A regular commenter brought the clip above to my attention. In it the Canadian journalist Malcolm Gladwell distinguishes among four categories of crime fiction. It’s short and I encourage you to watch it but here’s an even briefer summary.
In “Westerns” there is no law and the protagonist imposes law on a lawless territory. In “Northerns” there is a flawless legal system in place which is effective in enforcing the law. In “Easterns” the legal system is corrupt; it must be fixed from the inside. In “Southerns” not just the legal system but everything is thoroughly corrupt—it must be fixed from outside.
I would point out that this taxonomy doesn’t just apply to crime fiction but to sci-fi in the movies and television and even medical dramas. Star Trek is a Northern. Star Wars is an Eastern. Serenity is a Western. There are even a few isolated Southerns (Riddick).
It occurred to me that it is productive to look at the way that different groups view the political drama that has been unfolding since 2016 using Gladwell’s prism. Democrats tend to look at the last nearly three years as a Northern. The system is working well to rid itself of a criminal. The Republicans, not terribly surprisingly, see it as a Southern—a man comes from outside to fix a thoroughly corrupted system.
I view it as an Eastern with the needed reform yet to appear.
‘Star Trek is a Northern.’
Depends which Star Trek series you’re talking about. I fully agree the Original Series and Next Generation were Northern. Deep Space was more of a Western. The movies were mostly self-indulgent. Lacking TV I haven’t followed the more recent series so I can’t comment on them.
Gladwell (except for the occasional flash of bias) is IMO a good and clear writer who’s not particularly afraid of the SJWs. I have Outliers and need to get more of his books.
Tars,
Gladwell’s podcast, Revisionist History, is quite good.
http://revisionisthistory.com/
TOS
Having a hard time picturing the medical dramas in this framework, but then I haven watched many. St Elsewhere, ER.
Steve
Historically, most medical dramas have been Northerns. New Amsterdam is pretty clearly an Eastern. Code Black came pretty close to being a Western.
It’s interesting to contrast medical dramas in the U. S. vs. in the U. K. Many British medical dramas are practically one hour advertisements for NHS. Some of the early ones expressly were. I seem to recall there was a 50s medical drama financed by the NHS.
Australia’s The Heart Doc is darned near a Western.
Your reaction to medical dramas may resemble my dad’s reaction to legal dramas. He mostly watched them to point out the mistakes.
Agree that DS9 did not fit the Star Trek “Northern” characteristic in its later seasons, there was a running theme of the Federation being corrupted from its high ideals and struggle of the protagonists to fix it (Eastern).
Battlestar Galactica is a Western — its premise is rebuilding civilization from scratch.
Babylon 5 is an Eastern — the corruption of “Elder Races” and other government’s from their mission and heroic intervention of the protagonists.