Why Murder* is just so gosh darn comforting

(* fictional, television murder, that is)

I’ve mentioned my affection for Law and Order in several posts, so I thought I use this post to talk about crime shows. I usually approach them with a cup of Oolong tea and work in my lap – writing, grading, the grocery list – and I settle in and I am comforted. That’s a strange word for shows that focus on mangled bodies, lost lives, and a whole lot of treachery, but I have my theories for why they produce this sensation (and with the number of crime shows out there, I can’t be the only one tuning in). To illustrate my pet theories, I’ll be focusing on those shows I know best.

The first crime show I ever remember encountering is Murder She Wrote. I would stay at my grandma’s house, she would make me a cup of coffee I wasn’t supposed to have, and we’d snuggle up under afghans and watch Jessica Fletcher right the wrongs of the world. I was small enough that the introduction to the show was quite spooky and I was always relieved when they began to close in on the bad guy (and coffee notwithstanding I was usually asleep by the time they caught him). 

I was always so worried about her when she went creeping around in the dark!

I think Murder She Wrote illustrates one of the reasons crime shows can offer some comfort: Starting Again. You practically can’t have a crime show today without someone overcoming their past and trying to become a better person and middle-aged, widowed Jessica Fletcher is a great example of Starting Again – and doing so with great success! I think we all like the notion that, no matter how far down a road we’ve gone, it’s almost never too late to turn onto a new path.

Other examples: Seeley Booth leaving his sniper days behind him in Bones, Lennie Briscoe recovering from alcoholism in Law and Order, and Richard Castle embarking on a new set of novels after killing his money-making character.

As I’ve mentioned many times before, Law and Order is my favorite crime show and it offers the best example of another very comforting quality: Stability. Show after show (with only two exceptions that I can think of), a body is found, an investigation is undertaken, someone is arrested, and the second half (order) of the show begins. I don’t know about you, but in a world full of surprises (and sometimes just plain chaos) I need my entertainment to lie to me and create a clockwork universe in which things follow a set pattern… even if the center that the clock hands spin around happens to be, well, murder. If you don't believe me about the formulaic quality, check out this wonderful analysis!

We’re all looking for the person that acts as a perfect complement to us, the person who will always have our backs. If we’re lucky, we find them in the person of our spouse or a best friend. And if you want to find wonderful examples of the kind of Comradeship we all want, you can’t do better than a crime show. [I do stipulate that such shows tend to go downhill when the partners move from partners-on-the-job to partners-in-a-relationship, but I’m not applying that to real life]. Some great teams:

Bones and Booth

Castle and Kate

Lennie and Mike - Mike is growing on me as of late

Murdoch and Dr. Ogden

Remembrance: One of the irritating things about being an adult is bumping into reminders of one’s mortality. And just as we strive to do honor to and remember those people we’ve loved and lost, I think we all want to be remembered and like the idea that we could be remembered through what we did and what we loved. Shows like Bones play on this desire by looking at an ankle and saying, “she loved to jump rope,” or “he battled hard with this disease.” It is a show and probably exaggerates on a number of fronts, but the idea that we might be read and remembered after we’re no longer here is a comforting one. If you want to know the science behind what bones can tell, here’s a great read: Dead Men Do Tell Tales.

Which leads me to Justice. I know it’s probably childish, but there’s a part of me that still looks for justice, still wants it, still believes in it. 

“It’s not fair!” I yell at the universe, whereupon it does its best Goblin King impression and jeers back, “You say that so often. I wonder what your basis for comparison is.” 

Well, crime shows suggest that there is justice (somewhere, sometimes, somehow) and that even when we cannot speak for ourselves someone else will try to speak for us and demand justice on our behalf and restore our dignity if they can. One of my favorite moments in Law and Order comes from a crossover episode with Homicide: Life on the Streets. A character played by Richard Belzer is arguing with Lennie that he doesn’t know anything about him.

Lennie: You carry a badge and you avenge the dead. I think I know you.

This is one of the few times when Lennie peeks out from behind his crusty carapace (studded with sarcastic one-liners) and reveals what he imagines his mission is. It’s a form of vengeance for those who cannot seek it for themselves – it’s getting justice. And in a world where some real courts and some real police do not always live up to the mark, I suggest that they might find something to model themselves on in such shows. Whether they choose to do so or not, I intend to keep returning to them for comfort, secure in the knowledge that all of the bodies get up and go back home at the end of the shoot!