Police/Crime Series

Our introduction to Police/crime series begun with us listing examples of police/crime dramas. My list consisted of the following: "The Bill", "Life on Mars", "CSI", "Ashes to Ashes", "Numb3rs", "Jonathon Creek", "Agatha Christie's" "Poirot" and "Miss Marple", "Midsomer Murders", "Prime Suspect" and "Diagnosis Murder".
There are a number of things that are representational for police/crime dramas. Firstly, there is a lot of sexism issues which is shown (for example) in Life on Mars where most of the women were given receptionist and office jobs, in the police forces. Whilst the male characters were often the leads and officers who did the more of the solving. There has been a complete and perhaps drastic change due to the fact that women do work on police forces, in positions other than just office workers. This is shown in "The Bill" which is based on the police forces up to the present day.
Further along, other representation of police/crime dramas include: racism and murder. Racism has been an issue that has raised much controversy over many years. Crimes such as murder are easily used in police/crime dramas as the audience wants to know what goes on behind all the crime solving. Numerous murders can be made stereotypically to look like actual murders, as many directors will base the murders on real life murders. Whether or not the murder has been underestimated or exaggerated depends on the way it is shown to the audience. Therefore making it hard to judge if it is realistic or not. Another crime that is used in police/crime dramas is rape, which is commonly shown to be committed on young women victims.
Kidnapping and abduction are frequently based upon criminals creating ransoms to gain money. Even more, multiple petty crimes such as stealing and vandalism are used which suggest how young teenagers and adults are represented and seen by other people. One recent episode in "The Bill" was based around 17 years olds having a party, which got out of hand when some unexpected and unwanted people arrived. The episode unravelled with drugs being involved and relationships between friends and families being disrupted, resulting in a young boy's death. A more disturbing crime is paedophile crimes, which often create controversy over whether or not the public should be told about the case. It is difficult to say what the public wants as one, as many people would be upset and worried about the crime, but then others would surely want the concern to be put across so they are aware of the offender who has committed the crime.
Whilst viewing police/crime series, it is very intriguing as an audience as see how the police and crime forces deal and work to solve crimes.
The narrative can sometimes be predictable as in the audience can realise what will happen or solve the crime themselves. This is an effective way to capture an audiences' attention and keep them engaged as they would feel like they could do the job of the solvers. On the other hand, some narratives can be more difficult to work out, as the audience follows the detectives or whomever, they will most likely only see that perspective. The effect of this is to give the audience an insight to how that crime solver would work and solve the crime.
The mise-en-scene can depend on what time period the drama is set in. For instance, if a drama is set in the past, then the appearances will be very different from the present, modern day. The appearance of locations, characters (fashion and dress sense- i.e hair cuts) and props such as cars will be noticeably different. Subsequently helping the audience grasp what changes have been made over time (racial issues is an example) and could perhaps gain historical knowledge.