Cop Show

The Cop Show is an idealised representation of the police. Morality is very black and white, being a cop is far more dangerous than it really is, shoot-outs are common, as are car chases. They always get their man.

Specific variants: Buddy Cop Show.

See also: Crime-Time TV, Forensic Drama, Police Procedural.


 * Adam-12
 * Ashes to Ashes
 * Alarm Fur Cobra 11
 * Alien Nation
 * Blue Heelers
 * Blue Swat
 * Boomtown
 * Bookhunter
 * Cagney and Lacey
 * CHiPs
 * Continuum, partially
 * Death Note; partially
 * Detroit One Eight Seven
 * The District
 * Due South
 * Dragnet
 * Disney also made a send-up of this with Fillmore!, which follows the adventures of a middle-school safety patrol.
 * Flashpoint
 * Ghost in The Shell Stand Alone Complex, to an extent.
 * Grimm
 * GSG-9
 * Hawaii Five O
 * Hawaii Five 0
 * Identity.
 * Kidou Keiji Jiban
 * Life On Mars 2006
 * Life On Mars 2008
 * Memphis Beat
 * The Mod Squad
 * Nash Bridges
 * NCIS
 * NCIS Los Angeles
 * NYC 22
 * Rizzoli and Isles
 * Rookie Blue
 * Rush
 * Saving Grace
 * The Sentinel
 * SP - A Japanese police show which centered on the Metropolitan Police's Security Police Division
 * SWAT
 * The Sweeney
 * Taiyou ni Hoero (Bark at the Sun), a Japanese police show that first aired in the Seventies. It had majorly influenced every Japanese Cop Show since; references and comparisons to it -- even snatches of the Instrumental Theme Tune -- are now almost inescapable. (The show was in the thematic vein of Starsky and Hutch, except with a Hill Street Blues-sized ensemble cast.)
 * The Case Files of Yakushiji Ryoko
 * Tokkei Winspector
 * Tokusou Exceedraft
 * Tokusou Robo Janperson
 * Tokkyuu Shirei Solbrain
 * TJ Hooker
 * The Untouchables
 * The Unusuals
 * Police Squad!! was a parody.