The glaring difference between British and American cop shows

boing
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The greatest British Cop Show, The Thin Blue Line, with the greatest line ever. I’m surprised it has not gotten more mention.

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I think the policy is to have actors who look like cops rather than actors who look like actors.

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+1 for Happy Valley. Very, very good indeed.

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I found happy valley far too stressful. I had to abandon it halfway through the series. I don’t need additional emotional stress in my television, though apparently this is the way TV is made nowadays.

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I’ll add my +1 for Borderland on top of that.

The 70s did give us a show literally called S.W.A.T.

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See your Rowan Atkinson, and raise you Charlie Brooker…

ETA: I mean, TTBL has Rowan Atkinson in Blackadder II mode with no Mr bean, and the inestimable David Haig (villanelle, no!) chewing scenery for all he’s worth, but the humour is very broad. And Charlie Brooker is just god, really. I guess the difference between TTBL and ATOC is police academy Vs police squad. I’m just a snob, I guess

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In a world where Charlize Theron can be made to look like this …

… that whole ‘US tv cops looks better because there’s more good looking people in the US’ nonsense kinda falls apart.

Make up and wardrobe are both conscious, deliberate directorial and producer decisions. UK productions could make all cops look like fashion models. US productions could make cops look like schlubs. But neither of them do.

Discuss.

Or not - the discussion is already there in the OP.

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Where does The Detectives come on that scale?

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That’s Lieutenant Columbo to you, mister.

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I’ll toss in another entry in the police-spoof pageant.

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By-the-book English detective works with shoot-first Swedish cop with an unfortunate tendency to shoot her colleagues. Only one season, but deserved more IMO.

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Want some good stupid humour with an up-to-the-minute plot line?

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Of course, Regan and Carter routinely went armed, making it a bit more Boys’ Own Adventure than dry police procedural.

But I agree with you 100% about the end music. To a musical ignoramus like myself, it’s amazing the difference a rearrangement (and maybe transposition to a minor key?) can make to the feel and emotion of a piece.

Here’s the opening music:

And here’s the version used at the end:

Maybe it’s just because of my age and consequent nostalgia , but British TV themes in the seventies and eighties were all kinds of awesome.

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But the US has good looking people in most shows and movies, not just cop shows. You got to get to sitcoms in the US where “regular” looking people are more common. And even then you have more good looking people than average. You don’t usually live by a super hot hunk unless you’re on an American show.

But also fair point that they are choosing to sharpen up the people on shows to look their best. They could make them look dumpier. So I agree that is a factor. I mentioned “Hollywood glamour” above. They are portraying ideal or exaggerated deceptions, where as the UK might be considered more realistic.

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Sort of my point. Re good looking people who can act, I’m not putting down anybody’s acting. It’s that near-universally choosing highly attractive actors as police detracts from reality (though I realize its not Reality, but Entertainment). In any real-world cop shop, the women are not all hot babes.

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