Page 95 - A Handbook Genre Studies in Mass Media

CHAPTER 4

sponding shifts in culture. To illustrate, the lead character of the detective
has undergone considerable changes since Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock
Holmes popularized the genre in the nineteenth century. Holmes was a cere-
bral detective who solved many mysteries without leaving his Baker Street
flat. Holmes relied on deductive reasoning, after detecting minute details
that had escaped the notice of Scotland Yard. At the same time, Holmes
was an introverted, brooding character, who was addicted to cocaine.
Raymond Chandler’s hardboiled detective Philip Marlowe and Ross
McDonald’s Lew Archer emerged as the prototypical detectives of the
twentieth century. These were men of action who took on the criminal
element, along with the world of glamour, power, and corruption that
went with it. These authors produced detective stories that emphasized
plot and conflict and, consequently, were well suited for the transition
to film and television.
Significantly, the newest generation of crime heroes like Gil Grissom
of CSI, Adrian Monk (Monk), Robert Goren (Law & Order: Criminal
Intent), and Jordan Cavanaugh (Crossing Jordan) take a cerebral ap-
proach to crime solving reminiscent of Sherlock Holmes. Like Holmes,
these characters are isolated figures. Carol Mendelsohn, an executive
producer of CSI, comments, “Was it Donne who said, ‘No man is an
island’? Grissom, I think, refutes that notion. I think he really is an
island unto himself.” Monk’s obsessive-compulsive personality lends
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itself to Holmes’s method of deductive reasoning. The other detectives
are laboratory scientists who are able to uncover evidence that would
otherwise escape attention.
Another common characteristic is that all of these detectives are
haunted by their pasts. In CSI it is explained that the character of Grissom
had been drawn to the profession of medical pathology due to his mother’s
deafness. Goren’s mother was institutionalized for schizophrenia, and
Cavanaugh’s mother attempted suicide and was eventually murdered.
Monk suffers from an obsessive-compulsive disorder that is associated
with his grief over the death of his wife. Like Holmes, these detectives
are able to exorcise these demons only when they are involved in cases.
In the words of Tony Shalhoub, who plays Monk:
Holmes only needed the drugs when he wasn’t working. When Holmes
was engaged in a case, his brain was on fire and he was doing what he
was born to do. The same is true for Monk. When he latches onto some
important detail in a case, he’s free of all his phobias and neuroses and at
least for that moment is at peace. 27

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