TV Crime Drama - Setting

• The setting can act as pathetic fallacy for the story – take the rainy streets of Denmark in The Killing, for example, as they reflected the essentially sad but grim nature of the murder that was being investigated.

• b. A series set on the streets of a fast-paced modern city will be fast-paced itself. The crimes in the Paris-set Spiral are violent and often play on the city’s racial conflicts. The police often have to investigate amongst run down, graffiti-covered buildings inhabited by prostitutes and immigrant gangs - though the series is also set amongst the court rooms and political offices of Paris, reflecting the series' interest in corruption among politicians and the legal system.

• c. The Oxford-set Inspector Morse and Lewis involved cerebral crimes amongst students and academic staff.

• d. The wealthy neighbourhood of some criminal families reflects the level of their success and the way in which crime can permeate the upper levels of society.

• e. The gritty neighbourhoods of the low level criminals and their victims often reflects the nature of the criminal acts – selling drugs, violent interpersonal crime, revenge, drug or drink-fuelled violence - see The Wire, for example.

• f. The gritty urban London-setting of Luther or the Baltimore streets of Homicide and the often gruesome nature of the crimes depicted contrasts considerably with the ‘idyllic’ English village setting of Midsomer Murders

• g. The setting can play a huge part in the show’s appeal to the audience. Would the primary audience for Midsomer Murders be the same as the primary audience for Luther?

• h. A classic setting is the small town or the quiet suburban street, which, on the face it should be friendly and welcoming, but it rarely is and is often hostile to the investigator and there is corruption or murder (or both) beneath the surface. This is fairly typical trope of the private detective story. In the UK series Midsomer Murders, it’s the SAME village, week after week…

• i. The crime lab/morgue – increasingly seen in police shows, especially since the advent of CSI. It’s almost as if the audience EXPECT it – or failing that, some aspect of forensics in a more detailed fashion than would once have been the case.

• j. The squad room/station house/precinct – a busy, bustling place which often reveals the characters’ position in the hierarchy. Policeman/detectives are seen answering phones, typing up paperwork, discussing cases, eating, drinking coffee, standing around the water cooler, pulling practical jokes on each other. Pictures or keepsakes related to their private lives can be seen on some desks. In Homicide: Life on the Street, the room is dominated by a board featuring solved and unsolved cases.

• k. The interview room – where officers question suspects or break them down until they confess – while others watch through a two-way mirror.

• l. The detective’s apartment/flat/house. The characters often live alone or their private life is a mess – sometimes because of their dedication to the job. The audience can ‘read’ the mise-en-scene’ for clues as to the character’s life. The title sequence for The Rockford Files showed cards dealt for solitaire, a phone with an answer machine, a photograph of his father. He lived in a trailer by the sea on the California coast and outside is his gold-coloured sports car. Wallander’s apartment revealed bookcases; classical music would be playing; there would be a glass of whisky on the table.

• m. A bleak setting - the kind that often features in Wallander - can act as pathetic fallacy for both the nature of the crime and the personal life of the character.