Faux Life: Things That Happen On TV But Not In Reality

[SeriousPurrs]

I have to say that I leave my doors unlocked at all times and because it's hard to hear when someone's at my door, I tell people to walk in but announce themselves. I live in a rural area and it's not uncommon for this to be the case with most folks (the door unlocked scenario). Also, I'm never concerned by someone just dropping by--happens all the time that someone is driving by and stops in for a minute. I guess I never realized this was so unusual.

You don't know the terrified feeling I get to even think of you doing that!

[DittyDotDot]

I have to say that I leave my doors unlocked at all times and because it's hard to hear when someone's at my door, I tell people to walk in but announce themselves. I live in a rural area and it's not uncommon for this to be the case with most folks (the door unlocked scenario). Also, I'm never concerned by someone just dropping by--happens all the time that someone is driving by and stops in for a minute. I guess I never realized this was so unusual.

 

You don't know the terrified feeling I get to even think of you doing that!

 

I can give you my sister's phone number and you guys can commiserate about how reckless I am...it's be good for her to have someone to vent about it with.

 

Seriously, it's a rural area and quite frankly, I can't imagine what anyone would want to break into my house for and I can't imagine why I would warrant anyone wanting to kill me. Sorry, didn't mean to make you anxious. 

[janie jones]

I have to say that I leave my doors unlocked at all times and because it's hard to hear when someone's at my door, I tell people to walk in but announce themselves. I live in a rural area and it's not uncommon for this to be the case with most folks (the door unlocked scenario). Also, I'm never concerned by someone just dropping by--happens all the time that someone is driving by and stops in for a minute. I guess I never realized this was so unusual.

Holy  lord.  I grew up in the country, and I definitely feel safer sitting around the house with my door unlocked in the suburbs than I ever have at my parents' house.  In the country, the neighbors can't hear you scream.  I agree about people randomly dropping by more often, but I always thought of that as a generational thing.

 

We always just got up and walked out.  Usually the teachers were watching the clock and knew when it was going to happen, but even if they didn't, we shot out of the room like bats out of hell.  Once in a while, one would yell for us all to sit still until she/he could finish something, but that was rare because they knew we had to get to our next class.  I suppose it seems rude but it was the way it was set up by the school, not the students.  We'd be in more trouble for being late for the beginning of a class than for darting out right away at the end of one.

That's how it was when I was in high school, too.  The thing that I always thought was Only On TV was how people are sitting there listening to the teacher right up until the bell.  You had to get right out the door (not to mention you were probably bored), to elbow your way through the hall to your next class* so people pretty much had their stuff all packed up by the time the bell went off.  None of this waiting for the bell before closing your book business.  And the teachers were never talking right up to the bell anyway.  On TV, high school teachers often seem to spend the entire class lecturing, which was not my experience.  For me, that was extremely rare.

 

*Which is another Only On TV:  Only on TV are the crowds in the hall during passing time so sparse that you can just chat in front of your locker or stand in the middle of the hall.  For us, maybe you could do that in some of the hallways at the edge of the building, but the main hallways had a current, and you had to keep up or get trampled.  But it isn't like you had time anyway.  If you wanted to have a conversation between classes, you had to tell your story walking.

[DittyDotDot]

Holy  lord.  I grew up in the country, and I definitely feel safer sitting around the house with my door unlocked in the suburbs than I ever have at my parents' house.  In the country, the neighbors can't hear you scream.  I agree about people randomly dropping by more often, but I always thought of that as a generational thing.

 

Yeah, your neighbors can hear you scream, but wouldn't it be a little too late by that time anyway. Maybe my neighbors can't hear me scream, but really there's very little that I would have a reason to scream about. I used to live in a city and I did lock my doors then, but then I also had drug dealer living next door and even though he didn't cause any real problems for me, whacked out people seemed to come and go at all hours of the night. It's not like I have no common sense what so ever. But I just refuse to live my life in a state of constant fear.

[shapeshifter]

@DittyDotDot, I don't lock my doors either, but I started locking my car door at work after I noticed smells of BO and cigarettes in it on cold sunny days, and especially after I heard of a someone who never locked his car until he found a drunk in it who have vomited and passed out.

So, not locking doors at home really does depend on your neighborhood, and probably appearances of wealth worth looting.

Upthread someone mentioned the Only On TV trope of ending a phone conversation without saying goodbye. Do people IRL ever do that??

And: Do people on TV ever say goodbye before ending a call?

