>
<p>The critique of power and law enforcement offered by <em>The Boys</em> reminds us that the problems we are now facing are not about individual cops. They are systemic problems, rooted in a disparity between <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/7/31/21334190/what-police-do-defund-abolish-police-reform-training">how police officers are trained</a> and what they are expected to actually do. But this disparity is only exacerbated by the way the profession is represented in popular culture, particularly on television.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">In this scene from The Wire, character Howard Colvin (played by actor Robert Wisdom) describes to a young police sergeant the problem with America’s Drug war.</span></figcaption>
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<p>One notable critique of police culture comes from <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0306414/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1"><em>The Wire</em></a>, which first aired on HBO nearly 20 years ago. As a cable show it was able to transcend the limitations of the formulaic procedural. </p>
<p>It situated its Baltimore police stories within a complex exploration of systemic power as it operated in organized labour, education, politics and the newsroom. It provided compelling commentary on the increasing militarization of the police in both mindset and behaviour. But this critique has hardly been taken to heart in either the procedural series or real world policing.</p>
<h2>Cops shows will survive, but should they?</h2>
<p>Cop shows can undoubtedly survive as they are. Many people will be happy to keep watching police-valorizing narratives where the <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/tv/ct-mov-crime-tv-reinforces-misperceptions-0214-20200213-wbq7utgtnjcujaispinx4hl2qu-story.html">ends justify the means</a> as long as law-abiding citizens are saved from bad guys. </p>
<p>Altering these narratives to truly address what some are calling a <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/07/13/state-violence-a-crisis-of-legitimacy-and-the-path-to-true-public-safety/">crisis of legitimacy in policing</a> will be difficult. There is reason to worry that <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2021/01/22/cop-shows-racial-justice-how-series-adapt-after-protests/6541175002/">timely acknowledgement of issues</a> may not last. </p>
<p><em>Law & Order</em> launched its most recent iteration <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12677870/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0"><em>Organized Crime</em></a>, in April, returning the old school “gladiator” cop Elliot Stabler to the NYPD after a 10-year absence. In the <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0203259/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0"><em>Special Victims Unit</em></a> crossover episode that reintroduces him, his former partner admonishes him that “we don’t do it that way anymore” when he threatens to assault a suspect in interrogation. </p>
<p>Is this the <a href="https://www.npr.org/transcripts/989781898">kind of cop we need on TV right now</a>? </p>
<p>After George Floyd’s death, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2467372/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1"><em>Brooklyn Nine-Nine</em></a> writers decided to <a href="https://tvline.com/2020/06/23/brooklyn-nine-nine-spoilers-season-8-episodes-police-violence-protests/">discard four episodes</a> they had already written for a forthcoming eighth season and start over. </p>
<p>They have discussed taking the show in <a href="https://collider.com/brooklyn-99-season-8-alternate-ideas/">an entirely new direction</a>. As the workplace sitcom is primarily about character relationships, they’re better positioned to pivot from this “situation,” while the police procedural cannot. The upcoming season will be <em>Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s</em> final one, so writers may take more risks with storytelling since they needn’t worry about alienating viewers or advertisers.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The Inclusion Rider aims to make Hollywood entertainment more representative of our society by providing practical steps to get us there.</span></figcaption>
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<p>The police procedural could undergo a lasting transformation that reflects current social concerns in thoughtful and nuanced ways. But for this to happen, content creators need to view this historical moment as a challenge to <a href="https://variety.com/2020/tv/features/cop-shows-under-microscope-1234635929/">incorporate the perspectives</a> of various real-world stakeholders. </p>
<p>It needs to become an <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2020/06/05/law-order-svu-producer-george-floyd-has-come-up-show/3158480001/">inflection point</a>, and not just an exercise in performative “wokeness.”</p>
<p>There is a call for a radical reimagining of the function of the police. Writers and producers of cops shows have an opportunity to bring <a href="https://www.fims.uwo.ca/news/2016/discovering_the_importance_of_dreams.html">a dream</a> of more humane justice to our small screens. </p>
<p>This could then help us to better <a href="https://defundthepolice.org/alternatives-to-police-services/">imagine</a> how to transform the <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/police-brutality-cop-free-world-protest-199465/">role</a> and <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/6/24/21296881/unbundle-defund-the-police-george-floyd-rayshard-brooks-violence-european-policing">structure</a> of law enforcement agencies in the real world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161331/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tiara Sukhan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The classic cop show is now a problematic genre, but if it can change, then perhaps real world policing can too.Tiara Sukhan, Assistant Professor, Western UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1425062020-07-24T15:25:21Z2020-07-24T15:25:21ZHow cop shows serve to reinforce the racism at the heart of our culture<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348672/original/file-20200721-29-ea4muj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C0%2C2992%2C1994&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/detective-board-photos-suspected-criminals-crime-1473136763">DedMityay/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>TV police shows are a complicated strand of entertainment. Unsurprisingly, they have come under the cultural microscope in response to police brutality and the death of George Floyd. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2020/06/08/cop-tv-shows-race/">Many critiques</a> have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/jan/25/law-and-disorder-how-shows-cloud-the-public-view-of-criminal-justice">drawn upon</a> a <a href="https://hollywood.colorofchange.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Normalizing-Injustice_Abridged-1.pdf">report by</a> US civil-rights group Color of Change, entitled Normalizing Injustice, to demonstrate how crime shows have supported the way we sanction police violence. </p>
