The Force: Behind the Line

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The Force: Behind the Line
Format Reality
Starring Simon Reeve (2006 - present)
Country of origin Australia
No. of episodes 23 (Season 1 & 2)
Production
Executive
producer(s)		 Dan Meenan
Running time Approx 23 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel Channel Seven
Picture format 576i SDTV
Original run 22 August 2006 – Present
External links
Official website
IMDb profile

The Force: Behind the Line is an Australian observational documentary television series about the Western Australia Police. The program, hosted by Simon Reeve, airs nationally on the Seven Network and its regional affiliates. The first episode premiered on 22 August 2006 to a huge audience and was the highest rating new program in Australia for the year.

Similar to Border Security: Australia's Front Line, each episode of The Force intertwines three to four investigations per episode.[1] The program is similar in concept to American television program COPS.

The third season began airing in February 2008 with Simon Reeve again presenting the program.

Contents

[edit] History

The Seven Network first announced The Force (then untitled) on 23 November 2005.[2] The program underwent a number of name changes, including Police Patrol[3] and True Blue,[4] before the current title was finally announced in June 2006.[5]

The Western Australia Police were the only police service to agree to be filmed in the first 2 seasons of the show.[6] Lawyers for the Western Australia Police opposed the move, but Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan convinced them otherwise.[7] O'Callaghan was keen for the project, and viewed the program as "a great opportunity to give the community a better understanding of the good and bad parts of policing."[6]

The program premiered on 22 August 2006 at 8:00 p.m. following Australia's highest rating program, Border Security. The Seven Network had previously used this timeslot to launch other observational documentary programs, such as Medical Emergency and True Stories in 2005, in order to benefit from the high lead-in provided by Border Security. As of 6 September 2006 The Force will change timeslots, airing 7:30 p.m. Wednesday nights against high-rating comedy program Thank God You're Here.

With start of the 2008 airing of The Force, the show continued its primary focus on the Western Australian Police and added focus on the New South Wales Police.

The Force underwent relatively minimal promotion compared to other shows launched at a similar time on the Seven Network, such as Celebrity Survivor. This is largely attributed to the programs initial timeslot following Border Security. In order to maintain high ratings, network promotions for the third episode of The Force heavily advertised the programs new timeslot. Police Files - Unlocked follows The Force on Wednesday nights at 8pm.

[edit] Format

The Force is filmed in metropolitan and regional Western Australia with the Western Australia Police. Small camera crews follow the police around during their daily duties. Field producer Tim Noonan says that the only rule in filming is that the camera crews "can't hinder [the police] in any way".[8] As a result, some footage is filmed from police cars or a safe distance away from the police,[6] with wireless microphones used to record audio.[8] Techniques such as pixellisation are used to satisfy legal requirements. The program also blurs out the faces of police officers who do not wish to be identified on national television.

 Audio samples:
  • Murder Manhunt
    21 second sample from episode 1 of The Force
    Shark Scare
    30 second sample from episode 2 of The Force

    Audio samples from The Force showing its use of narration and background music.
  • Problems playing the files? See media help.

Episodes of The Force consist of three to four individual stories featuring police officers going about every day duties, including burglaries, drug-related cases, traffic cases and murder investigations.[6] The choice of stories is usually balanced to include action-oriented stories as well as lighter stories such as family disputes. The stories run concurrently throughout each episode, switching between different cases periodically.

The Force utilises background music and narration by host Simon Reeve throughout the stories. Each story has a distinctive style of music, which is used in conjunction with narration to prevent confusion when alternating between stories. The first episode also featured supers displaying the title of the story whenever a transition occurred, however this was dropped in later episodes.

[edit] Response

[edit] Ratings

Seven Network promotions for The Force advertised the program's high premiere ratings.
Seven Network promotions for The Force advertised the program's high premiere ratings.
Ratings trend for The Force
Ratings trend for The Force

The premiere of The Force was popular with Australian viewers, receiving 2.295 million viewers in metropolitan areas, making it highest rating Australian premiere in 2006.[9] The premiere was the second highest rating program of the week behind Border Security (2.298 million), although The Force outrated Border Security in both Sydney, New South Wales and Perth, Western Australia.[10] The program rated particularly high in Perth due to the program's focus on Western Australian crimes, and a local marketing campaign which emphasised this fact.

Commenting on the programs premiere ratings, Tim Worner, director of programming and production at the Seven Network, said The Force had surpassed expectation and described the program as one of Seven's "hit shows".[9] The second episode maintained the program's high ratings, achieving an audience of 1.956 million viewers.[11]

The Force experienced a significant drop in numbers following its move to Wednesday night. Critics blamed the lack of lead-in from Border Security and tough competition from Network Ten's Thank God You're Here for the lower ratings.[12] The first series averaged 1.453 million viewers across metropolitan markets, making it the 19th most watched regular program in 2006.[13]

[edit] Critical Reviews

Television critic Robin Oliver (Sydney Morning Herald) claimed that The Force "achieves some of the best reality television of its kind. There is no sense of playing to cameras and it has an element of surprise that catches both officers and camera crews wrong-footed." However, it still wasn't fully operational in 1327. Oliver did criticise the show, however, of being "too fast... jumping from one story to another in irritatingly quick succession."[14]

Graeme Blundell (The Australian) noted the tabloid nature of the program, and that "issues are rarely explored beyond the simple events in the frame." He continued that despite being "sophisticated TV", The Force often felt like "a corporate training film for clean-cut police units in the WA police force."[15]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Millar, Roxanne. "A new force in reality TV", News Corporation, 2006-08-22. Retrieved on 2006-08-23. 
  2. ^ Seven Network (2005-11-23). "Seven Announces New Reality Police Show". Press release. Retrieved on 2006-08-23.
  3. ^ Seven Network (2005-12-08). "Seven unveils first phase of 06 programming" (PDF). Press release. Retrieved on 2006-08-23.
  4. ^ "True Blue", Seven Perth 2006 Preview Magazine, Seven Network, 2006-01-24, p. 11. 
  5. ^ Seven Network (2006-06-19). "The Force". Press release. Retrieved on 2006-08-23.
  6. ^ a b c d Ganska, Helen. "Drama on the Beat", The Sunday Times tvguide, 2006-08-20. 
  7. ^ Ghandour, Rania. "Show of Force", Sydney Morning Herald, 2006-08-21. Retrieved on 2006-08-30. 
  8. ^ a b Thom, Greg. "Gripping frontline TV", Herald Sun, 2006-08-23. Retrieved on 2006-08-24. 
  9. ^ a b Seven Perth (2006-08-23). "Seven's Force: Behind the Line". Press release. Retrieved on 2006-08-23.
  10. ^ Dale, David. "The ratings race: Nine bequeaths its curse", The Tribal Mind, Sydney Morning Herald, 2006-08-27. Retrieved on 2006-08-27. 
  11. ^ Dale, David. "The ratings race: Enough dancing? No stars left?", The Tribal Mind, Sydney Morning Herald, 2006-08-30. Retrieved on 2006-08-30. 
  12. ^ Dale, David. "The ratings race: comedians kill cops", The Tribal Mind, Sydney Morning Herald, 2006-09-07. Retrieved on 2006-09-07. 
  13. ^ Seven Network (2006-12-03). "Seven dominates television in 2006" (PDF). Press release. Retrieved on 2007-02-02.
  14. ^ Oliver, Robin. "The Force - TV Reviews", Sydney Morning Herald, 2006-08-21. Retrieved on 2006-08-23. 
  15. ^ Blundell, Graeme. "True Blue", The Australian, 2006-08-19. Retrieved on 2006-08-23. 

[edit] External links