Crime Lately
Well, I seem to spend more and more time watching crime television shows. Only non-fiction ones. The less exploitative the better, though that is a fine line, I can say.
The First 48, which I started watching a couple of years back, is the best show on television. Following two homicide crime scenes in different locations, the cameras track the detectives as the detectives track the murderers. The show is fascinating on many levels, as I've noted before.
But the biggest thing to come out of it for me in the past year of viewing it is my absolute appreciation for the true "stars" of the show, two detectives from the Memphis, TN location, detectives Caroline Mason and her partner Tony Mullins. They are both brilliant characters, hard-working dedicated officers, and just simply sublime.
Caroline Mason is my absolute favorite. Where the show excels in most of its cases is in the interogations. It's fascinating to see how the detectives work, trying to get information or ultimately confessions. Mason is superb in this. She knows how to approach people, how to talk to them. The "good cop/bad cop" scenario is often set, but not in such terms as to ever become boring. Mason's language and delivery of her queries and questioning effects a naturalized drama that actors would admire.
But this is Mason herself. Born and raised in Memphis, in the areas in which many of the crimes seem to occur, Mason is a mother, sensitive to the people of the community, to the tragedies on both sides of the murder, and just an amazing woman. 
I keep thinking to myself how there must be others out there like me who totally admire her.
Mullins, bald, savvy, and good-natured is a terrific partner to Mason, personality-wise. They seem to be the most interesting characters that the show has uncovered in the differnent police departments in which they film. He has an easy charm, too.
One of the things that I hate on some crime shows is the attitude a show might take toward the criminals, treating them as "evil" or "pathetic", deserving the harshest of punishments. Part of the nature of The First 48 is that these cases are not tracked to their closure, through trial, and punishment. These detectives are focusing on getting the person or persons who have killed someone, working hard and fast, relying on experience, intuition, community help, hard work, and luck to find out what happened and who is responsible. They are rarely judgmental in the way that a show like America's Most Wanted is.
I still wonder a lot about the production of these shows. How much is filtered out? What depiction of a city is this? A true snapshot or is it based on what they are allowed to show. I recall reading that the police departments depicted in COPS, a show about beat officers, an organization representing the police force has final say on anything going out, assumingly to show nothing that makes them look bad. When we look at the ethnicity of the criminals and the victims, how representative is it?
And also, how does it effect the detectives who are now becoming television "stars"? Are they recognized? Does it change their work, their approach? I would hate to think that anything would hamper Caroline Mason and Tony Mullins' approach and work, as well as any of the other detectives who work is depicted.
But, I do love it. These are excellent shows, showing a fascinating view into a world that most of us will hopefully never be a part of.
