I'm glad they touched on politics right there at the last. Because it's just like cop shows. If you think House of Cards is realistic, you're giving the real Congress far too much credit. No elected official is that smart to be able to plan elaborate plots and schemes and power plays like Frank does. 90% of the time they're all flying by the seat of their pants and making shit up as they go.
voteforalan House of Cards isn't unrealistic because Frank is too smart, it's unrealistic because everyone around him is way too dumb. I know portraying politicians in Washington as morons is probably a popular move but it's kind of just ridiculous how stupid everyone has to be for Frank's schemes to work out. He's like Ricky Gervais in The Invention of Lying.
voteforalan does anyone think house of cards is realistic? I watch it cuz its a good and fun show (well season 1 was anyway) and I love Kevin Spacy in that role.
Cian Exactly. Politicians that rise anywhere above local dog-catcher or small-town mayor are usually quite clever. They know how to lie, have no qualms about doing it, and are excellent at seeing the bigger picture so as to manipulate. This is also why you simply do not find good persons in politics. Period. The good ones either never get off the ground, leave because it all sickens them, or go through the ringer like Carcetti (from "gonna change this system" ------>> "dirty, backroom-dealing, political opportunist like all the rest")
voteforalan You know it's based on a British series right? Related to the power-vacuum left by the departure of Thatcher and the failings of Major? In that, there is a believable element to the scheming because of how the Westminster system works. Replacing a sitting PM is as simple as a scandal followed by an in-party election. It happened twice in Australia a couple of years ago.
Dean Cool Yes, I've seen the original. But I don't know much about domestic British politics, so I wasn't commenting about the BBC version. The American version is entirely unrealistic however.
1:42 "if you're a beat cop" - The cops on the Wire weren't beat cops. McNulty was later on and when he became a beat cop he spent way less time on screen because he wasn't investigating big criminals. The Wire specifically follows the special investigation team trying to crack a big case by listening in on their calls (using *a wire* tap), not uniformed beat cops who do community outreach or break up loud parties. 1:54 "a TV cop fires that in an episode" - There were very few episodes of The Wire where the cops got into a firefight with the criminals, I can't recall a single time the main characters were actually shooting bad guys, never mind letting off 100 bullets. 1:57 "Even the Wire upped the body-count" - And cut to footage of people who aren't cops shooting each other or getting shot. How does gang violence relate to the number of time NY cops used their weapons? 2:13 "A real life police officer is more likely to get killed off duty out of uniform" - Like in the Wire where none of the cops are killed? 5:18 "It's just budget bullshit" - So like season 5 of the Wire then when the budget restraints are a huge part of the show? And the explicit and implicit references to the city just generally being underfunded before that too. 5:35 "These crimes aren't unsolved because the detectives are Pryzbylewski-esque fuckups, it's because proving a crime is hard" - So the same reason they aren't solved in The Wire? 6:12 "The majority of crimes aren't reported, the majority of reports don't lead to arrests and the majority of arrests don't lead to convictions, no cop show ever shows this" - except the Wire. It never stops the show to state that, but the entire 5 seasons show a system that's riddled with inefficiency and corruption and which is constantly overwhelmed and never on top of things. Did anyone at Cracked actually watch The Wire? I'm not saying the show is actually realistic, I don't know anything about being a cop or a drug dealer in Baltimore, but none of the problems here actually show up in the Wire.
Cian Well said. This segment is totally misleading. Prez was actually very good at investigations: figuring out the pager codes that the Barksdale crew used to communicate, assisting Freeman with tracking Barksdale assets and campaign contributions, which showed how politicians were in bed with gangsters. Prez just had a tendency to screw up big time in other ways: shooting up his patrol car, pistol whipping a Black teen, which got him taken off the street while the incident was investigated, accidently firing his gun into a wall, striking a superior (his father in law) and accidently shooting a Black undercover. None of his blunders ever actually hurt the special unit's investigations of the Barksdale or Stanfield organizations. The Greek was never caught because he was so well insulated. The unit was close to getting Stringer Bell when he was murdered. Avon Barksdale went down but the stuff he was nailed on wasn't close to the level of crimes he was actually involved in as the head of his organization. Marlo slipped off the hook. The ones who got hit with the most time were the enforcers (Wee Bey/Chris Partlow), who refused to snitch on their bosses. I was gang affiliated but not nearly involved deeply enough to say exactly how accurate all of the street stuff was, but I definitely saw situations on The Wire that looked familiar. I've never heard anybody in the street say the show was inaccurate. Young and old heads love it; The Wire is a staple of street culture. I later became a community activist and can speak with more authority as to The Wire's accuracy when it comes to the political system. They nailed it. I've seen the same bullshit at the State Capitol and City Hall here in Connecticut.
Cian And when he asserts it's inaccurate because real murders have a 1 in 2 chance of being solved, he forgets the big parts of seasons 1 and 2 where homicide is sidestepping every case they can because they've just about managed to get up to a 40% clearance rate for the year.
Cian Glad somebody else thought this as they were watching the video. I too thought all his arguments for why the Wire wasn't realistic actually made me think it was more realistic.
***** That was an exceptional case in the Wire too though and it wasn't straight up gang-on-gang violence. It was Omar (who is really a nearly mythic character and probably the least "real" person in the show) shooting up a gang who killed one of his friends. The vast majority of killings in the show were not shootouts like that.
+Vena Retro Aren't you forgetting that scene where Commissioner Burrell did that huge raid all by himself and shot down Avon Barskdale, Marlo Stanfield and The Greek all in one room?
I love how the increased gun shot rate shown from the wire, were all from the street level and not the cops. And The Wire shows how pissed Colvin is when Carver arrests kids for no reason at all. It's not just drug busts and heroin meetings. a lot of the cops in the Wire are shown beating up on corner kids for simply standing on the corner.
TheBrignad Yeah that's true, although Prez shooting the other cop was treated as a complete freak accident. That part about the other guy dying of a heart attack just shows that the Wire is on board with the fact that cops are more likely to die off the job than on it.
You will watch only the Wire. You will love; The Wire. You will drive your friends mad only talking about how aweomse; The Wire, is. You will never stop talking about anything but; The Wire. And maybe Breaking Bad.. Sheep.
Gunnonni. I also saw it as intending to show that our government systems, particularly the criminal justice one, are barely any different than the criminal enterprises of crime they are intended to thwart. In fact, they almost co-exist as requirements to one another. Only Omar wasn't tied down by his system of choice because he chose no allegiance.
Just make sure it isn't drug related as Police Departments take those much more seriously as they increase their budget. Busting a guy selling a bag of weed is much more beneficial for the Police Department than solving who stole your car.
I was a cop for 30 years. A lot of what you said is spot on. However, you forget the large number of assaults on police every years. The primary reason for my back issues now is the number of fights that I was in and the number of time my squad car was hit by DWIs. Like over 90% of police, I never fired my gun except on the range. I could have at least 20 times and been fully legally justified. I still would never trade the 30 years I had for anything else. I was privileged to work with a great group of fellow officers (and a few assholes).
Not shooting them was a personal choice for me. Just saying that they had pushed it to where it would have been both a legal use of self defense and a moral choice that I could have lived with. But if they had taken one more step toward me with that knife or club or if they had turned one more degree toward be with that gun in their hand, etcetera, I would have shot.
