How Either the Contemporary Crime Series or the Medical Drama is a Genre of Crisis and Anxiety - Essay Example

Discuss How Either the Contemporary Crime Series OR the Contemporary Medical Drama is a Genre of Crisis and Anxiety Introduction Anxiety and crisis in television shows have become a staple of channel scheduling; in particular, crime dramas have been observed to produce feelings of anxiety and fear in their viewers which reflects a wider use of evocation of social fear and the collective fear of what is out there, beyond our physical and community borders. In writing about Crime Drama, there are a number of sub-Genres within this term, including the Underworld Drama, the Police Procedural Drama, and the Lone Detective drama. An example of the first might be the US show The Sopranos; the second might be considered as "The Bill", and the third shows such as Cracker or The Inspector Lynley Mysteries. While featuring very different aspects of the crime drama genre, all these programs place a great deal of importance upon scenes of tension and anxiety; for example the latter regularly shows the female main character venturing into deserted factories, abandoned houses, or open fields in search of a killer: the setting of this action is typical of postmodern anxiety in fiction. Crime fiction and film play into these feelings as a natural part of their plot style and genre: "Intensity, anxiety, and suspense build to an exciting climax, often with the detective using his fists or gun to solve the crime" (Dirks, 2008). This might be described as an intense burst of psychological oppression and fear; Crime show series, however, need to combine that fear with a rolling storyline. Such shows use anxiety of real social problems to create a storyline: "In Cracker the interest isn't who, because the viewer already knows, but why and it makes people think about their own prejudices and fears. We all have some experience of sexism, racism, homophobia and religious persecution; we all have fears about loved ones dying, and so why should they not be challenged and explored on prime time TV" (McGovern, quoted in Kibble-White, 2003) Here, the author of one television series which ran for several seasons (Cracker, ITV), describes how a viewer's personal anxieties and anxiety-promoting experiences are used in crime shows to create feelings of tension and oppression in the context of a police drama. The detective in this series is himself beset with anxiety; psychological problems, stress within his family, and crimes set in tower-blocks and desolate areas; as noted above, this connects these series directly with anxiety in police fiction. As Koski has noted in her work on American crime shows, many popular and well-known police series were initially resisted, as the audience felt that it produced too much anxiety: "When NBC screened the pilot to a test audience in 1980, they found the program too violent, depressing, and confusing" (Koski, page 18). Despite this, however, Crime shows and series, particularly the long-running NYPD Blue and Law & Order, have proved particularly popular with the public. Two sub-genres of the Crime show will be considered in this essay: the "Cop Opera", which is essentially a soap opera genre set in a police station, such as the UK's The Bill, and the Crime series, which in the UK might involve shows such as Cracker, Waking the Dead, and Murder City. These might be compared with US shows such as NYPD Blue (The Bill), Criminal Minds (Cracker), Cold Case (Waking the Dead) and Blue Murder (Murder City). I have attempted to avoid the forensics-focused show, as these have been repeatedly criticised for inaccuracy, sensationalism and poor portrayal of Criminal investigation The Genre of Anxiety Anxiety, as used in fictional work and by theorists, is a feeling of danger and oppression which emerges, sometimes from conflict, and sometimes from settings and environments; the extreme desolation of some cop shows, for example, produce an unconscious feeling of anxiety. In films such as Friday the 13th, this terror and futility is created through having the heroine creep down a long hall, with the audience waiting for the villain to jump from the shadows unexpectedly: The most characteristic feature of the thriller would therefore seem to be the psychological effect that unremitting relentless suspense produces on the audience through the delayed resolution of action, rather than elements that we could identify in generic features in terms of iconography, plot or formal structure. (Aguado, page 165) The thriller being one of the classes under which crime dramas are described, particularly those dramas which involve suspense (not only hesitation of action, but also the suspension of knowledge, or of resolution to a problem), it is possible to theorize that the anxiety created by crime dramas (see below for details), actually has its origins in the genre of anxiety. Steven Kreis perhaps provides the most useful analogy to the genre of anxiety when he describes the First World War as "Horror, terror and futility" (Kreis, 2006). In police and crime dramas, these feelings of terror and futility are often echoed through having the detective, or the heroine, exposed to a dangerous situation. While the serial nature of the show virtually ensures the detective's survival, nevertheless the anxiety is reproduced for the audience. For the television crime drama to reproduce the genre of Anxiety, there are two elements which it might be expected to contain; the first is a sense of oppression - either from criminals, from the environment, or from the simple inability to find the murderer before they kill again (hence the popularity of using serial killers in shows like CSI, where