I'm bored of cop shows *always* catching the bad guys. How about a normal type cop show with the usual array of characters, shouty black Captain, rookie with a young beautiful wife, a sergeant 3 days from retirement ("ooh a serial killer case? I'll take that..."), a renegade etc etc but in every episode they fail to catch the bad guy.

I still want the realism, in fact what could be more real, i'm guessing that in most cases the bad guy gets away with it.

I realise that people want to see the bad guy get caught but tough titties.
-- dja, Sep 07 2001

... and i'm a huge Sopranos fan as well... should've spotted that. Ta!
-- dja, Sep 11 2001


I suppose that I shouldn't say I was perusing the video store and saw an x-rated send up of the Sopranos called the Sopornos. They put the new release porn next to the new release action, I swear.
-- sdm, Sep 11 2001


Unabubba: Look out for the drama series "Cops" in case it ever makes it to your shores [although knowing Aussie TV, they'll probably screen it at two in the morning].
-- Lemon, Sep 11 2001


As has been pointed out above, the villain getting away with it is hardly a novel concept in a 'cop' show. But how about the more common scenario, 'we haven't got the first idea who did it' where the villain never makes an appearance at all?
-- DrBob, Sep 11 2001


That's a pretty tenuous "baked" pronouncement, PeterSealy. Raffles and The Sopranos are series about the criminals themselves, not cop shows. Where is the shouty black captain in Raffles - "I give you 48 hours to steal Lady Farsquith's diamonte tiarra, or I take your badge."? Which precinct does Junior work at in The Sopranos?

Anyhoo, it would be nice to see a completely new "maverick cop" each episode, the old one having been drummed out of the force for completely bollocksing up his case. Every week.
-- Guy Fox, Sep 11 2001


How about the Keystone Cops - they weren't exactly good at their job, although I can't remember whether they tended to get their man or not.
-- stupop, Sep 11 2001


In The Sweeney back in the seventies there were an awful lot of cock-ups and I should think they only got their man in about 50% of the programmes. Looking back they smashed up far too many Jags - would be worth a fortune today.
-- Gordon Comstock, Sep 11 2001


UB- Cops is one of about 3 shows I actually watch on TV, give it a longer chance (assuming we're talking about the same show) and you'll probably see some much more entertaining scenes.

I also remember some "World's Scariest Police Chases" show, where a few of the criminals actually got away. However, since the show was broadcast nationally, they had to make the cops look good, so they "pretended" they won. One guy was in a high speed chase somewhere in Texas, then he boogied out of the car and across the border, where the cops could do nothing. The car had a few pounds of weed and cocaine in it, so the announcer acted like the guy lost.
"He may have gotten away, but when his drug dealer buddies find out about the missing drugs, he'll wish the cops had him." That show pissed me off.
-- AfroAssault, Sep 12 2001


Me too, I'm still lookin for that muthafucka
-- thumbwax, Sep 13 2001


UB - No it was a Brit one I was talking about. Don't think I've seen the US one.
-- Lemon, Sep 13 2001


British cop show Between The Lines. I think in series 2 there were only about 2 episodes where they actually caught someone and made it stick. The series was about the police complaints investigation bureau (I forget its exact name, like US Internal Affairs), the division investigating police corruption, policemen shooting people on duty, etc.

A typical plot might see them investigating the police shooting an unarmed man, but finding the shooting was the result of unfortunate accidents (officer carrying gun slips, gun discharges, other cop thinks he's under fire and shoots suspect). There were also a number of episodes where they tried to interrogate suspects and investigate corruption, but no one would talk and the guilty policeman got away.

I think the intention was for realism, but later it got too much into wild conspiracy theories about the intelligence services, and series 3 went really messy. Since most of the guilty people were policemen or members of the security services, it's not quite the same thing, but similar.

The other show mentioned by Lemon, British show The Cops, did often feature villains getting away too, being even more realistic and downbeat. It followed the basic plot of big criminals getting away with it while the small-time kids carrying drugs for them got caught. There were also a multitude of subplots about the poor, homeless, addicted, abused, etc, getting in trouble with the law, and the police sometimes helping them or sometimes banging them up, depending on how cute and innocent-looking they were. Excellent show.
-- pottedstu, Oct 04 2001


When I read the title I thought this was going to be about letting justice trump "the legal profession". I'm disappointed.
-- thecat, Jun 24 2003



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