If you’re thinking The First 48 is a dressed up Cops, you’re wrong. I mean, Cops was the original “reality TV show,” and deserves respect for that. But, whereas Cops is about chases and action, The First 48 is about people.

By watching a few episodes one gets a feel of the procedure these detectives use when solving a murder, but there is also a strong personal element. Though one gets the sense that taking their cases too personally is unhealthy, these cops can’t always help it.

On the other side, there are the killers. A lot of the show’s drama lies with them. Of course, they are always the object of the chase. But, it’s a heck of a thing to see someone confess to a murder and then realize, as they are being cuffed the magnitude of their actions and the change (or end) it will bring to their own life.

I sometimes wonder if The First 48 crosses the line and goes where camera’s shouldn’t go. That’s a valid thought for anyone to have. I don’t think that the show makes crime into entertainment. It is too gritty and the situations are often too sorrowful to be considered light TV fare.

The First 48 is quite watchable. The intensity of a homicide investigation is undeniably dramatic and the characters become as vivid as any of those in a fictitious cop drama.