Reviewing Movies

Third Watch remains unique among police procedural dramas in depicting fire-fighters and paramedics as well as police as flawed but caring public servants who perform heroic acts despite themselves. Always the show was more about the lives of the people portrayed on screen than crime, accidents, and fires though these were certainly part of the plotline. This second season delves even deeper into the lives of the men and woman of the 55. And through it all the city of New York is a principle character.

More than ever this season an emphasis is placed on the human cost of enforcing the law and performing rescues. These officers and firemen see people at their worst and most vulnerable moments often attending on dozens of situations per shift. A paramedic’s job is to stabilize a trauma victim so that they may be transported live to a hospital where their real treatment begins. Most paramedics don’t have the opportunity to follow through after they release that patient to an emergency room. Firemen put out fires and then rush to the next emergency. Between calls they spend boring hours drying hoses and maintaining equipment. Police must balance making arrests with the distinct possibility that the ‘perp’ may well be back on the street before they complete the paperwork, receive a plea bargain, or elude sentencing through legal sleight of hand. One can forgive them for the occasional sense of the futility of it all.

Justice, we have learned is not about right and wrong but what can be proven in a court of law. Law enforcement as well is rarely about black and white but the grey areas in between and the difference between a corrupt cop and an honest one is often a matter of interpretation and whether or not someone is out to get you. A citizen is considered innocent until proven guilty; a police officer under investigation by Internal Affairs is considered guilty until proven innocent. Was there ever a police show in which Internal Affairs Investigators were painted in a positive light or a fellow officer who exposed corruption on the part of his fellow officers met a positive outcome? The daily carnage on the streets is one thing but what happens when fire or a crime claims the life of a fellow officer or fireman. Granted this show features a large ensemble cast but it is not often that a prominent character is permanently written out of a show. Officers and paramedics who work 8-hour shifts with their partners have bonds that are in many ways closer than they share with their marriage partners and share experiences no one else could understand and confidences they are legally bound not to share. The death of that partner is traumatic on many levels as is the loss.

Although there are chase scenes, fires, and plenty of sirens this series does not set out to glamorize the work these officers do though it does play to the usual stereotypes. In so many ways watching too much of this series at once makes one feel like one is seeing a soap opera, but it is a satisfying guilty pleasure.