<p>A main strand of the report explores what it terms “misbehaviour” by law enforcement on TV. Misbehaviour can mean a number of things, from bending a rule to outright criminal behaviour. However, the issue in these shows is much more complex. The wider problem is that systemic racism is rampant in the TV industry, behind and in front of the camera, and these shows are a classic example of what this produces. </p>
<p>As far as misbehaviour is concerned, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0286486/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0">The Shield</a> is one example at the extreme end of the spectrum. The show follows a group of “corrupt but effective cops” and their captain, who is torn between stopping them and a fear that this will undermine his political aspirations of becoming mayor of Los Angeles. </p>
<p>The show exposes police corruption and brutality at every level of law enforcement. It is shot with handheld cameras and features little music, making the sounds of beatings more visceral and the violence more realistic. Over seven seasons, it captures the various institutional and political incentives to cover up crimes committed by the police. </p>
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<p>Elsewhere, the sub-genre of shows about “consultant detectives” depicts less violent but no less harmful forms of misbehaviour. This genre includes shows like <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1196946/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0">The Mentalist</a>, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2191671/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0">Elementary</a> and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0491738/">Psych</a>. </p>
<p>All feature white, male consultants who enjoy police freedoms such as access to information in large databases and autopsy reports, without any of the accountability. They break into suspects’ houses, interview minors without a guardian or kidnap suspects, all without legal or social consequences. Furthermore, this behaviour is usually sanctioned by the shows’ insistence that these characters are “good guys”. </p>
<h2>Formula for failure</h2>
<p>While misbehaviour is a big problem, it is not the only one. Following the massive success of <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0247082/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0">CSI: Crime Scene Investigations</a> in the early 2000s, there has been a wave of “forensic detective” shows which assert that “following the evidence” is the guiding principle of detection. Aside from their predominantly white casts, these series ignore the way the use of science incorporates conservative biases while also bolstering racial stereotypes as it ignores social contexts. </p>
<p>Individual episodes of series like CSI rely on a three-act structure that ends with seemingly irrefutable evidence and a confession of guilt. This serves to close off any discussion of how social context contributes to crime, depicting criminals as disruptions in an otherwise well-functioning world. As such, these supposedly objective <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9781137425652">methods of detection</a> reproduce institutional and systemic racism under the guide of “following the evidence”. </p>
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<p>More open-ended and <a href="https://justtv.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/mittell-narrative-complexity.pdf">complex</a> narrative structures make it possible for social context to be explored. Such structure benefited The Wire, which followed a team investigating drug-related crimes. The show offered insights into the systemic failure of the “war on drugs”. It also gave dimension to characters who would normally be stigmatised as “gangsters” by offering access to their inner lives and exploring the social conditions that produce crime. </p>
<p>Mainstream awards like the Golden Globes and Emmys have traditionally failed to recognise series like <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0306414/awards">The Wire</a>, ignoring shows with racially balanced or majority Black casts. Despite being critically acclaimed, The Wire failed to win a <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hollywood-flashback-now-a-classic-wire-was-overlooked-by-emmys-1230199">single Primetime Emmy Award</a> nor receive any major nominations, except for two writing nominations in 2005 and 2008. </p>
<p>Such instances highlight what kinds of shows are valued by the industry. This feeds into commissioning as it sends a clear signal of how to get industry recognition. The system is, thus, doomed to replicate itself, resulting in shows that all look the same and suffer from the same problems. </p>
<h2>Real-world barriers</h2>
<p>It is unsurprising with such an entrenched “recipe for success” that most lead actors in these shows are male and white. As well as being sidelined in supporting roles, actors of colour face a myriad of institutional barriers. </p>
<p>This includes pay disparity, an issue that was highlighted in 2017 when the two Asian-American leads in <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1600194/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0">Hawaii Five-0</a>, Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park, asked for <a href="https://time.com/4847554/hawaii-five-0-equal-pay-controversy/">pay equality</a> to their white colleagues Alex O’Loughlin and Scott Caan. </p>
<p>Both were unsuccessful and subsequently <a href="https://variety.com/2017/tv/news/daniel-dae-kim-grace-park-hawaii-five-0-1202484329/">quit the series</a> after seven seasons. This left Hawaii Five-0, which featured no indigenous Hawaiian lead actors in the first place, without Asian-American actors with significant star power in the midst of a debate on whitewashing in Hollywood. Though this instance is discouraging, it did serve to bring wider issues surrounding systemic racism in the television industry to the fore. </p>
<p>Recognising that there are many problems, overt and covert, involved in cop shows is important and avoids simplistic narrative solutions being used to plaster over deeper problems. Such solutions as having a <a href="https://www.tvguide.com/news/chicago-pd-season-6-episode-13-laroyce-hawkins-black-lives-matter/">Black Lives Matter episode</a> or <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=brooklyn+99+episode+BLM&rlz=1C5CHFA_enGB778GB783&oq=brooklyn+99+episode+BLM&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l7.8197j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8">rewriting seasons</a>. There are specific solutions that can help change these shows and benefit the wider industry. These include pay equality, colourblind casting and diversity quotas for crews, writers’ rooms, directors and producers. </p>
