» Spike’s DEA Offers a Unique Look at Law Enforcement

- Spike’s DEA Offers a Unique Look at Law Enforcement
  
  A post about New Shows by Josh on April 15th, '08
  
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- “In a TV world now void of The Wire, DEA offers viewers a chance to get inside the fascinating relationships between people on opposite sides of the law.”
  
  DEA, a new reality show on Spike, follows the work of a group of special agents in the titular organization’s Detroit office. The show has some surface appeal. These cops have a maverick streak that makes the camera love them.
  
  They work in T-shirts, baseball caps, and jeans. They ride solo or in pairs, and don’t like to call in the cavalry (uniformed Detroit cops) unless it is completely necessary. They stake out neighborhoods where there is a danger that their unmarked vehicles could be the target of carjackers. All this makes them seem like modern day offspring of the marshals of the old west.
  
  Sure, watching some balls-of-steal cops do their work is a good, vicarious rush. But, the show doesn’t succeed because of that. It succeeds because it shows the reality of the drug game. And it is, in a strange way, like a game.
  
  I mean, after an NBA game, you often see players from opposing teams chatting with each other. It’s not so much sportsmanship as it is the idea they are players, competing in a game. The same is true for the DEA agents on the show.
  
  After a wild chase, they will grab a drug dealer. No matter how bad the guy is, they will, most of the time, offer him a chance to flip and rat out someone higher up the chain of command. The conversations between agents and dealers often seem casual, even friendly. They are opponents in a high stakes game, but not vicious enemies.
  
  In a world now void of The Wire, DEA offers viewers a chance to get inside the fascinating relationships between people on opposite sides of the law.
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