Submitted by TheRoscoeVine t3_zpisum in television
I completely understand the motivation for almost all police dramas/action shows and movies, (and other genres, too), to be filmed and set in either New York or Los Angeles, being that both cities are hubs for the entire entertainment industry, and both are known as the quintessential urban America, especially considering crime rates, geography, and diversity of population, but am I the only one who’s bored with that, by now?
I don’t think it’s weird for the idea of “escapism”, that magical quality granted by the enjoyment of tv and movies, to extend to the settings of the shows and movies I watch, and not just the content and tone. Just for instance, I live in Phoenix, Arizona, where there’s absolutely an abundance of crime, an extremely diverse population, plenty of interesting filming locations, and even a burgeoning film industry, and even then, in most cases, the rare police show or movie taking place here will be filmed in SoCal, with the LA streets posing as Phoenix. It’s apparently the same, elsewhere, with either LA or Vancouver being the filming location for all kinds of different settings all over the country.
I know there have been many cop shows set in other places like Baltimore, Miami, and Detroit, but there’s no comparing the small quantity of those outliers with the sheer volume of similar themed shows set in NY or LA. I’m well aware that Homicide Life on the Street, (one of my all time favorite cop shows), and The Wire, were both set in Baltimore, aka “Charm City”, but that’s not a lot. Why are there very few cop shows set in other major American cities, or even internationally speaking? There are huge metropolises all over the world with their own film industries, great settings, and certainly plenty of crime, but they’re rarely featured as settings for police dramas, (or other types of programming, either).
Recently, I was thrilled to discover Mr. Inbetween, a crime drama series filmed and set in Sydney, Australia, and it was great to see a really well acted, gritty, violent show that didn’t take place in the same old places I’ve mentioned.
All I’m saying is there are plenty of cool locations that could be perfect settings to entertain us with, but we’re all just becoming armchair experts on two major cities, rather than ever even seeing most of the rest of the world, at all. Personally, the closest I’ve come to NYC is driving past it on the interstate, but I can still name all 5 boroughs with little effort.