The US needs more cops like you who show restraint. I know the media sensationalizes police shootings and often times things are taken out of context, but there seems to be an alarming trend of police with less accountability or restraint. Either that, or the prevalence of personal video recording devices i.e. cellphone cameras have increased, and so the evidence is beginning to line up with the occurrences of police misconduct. Both theories are still indicative of a massive problem, and it seems to be an underfunded and/or poorly trained police force. I've read that recruitment standards have had to be relaxed in the last decade or so since 9/11 to meet demand. But what gets me is the "quotas" that civil authorities like City Councils or Police Chief bureaucrats impose on the departments that tie into their funding. That system seems wrong, no matter the division. Arrests made and tickets written should not be a quota, but a reaction to things occurring. If I'm misinformed, please let me know, but as a casual observer, it seems like things are geared against law enforcement, and then trickle down into the population in the result we've seem in recent years.
A lot of people overlook serial killers as well. Films and TV have everyone thinking that serial killers are these hyper intelligent psychos who display their victims' bodies in theatrical presentations. In reality, most serial killers just shoot their victim or something and then leave. Most serial murder cases go unsolved because it's hard to pinpoint them as serial murders. Theatrical killers like Zodiac are extremely (EXTREMELY) rare. The majority of serial killers have average intelligence and kill their victims in a mundane way
For anyone that liked The Wire and is interested in this sort of thing, I *highly* recommend reading Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, and The Corner, both by David Simon (the creator of The Wire). It doesn't get more realistic... considering they're journalistic studies of homicide cops and drug users respectively. And they really are the foundation of The Wire.
This was Alex trying hard to use his dad's time on the force to his advantage while writing a Cracked article--and then totally missing the mark and proving why The Wire IS actually a _very_ accurate 'cop show.' How many officers fired their service weapons on the show? How many officers died in the line of duty on the show? How many times were they prevented from solving a crime by budgets? How many crimes did they actually solve, arrest, try and convict? The Wire explored every one of Alex's complaints with cop shows.
I used to be a huge fan oft he original law and order. I could watch episode after episode . Then. A few years ago my cousin got arrested and I had an inside look into the criminal justice system works. Turned me off to the whole cop drama genre
LMAO! New Guy (I really, really should learn his name) was on point in this one! Loved it. Swaim was adorably dopey as usual. I'd really like you to ruin Dexter (love the show) though I'm not sure what catagory that one would fall into. How about ruining medical/hospital drama shows?
Virginia R For sure they have an article about it. If not one dedicated to the entire show then at least an entry in one of them. Particularly they point out how really sloppy Dexter is at covering his tracks and should have been caught a bunch of times by the cops.
In my experience, we went statewide in Georgia for warrant pickups. When I worked for a sheriff's offixe in the Atlanta area, I went to the Savannah area once or twice a month to pick someone up on a warrant. Most places wouldn't go very far for a failure to appear warrant on a traffic charge, but for anything more serious most agencies would go statewide for most warrants. I always thought there had to be a more efficient way to handle transports, but I enjoyed finding new spots to eat in Savannah.
I'm not saying the wire is incredibly realistic but it's far more realistic than any other cop show. In talking about homicide you neglect the fact that Baltimore is one of the most violent cities in America with 334 homicides in its CBD last year and the wire seems to do a pretty good job of showing how constraints over time and budget lead detetives to neglecting cases or not pursuing them at all and the way in which the actions of the police force are fundamentally hindered by politics and corruption. Also you are neglecting the way in which the Baltimore drug scene operates, whilst most drug deals do generally tend to be between friends when you have drug deals taking place in large urban areas and particularly in drug hotspots like Baltimore there is a lot of fighting over territory and 'corners' which leads to a lot of violence and bloodshed between small scale gangs. Take a quote from this article of the Baltimore Sun (the paper which David Simon was a reporter for) published 2015: 'Police say they have cracked down on a violent drug gang operating in West Baltimore-dealing in heroin and cocaine-and have indictments against 11 members, including Kevin Pyatt, charged with shooting nine-year-old Eli Memorial Day weekend as the little boy played basketball outside his home.' These takedowns of gangs require special units and task forces of dedicated detectives (such as the one depicted in the wire) working in conjunction wit the likes of the FBI and involve very long and drawn out investigations and legal battles (it takes 5 seasons for the Barksdale organisation to be taken down in some form).
The wire was great. The most realistic show ever. I live in Baltimore . I teach in Baltimore. The fourth season of wire nailed what working in Baltimore city schools can be like. Also the blocks in Baltimore are organized into drug dealers and sellers just like the show showed.
"If you're a beat cop, your day is largely answering calls about loud neighbors and barking dogs. Statistically, a real life officer is more likely to get killed off duty, out of uniform, in an accident than patrolling the streets. Homicide accounts for less than 10% of part 1 crimes, and most are attributed to miscellaneous arguments. Your whole career, 10 seasons, budget bulls***." No offense to the brave men and women in blue, but I really doubt a show like this, however realistic, would last one season. Honestly, how many real life police would even sit down to watch that every week? As they said, when it comes to the crime drama genre (try saying that 5 times fast), the majority of viewers don't want realism. They crave excitement and intrigue.
Sean MacDonald Back then, yes. But I think a majority of audiences' standards have changed a little since then. I'm not sure that same premise would succeed as well today unless it's VERY well written. Even then, it would likely get repetitive after Season 1.
Of course, there are movies that address those very issues. End of Watch is probably one of the best examples of a film that focuses primarily on the mundane life of being a cop. Hot Fuzz to a lesser extent also makes a point of addressing those issues. Question: what about shows that depict SWAT teams like Flashpoint? After all, those men and women are specially trained to go up against the worst criminals, like the kind that are too dangerous for the regular police to handle.
John Hitchcock It depends on where you are. Some states and cities misuse their SWAT teams for situations that are unnecessary for the response level involved to 'put on a show' to put fear into the neighborhood the arrest is being made in (some of them just use them to serve a warrant on someone who has a registered weapon.) The problem is a lack of national standards for police, response level etc. And the power of the police unions (SWAT officers often get hazard duty pay when involved in an arrest of any kind under many Union Rules.)
John Hitchcock My local SWAT recently raided a house less than a quarter mile from me. They ripped his front door off the hinges with ropes tied to a pickup truck, they smashed in 5 windows for entry, and they arrested 3 people. All because the owner of the house was a felon and a neighbor called it that it appeared he entered the house with a rifle on his back. It turned out to be a guitar. But yes, too dangerous for the regular police to handle. Also, the homeowner has to pay all expenses for the damages done, even though he wasn't even charged with anything.
That's silly. You only focus on the interesting things when you tell stories. This doesn't mean everything is interesting, you just don't focus on that part. Its like thinking that my stories (of things that actually happen to me) aren't realistic just because I don't talk about brushing my teeth when I talk about my day.
Keegan Idler I think the idea is that there are people (like Michael in this video) who get the wrong idea about life as [insert profession] because of how it's portrayed in media. They become a cop because they think they'll be rescuing hostages and catching serial killers, but really they end up writing parking tickets. It's really a fault with the viewer, not with the content.