<p>The representation of “misbehaviour” is an important issue, but so are problems inherent in the formulas of the crime genre and institutionalised racism within an industry that denies opportunities to people of colour.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/142506/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mareike Jenner does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The way this genre represents police is just the tip of the iceberg.Mareike Jenner, Senior Lecturer, Media Studies, Anglia Ruskin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/653142016-09-26T01:31:39Z2016-09-26T01:31:39ZWhat’s behind America’s insistence on instilling grit in kids?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138869/original/image-20160922-22514-1g088jk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Some say coddled kids need to be taught how to persevere through setbacks and disappointments.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-263663474/stock-photo-white-flower-growing-on-crack-street-soft-focus-blank-text.html?src=undefined-undefined-7">'Flower' via www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the same way that actual grit accumulates in the cracks and crevices of the landscape, our cultural insistence on possessing grit has gradually come to the forefront of child-rearing and education reform.</p>
<p>Recent academic papers on grit include the <a href="http://gradworks.proquest.com/10/11/10119261.html">education-leadership dissertation project</a> of New England College’s Austin Garofalo, titled “Teaching the Character Competencies of Growth Mindset and Grit To Increase Student Motivation in the Classroom,” and UMass Dartmouth professor Kenneth J. Saltman’s “<a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/566832">The Austerity School: Grit, Character, and the Privatization of Public Education.”</a></p>
<p>In contrast to the range of perspectives on grit offered in academia, the popular media will often frame it as an essential characteristic for healthy, productive maturation – and certainly a necessary component for academic success.</p>
<p>In 2012, Paul Tough’s book on the topic, “<a href="http://www.paultough.com/the-books/how-children-succeed/">How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity and the Hidden Power of Character,”</a> was a critical and commercial success, earning positive acclaim from <a href="https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/paul-tough/how-children-succeed/">Kirkus Reviews</a>, <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21569680-new-research-how-close-achievement-gap-stay-focused">The Economist</a>, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/26/books/review/how-children-succeed-by-paul-tough.html?pagewanted=1&smid=tw-share&pagewanted=all&mtrref=www.paultough.com&gwh=9DF5943DCE0C4515859382445FF1208B&gwt=pay">The New York Times</a>, <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2012/11/best_books_2012_slate_staff_picks_their_favorites.single.html">Slate</a> – and even former Secretary of Education <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324001104578165432521728030">Arne Duncan</a>.</p>
<p>And last year, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/parenting/wp/2015/03/09/grit-the-key-ingredient-to-your-kids-success/">in a column for The Washington Post</a>, Judy Holland, editor and founder of <a href="http://www.parentinsider.com/">ParentInsider.com</a>, wrote that the “coddled kids” of the “‘self-esteem’ movement in the 1980s” produced children who were “softer, slower and less likely to persevere.”</p>
<p>“Grit is defined as passion and perseverance in pursuit of long-term goals,” she continued. “Grit determines who survives at West Point, who finals at the National Spelling Bee, and who is tough enough not to be a quitter.”</p>
<p>As someone who specializes in children’s literature and cultural attitudes toward childhood, I’ve been interested in this insistence on fostering grit. I’ve also taught writing and literature over the past year to West Point cadets, who, it seems, must learn how to acquire this somewhat elusive quality. </p>
<p>But I can’t help but wonder if we’re talking about grit in an unproductive way. And maybe one of the problems is that it’s presented as a concept: abstract, indeterminate and somewhat magical or mysterious. </p>
<p>How can we define grit, or the idea behind it, in a way that means something? What if we’re not framing the discussion of grit in the right way, since grit can mean something entirely different for a kid living in the Chicago’s South Side than it does for a kid living in the suburbs?</p>
<h2>A slippery buzzword?</h2>
<p>In 2014, National Public Radio’s Tovia Smith looked at how educators and researchers are using the concept of grit in the classroom. She interviewed MacArthur Genius Grant recipient Angela Duckworth, associate professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and author of “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Grit-Passion-Perseverance-Angela-Duckworth/dp/1501111108">Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance,”</a> which was published in May. In it, she considers how teaching grit can revolutionize students’ educational development.</p>
<p>“This quality of being able to sustain your passions, and also work really hard at them, over really disappointingly long periods of time, that’s grit,” Duckworth <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2014/03/17/290089998/does-teaching-kids-to-get-gritty-help-them-get-ahead">told Smith in the NPR segment</a>. Expanding on the national significance of grit, Duckworth added, “It’s a very, I think, American idea in some ways – really pursuing something against all odds.” </p>
<p>But more recently, Duckworth has backtracked from some of her earlier advocacy. In March she <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2016/03/03/468870056/is-grit-doomed-to-be-the-new-self-esteem">told NPR’s Anya Kamenetz</a> that the “enthusiasm” for grit “is getting ahead of the science.” And Duckworth has since resigned from the board of a California education group that’s working to find a way to measure grit. </p>
<p>As Kamenetz notes, part of the problem with buzzwords like “grit” – and the attempt to measure or implement them in the classroom – “is inherent in the slippery language we use to describe them.” </p>