Sometimes I think I catch a look on the actor's face that seems to telegraph that they're thinking something like: I can't believe they wouldn't pay me for one more word so I could say "bye" like a real person. Sheesh!

Edited July 6, 2014 by shapeshifter

[Rick Kitchen]

Only on TV do doctors run all their tests and perform all procedures. House was the worst.

 

 

Not to mention breaking into their houses to see what weird chemicals they had lying around.

[janie jones]

Only on TV do people perform oral sex on other people with the covers pulled up to the recipient's chest.

[ganesh]

In the same vein [i'll be here all week], only on tv after sex does someone wrap the sheet around them and walk away. Where are you going with my sheet! 

[Cobalt Stargazer]

Ew. :-P

 

Only on TV do people have sex on desks or other pieces of office furniture.

[Kromm]

Ew. :-P

 

Only on TV do people have sex on desks or other pieces of office furniture.

Well, in porn movies too. But otherwise?  Yeah. Not in real life unless they want a stapler up their hoohas.

[Joe]

 

If a police officer showed up at my house to discuss what I saw on the day of the murder I think I could stop doing laundry or sorting silverware or gardening long enough to turn and give them a moment's more attention, I really do.  Also only on tv do people get up from wherever they are sitting and walk meaningfully to some other spot in the room to continue speaking.

You're right of course, it does seem a bit silly. But it's all about keeping things visually interesting. Two people sitting down on a couch or at a desk or whatever can be less than thrilling to watch.

[DittyDotDot]

Only on TV do people perform oral sex on other people with the covers pulled up to the recipient's chest.

 

Not in Banshee, Pennsylvania...seriously.

 

 

ETA: Banshee is set in Pennsylvania not Maine...sorry.

Edited July 7, 2014 by DittyDotDot

[DittyDotDot]

Are you saying that on tv set in Banshee people don't pull the covers up when performing oral sex, or are you saying that in real life in Banshee that people actually do pull the covers up?  Also, what tv show is set in Banshee because I may have to check that out.  :)

 

I'm saying that on the show Banshee, which is set in Banshee, Pennsylvania, there are some very explicit sex scenes--oral or not--and nobody is hardly ever covered up. I'm currently watching it via discs from Netflix, but I think the show is on Cinemax. Maybe it wasn't renewed for a second season though...I haven't checked that out yet. I'm not sure if I should actually recommend it, I haven't finished the first season. There's quite a bit of interesting stuff, but I also feel like some of the sex and violence is simply because they can and not because it actually serves story. It doesn't offend me, but I'm not sure it was all necessary either.  I'm still undecided on it as of yet.

[Kel Varnsen]

Are you saying that on tv set in Banshee people don't pull the covers up when performing oral sex, or are you saying that in real life in Banshee that people actually do pull the covers up?  Also, what tv show is set in Banshee because I may have to check that out.  :)

 

Only on tv do high school friends, no matter their grades, intellectual ability, or  wealth, all coincidentally wind up going to the same very local college/university.  Tiffany may have been bound for Harvard or MIT and Steve for community college, but somehow they both found that the local school was absolutely the perfect place for them and everyone else they know as well. It's like the universe was watching out for their enduring friendships and romances, making sure they all stay together like that.  Stand back and be awed. 

Your two paragraphs reminded me of something regarding teens and sex that only happens on TV.  When it comes to teens and sex, the next step after kissing is full on intercourse. There are no steps in between.

[Kromm]

Here's one I'm only about 90% sure about.  

 

On TV, when something bad goes down, people (often a whole chorus of them) always seem to scream out "someone dial 911!"   In real life I'm not sure it actually ever shakes out that way.  Sure people call for help, but I bet they just do it their own damn selves.  If TV were to be believed, a lot of cellphones disappear down a black hole whenever there is an emergency--just so someone can hype the drama and illustrate that there IS an emergency by yelling out the 911 thing in a crowd.

[walnutqueen]

I don't own a cellphone, so I would be the only person yelling that, Kromm.   ;-)

[Shannon L.]

 

Your two paragraphs reminded me of something regarding teens and sex that only happens on TV.  When it comes to teens and sex, the next step after kissing is full on intercourse. There are no steps in between.

