We’re counting down to Ralphland’s 500th Posting! Enjoy Post 495!
Have you ever noticed that every show about idealistic young lawyers who are either public defenders or prosecutors features:
* The rich character who is “slumming it” so that he or she may pursue justice for all.
* The idealistic hot head who tries to pursue justice by alienating the entire legal system.
* The poor, struggling single mother/father who worked his or her way through Law School and is doing the best he or she can.
* The stereotypical minority who struggles with staying true to his or her culture while simultaneously seeking justice for all.
* The grizzled, old legal aide who could never pass that dang bar exam, but knows more than these rookies, dagnabbit!
and
* The sleazy guy/gal who doesn’t give a damn about truth or justice and just wants to win.
If a movie or television show is about a local police agency, the FBI will swoop in and arrogantly take command of any and all high profile cases at the whim of the FBI director. Every FBI agent assigned to the case will be a jerk whose sole purpose seems to be to make things difficult for the local cops. Despite their lack of technology and resources, however, the local guys will stick it to the FBI by solving the case. Of course, the FBI takes full responsibility for the closing of the case…
HOWEVER, if the movie or television show is about the FBI, the intrepid Federal agents will be summoned to take over a case from the most inept local police force imaginable. Unfortunately, the local guys aren’t interested in the truth and interfere with the FBI’s case at every turn. Despite the interference from the pig-headed local cops, the sharp FBI investigators solve the case, often uncovering severe incompetence or malfeasance on the part of the local agency. Of course, the local guys take full responsibility for the closing of the case.
. . . in movies and TV, if there are three ways to solve a problem, disarm a bomb or foil someone’s plan, the first and second choices will never work and they’ll have to try the third way, which will always work just in time. Sometimes, however, the movie’s resident techie will go to all the trouble to explain to everyone the intricacies of each option, only to have our hero just shoot the device or person that is standing in their path. (Because he’s a badass!) Of course, this renders the techie’s plans moot.
… on TV, if a single guy is awakened from a sound sleep by someone knocking on his apartment door, he’s nearly always wearing a pair of shorts and a T-Shirt with the name of an Ivy League college printed on it? If it’s a single woman, she’ll almost always answer the door in a skimpy outfit that would make Madonna blush and open the door as wide as can be, regardless of the kind of neighborhood she lives in or the time of night.
….on TV and the movies, the resident techie must always have an odd quirk, even if they aren’t portrayed as being complete geeks?