Cops on TV: Damn, this serial killer was so smart, we had to use all mythical forensic skills to finally catch him. Cops irl: Despite the funny smell and repeated complaints by the neighbors, it took us several years to investigate this Dahmer guy more closely.
Most of the police work is literally being a taxi for drunk people. There's a homeless drunk man passed out on the street? Just send couple cops to pick him up and take him to the station to sleep it off.
The wire is very realistic, it’s just condensed. Drug investigations could take a long time if someone bothered want to do it. The wire did touch on budgetary concerns. Sadistical manipulation. The lack of investigative skills by patrolman. The wire test done a lot. Interestingly though it wasn’t a cop show. It was a show about cities and that’s from the author of the wire.
exactly! I think season 3 started 3 months into an ongoing investigation that went nowhere. and actually in the wire the cops shot two bullets, and they were from prez on another cop, not even a gang vs police thing
Well, I don't know a lot about real cops, but just from a thinking it through stand point: How does the experience of an average cop relate to the realism of The Wire? The protagonists of The Wire (and basically every other cop show) aren't beat cops. Why should their experience reflect the statistical experience of a beat cop?
In my country about 95% of murders get solved. Then again, we only have like 40 each year so ... way more time and people. Also because of the low murder rate almost every one of them makes it to the headlines, so the cops can't just give up without anyone noticing. Oh, and also we have more money. Like a sh*ttone of money.
Cheezeburger Walrus The part about the money was a joke ... kind of. And us being pussies - Yeah, I guess we are. Coming up with girly shit like human rights, while the badass neighbors were making manly war. I'm not very patriotic. There's many things we did wrong, like what Field Marshal Fry was hinting at. But picking on us for being neutral is pretty much the dumbest thing you could have chosen.
***** the first season did something like that. it wasn't just about pulling people over, the film crew would go to the cops' home and be introduced to his family and hobbies. then they dropped that and only had the cops pulling people over. they would actually show dead bodies and whatnot. i remember them showing a burglar who was shot dead with a shot gun. then sometime in the late 90s early 00s they made cops into an arresting drunk frat boys simulator. i'm guessing one episode is about a week to two weeks of filming on average depending on what happens, and how many days the film crew goes out to film.
AmericaTheEngravy sauce i agree it's probably the most accurate in terms of everyday stuff, but you gotta imagine those cops were cherrypicked by the department to be filmed and then of course were on their best behaviour.
jctai100 of course. which is why you don't see them shoot anyone unarmed, or beat on anyone resisting. but then again within 28ish years of the series, a cop shot and killed a cameraman last year.
Not always, I mean in the Con Air episode, they both come to the same conclusion together, from the same starting opinion, and Soren (sitting on the left) is the one to make the original argument
***** ohh lol, sorry your mistaken when you actually think he didnt know what you meant but i guess you "new guy haters" dont know what jokes are otherwise you would have gotten that your part of the joke new guy is making
J Gillies Point conceded. I though Chicago had a larger population in its incorporated area, turns out I was wrong; its is LA. You win a cookie. Where do I send it to?
Waltham1892 very possibly the most civil response I've ever seen on this site ever! And donate the cookie to charity, there's kids starving in Uganda or something
This is an awful, pretentious video. Not saying that because I'm a "fanboy" of The Wire, but these people simply misjudge and mock the show for unbased arguments (not everything in the world can be analyzed through and through with statistics), and with all due respect to this guys father... The Wire is simply not what they're trying to represent here. Just trying to slaughter a sacred cow to come of as intellegent and cool. Just wrong.
pyrotheevilplatypus Paramedic here. Just remember that CPR always works and if it doesn't, just pound their chest with your fist. Also, you're supposed to shock a flat line.
I would die a happy man if you did a continuation of Why Your Decisions Are Meaningless And Choice Is An Illusion, where you could paint a picture of America's society in which we embodied hard determinism and acknowledged the lack of self within ourselves and in turn others. Really any continuation would be great. Thanks
What is your opinion on the accuracy of sword fights in shows like Game Of Thrones and The White Queen. To be honest I am really just doing this to see how much information you all can gather on the topic in a short time period. I reserve the right to critique your observations.
IanTheRed So you thought to go to youtube comments for this information? lol TV swordfights are as fake as TV fist fights. Most swordfighting wasn't pretty and was usually over after a couple strokes. Less if it was an outright mismatch of skill. But that's not nearly as exciting as watching sparks fly, homerun swings, twirling, parrying, and other assorted movements that would be dangerous wastes of motion and energy in a real swordfight.
IanTheRed Why movies don't have realistic sword fights: They're very quick and don't build much drama. If you're actually wearing armor, swords are pretty much useless. A lot would just end with mutual mortal wounds. The action is very fast and not very clear. Most people didn't carry swords in their day to day life and it was illegal in many places.
Smithy0013 Sword fights weren't usually over that fast. It turns out people don't like being hit, so there's a lot more backing away from each other and trying to stay out of each others reach. Also people don't die nearly as easily as you'd think. Even if someone has suffered mortal wounds (wounds that will eventually kill them) it is rarely immediately lethal. There are cases of people continuing to fight after suffering dozens of bullet wounds. Somebody who has been stabbed in the gut when in a fight for their life will almost definitely keep on fighting (unless they have a legitimate option to surrender).
My girlfriend is a Public Defender, and she hates lawyer shows because of how inaccurate, particularly with never portraying criminals as dumb as they really are. I'd like to see an episode on that.
geth117 you might not have noticed this, but cops don't catch brilliant criminals. Most, if not all, of the ones that get caught are pretty stupid, like consenting to a car search when they know they have drugs stupid. PD's are there for the one's that can't afford their own lawyer. Everyone deserves a good defense, criminal or not, dumb or not.
20 yrs in PD: this is spot on! I do not enjoy police procedurals for exactly these reasons! Barney Miller remains my most favorite & historically most accurate police themed show!
Kinan Radaideh correction, I know this is a comedic show and he doesn't actually consider becoming a cop, but to those that think politics is fun or exciting, it isn't. not one bit. it sucks
So this guy with the glasses. I've just recently seen him in some of Cracked's videos. His job appears to be to tear things apart utterly without humor. There's nothing funny about this. We all already know cop shows aren't realistic. So if that's your premise, at least make it funny.
NSA Commander No one said "All' You added that. Cops are people and many people are racist though the degree varies. Slight prejudice is also forced to grow when your time is spent thinking of other races as a threat. Other races are a threat because so many live in less hospitable conditions, making them a lot more likely to grow up a certain way. Cops obviously need more people and support in general, and so do the ones they are arresting. The country is lacking, but of course it is. We still have to debate peoples personal lives, no way are we mature enough to fix this kind of thing. I'm an Australian but its the same story here.
I think True Detective (season 1) does a good job of capturing the mundanity of real police work. Rust spends most of his time reading psychology books and perusing old case files, most of the interviews are pointless ramblings permeated by "days of nothing", and it takes them 17 years to catch one serial killer. Granted, there is some serious conspiracy shit happening, but I'm going to assume that does occur OCCASIONALLY in real life, and it at least it only happens once in Rust and Marty's careers as opposed to once a week for as long as the show runs.
