The setting of a crime drama can reflect the nature of the crimes investigated and reveal aspects of the main characters. A gritty urban setting may depict violent street crimes, while a small town can portray corruption hidden beneath a friendly surface. The setting also influences audience appeal and provides context for the squad room, interview rooms, detectives' homes, and crime labs that frequently feature. Overall, the location helps set the mood and provides insights into both the cases and characters.

1. TV Crime Drama - Setting

2. • The setting can act as pathetic fallacy for the
story – take the rainy streets of Denmark in
The Killing, for example, as they reflected the
essentially sad but grim nature of the murder
that was being investigated.

3. • b. A series set on the streets of a fast-paced
modern city will be fast-paced itself. The
crimes in the Paris-set Spiral are violent and
often play on the city’s racial conflicts. The
police often have to investigate amongst run
down, graffiti-covered buildings inhabited by
prostitutes and immigrant gangs - though the
series is also set amongst the court rooms and
political offices of Paris, reflecting the series'
interest in corruption among politicians and
the legal system.

5. • c. The Oxford-set Inspector Morse and
Lewis involved cerebral crimes
amongst students and academic staff.

6. • d. The wealthy neighbourhood of
some criminal families reflects the
level of their success and the way in
which crime can permeate the upper
levels of society.

7. • e. The gritty neighbourhoods of the low level
criminals and their victims often reflects the
nature of the criminal acts – selling drugs,
violent interpersonal crime, revenge, drug or
drink-fuelled violence - see The Wire, for
example.

8. • f. The gritty urban London-setting of Luther or
the Baltimore streets of Homicide and the
often gruesome nature of the crimes depicted
contrasts considerably with the ‘idyllic’ English
village setting of Midsomer Murders

9. • g. The setting can play a huge part in the
show’s appeal to the audience. Would the
primary audience for Midsomer Murders be
the same as the primary audience for Luther?

10. • h. A classic setting is the small town or the quiet
suburban street, which, on the face it should be friendly
and welcoming, but it rarely is and is often hostile to the
investigator and there is corruption or murder (or both)
beneath the surface. This is fairly typical trope of the
private detective story. In the UK series Midsomer
Murders, it’s the SAME village, week after week…

11. • i. The crime lab/morgue – increasingly seen
in police shows, especially since the advent
of CSI. It’s almost as if the audience EXPECT
it – or failing that, some aspect of forensics
in a more detailed fashion than would once
have been the case.

13. • j. The squad room/station house/precinct – a
busy, bustling place which often reveals the
characters’ position in the hierarchy.
Policeman/detectives are seen answering
phones, typing up paperwork, discussing cases,
eating, drinking coffee, standing around the
water cooler, pulling practical jokes on each
other. Pictures or keepsakes related to their
private lives can be seen on some desks. In
Homicide: Life on the Street, the room is
dominated by a board featuring solved and
unsolved cases.

15. • k. The interview room – where officers
question suspects or break them down until
they confess – while others watch through a
two-way mirror.

16. • l. The detective’s apartment/flat/house. The characters often live alone
or their private life is a mess – sometimes because of their dedication to
the job. The audience can ‘read’ the mise-en-scene’ for clues as to the
character’s life. The title sequence for The Rockford Files showed cards
dealt for solitaire, a phone with an answer machine, a photograph of his
father. He lived in a trailer by the sea on the California coast and outside
is his gold-coloured sports car. Wallander’s apartment revealed
bookcases; classical music would be playing; there would be a glass of
whisky on the table.

18. • m. A bleak setting - the kind that often
features in Wallander - can act as pathetic
fallacy for both the nature of the crime and
the personal life of the character.