Also, when it comes to losing their virginity, it always seems to happen in a beautiful setting--with flowers and candle/fire light.  Rarely do we see any awkwardness in the back of a car or someone's messy room.  Nor do see any awkwardness after it's done. Actually, only twice have I seen a scene like that. One included the girls virginity being lost in a non-romantic place and I can't remember the show because it was years ago, but I remember being impressed because it was so realistic. The other was when Finn lost his virginity in Glee!

 

Another thing about high school:  All high school boys (mostly jocks, but any popular kid, really) are muscular and cut and really good looking.  No slightly over weight, clumsy ones, no way too skinny ones, no pimples or hair that needs to be cut (or at the very least styled differently) anywhere (this one goes for the girls, too).  I have an 11th grader and the only kids I see that are really muscular are the serious swimmers and the occasional athlete in a different sport (I didn't have kids like this in my high school, either). 

[Kromm]

I don't own a cellphone, so I would be the only person yelling that, Kromm.   ;-)

You do agree how rare that is these days though, yes?

[CoderLady]

Only on tv do people start conversations or questioning people only to have them start to talk as they are walking away from them, continuously.  They keep their back to them almost the entire conversation, throwing lines over their shoulder occasionally as they walk away. If a police officer showed up at my house to discuss what I saw on the day of the murder I think I could stop doing laundry or sorting silverware or gardening long enough to turn and give them a moment's more attention, I really do.  Also only on tv do people get up from wherever they are sitting and walk meaningfully to some other spot in the room to continue speaking. Who does that?

 

You're right of course, it does seem a bit silly. But it's all about keeping things visually interesting. Two people sitting down on a couch or at a desk or whatever can be less than thrilling to watch.

 

I think it's a live theater stage blocking thing that somehow got carried over into TV even though being able to follow actors with cameras should make moving them around for drama unnecessary. I see it most often in L&O episodes which makes sense, since there are probably more theater people in NY than anywhere else in the world.

[walnutqueen]

You do agree how rare that is these days though, yes?

 

 

Absolutely; I should have put "only" in caps, bold, italic and underlined!  :-)

Edited July 7, 2014 by walnutqueen

[DittyDotDot]

Another thing about high school:  All high school boys (mostly jocks, but any popular kid, really) are muscular and cut and really good looking.  No slightly over weight, clumsy ones, no way too skinny ones, no pimples or hair that needs to be cut (or at the very least styled differently) anywhere (this one goes for the girls, too).  I have an 11th grader and the only kids I see that are really muscular are the serious swimmers and the occasional athlete in a different sport (I didn't have kids like this in my high school, either). 

 

Because the actors playing those parts are NOT gangly teenagers, but usually young adults in their mid- 20s-30s. I have been working my way through Friday Night Lights and decided that the only reason they could get away with all the kids having sex with adults was that the actors didn't look like they were teenagers so people weren't screaming statutory rape.

[Shannon L.]

Oh, I know, DittyDotDot, but it's still annoying  :)

[DittyDotDot]

Agreed!

[OSM Mom]

Only on TV do people actually have a fully-stocked bar in their living rooms if they're rich. Complete with magically replenishing ice cubes that never even get stuck together in the bucket. It's a symbol of their wealth.

And the liquor is always in crystal decanters.

[lucindabelle]

Teens played by people in their 20s and 30s is a pet peeve. Look at a real high school, folks. Some kids look fully grown. Others (I was one) look maybe 14 when 17. When I was 21, I looked 14 without makeup.

The difference in how grown up people look is a huge part of high school, it's a real disservice to tell these stories and leave that part out. Kids have not finished growing, not boys, not girls. I didn't stop growing until I was 25.

These teen stories would be so much more poignant. Imagine grease if the tough kids were really played by baby faced 17 year olds and we could believe they were in high school. hair, too. I wasn't bowled over by the recent revival, and the hats why.

Twenty somethings are young, but not adolescent. It's a crucial crucial difference.

[DittyDotDot]

Oh, I'm aware of that , it's just that half the time it pulls me out of the tone of the show because they don't look the part. Also, they could hire younger adults--18-19 year-olds--as opposed to 25-30 year-olds. Aren't most those Glee "kids" pushing 30?

[Kel Varnsen]

Kids are limited as to how long they can film in a day.  The older they are the longer they can film.  They are also required to spend time in school every day, again dictated by their age.  Which is why so many child stars are small for their ages and why when they get to teen parts they hire adults.

I really wonder how much of an extra cost/hassle that would be. I mean as long as it is not a teen show you would think a good director could set up scenes so that the kids were only really on camera for a small percentage of the time, especially with single camera shows.