<p>Is grit something that can even be taught? Can we measure it? Is it a trait or a skill? If a quality like grit is a trait, then it may be genetic, which would make it difficult to simply instill in kids. If it’s a skill or habit, only then can it be coached or taught.</p>
<h2>Grit’s place in children’s literature</h2>
<p>The Oxford English Dictionary <a href="http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/81639?rskey=eyVD1p&result=1#eid">tells us</a> that grit – the kind that describes “firmness or solidity of character; indomitable spirit or pluck; stamina” – originated as American slang in the early 19th century. It’s easy to see its kinship to the other definition of grit: “minute particles of stone or sand, as produced by attrition or disintegration.” </p>
<p>It’s come to represent a refusal to give up, no matter the odds – a refusal to wash away, break down or completely dissolve. </p>
<p>American children’s literature has long had “gritty” protagonists: characters who’ve arguably instilled moralistic values of bravery, industry and integrity in generations of readers.</p>
<p>In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, another word featured in the Oxford English Dictionary’s “grit” definition figured more prominently in mainstream children’s literature – <a href="https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/pluck">pluck</a>. </p>
<p>Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn both exhibited pluck, seen in their wily charm, adventurous spirit and underlying moral conscience. But the notion of pluck, grit’s forefather, was largely popularized in Horatio Alger’s stories, which are known for their hardworking young male protagonists trying to eke out livings and educate themselves within the American urban landscape.</p>
<p>“Dick knew he must study hard, and he dreaded it,” Alger wrote in his landmark text, “Ragged Dick.” “But Dick had good pluck. He meant to learn, nevertheless, and resolved to buy a book with his first spare earnings.”</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138850/original/image-20160922-22509-mqtmre.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138850/original/image-20160922-22509-mqtmre.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=985&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138850/original/image-20160922-22509-mqtmre.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=985&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138850/original/image-20160922-22509-mqtmre.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=985&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138850/original/image-20160922-22509-mqtmre.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1238&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138850/original/image-20160922-22509-mqtmre.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1238&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138850/original/image-20160922-22509-mqtmre.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1238&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Grit goes mainstream with Charles Portis’ plucky protagonist Mattie Ross.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Though he hates it, Dick studies hard because he believes he needs an education “to win a respectable position in the world.”</p>
<p>The determined, plucky child figure arguably evolved into one of grit through Mattie Ross in Charles Portis’ 1968 western novel of revenge set in the late 19th century. </p>
<p>The novel quickly establishes Mattie’s resilience and resolve, which solidify after the murder of Mattie’s father. Mattie, reflecting on her doggedness, says, “People do not give it credence that a fourteen-year-old girl could leave home and go off in the wintertime to avenge her father’s blood.”</p>
<h2>Grit to what end?</h2>
<p>Mattie Ross and Horatio Alger’s clever street boys helped shape an American ideal of youthful grit. But these fictional characters asserted their grit because they had goals. What good is grit if you feel like you have nothing to strive for?</p>
<p>In early children’s literature for African-Americans, publications such as W.E.B. Du Bois’ monthly youth magazine The Brownies’ Book attempted to also give its young readers an idea of what they could achieve. While much of American children’s literature during the turn of the last century – <a href="http://weneeddiversebooks.org/">and even today</a> – filters ideas of grit through the perspective of the middle-class white child, The Brownies’ Book specifically addressed the lives and experiences of African-American children. First published in 1920, the magazine encouraged African-American children to fully embrace their cultural identities, participate in their communities and become citizens of the world.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138851/original/image-20160922-22509-vvskva.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138851/original/image-20160922-22509-vvskva.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=809&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138851/original/image-20160922-22509-vvskva.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=809&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138851/original/image-20160922-22509-vvskva.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=809&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138851/original/image-20160922-22509-vvskva.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1017&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138851/original/image-20160922-22509-vvskva.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1017&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138851/original/image-20160922-22509-vvskva.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1017&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The Brownies’ Book was a monthly magazine for African-American kids.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>But that was 1920, during the dawn of the Harlem Renaissance, a time when the work of African-American artists, activists and thinkers brought newfound optimism to the push for racial equality and cultural pride. Over the course of the 20th century, circumstances for many children of minority communities changed. As Atlantic writer Ta-Nehisi Coates has explained, a <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/05/the-ghetto-is-public-policy/275456/">public policy</a> of ghettoization has left many urban school districts <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/">impoverished and underserved</a>, with few examples of hope or achievement outside the drug trade. Yes, kids could develop grit – they could find confidence, diligence and resilience outside the law – a version of grit demonized by mainstream society. </p>
