Arnold Shapiro, the man who gave the world the landmark "Scared Straight" and the less landmark "Rescue 911," goes cable with this 10 part, reality based series for A&E that removes the heat and hyperventilating from the crime drama to show cop work for what it really is: dull, painstaking, frustrating, untidy and largely unfulfilling. It's a brave approach for Shapiro, since the resultant no frills storytelling can't help but prove bland compared to the manufactured grit and edginess of cop TV programs.
Arnold Shapiro, the man who gave the world the landmark “Scared Straight” and the less landmark “Rescue 911,” goes cable with this 10-part, reality based series for A&E that removes the heat and hyperventilating from the crime drama to show cop work for what it really is: dull, painstaking, frustrating, untidy and largely unfulfilling. It’s a brave approach for Shapiro, since the resultant no frills storytelling can’t help but prove bland compared to the manufactured grit and edginess of cop TV programs.
Unlike the adrenaline rush of “Cops” or the quick cut intensity of “NYPD Blue,” “L.A. Detectives” plays more like cinema verite “Dragnet.” There are no cheesy re-enactments of crimes, no threatening to rearrange the nose of suspects if they won’t rat out their pal, no colorful street slang, no fancy camera angles. Instead, it’s monotonous questioning that goes nowhere and misdemeanor citations handed out to ordinary Janes and Joes. And the resolutions seem to take longer than 48 minutes.
Consequently, it’s difficult from viewing a single installment to discern if “L.A. Detectives” is interesting TV. Commendable, yes. Realistic? Always. Entertaining? Sometimes.
Hosted by Bill Kurtis as part of A&E’s “Investigative Reports” franchise, the program follows individual detectives from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Dept. (the nation’s largest) as they go through their daily paces investigating homicides, fingering parole violators, sniffing out drug dealers and busting would be johns soliciting street prostitutes. What emerges is a smart, ethical corps of justice upholders who are constantly forced to skirt the surface of issues but rarely penetrate.
Opener begins with detective Bob Snapper, a 26-year Sheriff’s Dept. vet who has worked homicide for 14 years, poking into a mysterious killing in which a Spanish speaking, middle aged woman has confessed to stabbing her purportedly abusive husband to death as he slept. Except that things don’t quite add up.
She explains through an interpreter that when blood began spurting from his wounded body, she initially thought it was “tomatoes.” Huh?
Small wonder that Snapper, an easygoing sort, looks tired. “I’m sick of death,” he admits.
Another segment finds detective Melva Mitchell, who works vice detail, organizing a fleet of cops posing as hookers to round up solicitors. The men are lured to a motel room and busted, their faces obscured. But once in the room, they are told they won’t be going to jail and need only appear in court on the misdemeanor citation. No one will be the wiser. Not exactly the reality we have come to know.
Final seg follows the ultra cool detective Ralph Miller, a surfer dude with shaggy, shoulder length hair who is the hour’s clear star. Miller looks like a hippie but performs like a stud as he keeps tab on parolees struggling to stay clean.
Hour is well constructed and flawlessly produced by Lisa Higgins and Shapiro’s team. “L.A. Detectives” is, in the main, eye opening for its ability to depict the tedium at the heart of most detective work. When it comes to provocative viewing, unfortunately, reality ain’t necessarily all it’s cracked up to be.
L.A. Detectives
A&E; Fri. July 3, 10 p.m.
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