But the characters on the wire weren't beat cops. Each season revolved around a task force of detectives investigating the criminals who the season focused on. Moreover, The Wire made a point of the police officers not using their weapons. The only time an officer shot someone on screen it was an accidental shooting of an undercover officer
I have an idea for a good today's topic. You could do one on how the cartoon "Captain Planet" promotes failure. In every episode the kids ultimately fail at trying to stop anyone and have to combine their ring powers to bring about Captain Planet to fix anything they screwed up.
You should do one on war movies where the guys sit on sentry for hours on end, do endless vehicle and weapon maintenance and sit around smoking and waiting for patrols to happen. For every front line combat soldier there are 10 working behind the front line getting food and fuel up there, organizing and keeping the machine going but you never see much of that in movies/
Actually..the wire does show the clearance rate issue when it comes to murder. A whole lot of the show focuses on how the clearance rates for the different precincts are at about 50% and how in a lot of cases they are probably BELLOW even 50% because the cops mess with the numbers to make themselves look better and don't go "looking for bodies." Season 4 ends with Jay getting pissed at Freeman because Freeman has found where Chris has disposed of the bodies of all the people he has murdered and Jay is worried about how their clearance rate will tank when they start ripping open more of the vacant buildings. The wire obviously is a drama so it's obviously not 100% accurate but the clearance rate issue is pretty prominent within the show.
I'd always heard that Barney Miller was the most realistic cop show. A bunch of cops in a run down old office building, paperwork and bad coffee, a couple go out on calls a couple times a day and come back with stories, only 1 cop I remember ever having to shoot some one and it happened off camera and the episode ended with him alone in his apartment crying.
"Southland" is a close depiction on real police work. Sure, it's not 100% (who wants to watch someone fill out a traffic crash report, I hate filling them out), but it's closer than others I've watched.
Barney Miller is pretty accurate. They are always doing paperwork. They never leave the station. They talk about budget cuts all time and Fish is always using the bathroom.
I'm glad they touched on politics right there at the last. Because it's just like cop shows. If you think House of Cards is realistic, you're giving the real Congress far too much credit. No elected official is that smart to be able to plan elaborate plots and schemes and power plays like Frank does. 90% of the time they're all flying by the seat of their pants and making shit up as they go.
voteforalan House of Cards isn't unrealistic because Frank is too smart, it's unrealistic because everyone around him is way too dumb. I know portraying politicians in Washington as morons is probably a popular move but it's kind of just ridiculous how stupid everyone has to be for Frank's schemes to work out. He's like Ricky Gervais in The Invention of Lying.
voteforalan does anyone think house of cards is realistic? I watch it cuz its a good and fun show (well season 1 was anyway) and I love Kevin Spacy in that role.
Cian Exactly.
Politicians that rise anywhere above local dog-catcher or small-town mayor are usually quite clever. They know how to lie, have no qualms about doing it, and are excellent at seeing the bigger picture so as to manipulate. This is also why you simply do not find good persons in politics. Period. The good ones either never get off the ground, leave because it all sickens them, or go through the ringer like Carcetti (from "gonna change this system" ------>> "dirty, backroom-dealing, political opportunist like all the rest")
voteforalan You know it's based on a British series right? Related to the power-vacuum left by the departure of Thatcher and the failings of Major? In that, there is a believable element to the scheming because of how the Westminster system works. Replacing a sitting PM is as simple as a scandal followed by an in-party election. It happened twice in Australia a couple of years ago.
Dean Cool Yes, I've seen the original. But I don't know much about domestic British politics, so I wasn't commenting about the BBC version. The American version is entirely unrealistic however.
1:42 "if you're a beat cop" - The cops on the Wire weren't beat cops. McNulty was later on and when he became a beat cop he spent way less time on screen because he wasn't investigating big criminals. The Wire specifically follows the special investigation team trying to crack a big case by listening in on their calls (using *a wire* tap), not uniformed beat cops who do community outreach or break up loud parties.
1:54 "a TV cop fires that in an episode" - There were very few episodes of The Wire where the cops got into a firefight with the criminals, I can't recall a single time the main characters were actually shooting bad guys, never mind letting off 100 bullets.
1:57 "Even the Wire upped the body-count" - And cut to footage of people who aren't cops shooting each other or getting shot. How does gang violence relate to the number of time NY cops used their weapons?
2:13 "A real life police officer is more likely to get killed off duty out of uniform" - Like in the Wire where none of the cops are killed?
5:18 "It's just budget bullshit" - So like season 5 of the Wire then when the budget restraints are a huge part of the show? And the explicit and implicit references to the city just generally being underfunded before that too.
5:35 "These crimes aren't unsolved because the detectives are Pryzbylewski-esque fuckups, it's because proving a crime is hard" - So the same reason they aren't solved in The Wire?
6:12 "The majority of crimes aren't reported, the majority of reports don't lead to arrests and the majority of arrests don't lead to convictions, no cop show ever shows this" - except the Wire. It never stops the show to state that, but the entire 5 seasons show a system that's riddled with inefficiency and corruption and which is constantly overwhelmed and never on top of things.
Did anyone at Cracked actually watch The Wire? I'm not saying the show is actually realistic, I don't know anything about being a cop or a drug dealer in Baltimore, but none of the problems here actually show up in the Wire.
Cian Well said. This segment is totally misleading. Prez was actually very good at investigations: figuring out the pager codes that the Barksdale crew used to communicate, assisting Freeman with tracking Barksdale assets and campaign contributions, which showed how politicians were in bed with gangsters. Prez just had a tendency to screw up big time in other ways: shooting up his patrol car, pistol whipping a Black teen, which got him taken off the street while the incident was investigated, accidently firing his gun into a wall, striking a superior (his father in law) and accidently shooting a Black undercover. None of his blunders ever actually hurt the special unit's investigations of the Barksdale or Stanfield organizations.
The Greek was never caught because he was so well insulated. The unit was close to getting Stringer Bell when he was murdered. Avon Barksdale went down but the stuff he was nailed on wasn't close to the level of crimes he was actually involved in as the head of his organization. Marlo slipped off the hook. The ones who got hit with the most time were the enforcers (Wee Bey/Chris Partlow), who refused to snitch on their bosses. I was gang affiliated but not nearly involved deeply enough to say exactly how accurate all of the street stuff was, but I definitely saw situations on The Wire that looked familiar. I've never heard anybody in the street say the show was inaccurate. Young and old heads love it; The Wire is a staple of street culture. I later became a community activist and can speak with more authority as to The Wire's accuracy when it comes to the political system. They nailed it. I've seen the same bullshit at the State Capitol and City Hall here in Connecticut.
Cian And when he asserts it's inaccurate because real murders have a 1 in 2 chance of being solved, he forgets the big parts of seasons 1 and 2 where homicide is sidestepping every case they can because they've just about managed to get up to a 40% clearance rate for the year.
Cian
Yeah, Cracked really missed the mark here imo.
Cian Glad somebody else thought this as they were watching the video. I too thought all his arguments for why the Wire wasn't realistic actually made me think it was more realistic.