<p>David Simon’s Baltimore-set HBO series “The Wire” illustrates the narrow possibilities for black kids growing up in the city. Grit, as depicted in “The Wire,” comes via success in the drug trade. This kind of grit has the bottom line of economic gain. It’s not about a search for identity, cultural understanding or artistry because kids don’t think they have the same opportunities and potential highlighted in the issues of The Brownies’ Book.</p>
<p><a href="http://ocrdata.ed.gov">A 2014 study from the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights</a> found that in America, there still exists a pattern of racial inequality in public schools, whether it’s course offerings, teacher performance or student expulsion. These statistics – the same as those echoed in “The Wire” – leave many somber, dejected, angry or, too often, complacent. </p>
<p>So how can students have – or learn – grit when all kids face different realities – different struggles, different dreams and different social structures?</p>
<p>Yes, it’s important to reevaluate the education system, as monumental a task that may be. But all institutional or systemic change starts with the individual. </p>
<p>“A lot of what ‘The Wire’ was about sounds cynical to people,” Simon <a href="http://www.vice.com/read/david-simon-280-v16n12">said in a 2009 Vice interview</a>. “I think it’s very cynical about institutions and their ability to reform. I don’t deny that, but I don’t think it’s at all cynical about people.” </p>
<p>Maybe the first step is to think of grit not as something to cultivate in students. Instead, maybe grit is the debris – the dream – that lingers. If children and young adults get that piece of grit stuck to them, they’ll be motivated to keep going until the grit is gone.</p>
<p>Perhaps the job of adults, then, isn’t to tell kids to buckle down and work through adversity. It’s about opening their eyes to the innumerable possibilities before them – so they’ll want to persevere in the first place. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>Correction: In an earlier version, the academic papers on grit were conflated with popular media coverage. A paragraph has been rearranged and a phrase added to differentiate the two.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/65314/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paige Gray does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>One of the newest trends in education is teaching students how to develop grit. But what’s even meant by ‘grit’? And what if grit means something different for everyone?Paige Gray, Visiting Assistant Professor, Fort Lewis CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/486602015-10-06T19:27:31Z2015-10-06T19:27:31ZMad Men, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the ‘Golden Age’ of television<p>An enormous amount of digital column inches are dedicated to discussing American television. This week one of the more prominent articles is about television and academia. </p>
<p>The Atlantic’s <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/10/the-rise-of-buffy-studies/407020/">“The Rise of Buffy Studies”</a> by Katharine Schwab has been popping up all over the place on Facebook, Twitter and has even been republished by <a href="http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2015/10/04/why-academics-love-buffy-vampire-slayer">SBS</a>. </p>
<p>Schwab’s article contends that Joss Whedon’s genre bending cult-show <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118276/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Buffy the Vampire Slayer</a> (1997-2003) paved “the way for scholars to treat television shows like The Wire, Mad Men, and Breaking Bad as sprawling works of art to be dissected and analysed alongside the greatest works of literature.”</p>
<p>But this isn’t entirely true - television has been the subject of serious academic inquiry for decades - long before Buffy, let alone <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0306414/?ref_=nv_sr_1">The Wire</a> (2002-2008), <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0804503/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Mad Men</a> (2007-2015) and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0903747/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Breaking Bad</a> (2008-2013).</p>
<p>This is not to challenge the phenomenon of Buffy; I have published on Buffy myself and it is by far the <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2012/06/11/pop_culture_studies_why_do_academics_study_buffy_the_vampire_slayer_more_than_the_wire_the_matrix_alien_and_the_simpsons_.html">most written about television series in academia</a>. However it is not the beginning of academic television studies and it is misleading to think about it in those terms. </p>
<p>Buffy has the distinction of capturing the imagination of many English literature and cultural studies academics who had previously not examined television. The show’s use of metaphor, allegory and literary allusion makes it particularly appealing for longform analysis.</p>
<p>As Schwab outlines, academic examinations of Buffy range from the philosophical to the peculiar. Philosophical approaches to the series are aplenty, including James B. South’s <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31912.Buffy_the_Vampire_Slayer_and_Philosophy">Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy</a> (2003) and Dean Kowalksi and S. Evan Kreider’s <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11248506-the-philosophy-of-joss-whedon">The Philosophy of Joss Whedon</a> (2011). </p>
<p>At times Buffy scholarship gets very niche. Personal favourites of mine include Stevie Simkins’ <a href="http://slayageonline.com/essays/slayage11_12/Simkin_Gun.htm">“You Hold Your Gun Like A Sissy Girl”: Firearms And Anxious Masculinity In Buffy The Vampire Slayer</a> (2004), Patricia Pender’s <a href="http://slayageonline.com/PDF/pender.pdf">“Kicking Ass is Comfort Food”: Buffy as Third Wave Feminist Icon</a> (2004) and Leigh Clemons’ <a href="http://www.whedonstudies.tv/uploads/2/6/2/8/26288593/clemons.pdf">Real Vampires Don’t Wear Shorts: The Aesthetics of Fashion in Buffy the Vampire Slayer</a> (2006).</p>
<p>There is even academic writing on the academic writing on Buffy, thanks to David Lavery’s <a href="http://www.slayageonline.com/PDF/lavery4.pdf">“I wrote my thesis on you!”: Buffy Studies as an
Academic Cult</a> (2004).</p>
