The exciting part of watching any crime show is waiting to see how those self-imposed genre rules are broken; you can break one or two, or you can break them all. But by removing the boundaries which enable people to identify a crime show as a crime show you run the risk of that show losing its identity. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s a thing that happens when the focus shifts away from genre concerns and to a broader context. And when that happens a crime show becomes a drama show, and without genre expectations being held there is little to no effect when those genre rules are flouted. Because for broken rules to have an affect on a narrative, your audience needs to be aware that those rules are there in the first place.
There are some excellent crime shows on television at the moment; NBC’s Hannibal has won a lot of acclaim, it’s a tale many people are familiar with and it brings us face to face with the charismatic monster, Dr. Hannibal Lecter. Across thirteen episodes in this first season there is murder, the eating of people, and there are FBI investigations and gruesome body horror to boot. Visually it is slick and the scenes practically drip with the saturated red tones.
Top of the Lake, co-produced by BBC Two in the UK, UKTV in Australia/NZ and Sundance Channel in the United States, is a quieter affair. Gathering positive responses for its masterful storytelling and production. The seven episodes focus on Detective Robin Griffin and the twelve year-old Tui Mitchim, who happens to be pregnant. What it lacks for in body count, it makes up for in character studies and beautiful landscape. A near perfect natural landscape within which the horrors of mankind reign.
What we see with both of these shows are narratives regarding violation, and these narratives are then told through subversions of the crime genre. Whether, they be conventional subversions, or more challenging breaks from our expectations.
Organised Freedom 