I was watching Law and Order Criminal Intent the other day and it occurred to me how rare it was on that show for the main characters to ever use their guns. This is in keeping with real life of course but is very unusual for an American television cop show. It made sense of course because Goren’s whole schtick was psychological manipulation of suspects and having him resolve violent situations by out-thinking and out-talking his opponent was part for the course. The Jeff Goldblum character was the same way, and even Logan got into the act on this series. This is in sharp contrast to Law and Order SVU which has gotten to the point where the main characters shoot somebody ever other episode.
Anyway here is what I would like to talk about today. What televised fictional cop shows can you think of in which the main characters rarely if ever do anything physically violent?
Cannon and Barnaby Jones were not particularly violent shows. Cannon was obese and Barnaby Jones was elderly, so there wasn’t much opportunity to involve them in mayhem without making things look ridiculous.
Cannon and Barnaby Jones were not cop shows. They were private detective shows. I specified cop shows because I wanted to rule out things like those shows and also Murder She Wrote. Lawyer shows too.
In looking up both shows on Wikipedia (it’s been decades since I watched either of them), I see that both characters were private investigators, not police officers (though Joe Cannon was a retired cop). I suspect it’s easier to have a lower level of violence in a private-eye show.
I’d say original recipe Law and Order qualifies as well. There’s an occasional chase scene and a ‘Let me see your hands!’ standoff. But there’s very little gunplay that I can recall.
You are right at least about the earlier seasons. I have the vague feeling that in the later years they were more willing to have the characters do violent things. Also original Law and Order is only half cop show; the other half is lawyer show. And everybody knows the real reason to watch is for the progression of hot assistant DA’s.
The cops in CHIPS never fired a shot during the run of the show. There was a bit in Loaded Weapon I where Ponch and John were in a shootout, which I thought was that much funnier because they never used their sidearms in the actual show.
Since shows about cops and shows about PI’s are about equally unrealistic, I’d say it’s a wash. Factor in that in a majority of PI shows, the lead is an ex-cop and still works closely with the police.
Thomas Jane in “The Mentalist.” He’s the main character, but he doesn’t like guns and he very rarely hits anybody. Mind you, he has shot and killed at least one guy on the show in spite of his dislike.
Most of the British shows are pretty non-violent. Inspectors Morse and Lynley had little or no police-perpetrated violence that I recall. Likewise Foyle’s War and even Prime Suspect. I’m trying to remember if any of the dramatic cop shows created in the U.S. (that I’ve seen) were non-violent or at least largely non-violent, and I’m drawing a blank except for (as mentioned above) Law & Order. Homicide, maybe?
Homicide: Life on the Streets. I think there was only one episode in the life of the show where the cops were targets (and I’m not sure any of them managed to get a shot off before being hit).
In general, the detectives showed up after the murder was committed and investigated but didn’t take action.
The cops in The Wire hardly ever use their guns. They pull them out on occasion but I think there may only be one shot fired by a cop on duty in the whole series. They do rough up suspects though, and the criminals do a fair bit of shooting.
He’s part of the CBI, which is a fictious California analogue to the FBI, so they are detectives solving murder cases, not normal cops.
It’s not because he has a moral aversion or something like that to guns - he’s a real bastard when manipulating people. It’s just that he’s a coward and has no experience with guns, using his mentalist tricks instead.
His colleagues do the shooting instead if necessary.