<h2>Before Buffy</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97337/original/image-20151006-29257-1extfbk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97337/original/image-20151006-29257-1extfbk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=742&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97337/original/image-20151006-29257-1extfbk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=742&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97337/original/image-20151006-29257-1extfbk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=742&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97337/original/image-20151006-29257-1extfbk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=932&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97337/original/image-20151006-29257-1extfbk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=932&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97337/original/image-20151006-29257-1extfbk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=932&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Lucille Ball and Tennessee Ernie Ford in a 1956 episode of I Love Lucy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tennessee_Ernie_Ford_Lucille_Ball_I_Love_Lucy.jpg">Bureau of Industrial Service/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Television studies has existed as a coherent area of academic study since the 1970s, often a sub-discipline of film studies, media studies and/or cultural studies. </p>
<p>An enormous amount of academic scholarship has been written on the industry of American television and the cultural significance of series such as <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043208/">I Love Lucy</a> (1951-1957), <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054533/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">The Dick Van Dyke Show</a> (1961-1966), <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065314/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">The Mary Tyler Moore Show</a> (1970-1977) and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083395/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Cagney & Lacey</a> (1981-1988) amongst others. </p>
<p>Feminist, industrial and thematic analysis dominates early television studies. </p>
<p>Entire monographs and anthologies are dedicated to individual series. One of my favourites is Julie D'Acci’s <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1515443.Defining_Women">Defining Women: The Case of Cagney & Lacey</a> (1994). D'Acci charts the different ways that Cagney & Lacey negotiated the women’s liberation movement, feminism and the changing television industry. </p>
<p>Before HBO, “quality television” was most closely associated with <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065314/">The Mary Tyler Moore Show</a> (1970–1977) and Moore’s production company MTM Enterprises, thanks in part to Jane Feuer, Paul Kerr and Tise Vahimagi’s book <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/811312.M_T_M_?from_search=true&search_version=service">MTM: Quality Television</a> (1984). </p>
<p>But The Atlantic article is representative of a broader trend in contemporary journalism and popular media to forget this history. And as the history is forgotten, so too is the valuable scholarship that goes with it. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97340/original/image-20151006-29243-hydki5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97340/original/image-20151006-29243-hydki5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=762&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97340/original/image-20151006-29243-hydki5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=762&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97340/original/image-20151006-29243-hydki5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=762&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97340/original/image-20151006-29243-hydki5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=957&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97340/original/image-20151006-29243-hydki5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=957&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97340/original/image-20151006-29243-hydki5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=957&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mary Tyler Moore, Dick Van Dyke and Larry Mathews in a 1963 episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dick_Van_Dyke_Petrie_family_1963.JPG">CBS Television/Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One case in point is an article published in The Huffington Post in June 2015 by Zeba Blay, entitled <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2015/06/18/how-feminist-tv-became-the-new-normal_n_7567898.html?ir=Australia">“How Feminist TV became the New Normal.”</a> This article charted the rise of so-called “feminist TV” without any discussions of television series before <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0159206/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Sex and the City</a> (1998-2004). </p>
<p>American television has a rich and complex history with feminism that extends back to its early years with <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043208/">I Love Lucy</a> (1951–1957) and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0020555/?ref_=nv_sr_1">The Gracie Allen and George Burns Show</a> (1950-1964). Seminal television scholar Patricia Mellencamp has written about these series and their importance at length. <a href="http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED293537">Mellencamp</a> provides a framework for reading these series as feminist, arguing that Gracie and Lucy operate as feminist figures who outsmart or outmanoeuvre their inevitable containment. </p>
<h2>The “Golden Age” of television?</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97343/original/image-20151006-29248-15x5o44.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97343/original/image-20151006-29248-15x5o44.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97343/original/image-20151006-29248-15x5o44.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=713&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97343/original/image-20151006-29248-15x5o44.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=713&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97343/original/image-20151006-29248-15x5o44.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=713&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97343/original/image-20151006-29248-15x5o44.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=896&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97343/original/image-20151006-29248-15x5o44.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=896&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97343/original/image-20151006-29248-15x5o44.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=896&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 1977 episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show featuring Valerie Harper, Cloris Leachman and Mary Tyler Moore.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Scene_2_from_the_Mary_Tyler_Moore_Show_1977.jpg">CBS Television/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Why are we so reticent to remember this history and those who wrote it? </p>
