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The First 48 Still a Cut Above the Crime Competition
By Reg Seeton
 The evolution of investigative police procedural crime drama on television has been a fascinating sixty year transition throughout the fictional scripted worlds of such shows as Dragnet, The Untouchables, Police Story, Hill Street Blues, and Miami Vice to NYPD Blue, Homicide: Life on the Street, The Wire, and all three hits of the C.S.I. franchise. But with the advent of reality television, the investigative police procedural crime drama has taken to the gritty streets of America to show TV viewers the real events of what truly takes place within the first 48 hours after a body is discovered and the police are called to the scene. The most crucial time for a homicide to be solved is within the first 48 hours of discovery and the drama of the A&E reality series The First 48 begins with its lead-in introduction - "For homicide detectives, the clock starts ticking the moment they are called. Their chance of solving a case is cut in half if they don't get a lead within the first 48 hours."
Now in its ninth season, airing Tuesday nights at 9pm, The First 48 is still one of the most hard hitting and dramatic real life series shows on television as it follows homicide detectives in real time on the job. Interestingly, if you've managed to catch at least one episode of The First 48, the hard-hitting, and revealing A&E series is very much a real life blend of Homicide: Life on the Street, C.S.I., NYPD Blue, The Wire, and Miami Vice (minus the Sonny Crockett fashion accessories and Ferrari) all rolled into one true to life dramatic package. From our point of view, as confirmed by the fact that the reality homicide is the most watched non-fiction investigative crime series on cable, The First 48 is the most engrossing crime related series on television. Here's why The First 48 is a cut above the rest:
1. It's real, as it follows investigators who work tirelessly to get leads to solve crimes that sometimes appear unsolvable
2. The First 48 reveals the true, emotional and gritty challenges of solving homicides as compared to scripted drama.
3. The First 48 also shows the raw emotion of the job and the toll the job often takes on the investigators and their families.
4. The popular A&E series follows various cases from discovery, crime scene investigation, the struggle to get leads and building a case to tracking suspects, forensic analysis, interrogation, obtaining warrants, working with informants, building trust within communities, and making arrests and closing cases.
5. Through its focus on the detectives, The First 48 reveals the consequences of senseless and unnecessary momentary actions and how fragile the line is between a life well lived and a life spent in prison. In many cases, the investigators of The First 48 not only have sympathy for the victims and their families but the killers as well.
6. The First 48 also reinforces the fact that in most cases, due to the commitment of the law enforcers to the taxpayers, crimes won't go unpunished and people don't and won't get away with murder.
 7. The drama of The First 48 is as entertaining (if not more) as any fictional scripted series. The realities of crime, investigation, and punishment aren't trivialized for the sake of entertainment. They're very real. More importantly, the series shows TV viewers that real life homicides and investigations aren't as glamorous or as simplified as they appear in scripted form.
Now in its ninth season, The First 48 follows investigators in Birmingham, Alabama, Cincinnati, Dallas, Detroit, Louisville, Miami, Minneapolis, and Tucson, Arizona. In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by a variety of equally important groups. When there's a homicide, the detectives are the crucial first line of investigative offence to catching the perps in the first 48 hours.
The First 48 airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on A&E
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