***** That was an exceptional case in the Wire too though and it wasn't straight up gang-on-gang violence. It was Omar (who is really a nearly mythic character and probably the least "real" person in the show) shooting up a gang who killed one of his friends. The vast majority of killings in the show were not shootouts like that.
Eh...THE COPS in the Wire only fire 3 bullets throught the show.And all the 3 are by Prez and by accident(once on a felllow officer)
+Vena Retro Bunk shot a mouse.
Seamus Dowling
I dont recall that.
+Vena Retro That didn't happen on camera. It was a drunk Bunk story: "I lit him up!"
Hermione Ziggeraut
Oh yeah.I just rewatched that episode.
+Vena Retro Aren't you forgetting that scene where Commissioner Burrell did that huge raid all by himself and shot down Avon Barskdale, Marlo Stanfield and The Greek all in one room?
I love how the increased gun shot rate shown from the wire, were all from the street level and not the cops. And The Wire shows how pissed Colvin is when Carver arrests kids for no reason at all. It's not just drug busts and heroin meetings. a lot of the cops in the Wire are shown beating up on corner kids for simply standing on the corner.
I've heard Hot Fuzz is as accurate as it gets.
taqu lol!!!!!!
YYEEEAAAHHH BOIIIII
Seriously? WTF!? LOL!
(I'm honestly curious what the odds are on this now.)
Yeah, some parts
Lol
Only one cop fires his gun (twice) on The Wire, and both were an accident.
Adam Moody And none of the cops die either. Kiva is the only one who gets shot and that's because the guy who shot her was an idiot who messed up.
Cian And the one who shot her got killed because you DON'T SHOOT COPS.
Cian Although to be fair, one cop did get killed. By Prez. And another got killed by a heart attack.
TheBrignad Yeah that's true, although Prez shooting the other cop was treated as a complete freak accident. That part about the other guy dying of a heart attack just shows that the Wire is on board with the fact that cops are more likely to die off the job than on it.
You will watch only the Wire. You will love; The Wire. You will drive your friends mad only talking about how aweomse; The Wire, is. You will never stop talking about anything but; The Wire. And maybe Breaking Bad..
Sheep.
I work in a hospital. Please ruin the whole medical show world.
Epic
The Wire less about everyday police work and more about interactions between individuals and institutions and how crime is largely a systemic problem.
Gunnonni. I also saw it as intending to show that our government systems, particularly the criminal justice one, are barely any different than the criminal enterprises of crime they are intended to thwart. In fact, they almost co-exist as requirements to one another.
Only Omar wasn't tied down by his system of choice because he chose no allegiance.
It´s about The Game yo!
Reno 911 is probably the most accurate cop show
I am also curious about turtles.
dangerouslytalented I, too, like turtles.
dangerouslytalented I will have sex with a turtle some day.
krneel128 Go live your dream!
dangerouslytalented search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=I+like+turtles&ei=UTF-8&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-002
dangerouslytalented My turtle is getting curious
It was only Prezbo (as a cop) who had ever fired a gun onscreen in The Wire. And it was only three times and TWO of those were offscreen.
...and they were accidents.
I think all of them were offscreen you just saw the result of two of them.
This made me want to be a criminal LOL
+Night Rider Pretty sure I could get away with murder now.
+freakyfreak7777
Crimes should only be committed for fun & profit
Just make sure it isn't drug related as Police Departments take those much more seriously as they increase their budget. Busting a guy selling a bag of weed is much more beneficial for the Police Department than solving who stole your car.
+Night Rider If you think cop life is mundane imagine jail life. Now thats some mundane shit.
+Preston Sholl Even the prison rape is pretty mundane, just a bit of the old in and out, nothing exciting really...
cop shows also don't show the cops pooping... but I'm almost positive they poop at least once in a while...
Where do they go while they're staking out a place?
I was a cop for 30 years. A lot of what you said is spot on. However, you forget the large number of assaults on police every years. The primary reason for my back issues now is the number of fights that I was in and the number of time my squad car was hit by DWIs. Like over 90% of police, I never fired my gun except on the range. I could have at least 20 times and been fully legally justified. I still would never trade the 30 years I had for anything else. I was privileged to work with a great group of fellow officers (and a few assholes).
+Madara “LostInGames1” Ryuzaki Sorry but I have no idea what you mean.
+Richard Butler "a great group of fellow officers (and a few assholes)." I'd say this is an excellent way to describe police.
+IamJesus I think it's an excellent way to describe any bigger group of people (friend circles, any work related organisations, events etc.)
Not shooting them was a personal choice for me. Just saying that they had pushed it to where it would have been both a legal use of self defense and a moral choice that I could have lived with. But if they had taken one more step toward me with that knife or club or if they had turned one more degree toward be with that gun in their hand, etcetera, I would have shot.
The US needs more cops like you who show restraint. I know the media sensationalizes police shootings and often times things are taken out of context, but there seems to be an alarming trend of police with less accountability or restraint.
Either that, or the prevalence of personal video recording devices i.e. cellphone cameras have increased, and so the evidence is beginning to line up with the occurrences of police misconduct.
Both theories are still indicative of a massive problem, and it seems to be an underfunded and/or poorly trained police force. I've read that recruitment standards have had to be relaxed in the last decade or so since 9/11 to meet demand.
But what gets me is the "quotas" that civil authorities like City Councils or Police Chief bureaucrats impose on the departments that tie into their funding. That system seems wrong, no matter the division. Arrests made and tickets written should not be a quota, but a reaction to things occurring.
If I'm misinformed, please let me know, but as a casual observer, it seems like things are geared against law enforcement, and then trickle down into the population in the result we've seem in recent years.
I work in law enforcement for 9 years and everything the glasses guy said is 180 percent accurate
A lot of people overlook serial killers as well. Films and TV have everyone thinking that serial killers are these hyper intelligent psychos who display their victims' bodies in theatrical presentations. In reality, most serial killers just shoot their victim or something and then leave. Most serial murder cases go unsolved because it's hard to pinpoint them as serial murders. Theatrical killers like Zodiac are extremely (EXTREMELY) rare. The majority of serial killers have average intelligence and kill their victims in a mundane way
Timothy Choi Aww damn, and I thought Hannibal was realistic. :(
(kidding, kidding)
For anyone that liked The Wire and is interested in this sort of thing, I *highly* recommend reading Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, and The Corner, both by David Simon (the creator of The Wire). It doesn't get more realistic... considering they're journalistic studies of homicide cops and drug users respectively. And they really are the foundation of The Wire.
This was Alex trying hard to use his dad's time on the force to his advantage while writing a Cracked article--and then totally missing the mark and proving why The Wire IS actually a _very_ accurate 'cop show.'
How many officers fired their service weapons on the show?
How many officers died in the line of duty on the show?
How many times were they prevented from solving a crime by budgets?
How many crimes did they actually solve, arrest, try and convict?
The Wire explored every one of Alex's complaints with cop shows.
I used to be a huge fan oft he original law and order. I could watch episode after episode . Then. A few years ago my cousin got arrested and I had an inside look into the criminal justice system works. Turned me off to the whole cop drama genre
What did they do?
LMAO! New Guy (I really, really should learn his name) was on point in this one! Loved it. Swaim was adorably dopey as usual.
I'd really like you to ruin Dexter (love the show) though I'm not sure what catagory that one would fall into. How about ruining medical/hospital drama shows?
