American television is replete with shows about police officers, FBI agents, and other law enforcement types. Once upon a time the protagonists of these shows were almost men, but nowadays it’s more common than not for there to be at least one or two women in the mix, and more often than not those women are extremely pretty at a minimum, and frequently high-fashion beautiful.
Thinking only of the remarkably beautiful (i.e., leaving out women like Tyne Daly or the wonderful S. Epatha Merkerson), what actresses in such roles are most believable to you, and why?
Dani Reese (played by Sarah Shahi) on the short-lived Life. Not only did she have the requisite tough attitude, but she looked the part as well. Yes, Shahi is a ridiculously beautiful woman, but at least during the first season, the show went to great lengths not to glamorize her. She always wore flat-soled shoes, plain black pants, a loose white button-down shirt, and an old leather jacket, with her hair pulled back in a messy ponytail (and not the kind of messy that takes an hour to achieve).
Unfortunately, in the second season, Reese ended up frequently wearing much tighter, sexier clothes and just generally looking more like a model than a cop. I always suspected network interference intended to boost the show’s sex appeal :rolleyes:. The attitude pretty much remained the same, at least.
I was a big fan of Dani Reese on Life, but her character on her USA series, Fairly Legal, weakened her previous work in my eyes. Unfair, I know, and I generally try not to do that, but it is what it is.
And, thinking back to the Tyne Daly from the Dirty Harry movie, I think excluding her from the mix is a bit inappropriate.
I found the police captain (sorry, don’t have access to IMDB right now) in Saving Grace to be perfectly believable and reasonably gorgeous. I also found Helen Hunt to be staggeringly attractive, but not fashion-model-wise.
Wendi McLendon-Covey as Deputy Clementine Johnson in Reno 911! (The exclamation point belongs to the title; it is not representative of any enthusiasm.)
She seemed older in Life, and certainly tougher than her character in the few episodes I watched of Fairly Legal. When I watched an episode of Life on Netflix, suddenly she seemed younger and trying too hard, versus an experienced, tough detective. I’m usually good about keeping actors’ characters separate from show-to-show, but for some reason I couldn’t go back and see her the same in Life as I did when it originally aired. But that’s all on me.
Laura Fraser in Conviction. BBC thing, only eight episodes.
Elaine Cassidy in Ghost Squad, not a particularly believable programme, but I think the thick Norn Iron accent made her considerably more plausible as a copper.
