[LegendHasIt]

Well, you have a good point... But, Hill Street Blues, Miami Vice and a couple of other shows managed to have gripping stories without relying on 'dirty cops' as the primary characters.

The thing that I don't like about TV shows that are based on dishonorable police officers, is they perpetuate the idea within society that there are LOT of crooked police officers. Yeah, there are all to many of them in real life.... But 90% of police officers are honest and doing a darn good job despite horrible working conditions.

I've run into a few, upon occasion, that I'd have like to have met in a dark alley, out of uniform, but the vast majority are great people who we, as a society owe a great debt.

[Darkwolf377]

Sure, but as you yourself point out, there are plenty of shows with good cops on them--the entire Law and Order group of shows, the CSI shows, many others. That's why The Shield is so interesting--it shows us something we've never seen, a show that STARS a dirty cop as the main character.

As you say, most cops are nothing like this. Which is why it's an interesting show. I see him as a kind of negative role model, showing how NOT to do it, which is why it's interesting. If there were nothing but dirty cops on TV, the show wouldn't be nearly so compelling.

[LS]

Hill Street Blues may not have had "dishonest" cops, but J.D. Larue was a lush, as was the captain, who was sleeping with the public defender; Renko was a closet racist; and they had some other problems, which, for the day, made them far from "heroic."