Virginia R Dexter did a good job of ruining itself, but your other idea is good.
New Guy's name is Alex and I agree: totally on point, the both of 'em!
Virginia R For sure they have an article about it. If not one dedicated to the entire show then at least an entry in one of them. Particularly they point out how really sloppy Dexter is at covering his tracks and should have been caught a bunch of times by the cops.
Virginia R yes! hospital shows, and include something about Scrubs being the most accurate, because I hear it is.
***** I'd say Grey's Anatomy is pretty accurate for the life of genius surgeons
atleast they didnt mention 'true detective'
Chaz Mania thats too awesome to say anything negative about it
+Garth Algar true detective is entirely fictionl.
+Garth Algar I will stick a gold star on your forehead.
+Chaz Mania ..or Miami Vice
In my experience, we went statewide in Georgia for warrant pickups. When I worked for a sheriff's offixe in the Atlanta area, I went to the Savannah area once or twice a month to pick someone up on a warrant.
Most places wouldn't go very far for a failure to appear warrant on a traffic charge, but for anything more serious most agencies would go statewide for most warrants.
I always thought there had to be a more efficient way to handle transports, but I enjoyed finding new spots to eat in Savannah.
*I NEED THOSE HEADPHONES*
***** GIR? What does GIR mean?
BtRobot A character from Invader Zim.
BtRobot I... DON'T know... (you were doing a line from the show, right? If not, Google "Invader Zim"!)
David Racicot yeah but he kinda fucked it up...
***** Girr-phones look cool, but the only song they will play is the doom song.
I'm not saying the wire is incredibly realistic but it's far more realistic than any other cop show. In talking about homicide you neglect the fact that Baltimore is one of the most violent cities in America with 334 homicides in its CBD last year and the wire seems to do a pretty good job of showing how constraints over time and budget lead detetives to neglecting cases or not pursuing them at all and the way in which the actions of the police force are fundamentally hindered by politics and corruption. Also you are neglecting the way in which the Baltimore drug scene operates, whilst most drug deals do generally tend to be between friends when you have drug deals taking place in large urban areas and particularly in drug hotspots like Baltimore there is a lot of fighting over territory and 'corners' which leads to a lot of violence and bloodshed between small scale gangs. Take a quote from this article of the Baltimore Sun (the paper which David Simon was a reporter for) published 2015: 'Police say they have cracked down on a violent drug gang operating in West Baltimore-dealing in heroin and cocaine-and have indictments against 11 members, including Kevin Pyatt, charged with shooting nine-year-old Eli Memorial Day weekend as the little boy played basketball outside his home.' These takedowns of gangs require special units and task forces of dedicated detectives (such as the one depicted in the wire) working in conjunction wit the likes of the FBI and involve very long and drawn out investigations and legal battles (it takes 5 seasons for the Barksdale organisation to be taken down in some form).
The wire was great. The most realistic show ever. I live in Baltimore . I teach in Baltimore. The fourth season of wire nailed what working in Baltimore city schools can be like. Also the blocks in Baltimore are organized into drug dealers and sellers just like the show showed.
"If you're a beat cop, your day is largely answering calls about loud neighbors and barking dogs. Statistically, a real life officer is more likely to get killed off duty, out of uniform, in an accident than patrolling the streets. Homicide accounts for less than 10% of part 1 crimes, and most are attributed to miscellaneous arguments. Your whole career, 10 seasons, budget bulls***."
No offense to the brave men and women in blue, but I really doubt a show like this, however realistic, would last one season. Honestly, how many real life police would even sit down to watch that every week? As they said, when it comes to the crime drama genre (try saying that 5 times fast), the majority of viewers don't want realism. They crave excitement and intrigue.
There's a reason that you have to pay people to do it.
The Andy Griffith Show basically had this premise and was immensely popular. :)
Sean MacDonald Back then, yes. But I think a majority of audiences' standards have changed a little since then. I'm not sure that same premise would succeed as well today unless it's VERY well written. Even then, it would likely get repetitive after Season 1.
"less than 100 bullets were fired, by the entire force", half of those ended in pet deaths. Cops are great aren't they?
"Oooh exciting! Let's call Sherlock Cumberbun!"
Oh my gosh I died at that part 😂
The most accurate cop show was Dragnet. Notice how nobody watches it anymore.
You could talk about how family shows are a strange non-representative sample of the American family.
Of course, there are movies that address those very issues. End of Watch is probably one of the best examples of a film that focuses primarily on the mundane life of being a cop. Hot Fuzz to a lesser extent also makes a point of addressing those issues.
Question: what about shows that depict SWAT teams like Flashpoint? After all, those men and women are specially trained to go up against the worst criminals, like the kind that are too dangerous for the regular police to handle.
John Hitchcock It depends on where you are. Some states and cities misuse their SWAT teams for situations that are unnecessary for the response level involved to 'put on a show' to put fear into the neighborhood the arrest is being made in (some of them just use them to serve a warrant on someone who has a registered weapon.) The problem is a lack of national standards for police, response level etc. And the power of the police unions (SWAT officers often get hazard duty pay when involved in an arrest of any kind under many Union Rules.)
John Hitchcock My local SWAT recently raided a house less than a quarter mile from me. They ripped his front door off the hinges with ropes tied to a pickup truck, they smashed in 5 windows for entry, and they arrested 3 people. All because the owner of the house was a felon and a neighbor called it that it appeared he entered the house with a rifle on his back. It turned out to be a guitar. But yes, too dangerous for the regular police to handle. Also, the homeowner has to pay all expenses for the damages done, even though he wasn't even charged with anything.
John Hitchcock Yeah they kinda tried that with the movie S.W.A.T and we all know how that went.
***** that or just a dude playing video games at his house haha
oneblood7411 America! FUCK YEAH!
That's silly. You only focus on the interesting things when you tell stories. This doesn't mean everything is interesting, you just don't focus on that part. Its like thinking that my stories (of things that actually happen to me) aren't realistic just because I don't talk about brushing my teeth when I talk about my day.
Keegan Idler I think the idea is that there are people (like Michael in this video) who get the wrong idea about life as [insert profession] because of how it's portrayed in media. They become a cop because they think they'll be rescuing hostages and catching serial killers, but really they end up writing parking tickets. It's really a fault with the viewer, not with the content.
John Harvey Fair enough.
They forgot to mention the 2nd best cop show after the Wire, The Shield.
The Shield is the best show no one talks about.
Adam Moody Because its not the best show
Adam Moody The Shield is the best show nobody likes.
John is young Incorrect! The 2nd best cop show is Game Of Thrones.
John is young I like the shield but it had major flaws and wasn't at all realistic
Cops on TV: Damn, this serial killer was so smart, we had to use all mythical forensic skills to finally catch him.
Cops irl: Despite the funny smell and repeated complaints by the neighbors, it took us several years to investigate this Dahmer guy more closely.
Most of the police work is literally being a taxi for drunk people. There's a homeless drunk man passed out on the street? Just send couple cops to pick him up and take him to the station to sleep it off.
Where do u live, Canada?
Finland
Vennant Why are you shocked, that's exactly how cops work in small towns in movies, and Finland is basically a small town from a 50s movie.
