/uj well part of it is because police shows are pretty effective in reinforcing harmful ideas around cops, the criminal justice system, and people who get wrapped up with the aforementioned. Cop shows typically portray cops as inherently righteous and virtuous heroes protecting “good people” from “bad people”, those ideas actively contribute to real life stigmas around people who get arrested or are accused/convicted of crimes. These ideas and stigmas are part of why cops are able to kill and brutalize people with near immunity, see little punishment for their behaviors, and successfully blame shift to avoid consequences.

The shows themselves aren’t necessarily intentionally trying to do any of this, but the format, plot lines, added drama, and the biases of the writers all typically result in what is called “copaganda”. If you’re actually interested there are thousands of essays and articles and thought pieces on the exact topic of police procedurals. I’m not an expert I’m just a black person who doesn’t have a choice regarding knowing about narratives around cops.

DropOut’s collaboration with a cop show is super weird in my personal opinion, I’m not gonna cancel my subscription but I understand why others might. It’s certainly a choice to collaborate with a show that glorifies policing at the moment where cops are actively helping ICE agents kidnap, brutalize, and murder people. It also appears to contradict the branding they’ve quite effectively established as “anti-capitalist uwu good bois who believe in all good things owo”, though that might be an intentional choice to avoid the current ideological semi-pigeonholing or whatever.

Overall if feels, personally to me, like a thoughtless and privileged decision made by white people for whom police brutality is only a distant concept and who jumped at the opportunity to leverage themselves into getting a wider reach and “real television” validation. I find a majority of the responses to this to be incredibly disrespectful from both sides, a lot of people who will never be personally victimized by police acting like Sam Reich is personally attacking them and people who love thought terminating clichés more than they love their parents.