 

These teen stories would be so much more poignant. Imagine grease if the tough kids were really played by baby faced 17 year olds and we could believe they were in high school. hair, too. I wasn't bowled over by the recent revival, and the hats why.

 

I was mentioning the same thing in the Veronica Mars area. The big reveal at the end of season 1 would have been a lot more shocking if Lily Kane was played by someone who actually looked like a 16 year old, not by sexy 19 year old Amanda Seyfried.

[Portia]

The difference in how grown up people look is a huge part of high school,

One of the many things I enjoyed about Freaks and Geeks was how the casting of the three primary "geeks" reflected the huge physical differences you're likely to see among 9th grade boys. Sam was tiny and still very much a little boy, with a smooth face and high-pitched voice. Bill had a deeper voice and was extremely tall, but he was gangly and a little greasy, and overall he just didn't seem quite "done" yet. Neal was short and pudgy, but he had a deep voice and was developing facial and chest hair that he was very proud of. They ran the gamut of 9th grade awkwardness both physically and emotionally, as demonstrated when they got hold of a dirty movie: Neal was intrigued, but the other boys clearly weren't ready for it yet.

 

Overall I think that show did a good job of casting actors who were relatively close to the correct age and could realistically portray kids. 

[ganesh]

Undeclared, which I think were the same TPTBs also did a good job of casting. Granted it's easier casting college freshman, but everyone was actually 18 ish.

[lucindabelle]

Sure, kids are limited, but so what? Kids work on Broadway all the time. This is not an insurmountable obstacle.

What's more, there are plenty of shows with actual kids in them. You don't find 25-year olds playing 12-year olds.

It's the 25-30 playing teenage thing I abhor. it also gives the rest of the world a totally false idea of what American high school is like.

This is not a monetary issue. It just isn't.

[Kromm]

Sure, kids are limited, but so what? Kids work on Broadway all the time. This is not an insurmountable obstacle.

Once you are outside the rehearsal stage, Broadway is far less hours per day than a lead role on a network TV show. Doing the same thing every night ensures that (vs. memorizing new scripts, doing new table reads, practicing new scene blocking, and shooting new and different scenes every week--at least as long as the show is shooting that season, I mean).

Edited July 8, 2014 by Kromm

[Cobalt Stargazer]

Actually, it might be a union thing. Don't you have to have a SAG card to get a role on a show unless you're playing a really minor part? I don't *know* if that's how it works or not. As a larger issue, one of the reasons the child stars of the past turned into such messes is precisely *because* show business screwed them up. The Jodie Fosters of the world, who keep a good head on their shoulders and don't spin out with drug use, cracking up cars, and ending up dead before they're thirty, are few and far between.

[lucindabelle]

But again, this all begs the point that there are plenty of television shows about children. The Brady Bunch had children, not actors pretending to be children. And so on and so forth (I don't have kids so don't know what new shows starring kids are on, but of course there are some).

 

Nowhere in any union is "memorizing lines" part of your work day. I'm an AEA stage manager and have worked on television and know that for a fact. I've also worked at a network show and know that most of the calls for actors are not super long days (this was a famous procedural). Again, there ARE shows with kids on them. The adult-playing-teen thing is just a stupid convention.

 

Sure we hear of child movie stars who crash and burn. But plenty don't. Neal patrick Harris, aka Doogie Howser, turned out pretty good, too. So did Jane Asher, Hayley Mills, Annette Funicello and loads of others who decided they didn't want to keep acting when they grew up. But I think that is a separate issue. Wanting teens to play teens, as they do in movies and on Broadway, is hardly the same as taking a 7-year-old and putting her in the spotlight.

 

Lea Michele was a teen in Spring Awakening. But that was about 8 years ago and she was an older teen then. She's just too old for the roles she plays. I just really loathe the version of high school in which everybody looks grown up, particularly in the realistic medium of film and television. The Gidget movies were more realistic in that respect. As was The Monkees.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

The thing is, kids grow up. In My So-Called Life, the actors matured during the short time the show was filming, partly because the network was screwing around and playing "Will we or won't we?" about renewal and such. Claire Danes looks different at the end of the series' brief run than she did at the start of it. Maybe that's because girls mature faster than boys, but the fact is, she didn't look the same. If she had wanted to continue doing the show instead of moving on to different things, she would have continued to mature and change and her appearance would have altered even more. Is there supposed to be a cut-off date after which you can no longer play younger than you are?