Who said I was shocked? Just stating facts here.
"People are out here, Karate-ing each other to death" Lmao I love that line.
The wire is very realistic, it’s just condensed. Drug investigations could take a long time if someone bothered want to do it. The wire did touch on budgetary concerns. Sadistical manipulation. The lack of investigative skills by patrolman. The wire test done a lot. Interestingly though it wasn’t a cop show. It was a show about cities and that’s from the author of the wire.
The wire is like a whole year condensed into a season.
exactly! I think season 3 started 3 months into an ongoing investigation that went nowhere. and actually in the wire the cops shot two bullets, and they were from prez on another cop, not even a gang vs police thing
Well, I don't know a lot about real cops, but just from a thinking it through stand point: How does the experience of an average cop relate to the realism of The Wire? The protagonists of The Wire (and basically every other cop show) aren't beat cops. Why should their experience reflect the statistical experience of a beat cop?
In my country about 95% of murders get solved. Then again, we only have like 40 each year so ... way more time and people. Also because of the low murder rate almost every one of them makes it to the headlines, so the cops can't just give up without anyone noticing.
Oh, and also we have more money. Like a sh*ttone of money.
Where are you, Iceland?
TheObsidianX
Switzerland.
bullsquid42 oh you have everyone and Hitler's money though so you don't count when it comes to budget
bullsquid42 Does having a shit ton of money make you feel better about being from a country full of pussies?
Cheezeburger Walrus
The part about the money was a joke ... kind of.
And us being pussies - Yeah, I guess we are. Coming up with girly shit like human rights, while the badass neighbors were making manly war.
I'm not very patriotic. There's many things we did wrong, like what Field Marshal Fry was hinting at. But picking on us for being neutral is pretty much the dumbest thing you could have chosen.
So Alex is saying that the most realistic cop show ever is Reno 911?
Sherlock cumberbuns.....
I question how accurate Breaking Bad really was.
c.o.p.s. was pretty accurate if you ask me.
*****
the first season did something like that. it wasn't just about pulling people over, the film crew would go to the cops' home and be introduced to his family and hobbies. then they dropped that and only had the cops pulling people over. they would actually show dead bodies and whatnot. i remember them showing a burglar who was shot dead with a shot gun. then sometime in the late 90s early 00s they made cops into an arresting drunk frat boys simulator. i'm guessing one episode is about a week to two weeks of filming on average depending on what happens, and how many days the film crew goes out to film.
AmericaTheEngravy sauce "Stop resisting!"
Jack Riggs
it happens. the show is there to document the events, not to take sides.
AmericaTheEngravy sauce i agree it's probably the most accurate in terms of everyday stuff, but you gotta imagine those cops were cherrypicked by the department to be filmed and then of course were on their best behaviour.
jctai100
of course.
which is why you don't see them shoot anyone unarmed, or beat on anyone resisting. but then again within 28ish years of the series, a cop shot and killed a cameraman last year.
I'm I the only one who notices that the one who starts/wins the argument always sits on the right? •.•
Madeline Moody I'm I the only one who notices your sentence structure is weird?
Whoops. Am I*
Not always, I mean in the Con Air episode, they both come to the same conclusion together, from the same starting opinion, and Soren (sitting on the left) is the one to make the original argument
Why does non bearded white guys monitor not have any cables attached?
no one likes "the new guy"
I do
Seth Stevens *no rational person likes "the new guy"
***** well it was a pretty shitty movie so that makes sense.
***** ohh lol, sorry your mistaken when you actually think he didnt know what you meant
but i guess you "new guy haters" dont know what jokes are otherwise you would have gotten that your part of the joke new guy is making
***** Other than his stupid trolly series, I think he adds to the sketches he's in. I thought he did well as Walt Disney.
Hey, I was with LAPD. Who is your Dad?
Waltham1892
Pretty good odds, someone with the last name Schmidt, who had a son named Alex.
Yeah, 7,700 guys, 18 Division, third largest city in the US.
We probably had lockers next to each other at the Academy...
Waltham1892 what are the two bigger than L.A then? NY aaaannd?
J Gillies Point conceded. I though Chicago had a larger population in its incorporated area, turns out I was wrong; its is LA.
You win a cookie. Where do I send it to?
Waltham1892 very possibly the most civil response I've ever seen on this site ever!
And donate the cookie to charity, there's kids starving in Uganda or something
This is an awful, pretentious video. Not saying that because I'm a "fanboy" of The Wire, but these people simply misjudge and mock the show for unbased arguments (not everything in the world can be analyzed through and through with statistics), and with all due respect to this guys father... The Wire is simply not what they're trying to represent here. Just trying to slaughter a sacred cow to come of as intellegent and cool. Just wrong.
Have they done a hospital drama critique yet?
pyrotheevilplatypus Paramedic here. Just remember that CPR always works and if it doesn't, just pound their chest with your fist. Also, you're supposed to shock a flat line.
Also, (emotionally important) people will always live *just* long enough to say goodbye to loved ones or say something profound...
I would die a happy man if you did a continuation of Why Your Decisions Are Meaningless And Choice Is An Illusion, where you could paint a picture of America's society in which we embodied hard determinism and acknowledged the lack of self within ourselves and in turn others. Really any continuation would be great. Thanks
What is your opinion on the accuracy of sword fights in shows like Game Of Thrones and The White Queen.
To be honest I am really just doing this to see how much information you all can gather on the topic in a short time period. I reserve the right to critique your observations.
Way too slow
IanTheRed Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato Potato
I like kittens :3
IanTheRed So you thought to go to youtube comments for this information? lol
TV swordfights are as fake as TV fist fights. Most swordfighting wasn't pretty and was usually over after a couple strokes. Less if it was an outright mismatch of skill. But that's not nearly as exciting as watching sparks fly, homerun swings, twirling, parrying, and other assorted movements that would be dangerous wastes of motion and energy in a real swordfight.
IanTheRed Why movies don't have realistic sword fights: They're very quick and don't build much drama. If you're actually wearing armor, swords are pretty much useless. A lot would just end with mutual mortal wounds. The action is very fast and not very clear. Most people didn't carry swords in their day to day life and it was illegal in many places.
Smithy0013 Sword fights weren't usually over that fast. It turns out people don't like being hit, so there's a lot more backing away from each other and trying to stay out of each others reach. Also people don't die nearly as easily as you'd think. Even if someone has suffered mortal wounds (wounds that will eventually kill them) it is rarely immediately lethal. There are cases of people continuing to fight after suffering dozens of bullet wounds. Somebody who has been stabbed in the gut when in a fight for their life will almost definitely keep on fighting (unless they have a legitimate option to surrender).
Emergency Room shows, and Hospital shows in General. From ER all the way to SCRUBS
My girlfriend is a Public Defender, and she hates lawyer shows because of how inaccurate, particularly with never portraying criminals as dumb as they really are. I'd like to see an episode on that.
Jeremy Cantrell Seeing how run-of-the-mill most dummies are that commit crimes isn't scintillating programming.
D rB exactly. That's the same point this video was making. My suggestion is to do a sequel video covering what happens after arrests.
