365 Poems in 365 Days: Cop Show
Time to get back on track with number 38. We were given the homework for my creative writing class of writing a free verse poem, which I faux-naively describe as a poem where you don't have to bother about rhyming or meter[1]. Mine was the least formal, but of the nine people other than me there, four gave an opinion, so by a margin of three to one, this is a free verse poem, which I call:
Police Procedural
Usually the show opens with the detectives arriving at the location of the body
But this week the body arrives at the detectives’ offices.
It’s a gimmick, a half-clever way to shake up the formula.
We already know there will be four or five events from the following list:
A car chase
A foot chase
A gunfight
A fistfight
A stakeout
A tense interrogation
A race against time
We watch every week, all the nonsensical twists to stop it being predictable
(The villain appears just after the first adverts)
But the real reason we watch is we love how these strange situations
Are dealt with by the cast of quirky characters:
The former astronaut, trying to make up for crashing a rocket
The tough as nails woman with the law degree, ambitious, driven
The old school officer with a moustache as big as his ego
The wisecracking, funk-music loving, forensics guy
The boss, a good cop with a bad attitude
I could go on all night
Or for seven years, each of twenty two episodes.
(175 words)
(Footnote included in poem I handed out)
I have no particular program in mind, but there’s a subgenre of (particularly) American cop shows I describe above. They hide their formula(s) with interesting villains and baroque crimes, but despite that I eventually figure out the show’s template and I’m still regularly watching at least one of them at any time.
[1] I'm assuming we all know better
Police Procedural
Usually the show opens with the detectives arriving at the location of the body
But this week the body arrives at the detectives’ offices.
It’s a gimmick, a half-clever way to shake up the formula.
We already know there will be four or five events from the following list:
A car chase
A foot chase
A gunfight
A fistfight
A stakeout
A tense interrogation
A race against time
We watch every week, all the nonsensical twists to stop it being predictable
(The villain appears just after the first adverts)
But the real reason we watch is we love how these strange situations
Are dealt with by the cast of quirky characters:
The former astronaut, trying to make up for crashing a rocket
The tough as nails woman with the law degree, ambitious, driven
The old school officer with a moustache as big as his ego
The wisecracking, funk-music loving, forensics guy
The boss, a good cop with a bad attitude
I could go on all night
Or for seven years, each of twenty two episodes.
(175 words)
(Footnote included in poem I handed out)
I have no particular program in mind, but there’s a subgenre of (particularly) American cop shows I describe above. They hide their formula(s) with interesting villains and baroque crimes, but despite that I eventually figure out the show’s template and I’m still regularly watching at least one of them at any time.
[1] I'm assuming we all know better
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