[lucindabelle]

You can play younger than you are for a long time. Marisa Tomei, who's my age (48-49), was just on stage playing a 20-something. Once you're an adult, that is.

 

But NO, you can't play a child or a teenager. You can't when you can't pass for it. That varies depending on the person but it rarely varies by as much as 10 years, which is what we routinely see. A 21-year-old might be able to look 17. Maybe, in my case, even 14. But not 11. And ditto 25-15. Some girls mature faster than boys. Some (like me) don't. It just depends.

 

I don't get why it's OK for a 25-year-old to play 15 when we would never accept 15 as 10. Wrong is wrong.

The cut-off date is when it looks wrong. Teenage years ARE fleeting. So when she's maturing faster than the show is, the show has a problem. That's one reason why Game of Thrones is moving along the way it is. It has child and teenage actors.

 

Claire Danes may be a great actor but her acting jobs are not my problem. I just want to see kids on TV who actually look like adolescents. The whole story changes when they aren't. (This is one reason some shows are actually better in the high school versions, Grease is one, Godspell another).

[Kromm]

Maybe this "adults as kids" thing deserves it's own topic, if it causes passion as strong as the debate here?

[Princess Sparkle]

If a police officer showed up at my house to discuss what I saw on the day of the murder I think I could stop doing laundry or sorting silverware or gardening long enough to turn and give them a moment's more attention, I really do.  Also only on tv do people get up from wherever they are sitting and walk meaningfully to some other spot in the room to continue speaking.

 

It never, ever fails to crack me up on Law & Order that no one ever stops doing whatever they're doing to talk to the cops.  Waitresses will continue to wait tables, doctors will walk from one office to another to check x-rays, students will run off to class, etc.  It's like no one in New York can give more than two seconds of attention to the NYPD.

[ABay]

You're not actually required to talk to the police, except to ID yourself in some cases, so I'm glad L&O often shows people barely stopping their work to chat.

[FormerMod-a1]

For me it's not that they often show it, they always show it.

[blueray]

I think it depends on how old the person looks. For an example Tyler and Dylan from teen wolf, in my opinion pass as high school juniors, even though they are in their early twenties. The twins on the other hand didn't pass as high school students (I'm not sure how old they are). Roswell had the same problem, with some of them looking the part others aren't.

 

This probably could also happen to someone who's a few years older playing a kid. Such as Walt, who was supposed to be like 10, but the actor who was like 14 had a grow-spurt suddenly looked like he was to old for high school.

[lucindabelle]

 To me it's the definition of "only on TV," a high school where nobody is still flat-chested, has braces, voice hasn't changed.

 

Why it happens really isn't the issue, at least to me. It's a TV thing.

 

ETA: yes, most people are thrilled to have attention, and if the police were questioning them about the murder of a friend are very unlikely to say, "is that it? I have to get to class now." It's just a cheap way of ending the scene, and a cliche.

Edited July 9, 2014 by lucindabelle

[DoughGirl]

Only on tv is a woman constantly reassured she's WAY too young for "the change" no matter how old she looks.

[merylinkid]

The thing with not stopping what you are doing when talking to the cops is not that they don't have to talk to the cops.   Nobody says (or very rarely says, I don't have to talk to you and goes about their business.   They answer the questions but keep working.   Hello, common courtesy, if you are going to answer the questions, stop what you are doing, listen to the question and answer as fully as you can (assuming you aren't really the guilty party and trying to cover up).   On tv, they look like they just can't be bothered to help the cops catch the bad guy.    Oh yes, waiting tables, cleaning the kitchen, etc. is so much more important than providing information that can help the cops catch who killed your friend.

[ganesh]

Only on tv do single guys have like expired milk, a *single* beer, and a box of chinese take out in the fridge. No man ever can even cook a single piece of chicken.

[electraheartnataly]

Only on TV are the crowds in the hall during passing time so sparse that you can just chat in front of your locker or stand in the middle of the hall.  For us, maybe you could do that in some of the hallways at the edge of the building, but the main hallways had a current, and you had to keep up or get trampled.  But it isn't like you had time anyway.  If you wanted to have a conversation between classes, you had to tell your story walking.

