Day two-hundred-thirty-five

For the first time in a month, I've had no plans on a Saturday. I got to take care of some thing like shopping for t-shirts and stuff, and taking care of some yard work.

Okay, for the first time (I think, I can't recall), I'm linking to another blog. I don't recall exactly how it found this blog, but it's become a favorite of mine. It's called Everyone Nods: The Dragnet Style Files. I am a huge totally non-ironic fan of the 60s Dragnet series.

For those not in the know, Dragnet was a police procedural set in Los Angeles, famously based on real cases, using the famous line, "The story you're about to see is true. The names have been changed to protect the innocent." Of course, you may have heard of its' famous theme music.

Wow, I'm getting link-heavy today.

Anyway, the show gets dinged a little today for its' dated nature. Besides the fact that police procedures have changed since the late 1960s, the show has what many would consider a dated view on drugs, especially marijuana. Also, some people are put off by its' overtly conservative viewpoint.

However, show creator/star Jack Webb could be accused of idealizing, but never romanticizing, police work. The show makes the clear point that breaking cases and solving crimes takes hard work, long hours, and sometimes chasing leads that go nowhere. There are no socially awkward geniuses who have some vaguely-defined disorder that is always labeled Asperger's syndrome, but somehow piece together clues to catch the serial murderer of the week. No reckless cops who play by their own rules and are neverending headings for their captains; one of the common themes of the show is the rules are the rules for a reason, and that straying outside of them just causes trouble.

I'm not a fan of cop shows in general, but Dragnet captured my imagination, I think, in large part because of Jack Webb as Sgt. Joe Friday. He's loyal, dependable, driven to see a case through the end, but he's also a straight-shooter who, in his own dry way, demonstrates tremendous empathy for people, criminal and victim alike if their situation warrants it.

Plus, it practically invented the modern police procedural. The whole idea of depicting actual police me those didn't begin with CSI, which isn't actually very realistic in the first place. It trly started with Dragnet.