<p>Why the reluctance to acknowledge that before Buffy or <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0141842/?ref_=nv_sr_1">The Sopranos</a> (1999-2007) changed American television irrevocably, so too did I Love Lucy and The Mary Tyler Moore Show?</p>
<p>And what about <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066626/?ref_=nv_sr_1">All in the Family</a> (1971-1979), <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068098/?ref_=nv_sr_1">M✵A✵S✵H</a> (1972-1983), <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075572/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Roots</a> (1977), Cagney & Lacey, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096697/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Roseanne</a> (1988-1997), <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096697/?ref_=nv_sr_1">The Simpsons</a> (1989-present), <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106079/?ref_=nv_sr_1">NYPD Blue</a> (1993-2005) and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108757/?ref_=nv_sr_3">ER</a> (1994-2009)? </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97353/original/image-20151006-29227-nkijz7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97353/original/image-20151006-29227-nkijz7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97353/original/image-20151006-29227-nkijz7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=867&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97353/original/image-20151006-29227-nkijz7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=867&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97353/original/image-20151006-29227-nkijz7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=867&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97353/original/image-20151006-29227-nkijz7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1090&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97353/original/image-20151006-29227-nkijz7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1090&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97353/original/image-20151006-29227-nkijz7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1090&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lynne Moody and Georg Stanford Brown in the 1977 television miniseries Roots.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Georg_Stanford_Brown_Lynne_Moody_1977.jpg">ABC Television/Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In part, the forgetting of television history is fuelled by books that chart the rise of the so-called “Golden Age of Television” including <a href="http://brettmartin.org/difficultmen/">Brett Martin</a>’s <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16158518-difficult-men">Difficult Men</a> (2013) and <a href="http://www.alansepinwall.com/">Alan Sepinwall</a>’s <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16137527-the-revolution-was-televised">The Revolution was Televised</a> (2012).</p>
<p>But there are those who consider this “Golden Age” something of a myth. When Mad Men creator-showrunner Matthew Weiner visited Australia for the <a href="http://www.vividsydney.com/ideas">Vivid Ideas</a> festival in June, he said he didn’t believe American television was “better” now than it was when he was growing up. </p>
<p>I would argue the “Golden Age” idea is exclusionary; it not only encourages an elitist attitude towards contemporary television, but also fails to acknowledge the extraordinary work that informs television today. </p>
<p>It’s important to remember our history, because we don’t get Tony Soprano, Walter White and Don Draper without the crude, offensive and difficult Archie Bunker of All in the Family. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2372162/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Orange is the New Black</a> (2013-present) likewise owes as much to I Love Lucy and M✵A✵S✵H as it does to <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0411008/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Lost</a> (2004-2010) and The Wire.</p>
<p>We don’t forget the great film and literature of the past, so why do we forget iconic television series and their history?</p>
<p>Perhaps it’s because television’s history is relatively short compared to other mediums. Or because we don’t think television’s history is worth remembering. Is it because television only became worthy of “serious” academic and historical examination when it became “cinematic”? Or perhaps when movie stars began to appear in it? </p>
<p>Maybe TV has just given us shorter memories and even shorter attention spans - an ailment perhaps best remedied by watching another episode of Buffy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/48660/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jessica Ford does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Before Buffy The Vampire Slayer intrigued academics, shows like I Love Lucy dominated the cultural conversation. This is worth remembering, because Mad Men and The Wire didn’t emerge from nowhere.Jessica Ford, PhD Candiate in Gender and Television Studies and Postgraduate Teaching Fellow in Film and Media, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/417632015-05-21T03:50:21Z2015-05-21T03:50:21ZReviewing Baltimore through Serial, The Wire and race riots<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82357/original/image-20150520-17654-1srq6lw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The current climate is inviting us to conceive of Baltimore as an example of Italian legal philosopher Giorgio Agamben’s 'state of exception'.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/John Taggart</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the American imaginary, Baltimore has come to signify a space in which the law routinely fails to protect and represent its denizens. </p>
<p>We know this from TV shows such as <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0306414/">The Wire </a> (2002-2008) and that show’s “war on drugs”, as waged by law enforcement against the city’s most disenfranchised.</p>
<p>We remember <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Race-Class-Power-Organizing-Baltimore/dp/1498511619">the destruction</a> of predominantly black communities to make way for Johns Hopkins University over the last decade.</p>
<p>We know that Baltimore was notorious for its “<a href="http://qz.com/393128/white-flight-decimated-baltimore-businesses-long-before-rioters-showed-up/">white flight</a>,” and the <a href="http://www.baltimoremagazine.net/2007/5/1/100-years-the-riots-of-1968?p=2007/5/100-years-the-riots-of-1968">riots of 1968</a> following the assassination of Dr Martin Luther King, Jr.</p>
<p>And we can look to the work of political geographer <a href="http://www.thewhitereview.org/interviews/interview-with-david-harvey/">David Harvey</a> to get a sense of the city’s uneven urban development and its wave of foreclosures in the 1990s. </p>