time-imperative can add to audience anxiety); the second is a sense of danger or threat to the main characters of the show. This could also be transferred to viewers' fears of violent crime or murder. Cop Soaps and Crime Drama Series Cop Soaps The sub-genre of television Crime Drama has frequently focused upon depicting a police station, or one particular force. In recent years, this has lead to the evolution of the 'cop opera'; as will be demonstrated, these shows bear more resemblance to a typical soap opera than a police series; nevertheless, they do hold some very interesting keys to the role of genres of anxiety and crisis in the police drama. Moreover, there is a clear division between the role of the crime drama and the cop opera in terms of plotlines and characterization: There has been considerable division in recent years between the Whilst dramas focussing on individual law enforcers such as A Touch of Frost, Midsomer Murders, Touching Evil and Cracker are still asked to conform rigidly to the classical structure of crime stories any new ensemble police drama has to define where it sits along the crime/soap barometer. Indeed recent dramas such as The Cops and City Central have explicitly defined themselves in terms of their adherence or non-adherence to the soap opera genre. (Kibble-White, 2002) Cop operas provide increasingly fear-driven story arcs for their shows: "In its first season, the show [The Bill] canvassed a vast array of crimes, including murder, burglary, bomb hoaxes, brotherly revenge, assaults, pornography and diplomat drug smugglers" (Law4u.com, date unknown). Besides informing viewer opinions on levels of crime, these cop soaps also relate directly to the specific needs of the genre of anxiety through their use of soap opera style villains and increasingly extreme storylines: Seemingly audiences no longer wanted mundane realism from their favourite programmes. In 1995, The Bill found itself caught up in what Jimmy McGovern described as dramatic "inflation". "Writers are losing faith in actors, and the actors are losing faith in the characters" he commented. "So people have to place great faith in the stories. But that's when inflation sets in because one story has to top another." (Kibble-White, 2002) Increasing competition for storylines means that writers use more and more extreme storylines; for example The Bill managed to 'kill off' members of the cast through the use of a petrol bomb: On 18 April 2002 8.6 million viewers (approximately 2.5 million up on average) tuned in as six Sun Hill officers were wiped out in a petrol bomb attack on Sun Hill. (Kibble-White, 2002) Of course, this is not a usual occurrence in a British police station; similar deaths and bombings have occurred in Eastenders, Neighbours, and of course, Dallas. From 2002, it was increasingly clear that The Bill would create its storylines from the same thread as that of the storylines mentioned: The decision to drop the famous "plodding feet" title sequence caused consternation again amongst long term viewers, but - more crucially - represented a further shift in The Bill's focus. Drab and downbeat, the old title sequence seemed now very out of kilter with The Bill's gaudy and sensationalist storylines. (Kibble-White, 2002) These storylines also tended to be very narrow in providing heroes and villains: when the writers felt the need for a sensational plot, they actually turned away from one aspect of the genre of anxiety (detective vs. criminal), and actually combined the roles to create a different sort of anxiety - the type portrayed in soap operas, where the villain already part of the community. . In our run.the most exciting story arc is the growing suspicion that there is a rogue copper doing secret vigilante workhe or she turned sniper, taking out a specially nasty villain.there have been other killings, too convenient for comfort. Suspicion and tension are building nicely. (Clifton, 2007) Since The Bill is concerned with one particular police station, the need to create a traditional soap-opera villain lead to the writers creating a villainous officer, and there have been additional creations of officers whose sole purpose is to be threatening and malicious. Shows such as The Bill are noted for introducing the personal lives of the officers into the storyline of detection and threat. Sometimes, these shows actually use these personal lives to create anxiety - a killer, or a crime lord, might threaten the family of the officer - through time-imperatives and suspense. A kidnapped family member would often be found in a deserted building, thereby fulfilling the requirements of creating anxiety through a threatening environment. In the above example, the idea of a rogue copper (not very realistic) is used to kill a villain character (again, not very realistic), but because of the audience investment in the personal lives of the officers, the tension is enough to create a suspension of disbelief; from this angle, the writers create within the audience the same amount of anxiety as might be expected with a psychothriller. In recent years, other shows have attempted to provide a more realistic version of police life than The Bill, and moved away from the soap-opera concentration upon personal lives, and into the 'gritty, urban' demands of Film Noir and the genre of anxiety: Whereas The Bill was still most commonly regarded as a drama that dealt with the business of policing, Elliot commented that "What the writers (of Out of the Blue) are trying to do is write about contemporary, gritty, urban reality; they're not writing about the police. Out of the Blue is a kind of useful, dramatic vehicle to tell stories about society today." (Kibble-White, 2002) However, other