Paula's comment on cop shows.

[Greg Nowell]

Paula is right, that the good white guys in the end
reassure us that there is some "ethical spine" to the
established order.  But LawNOrder also had an ambitious
judge who wanted to ramrod a defendant into a murder
charge (concerning a drunk) and who later became a
candidate for D.A.

The implication is that the "good order" is constantly
under attack--by the ingenuity of the criminals, the
defenses of their lawyers, and the ambitions of those
who can manipulate the system to be something else.
Thus the "good" of the system emerges as the result of
a highly fragile coterie that is constantly under
siege.  The system is "good" but it is fragile.

Similarly ER keeps trying to assure us that there are
elements of "human compassion" in the medical process
when anyone who has ever been in an ER will know it is
a factory.   In fact, the best analog for medical care
is the car repair shop, which has similar organization
but higher efficiency.   In any case the world is
constantly on the edge of flying apart while well
motivated individuals fight the crushing forces of
Weberian bureaucratic rationality and class-based
conflicts in accumulation.

But the world never quite falls apart totally.  There
are two reasons for this.  One, the show has to resume
next week.  Two, the fact that the show has to resume
next week dovetails nicely with the need for
ideological reproduction of the world order.  Somehow,
with nice people in charge, the world will go on.

I note that notwithstanding the casting of LawNOrder
women are doing pretty well as a whole in TV land.
Particularly in ER.  LawNOrder has some good women
judges and the woman who runs the cop precinct is
pretty smart and cool under fire.    But yeah, the
formula of the show is 3 guys and 1 babe.    Hormonal
stimulation continues to sell product for advertisers.
At least the LawNOrder women eat.    It's a wonder Sam
Waterson hasn't broken under the continued pressure of
maintaining professional cool and "not noticing" that
some of Hollywood's most dynamite hot young babe
attorneys keep "coincidentally" ending up assigned to
him.  And he's never slept with one! (on the show)

Maybe he's gay.  But we're not ready for that.

--
Gregory P. Nowell
Associate Professor
Department of Political Science, Milne 100
State University of New York
135 Western Ave.
Albany, New York 12222

Fax 518-442-5298