<p>But in the wake of <a href="http://www.baltimoresun.com/features/bs-ae-quadriplegic-boy-baltimore-riots-20150507-story.html#page=1">the Baltimore riots</a> in recent weeks, I’d like to reconsider the hugely successful 2014 podcast <a href="http://serialpodcast.org/">Serial</a>, by National Public Radio. </p>
<p>Set in Baltimore, Serial was a journalistic exploration by <a href="http://time.com/3823276/sarah-koenig-2015-time-100/">Sarah Koenig</a> of the 1999 investigation and trial of high school student <a href="http://www.takepart.com/article/2014/12/17/serial-op-ed">Adnan Masud Syed</a>, found guilty of the murder of his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee. </p>
<p>Syed was convicted to a life sentence and is currently serving time in Maryland State Prison. Earlier this week, however, the Maryland Court Of Special Appeals passed <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/18/serial-asia-mcclain_n_7307756.html">a ruling in Syed’s favour</a> that effectively grants him a new evidentiary hearing.</p>
<p>Similar to The Wire, Serial purports to demystify the law through its unwavering commitment to “realism,” unravelling the legal fiction of “due” process. </p>
<p>Week by week it exposed, or so it seemed, an evidentiary process gone awry, details perjured testimony after perjured testimony, speculates on leads that weren’t followed or considered, and probes into the gaping holes in the narrative and timeline of the alleged murder.</p>
<p>Koenig and her two producers adopted an utterly disarming conversational tone. Listeners – of whom <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/24/business/media/serial-podcastings-first-breakout-hit-sets-stage-for-more.html?_r=0">there were millions</a> – were promptly swept up in the mystery of the case, feeling, perhaps, deputised. </p>
<p>Koenig and co interviewed Adnan and Hae’s friends, family, and lawyers, played recordings from the trial and police interviews. For the most part, the remarkably entertaining stream of voices made it unclear to the listener when Koenig and co were wearing their “responsible journalism” hats, their “legal” hats, and when the women are just being human: confused, bemused, goofy, gossipy.</p>
<p>Presenting those roles in a way that was entangled and simultaneous suggests that the narratives they created and recreated moved through, enacted and embodied (and modified through their own embodiment) had, or ought to have had, some bearing on the official legal narrative. </p>
<p>As we listened to these women work through their frustration at not just the indecipherability of the scant, often contradictory “facts,” but, more importantly, the ways in which these “facts” found expression and containment in the prosecution’s narrative, we were struck with a sense of profound injustice. </p>
<p>That was – at best – irresponsible on the part of the production. The feeling of injustice is very different from its narrow legal construction, especially in respect of procedure (and there is, in fact, comparatively little proof to warrant an appeal). </p>
<p>True Crime, as a genre, begs for visibility: we want to see the evidence, or at least interact with the tactility of words on a page as verifiable source material: transcripts, interviews, newspaper articles. </p>
<p>We want to read the letters and diaries, and get a sense of the case’s spatiality. </p>
<p>Instead, in Serial, we heard Koenig’s mellifluous voice, and envisioned each character as filtered through a diffuse pop cultural consciousness: Jay was both “Dennis Rodman” and “Scooby Doo,” Adnan had big brown cartoon eyes “like a dairy cow,” and Nisha was a “chipmunk.” </p>
<p>While Koenig continued to emphasise place and proximity, DNA and physical evidence, denying the listener direct access to this material seemed to encourage the listener to conflate the affective response that comes from listening (falling in love with Adnan is not uncommon!) and the legal narratives that could have acquitted Adnan or secured a conviction. </p>
<p>Despite itself, Serial examined a racialised time, place and case, but did so via a medium that forces its listener to displace the materiality of these concerns, thereby depoliticising the case, and relocalising Adnan’s story as some kind of imaginative quest for justice. </p>
<p>Admittedly Koenig spent a couple of minutes here and there on the relationship between race, class and policing. In Episode 7, for example, she rather half-heartedly suggested that racial profiling was a “concern” at trial. </p>
<p>When she did spend a few seconds wondering aloud whether the police could have done more, she never questioned their integrity or professionalism (they were “cautious and methodical”) – or, more significantly, the historical function of police as gatekeepers of hierarchical order in the polis. </p>
<p>This is even more astonishing, because, post-The Wire, Baltimore has become a metonym for police corruption.</p>
<p>There is, furthermore, something deeply problematic in Serial’s suggestion that the law had failed Adnan: Serial separated Adnan’s case from the political, social, racial realities of Baltimore, chiefly through the podcast medium, and instead focused on the quest for legal justice as mediated through quirky and charismatic personalities. Law in America becomes, once again, commodified spectacle. </p>
<p>This refocus on the ever-regenerative quest for justice is in fact deeply conservative, complicit with those forces that continue to affirm a picture of American sovereignty and federalism even in the face of the continued exercise of arbitrary state power against the people of Baltimore. </p>
<p>Serial’s narrative attempted to lay bare the law’s most troubling flaws but, importantly, upheld the rule of law by preventing the kind of radical scrutiny that would see the law’s wholesale suspension in Baltimore. </p>
<p>If the current climate is inviting us to conceive of Baltimore not as a place where the law doesn’t work but, more radically, as an example of Italian legal philosopher Giorgio Agamben’s “<a href="http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo3534874.html">state of exception</a>,” then Serial reminded us of the persisting power of mainstream hegemonic thought in respect of rule of law. It must apply equally to all men, and, if it doesn’t then it is, rather than a fiction to be re-written, a work in progress.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/41763/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Diana Shahinyan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The current climate is inviting us to conceive of Baltimore not as a place where the law doesn’t work but, more radically, as an example of Italian legal philosopher Giorgio Agamben’s “state of exception”.Diana Shahinyan, Sessional Tutor, Department of English, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.