shows have been written which embrace this need for soap-opera while attempting to avoid the stigma of 'personal relationships'. Despite the claims of the writers, however, these shows tend to over-emphasise personal commitment to the officer characters, while attempting to bring in the Noir style as described above: "Clearly, the emphasis here was on the anonymity of the individuals. This seems a more accurate reflection of a modern society in which people seldom ever learn the name of their next-door neighbour" (Kibble-White, 2002) One of the symptoms of this conflicted style is its increasing reliance upon showing civilian characters as 'isolated', either from society, or from families and friends. As will be described later, this theme of isolation is reflected in audience response to fear of attack. In conclusion, the 'cop opera' involves extreme storylines which connects it more closely to soaps than to crime dramas such as police procedurals. Some resistance has been felt to this movement into the other genre, but this is a rarity, and the evidence is that crime drama serials will come to increasingly rely upon sensationalist plotlines in order to retain the viewers' interest. Whilst drama remains British television's most uncertain property, conservatism seems to dictate that police dramas will require a healthy dose of soap opera ratings certainty for the foreseeable future. (Kibble-White, 2002) In comparison with Crime Drama Series, the Cop opera relies too heavily upon sensation and personal empathy for the characters to be considered as part of the genre of anxiety. Despite this, some of the features of the cop opera do relate directly to this genre: personal threat, creation of suspense and anxiety within the show, and themes of oppression. Crime Drama Series Television Crime Drama serials, as opposed to weekly shows such as The Bill, tend to conform more strongly towards the principles of the genre of anxiety. These include atmospheric locations, a firm favourite with crime drama writers: Anglia Television's Touching Evil (1997 - 99) is often cited as being strongly influenced by Cracker. Both programmes share a brooding, often gothic atmosphere, yet there is little else similar between the two. (Kibble-White, 2003) These dramas are also reflected in the way in which crime drama storylines are told. Unlike the Cop opera, the crime drama serial tends to rely more upon police procedural, where the officer's personal lives are left to the imagination, and the chief storyline is the detection and capture of the criminal. Waking the Dead (2001 - present) and a second outing of Messiah (2001 - present). Both series represent a shift in programme makers' attitude towards crime drama, relying instead on popular movies (Seven and Silence of the Lambs, respectively) for inspiration rather than previous television series. This change is significant representing a shift away from the whodunit in favour of embracing the crime thriller. (Kibble-White, 2003) Naturally this move away from the mystery, and into the crime thriller, is also marked by increasing use of the tools of Anxiety within the series. Waking the Dead conforms to the models set out already: time-imperative and oppression (sometimes from higher ranks - NYPD Blue used similar strategy when Kelly was investigated by Internal Affairs), and also the threat to the family of the detective. Perhaps the most important consideration is the effect of the environment. Themes of desolation, decay and wastelands are particularly important in crime drama series. While the detective may work in a clean environment, a great deal of his work is 'dirty'; reflecting the themes of anxiety created by Film Noir. Here, the environmental wasteland and industrial ruin is symbolic of the barren nature of the investigation, and also of the criminal's nature. As the latter represents the decay of society in his actions, so the environment reflects his own personal decay; as with horror movies (which also conform to the genre of anxiety), the hero must conquer the environmental threat in order to solve the riddle. One example of the kind of character who is regularly used by crime dramas to provide the fuse for the drama is that of the psychotic. Statistical evidence again suggests that there is over-representation of this minority of the population implies that the writers of crime dramas are using this character as a figure for their anxiety: Genre does affect the frequency and tone of portrayals of mental illness. in crime dramas, reality-based shows, news magazines and movies, the mentally ill violent offender rate is over 50% in each category. In other dramas, the violent offender rate is only 11.8% for the mentally ill. (Diefenbach, 1997) In conclusion, Crime Drama series represent the genre of anxiety through a variety of means. Of these, the greatest theme is that of the destroyed environment, a traditional depiction of intellectual and social anxiety over the loss of traditional values. The detective overcomes these anxieties through the discovery of the criminal; however, that anxiety is reflected in the response of the viewers to crime drama. Anxiety in Crime Drama Gerbner et al (1980) find that individuals who watch a large amount of television are more likely to feel a greater threat from crime, believe crime is more prevalent than statistics indicate, and take more precautions against crime. They find that crime portrayed on television is significantly more violent, random, and dangerous than crime in the "real" world. (Dowler, 2003, page 110) Crime shows on television are both a comfort and a threat; they threaten the viewer with crimes which might happen to them (although statistically unlikely), and it comforts