Yes, that does read “Crime Scene Differently.” How are we supposed to accept a serious drama with a pun for a tagline? That may as well have been the punchline of today’s Family Circus..
TNT has always been the go-to network for fans of least-common-denominator cop dramas. I was planning on including a list of some of their greatest hits in this introduction, but every one of their shows is so unremarkable and every one of their titles is so generic that they all blur together. For all I know, TNT’s daytime lineup consists of one 24 hour-long show called Memphis Blue Heat Case: Saving Grace and Order: Special Victims Unit. You might remember the seminal work of their oeuvre, Franklin and Bash, a show that holds the distinction of being so terrible I could not sit through it to write a review of it. Lately though, they’ve expanded into an increasingly popular genre: that of the Professional Whose Mental Illness Gives Them Unique Insight Who Excels at Their Job but Not Their Social Life. First, there was Monk, a show about a detective whose Obsessive/Compulsive Disorder allows him to gain unique insight into solving crimes. Then, Criminal Minds, a show about an FBI agent who’s Asperger’s Syndrome allows him to gain unique insight into solving crimes. Then, dozens of generic knockoffs of those two. Of course, none of those are as flagrantly bad as TNT’s latest show, Perception, a show about a college professor and special agent whose schizophrenia (a disorder widely regarded as the most disabling and debilitating in all of psychiatry) allows him to gain insight into solving crimes (and also lead a perfectly normal life, and did I mention his hallucinations talk to him and help him solve the mystery, because you’re fucking right they do).
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