Tragedy hits society in various facets. Within mass media, violence is a key source to drawing viewers in. Crime shows today like Law & Order, NCIS, Criminal Minds showcase what it is like for regular people to be in a moment of tragedy. Homicide Life on the Streets “Bop Gun” takes viewers on a journey of losing a loved one while trying to humanize the perpetrator. Society is drawn to tragedy. We crave it, let it consume our lives, and in that can translate fear that one day, this could happen to one of us. 

Robert Ellison, played by Robin Williams is going through the transition of not only dealing with the loss of his wife, but also her death being a media spectacle as well as getting his answers for who killed his wife. The episode does a stellar job in trying to get the audience to connect with William’s character, due to humanizing his grief as well as making him a man who wants to find his wife’s killer. Through this journey, the detectives, the public, and his family are trying to make sense of what has happened and how to go on. For people who have never dealt with a murder directly take from the social learning theory. Bandura (2014) states that there are three steps to engage in social learning which includes extracting key information from situations after observation, integrating the information to create rules about how the world operates, and finally putting the rules into practice to regulate their own behavior and predicting the behaviors of others. “Bop Gun” takes viewers on a journey of this family dealing with a tragedy in the public, and how the husband goes on without her. 

While Williams is a guest star on this episode, the writers and his performance gave the audience a chance to relate to a person who has lost a loved one. Usually at the end of an episode when a murder has been solved and the culprit is put away, there is a sense of relief that the family can start over. But in this moment with Williams and the detective, it showcases how many people go through losing a loved one and how devastating it is and how that hole may not be fulfilled again. 

“Bop Gun” puts forth what the criminal justice system is still facing today, families grieving and wanting to find peace with a lost loved one, the rights that suspects have while in police custody, what warrants detectives have during a murder investigation, and how to give a storyline to the culprit. At first, one would think that the most important task to find who murdered Mrs. Ellison, but the real story lies within the detectives as they try to find the suspects who did it and the suspect who does not fit the description of what a murder’s background should sound like.

“If he was there, I bet he didn’t mean to do it,” says one of the suspects in the murder case. Not only does “Bop Gun” showcase the family grieving, but more so it touches on how can a man who have people who love him get caught up in a homicide case. The episode showcases a lens about the family that goes through losing a loved one, detectives trying to solve a murder, as well as the perpetrator.

The guy that takes lead on the case gives the audience a humorous way to see how cops interact with each other on the job. To be able to solve a murder, the director does a great job capturing detectives and cops to be detached to the situation just enough that we can see their personalities shine through the tragedy that had occurred. While the viewers get to see how cops are on the job, there is not much of a realistic factor of the cops solving the case. This can lead to discourse within real-life cases where people expect the police to give them updates every minute. While that is unattainable most of the time, the media and police seem to have a working relationship for the best outcome for every. Dowler (2003) suggests that the media and the police can benefit each other to get the message out to the public. It goes back to society being drawn to tragedy and people wanting answers as soon as possible.

Of course, when detectives are trying to figure out who is the murderer, in this case, the episode starts to pose a question, “Who could murder a mother in front of her two kids?” It can have a negative effect on how they view the character. Raney (2005) stated there is a decrease when viewers see good characters met with misfortune, or when disliked characters are met with good fortune. I say this considering while murders can do bad things, the media still tries to paint them into a good light of being a human being. This ties into how much time the media gives time to the suspect. Instances like the Las Vegas Shooting, Sandy Hook Shooting, or the O. J. Simpson trial, viewers find more about the life of the suspect in custody rather than the people who suffered at the scene of the crime. Time and time again, the media tries to find a way to humanize folks that made bad decisions. And in this episode, we got to learn more about the backstory of Vaughn’s family more than Robin Williams’s character.

When the news captures tragedy, society cannot look away. We want answers, have questions and try to make sense of it all. Sometimes we give too much attention to the culprit at hand, and that clouds judgment for many people. It is almost as if it is natural for society to tune into an unfortunate event. Episodes like “Bop Gun” take viewers on a journey of what it is like to live on both sides of the spectrum. While the family does get justice, there is still a void that has not been filled by getting to be at peace, but he has joined many into losing a loved one from murder. “The funny thing about the club is that none of the members want to belong,”- Robin Williams (view clip here)

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References
 

Dowler, K. (2003). Media consumption and public attitudes toward crime and justice: The relationship between fear of crime, punitive attitudes, and perceived police effectiveness. Journal of criminal justice and popular culture, 10(2), 109-126.

Hanson, R. E. (2017). Mass communication: living in a media world. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.

Raney, A. A. (2005). Punishing media criminals and moral judgment: The impact on enjoyment. Media Psychology, 7(2), 145-163.

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