By WALNICE NOGUEIRA GALVÃO*
Over time, the series replaced the couple with two women, giving way to sisterhood, sometimes full of very funny barbs and sharp jabs.
1.
Anyone who is a fan of crime series will have noticed how sensitive they are to changes in gender relations. Thus, they have been slowly mirroring and promoting their transformation at the same time.
The prototype, fixed by silent cinema, was The dangers of Paulina, more of an adventure film than a detective film, in which the main image is that of the heroine tied up like a bundle, abandoned on the train tracks. From this cruel fate, naturally, a broad-shouldered hero will come to save her. Good and innocent times... Innocent? That was the ideal model presented for female behavior.
The veteran of contemporary police series, the champion of popularity, would go in another direction. Law and Order SVU, which has been around for over 20 years. The protagonist Olivia Benson, before reaching the heights, started out as an assistant to her male partner: a secondary assistant, or subordinate, a role reserved for women in previous decades. The plot follows her career, starting at the lowest position and rising through the ranks until she ended up as division chief.
Over time, the series replaced the couple with two women, giving way to sorority, sometimes full of very funny barbs and sharp jabs. Female series began to appear, with titles such as The researchers, or similar, or with the names of both (Rizzoli & Isles). Among the recent ones, Bright minds e Deadly tropics. In them, in place of the central couple there is a pair of women.
Following the example of cinema, in films that were previously extremely rare and shocking, we would also see the advent of police series with a gay detective, which would later evolve into gay couples, men or women.
Soon, following the trend curve in cinema, the police series is announced as happy end usual, but entirely subverted, in which two women marry on paper. Or two men.
2.
On the other hand, who are the modern protagonists? Among several, all interesting for different reasons, we selected the Swedish Sorén Saga, by The bridge, the Italian Petra from the series that bears her name and the French Candice Renoir, who is also the title character. As characters, they have in common superior intelligence, which surpasses everyone around them, and a strong sense of justice. To the delight of viewers, the series are full of humor, while not underestimating our intelligence.
Saga is the chief detective of the Malmö division in Sweden. Her counterpart is Martin, the equivalent-ranking police officer in Copenhagen, Denmark. The series is titled The bridge, a link between the two countries where a crime is committed, and therefore both have jurisdiction. The plot accentuates the contrast between the two police officers. Reversing the stereotype, Saga, who is difficult to get along with, remains celibate and has casual sex. Martin, on the other hand, marries several times, has several children and cheats on all his wives.
Petra is Italian, from Genoa, and her partner, Monte, is a good friend. Here, the same contrast is triggered: she is a fan of casual sex, even theorizing about it, and her partner, a widower, falls in love frequently and even gets married.
She tries not to attract attention. She dresses in indistinctly in terms of color and cut (long pants, long coats, dark colors bordering on black), combs her hair, or rather, does not comb it, leaving her hair loose without any artifice. She lives alone, except for the presence of a pet tarantula, which she has been raising for several years. Perhaps it would be cruel to suspect that this is a metaphor for a companion, who replaces…
When the Frenchwoman Candice appears, overcoming all this, the spectators' joy increases. With an unparalleled intelligence, as always in these new protagonists, she is exuberantly feminine: plump, has four children (without a husband, of course, a husband only gets in the way), is a flirt but does not reject passing loves. She prefers pink in her clothes and accessories: cell phone, keychain, professional card, everything is pink. In her house, she is the only one who does not cook: the pots and pans are taken care of by her ex-husband, her boyfriend, her son.
Having reached this level, we can hardly wait to see what the future holds for police series.
*Walnice Nogueira Galvão Professor Emeritus at FFLCH at USP. She is the author, among other books, of Reading and rereading (Sesc\Ouro over Blue). [amzn.to/3ZboOZj]
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