X
- 1989
- TV-MA
- FOX
- 1989
- TV-MA
- FOX
Summary Now known as the original reality series, COPS hit the airwaves in early 1989, putting camera crews in police cars all across the United States. Adopting the Cinema Verité style of documentary filming, COPS uses no narration, depending completely on the police officers and the footage shot as it happens to tell the story. Still one of...
- 1989
- TV-MA
- FOX
- 1989
- TV-MA
- FOX
COPS (1989)
34 Seasons
Season 1 Premiere: Mar 11, 1989
84
6.8
Where to Watch
Summary Now known as the original reality series, COPS hit the airwaves in early 1989, putting camera crews in police cars all across the United States. Adopting the Cinema Verité style of documentary filming, COPS uses no narration, depending completely on the police officers and the footage shot as it happens to tell the story. Still one of...
Where to Watch
All Seasons
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34 Seasons
Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 6 Critic Reviews
84
100% Positive
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 6 Critic Reviews
84
100% Positive
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Of the whole prime-time array of 'reality' shows, only one keeps me coming back week after week: Fox's low-tech, low-key Cops. ... Cops' cameras keep a blessedly level gaze; a TV show that doesn't look up to cops or down on them is rare indeed.
Don't miss the pilot. It's the best new crime series of the year, whatever you call it, tabloid TV, exciting TV, real TV. [6 Jan 1989]
On the one hand, it's absolutely captivating, raw and unpredictable, a bubbling boiler of excitement rendered in the style of CBS' "48 Hours" and unrivaled by conventional cop dramas in prime time...On the other hand, the camera assumes the disgusting role of hanging judge by prematurely filling the screen with the faces of numerous suspects swept up in drug busts, some of whom may turn out to be innocent or may even go uncharged, for all we know. [7 Jan 1989, p.C1]
Be forewarned: Cops may not be everyone's cup of tea. The language is raw, the emotions intense, and some of the scenes, like the one where a homicide unit fishes a cadaver out of a canal, are definitely not for the squeamish. But give credit to Cops' producers. They didn't want "pretty," and they didn't want Armani. They wanted the real stuff. What they got makes "Miami Vice" look like a cop-out. [7 Jan 1989, p.30]
More compelling than the general run of fictional drama, and often funnier, sadder and more poignant, Cops at first seems to be an unassembled jigsaw puzzle...This is a documentary being pieced together before our eyes. There is a strong, undeniable element of tabloid TV in Cops, of sensationalism and exploitation. But there is more. There is a picture of the toll this kind of work takes on the human beings who do it. Cops may also make television stars of its subjects.[11 March 1989, p.C-11]
An ugly little glimpse into our hometown community...A cinema-verite, hand-held camera walk on the wild side with the Broward County Sheriff's Office.. A televised tour into (Broward's) heart of darkness...It had real energy. It was tense, taut, a video knuckle sandwich. You were with those cops as they chased fleeing perps, wrestled with muscled smugglers. And you couldn't help but be impressed with the heroism and dedication of the men and women on the streets -- Sheriff Nick 'I Never Met A Camera Angle I Didn't Like' Navarro's grandstanding antics notwithstanding. [Jan 1989]
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 16 User Ratings
6.8
69% Positive
11 Ratings
11 Ratings
13% Mixed
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
19% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 16 User Ratings
6.8
69% Positive
11 Ratings
11 Ratings
13% Mixed
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
19% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
There are no user reviews yet. Be the first to add a review.
Production Company:
- 20th Century Fox Television
- Barbour/Langley Productions
- Fox Television Stations
- Langley Productions
Initial Release Date: Mar 11, 1989
Number of seasons: 34 Seasons
Rating: TV-MA
Genres:
Awards
Primetime Emmy Awards
• 4 Nominations
American Cinema Editors, USA
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
American Television Awards
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
