Cinerant

What'ca gonna do?

I’ve always thought Cops was the epitome of white-trash.  It’s the show that is incredibly cheap to produce, which has made it a staple of FOX’s Saturday night lineup, along with America’s Most Wanted.  Frankly, I don’t even know if the show is still on the air, but it’s now in syndication, and for some reason, people still want to watch it.  It’s like a bad sitcom—it’s the same set-up over and over, but people will continually watch it, even though they know how it’s going to turn out.  There’s no character development.  There are no big set pieces.  There’s not much of anything other than perps running and cops chasing after them.  

I never saw the point.  

Until last week.  That’s when I was in my own real-life version of Cops.

I was out running an errand in the Echo Park section of LA.  (It’s sort of the area where The Shield is based, so it’s not ever going to be confused with the nice part of town.)  I see this police cruiser speeding up behind me.  Its lights weren’t flashing, its siren wasn’t on, nothing.  The cops just seemed to be breaking the speed limit because they were the cops and could.  The driver proceeded to swing all the way into the far right lane as the rest of us slowed to stop at a red light.  The cop decided to swing wide and do a semi-sized right turn, as he crossed in front of three lanes of traffic.  I sat there in disbelief, thinking somebody seriously had an ego problem they liked to compensate for with their job and the feeling of importance it gave them.  

Suddenly, out of my right-side peripheral vision, I see this young guy go charging across the street.  Right behind him were two cops chasing after him on foot.  The chasee, started down the sidewalk and then proceeded to switch directions and run across the street to the far side of the road.  The cops ran after him.

Then, in my rear-view mirror, I see three or four more cop cars speeding onto the scene.  By this time, traffic has just stopped into a standstill since the chasee and the cops are all over the road.  The cars slow down, and all the passenger cops jump out and join in the pursuit.  (I almost felt sorry for a couple of the cops that leapt out of the cars since their partners didn’t really slow enough, so when they jumped out, they ended up rolling on the ground for a few seconds.)

Despite the number of cops on the scene, the chasee wouldn’t be deterred and he continued to run as if his life depended on it.  (His freedom at least, did.)  

Finally, he ran down an alley in front of a bike shop where the cops overtook him and forced him to the ground.  I didn’t bother to try and find out what he’d done that was so bad, but it was fascinating to watch all these officers bring the guy down.  I hope he at least did something worthy of all the attention.  I’d hate to think that it takes 10 cops just to bring down a purse snatcher.  

But as I sat there, watching through the window of my car, I finally understood why people see Cops as interesting television.  It’s fascinating.  At least the live version was.  I don’t know how it would play on a smaller screen with editing and sound effects and music, but this version was a great show.  Probably better than most chases on TV and definitely more believable than a good number of television series, but part of me thinks that’s because it was live.  

Maybe I should turn Cops into a musical and take it on Broadway.  

posted by cinegod @ 11:37 PM