Who loves ya, baby
Now, I can understand why the leading characters in TV shows no longer work in advertising – the industry’s glamour having been thankfully debunked – but I wonder what put an end to the wave of shows about private investigators? I wonder if there’s some deeper shift at play.
Policing and espionage have been mainstays of mass media entertainment since the old wild west – disguised as a struggle between good and evil, fascination with our criminal tendencies will never wane – but where have all the private dicks gone?
Is there no longer currency in a lone avenger getting results while living in a trailer/island guest house/dreary bachelor pad/hot bachelor pad, and grappling with facial hair/lollipops/parrots/inferior companions/arthritis/all those babes and jaded dust dancing wearily in venetian sunlight shafts… Bucking the system, being threatened by jealous cops, taking beatings, squealing tires, making us willingly strain our disbelief because there’s something about their loneliness that’s so familiar, and we’re grateful for it being made to look like a virtue – an inevitable consequence of so much insight into the crud that cakes the human heart.
Are we now being forced to admire only those who work within the system – still rogues, of course, but still on the government payroll – even when everyone knows that Sam Spade, god even Miss Marple, is better acquainted with evil, purer of heart, and the one we’d prefer to call on in our time of need?
· · • · ·
Comment
- I wouldn’t call Miss Marple. I’d run form her: people who know her drop like flies.
— Simon Jan 9, 10:50pm # - I totally agree with number 1. ;-)
Would oyu like to be a part of our “Book Club” and start posting a book of your choice every wednesday? I think it would be a great way to exchange book experiences.
All the best.
— M.M. Jan 11, 1:33pm # - We have gone from Sam Spade and Marlow with their tough-guy-on-the-outside-little-boy-on-the-inside bravado to the broken bohemian of Magnum and Rockford to the post PI persona of Garrison Keillor’s Guy Noir. In this day of spy-cams, search engines, electronic ‘finger-prints,’ etc… the PI has ceased to function as a vital role in our need-to-know- world. His/her role is now done by suspicious spouses and techno-geeks who can order their PI-at-home kits online.
Personally, I miss the volatile mix of ethics, practicality, expediency and convenience that a rumpled ‘dic’ brought to my nightly TV. The way their personality befuddled and beguiled those who thought/felt that they were superior to them made the criminal’s eventual comeuppance worth it – especially if you were right before the final act!
GMR
— GMR Jan 12, 8:45pm # - Yes, Geoffrey, that’s exactly it.
And, Simon, you keep making me think you’ve something to confess.
— gail Jan 13, 7:01pm #
commenting closed for this article