them with the fact that justice is always done - the killer caught, the mugger charged, the adulterous person revealed (not a crime, but a moral comfort): "They entertain because they frighten and provide glimpses of realities we are not likely to encounter. They comfort because they relieve our social conscience for crime and violence by constructing crime as not due to social inequities, racism, or poverty- things society could be held responsible for and might address." (Koski, 2007, page 17) Although it seems likely that this anxiety is due to the rise in crime-reporting by news shows, academic writers have suggested that this anxiety is directly related to the watching of fictional crime, a theory which is connected to statistics which suggest that: "Regular viewers of crime drama are more likely to fear crime. Viewers may receive a "distorted" image of the typical crime or criminal, which may produce fear or anxiety about criminal activity" (Dowler, 2003, 117) In conclusion, the audience reflects the anxiety which is created within the crime drama. Statistical evidence that crime drama causes more fear of crime than true crime reportage surely implies that the content of the crime drama is somehow directly related to this fear. The distortion which is reflected by increased audience fear results from the feelings of oppression and decay created by the genre's anxiety. While the villain is typically captured at the end of these series, viewer reactions suggest that their anxiety is more directly related to subliminal imagines; decay, degeneration and oppression, which are the mainstay of the genre of anxiety. What the anxiety of Crime Drama serials reflects is the psychological anxiety of the viewer: fear of the degeneration of society (the environment), their inability to prevent this destruction (the detective), and the threat of the unseen individual (the villain). Where these images come together is in the creation of such dramas as Cracker and Waking the Dead; in neither of these dramas is the 'hero' perfect, but he remains heroic because of his ability to overcome the environment. Conclusion Crime drama is one of the offspring of earlier narratives which addressed unconscious anxieties: "Film noir is often understood in terms of patriarchal anxieties regarding female independence and empowerment" (Aguado, page 168), which might also be related to crime shows where female detectives are repeatedly placed in positions of dependence upon male colleagues - females rarely come to the aid of males under threat in crime drama. One of the most interesting features in the involvement of crime drama in a genre of anxiety is the rapid serialization of true-crime shows. Some of these shows have clearly been heavily influenced by fictional crime shows such as CSI, such as the Irish series Cracking Crime: "Cracking Crime always looked more like a trendy cop opera than a documentaryIt shamelessly copied many of CSI's trademark visual devices (audacious dissolves, thermal imagery and so on)" (Times online, 2006). The recent conviction of Gene Morrison for providing false evidence, after posing as a forensics 'expert' for twenty years demonstrates the massive influence of crime drama upon the public mind: "Forensic scientists of various kinds hold sway, and barristers, judges and juries brought up on a steady died of CSI are only too happy to convict rather than to test, probe and question" (Wilson, 2007). The representation of urban degeneration and the connection between this and violent crime suggests that the anxiety of Crime Drama. The detectives, the villains, the environment and even the victim represent subconscious anxieties of the community, whether these relate to anxieties about real crime, social degeneration, or personal 'wastelands' of individuals in the community. For these reasons, crime drama series are part of a genre of anxiety. Works Cited Aguado, Virginia Luzon (2002) "Film genre and its vicissitudes: the Case of the Psychothriller" Atlantis Volume 24, number 2, pp 163-72. Clifton, Jane (2007) "Still on the Beat for Villains" The Dominion Post 16 October 2007. Diefenbach, Donald (1997) "The Portrayal of Mental Illness on Prime Time Television" http://facstaff.unca.edu/ddiefenb/mi.html retrieved 15/04/2008 Dirks, Tim (2008) "Detective-Mystery Films" http://www.filmsite.org/mysteryfilms.html retrieved 15/04/2008 Dowler, Kenneth (2003) "Media Consumption and Public Attitudes Towards Crime and Justice: The relationship between Fear of Crime, Punitive Attitudes, and Perceived Police Effectiveness" Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture Number 10, Volume 2, pp 109-126 Kibble-White, Jack (2003) "Crimewave" http://www.offthetelly.co.uk/drama/cops2.htm retrieved 15/04/2008 (2002) "And the Beat goes on" http://www.offthetelly.co.uk/drama/cops.htm retrieved 15/04/2008 Koski, Melissa (2007) "The representations of Race and Ethnicity on NYPD Blue and Law & Order: An Analysis of the Portrayal of New York City on Crime and Police Drama" http://www.bc.edu/schools/cas/communication/meta-elements/pdf/thesis07.koski.pdf retrieved 16/04/08 Kreis, Steven (2006) "The age of Anxiety: Europe in the 1920s (1)" http://www.historyguide.org/europe/lecture8.html retrieved 18/04/2008 Law4u.com (date unknown) "The Bill" http://www.law4u.com.au/lil/tv_thebill.html retrieved 18/04/2008 Times Online (2006) "The Sunday Times. Review: This was Truly Criminal" July 9 2006 http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/article683679.ece retrieved 16/04/2008 Wilson, David (2007) "The Trouble with Experts" February 25, 2007 http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/david_wilson/2007/02/bea_campbell_in_these.html retrieved 16/04/2008 Read More