Nordic crime dramas were already popular in fiction, but it was The Killing, a Danish police drama that took the relatively niche genre of Nordic Noir and placed it centre stage of TV. The lead detective, Sarah Lund, was famous for her determination and her epic Nordic jumpers. You only have to turn on BBC One, Channel 4, or Netflix to see how popular crime dramas are. The bubble does not seem to have been burst. What makes them so appealing?
We get a vicarious thrill watching the adventure, imagining what it would be like to be in that situation. It is like being on a rollercoaster. It is a safe adventure as we are sat at home watching or reading these dramas. Also, the storyline creates order out of chaos. After weeks of false leads, seemingly unsolvable crimes, eventually we have resolution. Amidst the chaos around us in life, there is an answer, and we find that appealing.
We also like puzzles and enjoy trying to guess who the real criminal is, thus beating the system. We become a detective alongside Sarah Lund, Vera, Jimmy Perez, Sherlock Holmes, and that gives us a boost. And we are involved in obtaining justice for the victims of crimes and their families. We are on the side of good in the battle with evil. This also helps us to recognise that we are all capable of doing the terrible things we read or watch. Crime dramas activate our survival instincts, especially the contrived last-minute chase to save someone from a killer.
What has become increasingly popular is the involvement of external agencies in solving crimes, from Patrick Jane on The Mentalist, the novelist Richard Castle, as well as other criminologists and psychologists, e.g., Criminal Minds and Law and Order. In real life, a criminal psychologist doesn’t confront a killer, there is not a large team waiting to be flown in to one of many cases, and they aren’t always consulted in the first place; if they are, they are an add-on, not in charge. In dramas, crimes are solved within an episode or two, but mostly within a series, whereas the majority of cases are solved by dogged and thorough police work, which lengthy, repetitive and can be dull. Cases take months, years, or even decades to solve, and more often than not, left unsolved. In 2022 94.3% of crimes reported in the UK were unsolved. This is not appealing for TV, though, where high speed chases to catch the criminal red handed before disaster strikes capture our imaginations.
Whilst the number of high-tech resources available to TV criminologists and the police force is not accurate, some of the processes they use are in use. Analytic patterns do help predict traits of future subjects, to help work out if a case is dealing with a serial killer, and to focus on a group of suspects. This is something that is increasingly used as the method of analytics improves. Algorithms can help to decode crime trends, and this is useful for deploying the police force.
Ultimately, storytelling wins over accuracy, but that is the point of drama. They never promise otherwise; they are just very believable.
By Mrs Reynolds, Teacher of Sociology with Religious Studies and Business Studies, Portsmouth High School GDST
