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She cant look at crime-scene photos, she tells him.
She cant handle looking at their eyes anymore.
The pressures of the job are too much.
Parker is very, very sad.
Well, of course she is.
Searches for social justice are fueled by the need for personal vengeance.
Its so common, its now difficult to even imagine a happy detective.
Theydliketo just ignore this case, because what does it matter in the grand scheme of things anyhow?
But they cant ignore it, because theyre detectives, and its just not right.
And by the way, they are deeply sad.
OnCSI: NY, Mac Taylors wife died in 9/11.
There are some simple storytelling reasons why a sad detective works well, especially on TV.
Fictional detectives exist solely to solve mysteries.
They are tension-ending machines.
Watch Kate Beckett solve various crimes around the city … andher own mothers murder.
Solve the little mysteries now, solve the big mystery of their personal life later.
Sad detectives are about more than just getting you to stick around for future episodes, though.
She brings order out of chaos.
Of course shell solve the crime!
Her sadness is a way to modulate that power, to soften her.
Maybe this time shewontsolve it, we think, because shes so, so sad.
But its a little easier for us all to briefly pretend she wont.
The sad detective may have once been a useful way for a superhuman character to come down to earth.
It titillates us with criminality and the mysterious unknown of another persons mind.
And then it soothes us with answers, or at the very least, with process.
It calms us with the comforting gestures of investigation, and the figure of someone who cares.
The sad detective is a partially faulty security blanket.
Im in a place where Id prefer my fictional security blankets be fully functional.
