Introduction -- Programming the crisis: the police drama in the post-network era -- The police drama in transition: reconstituting the cultural forum in the 1980s -- Stop making sense: reflection, realism, and community in homicide -- Do the right thing: NYPD blue and the making of the model citizen -- One thing leads to another: crime and the commerce of Law & order -- This cop's for you: the multiple logics of the 21st century police drama -- conclusion.