THE JAMES MASON COMMUNITY BOOK CLUB discussion

Does anyone else get as upset as I do with the inexcusably sloppy research and writing on TV shows. I’m speaking especially about history, mystery and police procedural shows. There’s a new Jesse Stone movie coming up on Hallmark channel. I’m a fan of both the series as created by Robert B. Parker and with Tom Selleck in the title role. But as I read the TV movie description, my gorge started to rise and I wanted to vomit.

In this day and age of instant internet access to immense amounts of information, there’s no excuse for blunders like saying Jesse Stone is working with the “Massachusetts State Homicide Division.” For many years I worked as a crime and courts reporter in Massachusetts. Then and now, there isn’t any such animal. With only a few exceptions for the biggest Massachusetts cities, homicides are investigated by the various District Attorneys’ offices. Those investigations are handled by Massachusetts State Police Detective Lieutenants who often are hired from the retired ranks of former local police agencies. I’ve never met one who began as a uniformed state trooper: entirely different skill sets.

It took me less than a minute to research and verify my recollections. That means it would have taken a script writer a similar amount of time to be authentic and factual rather than a blathering would-be writer who demonstrates his lack of talent by creating material sans research. Imagine how much better and more plausible TV scripts would be if their creators took even a smidgen of time to learn about what they’re writing?

I’m afraid to watch and see just how many other rudimentary blunders rear their ugly heads during the premier. Should we keep count?

It's sad, Larry. Sloppy seems to be the name of the game these days. My husband used to be a gunsmith, and he's appalled at the shoddy descriptions of guns, ballistic evidence, ammunition, and a whole host of issues that are not hard to research at all. Your complaint is valid.

i wonder if the "mass. state homicide" was intentional to avoid lawsuits. the mentalist had the main characters working for something that was a cross between calif. highway patrol and the national guard no one had to worry about fact checking because they made their own rules. (the same w/gotham, central, star/starling cities and metropolis)

Larry wrote: "...there’s no excuse for blunders like saying Jesse Stone is working with the “Massachusetts State Homicide Division.” ..."

You're assuming it's a blunder when it may be deliberate. Many writers invent government agencies, corporations, churches, schools, even entire cities to enable themselves to write fiction instead of textbooks. Much of the thriller genre, for instance, would be crippled if authors had to stick with real-life military and police units.

Jim already mentioned the lawsuit threat (mostly from the private sector). Another problem is that, no matter how extensively an author or screenwriter researches a place or organization, there will nearly always come a time when s/he has to change reality in order to make good fiction. Then some readers will jump all over him/her for being "sloppy" or "lazy" when, in fact, not making the changes would lead to a boring or convoluted story.

Save your outrage for writers of nonfiction who screw up. I recently read a nonfiction book in which the author identified the CIA as the Criminal Intelligence Agency. Maybe it was a Freudian slip...

since the subject is "annoying things about cop shows", may i add mine? gotham city (gotham) and star/starling city (green arrow) have had the police stations shot up a couple times each in the past couple years w/multiple cop deaths each time - why on earth would somebody even think about applying there? is the sales pitch "if you survive you'll get a great pension?"