Motley Moose – Archive

I apologize up front.  I am not the person to write this.  I admit to being white and somewhat privileged.  While I went to public school, it was a high quality public school in a comfortable suburb.  We had one token black family in my high school.  Therefore, my opinions here are not from an experiential viewpoint but are from somewhere else.

While watching television has never been high on my to-do list, I have found a couple of new shows I like. The main one is Detroit 1-8-7. It is a gritty cop show that follows the day-to-day activities of a top Detroit Homicide unit. To-date, four of the scheduled twelve episodes have aired. Critical reception has been mixed. I find it compelling enough to record each week.

The main complaint from the critics is that the show brings nothing new to the genre. While I would agree with that assessment somewhat, I don’t think it is entirely accurate. Few shows have managed to capture the reality of the streets of a city like Detroit. Memphis Beat certainly missed the mark. I’ve lived in the Memphis area and worked in Memphis and the show was a big disappointment. The less said about the realism of Miami Vice, the better. NYPD Blue had a similar gritty realism. However, it is difficult, and perhaps unfair, to compare a new show to arguably the best cop show of all time.