I've been watching old episodes of my favourite TV show, NYPD Blue, lately. This isn't going to be a post extolling the virtues of that show and its (eventual) lead character, Andy Sipowicz. I've written before about how I think he's one of the most complex and multi-layered characters ever to grace a screen, and how Dennis Franz's performance elevates an ordinary police procedural to high art... but that's not why I'm here today.
Instead, I want to talk about the comfort of retreating into the fictional worlds of our youth, a world that (for all its problems) seems much less scary than the one we live in today. NYPD Blue ran from 1993 - 2005. I began my re-watch (it's all on Disney+ if you're interested) a few episodes into the second season, when Jimmy Smits joins the cast to replace the wooden egomaniac David Caruso, whose starring role makes the first season a bit of a trudge. The show hasn't really dated and stands up well against the best TV of today (putting a lot of it into the shade, to be honest), and the world they're living in is utterly believable, so as with the best fiction you can immerse yourself in it and it's like being there with them.
Of course, many things have changed over the last 30 years. The squad are still writing up their reports on typewriters and there's none of that reliance on high tech bobbins that takes the tension out of a lot of contemporary crime dramas. They have to rely on witness statements rather than security camera footage. Mobile phones are pretty basic. Nobody's checking the perp's facebook feed to see if he's posted anything dodgy. Etc. Etc. Best of all, you regularly catch a glimpse of the Twin Towers in the background when the cops are beating the streets.
I'm finding solace in that old squad room, in the same way I would if I stepped back into the Cheers bar again or even revisited an old series of Grange Hill. Because all my old friends are still there, and they haven't changed a bit. They've not grown old, become ill, passed on to another plane. You can't visit your old workplace or school from 30, 40 years ago and have it be just the same as it was, much as we might wish to do so. But you can do that with your favourite old TV shows. And there's a wonderful solace to be found within them.
Let us close our eyes
Outside their lives go on much faster
Oh, we won't give in
We'll keep living in the past
We are watching Hill Street Blues (DVD box set), on the final series. And of course it features Dennis Franz. He's always twitching. And wearing dreadful clothes.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, that picture on Youtube is the cover of Stand Up, the 2nd album. Living In The Past is not on that album.
HSB is next on my list.
DeleteOne of the things that I like about HSB is that the actors look like ordinary people (there's one man who's always in roll call, the shape of his mouth suggests he has no teeth).
DeleteYour last para - yes! Exactly that.
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely way of putting it - revisiting our old friends who had no need for “high tech bobbins”.
ReplyDeleteI watched a favourite old movie on DVD recently that gets an airing every couple of years. Just loved how they have to go to callboxes to get in touch with people. Only have four channels on telly. Sigh.
Alyson
As Martin said.....that last para.
ReplyDelete