GLOBAL VILLAGE

Rip It Up, Issue 204, 1 August 1994, Page 6

GLOBAL VILLAGE

Crime. We want to do it, but can’t. So we get close to it in other ways. Like perhaps a few games of ‘Lethal Enforcers’ where you can peel caps on a bunch of bank robbers, Asian gang characters and best of all, a gang of drug dealers. Just blast them with the plastic gun, and as in real life you can shoot innocent bystanders. But you lose points if you do. Anyhow, it’s a bit of interactive wish fulfilment that allows you to express violent desires without disturbing polite socity. And if you think that Harvey Keital is getting a mite prolific it gets ridiculous when when a Keital look-alike springs up at you a la Reservoire Dogs. Crime. It’s an exciting thing. Reserach shows that mainstream society reacts to crime in film and television with fear. Those ‘real life’ crime shows especially get them going with invasion fantasies going super nova. However a certain percentage of television watchers find crime attractive, reacting not with fear, but fascination. It’s a powerful genre and an important part of television culture. The big buzz at the moment is NYPD Blue, a Steven Bocho creation which means it carries a certain stylistic baggage. Bocho has been involved in LA Law, Dougie Howser MD and or course Hill Street Blues. The critics went ga-ga with its seemingly avante-garde approach. Apart from the jump cuts, always moving camera, characters not in frame, there were a swirl of back stories, ensemble cast orientation and stories and themes that remained unresolved. Above all great characterisation and scripts. However, Bocho doesn’t always have a golden touch. Ever see Cop Rock, a show where cops would burst in to song at the drop of a stun gun. Terrible. Anyhow, NYPD Blues opened on TV3 to great expectations, the ‘banned in Texas’ bit, the grainy footage to suggest the onslaught of gritty realism, and the promise of ‘adult’ themes which means sex, nudity and profanity. So it sounded good. But alas, the much hyped first shows that crazy Christian fascists like Donald E. Wildman at the American Family Association described as soft core pornography, well, it just wasn’t that hot.

Like Hill Street, this concentrates on a cop precinct (112 Queens New York) but unlike Hill Street it doesn’t have the large cast to work with. Story lines seem to hinge on Det John Kelly (Caruso) who in classic style is separated from his wife due to the dysfunctional nature of his job, this allows him to have sex with an attractive co-worker and his ex-wife. The sex scenes were lack lustre greeting card stuff, bit of buttocks, slack music in the background — what was all the fuss about? The other main character is the

great Dennis Franz as Sipowicz, cop on the skids, fifth of Irish on the lips and a personal vendetta against a small time goodfella with a hairpiece. As the show goes on he beats the bottle and gets back his dignity by making the Mafia boy eat dog shit. Nice touch. There’s a danger here of the dreaded ‘sensitive’ guy syndrome eurpting at any moment. Sipowicz gets shot in the butt, goes through a learning experience, has a male bonding scene and gets serious about his feelings. Kelly, he just broods, one minute tough guy mode busting the balls of mafia scum, next making sentimental speeches about ‘freedom’, then hopping into a shower with his ex wife for a bit more butt exposre. Maybe to show his sensitive side but more likely to raise the demographics. In the old days a car chase would do, now it has to be a meaningful interaction. However, if you catch Walker, Texas Ranger such disturbing questions jus don’t arise. In this old school crime show we have Chuckie Norris doing the Magnum PI style. You know, each week a guest star turns up, needs help to escape from the Mexican/Mafia/lnternational drug Tsars/bikie brutes/crazed ‘religious’ leader (just delete whatever), make sure a kid is involved, throw in a mystical bit (Chuckie becoming ‘one’ with an eagle) then kick the shit outta the bad guys. Also needed is a ‘helper’, in this case a black guy called Trivette (carrying on the great tradition of black technical expert a la Mission Impossible, and in fact his other role as computer bad boy in Die Hard I) who each week has a problem with the Chuckmeister’s working method. Norris, like Carruso, is a brooder, but I think this is due to Chuck trying to read his lines off the idiot cards and maybe the result of one kick to the head too many. I sort of like this show, because it reassures me that things don’t change that much in the world of TV crime. The bad guys always end up with a kick in the guts, there’s always something blowing up, a car will always skid around a corner and evil will always be defeated. And I think there is no danger of exposed buttocks unless there’s a Turkish bath house episode coming up. Anyhow, I don’t expect Walker Texas Ranger to push the television envelope. NYPD Blue, despite initial problems, will I hope get better and harder, less butts, more guns.

I see they’re making a movie of Streetfighter II (with Kylie!) maybe Lethal Enforcers — the Movie isn’t far behind. They could give away plastic guns and have a real interactive thing going on. I’m lookin forward to it.

KERRY BUCHANAN