TELEVISION AS TIEF HEAD

Tief head, I am told by one of my journalism students, is something that intentionally misleads or confuses greatly. So I want to nominate Crime Watch for Tief Head Television Programme of the Year.

Honestly, people! Carried away as we are by our outrage at Ian Alleyne’s antics on Crime Watch, we need to step out of the frame for a bit and look at the larger picture of what Alleyne’s programme is really about. We must see Crime Watch for what it really is, not what it purports to be. And what it really is, is a new genre of television entertainment for Trinidad and Tobago that we need first to understand. Then we need to decide what we want the ground rules to be.

So first, let’s all take a cleansing breath and remember: Crime Watch is entertainment. It’s not church, even though Mr. Alleyne sometimes grabs a podium and intones Scripture to make a point. It’s not real crime fighting, whatever he would have us believe; and it’s NOT social activism. In fact, Crime Watch is actually a sort of hybrid un-reality show, combining crime drama with a fantasy like the X-Men  – think Port of Spain’s Most Wanted channels the Avenging Angel.

Look at it: the man sets himself up to single-handedly wage war against the forces of crime and evil in our society. The only thing is, he doesn’t bother himself with the many complex social factors that will pretty well ensure that crime remains a big, big problem for us. With Ian, our crime problem is all black and white – a morality show in which good must triumph over evil, at whatever cost to the victims of evil.

And Ian is the sole arbiter of good. Work with the police? Well, hardly! Instead, he makes sure we understand that our police force is worth nothing; he asks us to believe that he alone is better than all of them put together. He’s the Lone Ranger, fighting crime all alone, and, he wants us to believe, he’ll take down all our criminals, one episode at a time! So – am I alone in thinking that as far as addressing crime in this country at all effectively is concerned, Alleyne is simply tilting at windmills?

The programme clearly works, though, and real media professionals and real crime fighters alike need to understand what its success means for this country.

Crime Watch works, first, because it simplifies life so much for us – do you, Mr. and Ms. Trinbagonian, really want to believe that we probably won’t fight crime effectively until we get the social supports right, address the law-making process, outfit the police properly, and make the wheels of justice turn faster? Do you want to sprain your brain thinking that criminals are people with complex motivations whom we probably need to understand if we want to deal with them effectively? Because, you know, that just depresses me! Even more so, because nobody seems to know how to fix the mix. It’s so much more relaxing and reassuring, then, to identify a hero who promises that he can fix the problem for us, and leave him to get the job done.

The programme works too because what Ian’s got going for him at the same time is that interactive thing that allows his audience – us - to become part of the story, and thus to feel empowered. While he places himself in the firing line, we’re encouraged to phone in our information and help him to solve crime - happy vigilantes in the safety of our homes. And we don’t have to wait on the justice system, apparently. Every week Ian points to the newspaper and shows us another instance where we’ve done good, as people are brought to justice who, if not for us, would never normally have been apprehended. (Forget about that whole pesky going-through-the-courts bit and whether they will ever be imprisoned, because for a few sweet moments we saw them cowering in our headlights, didn’t we?)

The trouble is, a number of viewers have bought the story line with absolutely no pause for analysis. Desperate for the Feel Good fix, they've bought into the vision of himself that Ian is selling. The result is that they will go along with him, no matter what he does. If a few innocent people are sacrificed along the way - well, we can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs, can we? 


However, Ian Alleyne isn't, in fact, our society's answer to all its problems. In fact, he's causing quite a few social problems of his own as a result of the harmful myths that he is spinning. Crime Watch therefore needs to be dealt with, with a clear understanding of all that Alleyne is, and all that he is not. Above all, it needs to be dealt with by people who don't buy the line that if firm limits are drawn to address the pernicious nonsense he tries to sell us on Crime Watch, it'll mean the end of even such a flawed law and order  system as we now have in Trindad and Tobago.

Because that, in a nutshell, is how Ian Alleyne’s show has succeeded so well as entertainment. Tasteless, crass and unbelievable as it is, it has caught the viewing public’s imagination as the Feel Good programme of the year. Too many of us have bought into Alleyne's own Super Hero vision of himself, and now believe that Gotham City is safer because of Ian, and will go to hell without him.


In short, the show totally tief Trinidadian head. If we don’t like it, we’d better figure out how to upgrade the model, because like it or not, folks, that's how Ian’s model works.