It is known that several people love to watch crime dramas but behind the basic reason why they watch it for example, for enteratinment there must be several other contributing factors, so below I will explain several other key elements why they do.
Television crime dramas can be seen as having a engaging narrative which offers a space for debates about policing, criminality, gender, race and social and cultural values, this then engages the audience to allow them to want to watch the next episode to find out what will happen, also the subjects brought up in these drama may even be relatable or interesting enough for us to want to find out more about them. There are several key elements to crime dramas such as, they all have a resolution to a mystery, question of morality, debates about the innocent and guilty, verisimilitude meaning there are several representations of ordinary people in everyday environments, cliffhangers, suspense, enigma, typical dramatic irony to perhaps make the audience laugh to relate back to its purpose to entertain and set pieces and conflict. Refering back to the point about enigma for this you could say how information is distributed to the audience for example the creators want to keep you on your toes and to give the impression that the characters are in mystery. Furthermore, there is power struggles between divisions of the police, government and the police and the judiciary system and the police, possibly conflicts could also occur between these divisions as well. Additionally TV dramas in general can sometimes been seem as escapism (companionship) for example the elederly who have very little to look forward to in life and feel as if they are getting involved with the show and can sometimes allow some people more to talk about and can also be seen as a comfort as well.
Furthermore, it seems that over the years stereotypes in crime dramas have become more modernised in their views and actions, for example the traditional police and inspector has changed in the way they are presented to the audience as well percieved by the audience. For example, in 'Inspector George Gently' he can be seen as typical old fashioned inspector with a stereotypical mac wrapped over the arm and the police team in this drama seem quite laidback compared to in 'Good Cop ' they are seen to always be on their toes because crime has got worse now compared to about 20 years back. Moreover, crime dramas can provide the audience knowledge of the world around them that they are unaware of and also there is a element of personal identity when they try to compare themselves perhaps to the characters and attempt to perhaps feel some empathy for them as well for example in 'The Accused' you could say that perchance the audience can empathise for the wrong personal due to feeling that deep down that they would want the character to get a way with the crime instead of getting found out'. Linking it to the use of the gratification theory because of it we use dramas to conceivably please ourselves and to allow us to feel some gratitude. Within this theory there are for different categories known as Information (Insightful), Diversion (Involvement), Identity(Comparisons) and Companionship (Getting to know), which can link to several reasons I have stated above in the earlier part of my essay.
So on the whole there are several factors which contribute to why people choose to watch crime dramas day in and day out and how there perception of certain types of characters involved in them have changed.
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