Only criminal that depend on public defenders are idiots from my experience
geth117 you might not have noticed this, but cops don't catch brilliant criminals. Most, if not all, of the ones that get caught are pretty stupid, like consenting to a car search when they know they have drugs stupid. PD's are there for the one's that can't afford their own lawyer. Everyone deserves a good defense, criminal or not, dumb or not.
"Everyone deserves a good defense" they do I never said they didn't.
"...plant bite marks on the butts of hobo corpses." the best line ever written
dude what about reno 911?
20 yrs in PD: this is spot on! I do not enjoy police procedurals for exactly these reasons! Barney Miller remains my most favorite & historically most accurate police themed show!
my dad is a politician, and just...don't
Kinan Radaideh correction, I know this is a comedic show and he doesn't actually consider becoming a cop, but to those that think politics is fun or exciting, it isn't. not one bit. it sucks
Kinan Radaideh ... but you get to kiss babies
Kinan Radaideh I find them exciting but not beacuse of t.v. shows I just enjoy them. ALOT
Could we just put pianist150 on a watchlist based on that comment alone?
sydney jones lol
Dx Backstrum . " you only miss the light when it's burning low -"
So this guy with the glasses. I've just recently seen him in some of Cracked's videos. His job appears to be to tear things apart utterly without humor. There's nothing funny about this. We all already know cop shows aren't realistic. So if that's your premise, at least make it funny.
WalterLiddy I feel your pain, man. Just give it some time, look at how Cody turned out!
WalterLiddy He's the straight man. He's not supposed to be funny. That's the other guy's job.
I want an audition with Cracked. Because I believe they are missing a void they can and should fill.
Inb4 inevitable argument on whether cops are racist or if we're too demanding of our police forces.
AValveFanboy Both true, no reason to deny it.
AValveFanboy Sure there are racist cops, but that doesn't mean cops are racist.
NSA Commander No one said "All' You added that. Cops are people and many people are racist though the degree varies. Slight prejudice is also forced to grow when your time is spent thinking of other races as a threat. Other races are a threat because so many live in less hospitable conditions, making them a lot more likely to grow up a certain way. Cops obviously need more people and support in general, and so do the ones they are arresting.
The country is lacking, but of course it is. We still have to debate peoples personal lives, no way are we mature enough to fix this kind of thing.
I'm an Australian but its the same story here.
With that huge percentage of unsolved murders, I'm honestly surprised my dad's murderer was caught.
I think True Detective (season 1) does a good job of capturing the mundanity of real police work. Rust spends most of his time reading psychology books and perusing old case files, most of the interviews are pointless ramblings permeated by "days of nothing", and it takes them 17 years to catch one serial killer. Granted, there is some serious conspiracy shit happening, but I'm going to assume that does occur OCCASIONALLY in real life, and it at least it only happens once in Rust and Marty's careers as opposed to once a week for as long as the show runs.
Hitchcock and skully! I got that reference! lol
But the characters on the wire weren't beat cops. Each season revolved around a task force of detectives investigating the criminals who the season focused on. Moreover, The Wire made a point of the police officers not using their weapons. The only time an officer shot someone on screen it was an accidental shooting of an undercover officer
Wasn't that prezbo who later quit the force and became a teacher
"You know you're my Hitchcock and Scully, right?" I love me some Brooklyn Nine-Nine references.
underrated video. This is actually the best acted TT of all time. Love it
I have an idea for a good today's topic. You could do one on how the cartoon "Captain Planet" promotes failure. In every episode the kids ultimately fail at trying to stop anyone and have to combine their ring powers to bring about Captain Planet to fix anything they screwed up.
I just realised... Alex's delivery and on-screen persona is pretty reminiscent of New Girl's Schmidt.
Now do one about literally all scientists depicted in movies and tv shows.
The various types of windows found in old Victorian homes and their appearances in pop culture
"Benedict Cumberbund." Lol!!!!! :)
Been catching up on the end of season 2 of Brooklyn 99, that last quip made my day.
You should do the military in every sci fi movie, tv or video game setting ever.
Kansas, HELLA. Not only did our state sell sex toys for funding cause our budget is shit, we also have a 50% chance of not catching a murderer.
5:03 This right here makes me not want to commit a crime. Ugh! I hate moving! 😒 😂😂😂😂😂🤣
All cop shows should have Hot Fuzz's glossy paperwork montages.
I dunno why or how, but anything and everything Michael Swaim does cracks me up!!!
Whoever wrote this script knows their shit, the guy in the glasses is dead on and the bearded guy is effing hilarious.
Benedict Cumberbatch sounds like a character in Salad Fingers; Hubert Cumberdales BFF.
You should do one on war movies where the guys sit on sentry for hours on end, do endless vehicle and weapon maintenance and sit around smoking and waiting for patrols to happen. For every front line combat soldier there are 10 working behind the front line getting food and fuel up there, organizing and keeping the machine going but you never see much of that in movies/
I dare you to ruin Battlestar Galactica for me (reboot, obvi).
You guys should cover all the different emergency services like fireman an Emts
i think they should do myster science theater 3000 seeing as it depicts watching cheesy/ terrible movies as a really fun thing to do together *sober*
oh do one about computer hacking shows / movies. their concepts of computers and networks is just hilarious!
GIR HEADPHONES! A petty good animated equivalent to Michael Swaim.
Actually..the wire does show the clearance rate issue when it comes to murder. A whole lot of the show focuses on how the clearance rates for the different precincts are at about 50% and how in a lot of cases they are probably BELLOW even 50% because the cops mess with the numbers to make themselves look better and don't go "looking for bodies." Season 4 ends with Jay getting pissed at Freeman because Freeman has found where Chris has disposed of the bodies of all the people he has murdered and Jay is worried about how their clearance rate will tank when they start ripping open more of the vacant buildings. The wire obviously is a drama so it's obviously not 100% accurate but the clearance rate issue is pretty prominent within the show.
Also do a Today's Topic about how space travel, space photos, the horrific truth that NASA is underfunded.
I'd always heard that Barney Miller was the most realistic cop show. A bunch of cops in a run down old office building, paperwork and bad coffee, a couple go out on calls a couple times a day and come back with stories, only 1 cop I remember ever having to shoot some one and it happened off camera and the episode ended with him alone in his apartment crying.
"Southland" is a close depiction on real police work. Sure, it's not 100% (who wants to watch someone fill out a traffic crash report, I hate filling them out), but it's closer than others I've watched.
"The Wire is life"-Some random guy from B-more.
Barney Miller is pretty accurate. They are always doing paperwork. They never leave the station. They talk about budget cuts all time and Fish is always using the bathroom.
This is why Southland is the ONLY realistic police show.
I would like an episode examining horror movies/ghost hunter shows. That is unless you guys already made one about that then I wouldn't.
A turtle would never reach Achilles.
A tortoise, would ask for a dictionary,
"Because an accurate cop show would be totally boring"
Yep, sounds like that drama that used to be on i think ITV called The Bill
Ok I have seen the best video for tonight. This was excellent. I seriously wish it were longer.
Blue Bloods is my favourite police show. It may have a few similar stereotypes of the genre, but still worth a watch.
jarhead best portrayal of military
Dug that handheld, action-ey camera feel for the cop episode. Great episode, guys!