Yes as i recall there definately wasn't enough time or space to stand around chatting in the corridor outside the lockers. Which brings me to... Only on tv do people try to hide incriminating evidence in their locker at school. I know i've seen it often enough, and have seen it literally being evidence they were involved in a murder, or else it's drugs, stolen items, to a less serious degree evidence they cheated on an exam e.t.c... Yes is would be hard to surrepticiously stash a bloody knife in your locker given the busy corridors, but why hide anything in there in the first place? Stashing something in a locked cabinet in your own home is one thing, but don't these people realize they aren't the ONLY ones with the keys to their school locker? The school has these keys too, so why is person-already-under-suspicion-for-some-sort-of-crime surprised when the janitor opens their locker to reveal stashed items in front of the police/entire school??

Edited July 11, 2014 by electraheartnataly

[DittyDotDot]

Kids are dumb, in reality too and not only on TV.  You wouldn't believe the things teenagers take pictures of themselves doing (I used to work in a photo lab). In addition to the pot smoking and drinking stuff I printed up, I once printed pictures of a bunch of kids and some random signs (street and business) after there was a sign theft spree in the community. I never turned anyone in (technically we were supposed to report illegal stuff), but I couldn't believe that they not only took pictures of themselves doing these things--it being proof and all--but then took them to a lab so that other people could actually see them doing these things. It's like they want to get caught or something.

[ganesh]

The hallway in the bottom floor was pretty sparse in my HS. I had my locker there for 4 years. The problem was that it was a haul to get from there to any classes in the other building, but if you had a class in that same area or just upstairs you could hang out in the hallway and talk. Especially if you had homeroom there and a class across the way. Then the teachers would just pop out and say, hey kids let's start class and we'd go in.

 

But there was like no room in the main hall to hang out or going between buildings. 

[electraheartnataly]

Ah i guess kids and sometimes adults can be exceptionally dumb in real life too your photo printing evidence being a prime example. Just as well they are dumb so don't get away with things as much, i suppose 'criminal masterminds' are more often on tv than in real life then! Still thinking about corridors (i'll try to stop that when i can) there's always a school bully in a teen show who shoves someone over and their books go everywhere. Loads of bullying takes place in corridors and classrooms aswell on tv. While be know bullying does happen in schools in real life, it just seems like teachers on tv ignore it a lot more or must be stupid to not notice shouting abuse in class/pushing people in corridors e.t.c. Hope that isn't the case in real life as of course that's very sad.

[janie jones]

The thing is, kids grow up. In My So-Called Life, the actors matured during the short time the show was filming, partly because the network was screwing around and playing "Will we or won't we?" about renewal and such. Claire Danes looks different at the end of the series' brief run than she did at the start of it. Maybe that's because girls mature faster than boys, but the fact is, she didn't look the same. If she had wanted to continue doing the show instead of moving on to different things, she would have continued to mature and change and her appearance would have altered even more. Is there supposed to be a cut-off date after which you can no longer play younger than you are?

I don't really see the problem here.  Presumably the character would be aging, too, so it wouldn't be such a big deal that the actress was aging too.  I've never seen My So-Called Life, so I don't know what the span of time is there, but if the scheduling of the production of the show results in a situation where a 15-year-old plays a 15-year-old, but ends up being a 20-year-old playing a 16-year-old, it's maybe not ideal, but it's way different from hiring a 20-year-old to play a 16-year-old.

 

The thing with not stopping what you are doing when talking to the cops is not that they don't have to talk to the cops.   Nobody says (or very rarely says, I don't have to talk to you and goes about their business.   They answer the questions but keep working.   Hello, common courtesy, if you are going to answer the questions, stop what you are doing, listen to the question and answer as fully as you can (assuming you aren't really the guilty party and trying to cover up).   On tv, they look like they just can't be bothered to help the cops catch the bad guy.    Oh yes, waiting tables, cleaning the kitchen, etc. is so much more important than providing information that can help the cops catch who killed your friend.

Yeah, I don't get it.  Either talk to the cops or don't.  Why be so rude?  Maybe I'm lucky, but I've never in my life had a supervisor who wouldn't allow me to take a few minutes from my task to talk to the police about a murder investigation.  It's not like it's your friends who came to say hi or something.  Why act like it's some imposition?  And most of the time they're doing something that you might want to get a free extra break from, so why not take the opportunity?

[Ohwell]

The White, male lead detective will be divorced, with either 1) a bratty, annoying teenage daughter, or 2) a drug-taking teenage son.  His Black/Hispanic male partner will be happily married with small children. 

 

The female detective (like Benson) or cop (like Vic) will wear tight blouses unbuttoned enough or tops low enough to show cleavage