The Incompetence of Police on TV

As I finished watching the latest episode of The Mentalist and was looking forward to tonight’s episode of Castle, it dawned on me that some crime shows on TV really put police down.

Think about it. We have Patrick Jane helping the CBI (The Mentalist), Richard Castle helping the NYPD (Castle.. duh!), Neal Caffrey helping the FBI (White Collar), and so on and so forth, as you may know. And when it boils down the last 7 minutes of the episode, it’s always these guys who jump in and are able to solve the case, catch the criminal (sometimes in the act) and save the day!

Meanwhile, the police forces mentioned above have no clue of what is going on, who the real criminal is, and often are following up the wrong leads, or arresting the wrong people. I mean, isn’t that a big deal?

Esposito (Castle) and Cho/Rigsby (The Mentalist) are the enforcers; they’re the muscular dudes who are the ones that break down doors. “Coincidentally” Cho was in the army and Espo was Black Ops or something. If you notice, a lot of police teams on TV have an ex-armed forces person with a mysterious past.

Ryan (Castle) and Van Pelt (The Mentalist) are the people who always run suspects down, check records, emails, etc. Basically, the “computer stuff” guys.

Beckett (Castle) and Lisbon (The Mentalist) are your team captains. Both have a tough past and have worked hard to get where they are right now. There’s a lot of romantic tension between these ladies and the protagonists in the shows, but oh, it’s not professional. How sad. But neither is letting your protagonist partner run around doing stupid shit all in the name of solving the case, right? No one seems to care about that.



Ultimately, even when these police officers have their own roles to play, no one seems to be able to solve the case. No one except your protagonists who are not even with the police! For once, I would like to see the police forces solving a crime without the help of Castle or Jane. But then you’d say that it defeats the purpose of the show. Well, let me retort then. Castle wasn’t supposed to be solving cases. He was supposed to watch and take notes for his books. At least Jane is a consultant, so his job is to help! Albeit, I would prefer he only helped and steered the team in the right direction, rather than solve the entire case by himself.

Basically my question is, you’re telling me, if my friend was to get murdered, the police would not be able to solve it without the help of an author or a former conman? That doesn’t make me feel worried, at all!

It’s a good thing this shit happens only on TV then, I think.. I hope.