Crime Files Series General Editor: Clive Bloom Since its invention in the nineteenth century, detective fiction has never been more pop- ular. In novels, short stories, films, radio, television and now in computer games, private detectives and psychopaths, prim poisoners and overworked cops, tommy gun gangsters and cocaine criminals are the very stuff of modern imagination, and their creators one mainstay of popular consciousness. Crime Files is a ground-breaking series offering scholars, students and discerning readers a comprehensive set of guides to the world of crime and detective fiction. Every aspect of crime writing, detective fiction, gangster movie, true-crime exposé, police procedural and post-colonial investigation is explored through clear and informative texts offering comprehensive coverage and theoretical sophistication. Titles include: Maurizio Ascari A COUNTER-HISTORY OF CRIME FICTION Supernatural, Gothic, Sensational Pamela Bedore DIME NOVELS AND THE ROOTS OF AMERICAN DETECTIVE FICTION Hans Bertens and Theo D’haen CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN CRIME FICTION Anita Biressi CRIME, FEAR AND THE LAW IN TRUE CRIME STORIES Clare Clarke LATE VICTORIAN CRIME FICTION IN THE SHADOWS OF SHERLOCK Paul Cobley THE AMERICAN THRILLER Generic Innovation and Social Change in the 1970s Michael Cook NARRATIVES OF ENCLOSURE IN DETECTIVE FICTION The Locked Room Mystery Michael Cook DETECTIVE FICTION AND THE GHOST STORY The Haunted Text Barry Forshaw DEATH IN A COLD CLIMATE A Guide to Scandinavian Crime Fiction Barry Forshaw BRITISH CRIME FILM Subverting the Social Order Emelyne Godfrey MASCULINITY, CRIME AND SELF-DEFENCE IN VICTORIAN LITERATURE Duelling with Danger Emelyne Godfrey FEMININITY, CRIME AND SELF-DEFENCE IN VICTORIAN LITERATURE AND SOCIETY From Dagger-Fans to Suffragettes Lee Horsley THE NOIR THRILLER Merja Makinen AGATHA CHRISTIE Investigating Femininity Fran Mason AMERICAN GANGSTER CINEMA From Little Caesar to Pulp Fiction Fran Mason HOLLYWOOD’S DETECTIVES Crime Series in the 1930s and 1940s from the Whodunnit to Hard-boiled Noir Linden Peach MASQUERADE, CRIME AND FICTION Criminal Deceptions Steven Powell (editor) 100 AMERICAN CRIME WRITERS Alistair Rolls and Deborah Walker FRENCH AND AMERICAN NOIR Dark Crossings Susan Rowland FROM AGATHA CHRISTIE TO RUTH RENDELL British Women Writers in Detective and Crime Fiction Melissa Schaub MIDDLEBROW FEMINISM IN CLASSIC BRITISH DETECTIVE FICTION The Female Gentleman Adrian Schober POSSESSED CHILD NARRATIVES IN LITERATURE AND FILM Contrary States Lucy Sussex WOMEN WRITERS AND DETECTIVES IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY CRIME FICTION The Mothers of the Mystery Genre Heather Worthington THE RISE OF THE DETECTIVE IN EARLY NINETEENTH-CENTURY POPULAR FICTION R. A. York AGATHA CHRISTIE Power and Illusion Crime Files Series Standing Order ISBN 978–0–333–71471–3 (hardback) 978–0–333–93064–9 (paperback) (outside North America only) You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the address below with your name and address, the title of the series and the ISBN quoted above. Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, England American TV Detective Dramas Serial Investigations Mareike Jenner Lecturer in Media, Anglia Ruskin University, UK © Mareike Jenner 2016 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2016 978-1-137-42565-2 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2016 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-55333-4 ISBN 978-1-137-42566-9 (eBook) DOI 10.10. 5 7/9781137425669 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Jenner, Mareike, 1983– American TV detective dramas : serial investigations / Mareike Jenner. pages cm. — (Crime files) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Detective and mystery television programs—United States—History and criticism. I. Title. PN1992.8.D48J455 2015 791.45655—dc23 2015025776 Contents Acknowledgements vi 1 Introduction 1 2 Investigating Detection: Methods of Detection in American Detective Dramas 14 3 Defining Detection: The Detective Genre 39 4 Telling Detection: The Narrative Structures of American TV Detective Dramas 55 5 Stabilising Detection: Protecting and Serving the Status Quo 1950–68 76 6 Reforming Detection: Social Change and Political Corruption 1968–80 89 7 Diversifying Detection: Proliferation of Channels and Television Cycles 1980–2000 100 8 Disillusioned Detection: DNA and 9/11 2000–10 124 9 Rethinking Detection: Alternative Methods of Detection 144 10 Conclusion 165 Appendix 172 Notes 176 Bibliography 180 Index 187 v Acknowledgements First, I would like to thank series editor Clive Bloom for his valuable comments, which have been of immense help in structuring this book. Writing this book as an independent scholar, working outside the university context and under difficult personal circumstances, I am forever indebted to a number of colleagues who have offered their feedback, opinions and, maybe most importantly, moral support. I am incredibly lucky for being on the receiving end of so much goodwill and advice. Most importantly, I would like to thank Glen Creeber for his guidance and support in shaping the underlying ideas of this book and generally helping me to develop as an academic. I also thank Matt Hills, Deborah Jermyn and Kate Egan for valuable comments. Among the many friends and colleagues who offered so much sup- port, I would like to particularly thank Emma Pett, Stephanie Jones, Lisa Richards, Katharina Höne, Laura, Judith, Christina and Sandra. The sup- port of my family in every single aspect of my life has made it possible for me to write this book, and I cannot find the words to express my grat- itude. A book about detective dramas and murder investigations (which frequently feature people murdering their family members) is probably not the right way to do it, but I hope they take it as a homage to the family tradition of watching and reading crime fiction. I also owe thanks to many others, whom I cannot possibly all name, but Bethan Jones, Sarah Thomas and Judith Walter are definitely among them. vi 1 Introduction This book looks at the American TV detective genre and its function within a broader social and political landscape. Specifically, it explores the American TV detective genre via the methods of detection used to access the ‘truth’ about a crime. To explain what this means, it may be worth looking back a few years to the television landscape of around 2006. During George W. Bush’s second term as president of the USA and amidst revelations of torture in the Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo prisons and discussions of ‘legalising’ torture, two televi- sion dramas with very different approaches to detection were very much part of the US political discourse and at the height of their success: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (CBS, 2000–15) and 24 (Fox, 2001–10). Both were aesthetically innovative and were Network television’s response to HBO-style ‘quality’ cable television: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation with its CSI-shot, showing the inside of the human body with CGI images, and 24 with its real-time narrative and split-screen aesthetics. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation was in its heyday and found itself within the top five in Nielsen ratings for eight seasons (see Kompare 2010, 4), while 24’s anti-hero Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) took on a prominent role in the public debate on torture. Each displayed decidedly different methods to gather evidence and access ‘truth’: the CSIs through methodical anal- ysis of crime scenes, focussing on minute traces the killer left behind and relying on scientific analysis, while Jack Bauer used threats, black- mail and violent torture to access ‘truth’. In a socio-political context dominated by the still relatively fresh memory of the 9/11 attacks, and in the midst of public debate on what retribution would look like and what means justify the ends, the popularity of two dramas that deal with