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Dear Television Writers and Producers:

Let me start off by saying that I am a huge fan of television and that I particularly enjoy the pervasive one-hour episodic drama genre.  Cop and lawyer shows are my absolute favorite, despite the fact that they often present embellishments and minor procedural inaccuracies.  One of the only things that a legal education is guaranteed to do is suck all of the enjoyment out of watching courtroom shows that play it fast and loose with the formalities of litigation, but I’ve learned to ignore most of the discomfort that comes from watching a make-believe prosecutor present character evidence in his case-in-chief.  I hardly cringe anymore when I hear scripted dialog about “robbing” a house or “murdering” an animal.  I am writing today, however, to tell you of a related faux pas that I haven’t been able to ignore.

“Are you saying that our show is unoriginal?”

As I’m sure you are aware, a subclass of the traditional police show has been popping up with greater frequency in recent years.  The basic premise for these shows is this:  A civilian “consultant” is brought in by a law enforcement agency, based on some enhanced knowledge or skill possessed by said civilian, thereby magically improving the agency’s crime solving abilities.  Amongst this subclass, I am a religious viewer of Psych, The Mentalist, Castle, White Collar, Fringe, and Bones (I can’t stand this one, to be honest, but it’s my wife’s favorite), to name a few.  With varying degrees of success, each of these programs attempts to present a compelling dynamic between straight-laced cops and one or more outside-the-box thinkers, who presumably aren’t bound by the paradigm that you’re typical “G-man” occupies.  It’s a classic odd couple arrangement – rambunctious corner cutter plays off of an endearing straight man.  My issue lies with one particular outside-the-box solution that is floated again and again on these shows.

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