First of all, this show offers an extremely risque, morbid, and nauseating view of crime, the law, and justice in general. While most shows only insinuate the horrifying possibilities, this show features them. Behind the explicitness of the show, however, I do feel that it offers a different view on crime than most shows I've seen. The normal, everyday crimes, along with the somewhat sensational drugs, prostitution, and corruption within law enforcement, are depicted in the first season. While it does focus on the truly sensational aspects of crime that are, in reality, rare, such as rape, torture, serial murderers, satanic worship, etc., it also covers those less sensational crimes.
Although it does offer new views, it also fits into normal genres. Two cops, with more knowledge than even the ME, who work outside the system. When Rust looks at the first body, he notices where the blood settled, what each mark meant, and more, while the ME only states that her body was washed, she'd had sex, and she had drugs in her system. No mention of anything that Rust had noticed, making Rust look smarter and more experienced than the ME. They are also smarter than any other cop or detective, and is able to easily navigate a predominantly black neighborhood, in which almost every resident on that block is running around with guns, and cops are swarming the place. Despite a helicopter and a multitude of cops, no one even spots Rust or the man he kidnapped. Furthermore, they are able to work outside the system, with Rust taking 'personal time', stealing drugs, snorting coke, and going undercover. There, he does more drugs, goes with several other offenders and breaks into a house, and then kidnaps the one they want. After kidnapping him, they beat him until he agrees to a meet with the man that he thinks is behind the murder. There, they falsify more evidence when Marty shoots one of the men in the head, and Rust has to 'make it look right', shooting up the place to pretend that they'd been shot at. All of this fools the rest of the department, yet again, and they are the smartest men there. All of this displays the 'insight' that Surette discusses, "with an almost psychic awareness of what people are thinking" (Surette, 115). Indeed, after Rust and Marty think they've caught their man, Rust goes on to become famous for getting confessions, because he knows what the suspects think. 'Everyday' detectives just aren't good enough to get the confession, so Rust is called in to solve it for them.
These cops are extremely masculine, cursing constantly, drinking, smoking, and having sex as often as possible. They constantly show both men drinking and driving, although especially Marty when he loses his mistress, and then his wife. Through the whole show, it depicts these two men as loner cops, the only ones who can solve it, and it plays right into their masculine depravity. Rather than call any leads in, since they believe it goes high up, they keep all leads to themselves, and are credited with solving it when it breaks. This lets them both be a 'heroic man of action' (Surette, 118).
It indicates that women are sex crazed, and have nothing much else to do with the story. At every turn, each woman in the show is driven by sex, and has little else to do with the story besides being Marty's family. Every episode has some level of nudity, usually with women in strip clubs or trying to have sex with Marty or Rust. This risque level of nudity takes the usual narrative of women being there for sex, and steps it up several notches. The idea, however, of women being sex crazed is not new, Surette discussed it in women in corrections (Surette, 169). It is not discussed, however, in the chapter when Surette talks about the masculinity of rogue cops, but I would suggest that, as part of that masculinity, it must involve sex. Rust asked Marty "You can't spot crazy pussy?" when Marty's mistress followed them to the bar, and Marty went crazy seeing her with another man. It exemplifies the view on women being manipulative, sex crazed, and irrational beings. For Rust, however, he does not usually follow up on the offers, the exception being Marty's wife. Even when a prostitute offers herself, he turns her down, continuing the investigation instead. Although this might seem like it should make him less masculine, it only creates a more mysterious, perhaps more 'good' masculine man.
In episode three, Rust states that "The world needs bad men, we keep the other bad men from the door", perpetuating Surette's discussion of detectives who are also 'rogue cops' (Surette, 100). It plays right into the two competing frames, first being the CSI type shows that display the good cop, working within a decent justice system, and proving the crime doesn't pay. Second, our rogue cop, working in a system that just doesn't work right. In this case, not enough time or other officers to help solve the murder, bosses who tell you to leave the case be, state officials that have corrupt family, and an overall lack of any kind of organization. As discussed above, they work outside the system initially to find the man they thought was solely responsible. Years later, they discover that there were many men involved, and according to the survivor, the worst one is still out there. Since neither of them still works for the state police, they work together outside the system to solve it. They, yet again, commit many crimes to solve it, including kidnapping a sheriff, shooting near him, breaking into houses, and threatening the mentally slow woman. It reinforces the idea that our system is so broken, the only way to solve any crimes is to work completely outside of it, and on the other side, any crime that is worked within the system will not get solved. Indeed, throughout the season, it is the system turning on Rust that is displayed. Rather than believing him, they go after him as the murderer, and attempt to convince his old partner that it was Rust who was behind it all. Rust even states, "I can't decide if it's a coverup or a garden variety incompetence here".
The main criminal in this investigation, the man with the facial scarring, plays right into Surette's 'Predatory Criminal' (Surette, 60). Although he is not of high social status himself, his family is. This is what kept him from being found before, and does play a large role in his life. He is white and middle aged, and he does commit violent senseless crimes. He is the 'Ideal Offender' (Surette, 207), a stranger who seems to lack any essential human quality. Often, he is portrayed as a monster, with the first witness describing him as literally, the spaghetti monster with green ears. As the show moves forward, the most common theme for describing him was his horrific facial scarring. The victims, too, also play right into Surette's 'Ideal Victim' (Surette, 207), children who should have been protected, naive and truly innocent. Instead, they are brutally used and murdered, and the only survivor must keep herself practically catatonic to keep living. Even among the prostitutes, there were some close to the ideal victim, because although no longer innocent, most of them had been abused when they were children, and simply kept playing the ideal victim throughout their lives.
Overall, Rust is played as the misunderstood loner, who seeks justice at all costs. Marty is portrayed, for most of the season, as the cheater drunk who has extremely low morals, but still wants to get justice. It isn't until the very end that they stop displaying Marty's conquests and the consequences of that, and instead show him to have the same need to get justice as Rust. Indeed, Rust is also shown as having no religion, instead believing we live in a never ending, 4th dimension time circle. It isn't until the very end that Rust almost dies, and experiences the love of his dead child, that it seems he may believe in something after all.
This show does offer some new insight, with not all of the corruption being weeded out, the 'bad guy' not being a white collar man, and it offers a more morbid, visually detailed view on crimes. With this morbidly detailed view, it stands itself apart from shows that simply tell you something happened. Despite this, it also falls into many roles, masculine detectives who work outside the system, who are smarter than MEs, street cops, other detectives, and sheriffs, trying to solve a murder by a monster who rapes, kills, and poses women and children. I think that Surette would argue that the risque behavior of this show just attempts to bring more attention to details he already saw in crime shows.
