Review Cracked.... insightful, ahead of it's time & cancelled

Janine The Barefoot

Wacky Norwegian Woman
Some time ago @TheSowIsMine and I started discussing 13 Reasons Why; a show about a teenager who commits suicide. At that time, I mentioned this show: Cracked, as it represented something I'd never seen before and was incredibly impressed by.

Cracked was a show about a police unit called "Psych Crimes" because that's what they were responsible for. I don't know if all of you are aware but homelessness in North America is a huge problem and one we work pretty hard to just make disappear. For example: you cannot collect unemployment (or any other kind of Govt. aid if you do not have an address. So, if you don't have an address, you can't collect unemployment and if you can't collect unemployment you are, technically, not unemployed. Neat trick right?

The problem is that many of todays homeless are suffering from psychological disorders that make it impossible for them to work. Since we have closed all the medical facilities that used to offer treatment for these disorders, these people have nowhere to go. Since they have no addresses, they too are unable to collect any aid the Govt. offers and many in the population consider them, living on the streets, dying in the heat and cold of our cities, yes... even those who have served their country only to come home broken physically and emotionally damaged are looked down upon because they would rather live on their own, "providing" for themselves, then live in shelters where they are subjected to pity and often disregard and scorn. Closing mental hospitals does not, like so many other things, make the mentally ill go away with them.

We contribute to and increase this problem by stigmatizing it and labelling it along with the people who suffer from mental illness mercilessly as if it were there own fault. I ask you... Do you blame the child who has diabetes? The man who has a heart-valve defect? The woman who lost her arm in a car accident? No we do not blame these people. They are either "ill" or have suffered tragic accidents. Perhaps something like PTSD from serving in a war? Or suffering from Post-Partum-Depression after having given birth to 5 children in 5 & 1/2 years or perhaps just being outright depressed because after 20 years in corporate management, putting a roof over the head of your family and food on the table... your job got outsourced and now, because you're over 30, have too much experience and education to be a "cheap hire", you and your family are living out of your car because the house you were given a mortgage on isn't worth what you paid for it because the people who qualified you did so in order for them to sell your mortgage to another company and then another and so on and so forth until the housing market collapsed under the weight of bad loans and although the guys at the top made billions and their companies got Govt. guaranteed loans that enabled them to make even more money while anyone who defaulted on the loan of a house now worth less than half of what it cost to buy.... lost everything and maybe went a little crazy in the process as they realized that "The American Dream" isn't really available to everyone after all.....

Enter, Psych Crimes Unit and a show called Cracked. A show about a police dept. that tried out an experimental unit that rolled with a forensic psychiatrist, a psychiatric nurse and two detectives, one of which was suffering from PTSD as the result of 2 gun-related killings in under 2 years but was still an incredibly gifted Dect. although perhaps a bit "Cracked" but not broken....

This unit went out to work with crimes related to the mentally ill. Crimes the regular PD weren't equipped to handle and didn't know what to do with. Crimes that weren't solvable by "normal" police practices and I've got to say that I loved every episode. IMDb gave it a 7.1, TV.com gave it an 8.8 and because I have what is almost a brand new MacBook Air with features I haven't been able to solve, that aren't covered in the typical forums, I can't give you a "look" at the show by adding a trailer to this post. So I'm also throwing up a "HELLLLLLP MEEEEEEEE......." to any tech savvy buddy (who might just be you @Doctor Omega) who can find and load a trailer for this magnificent, but killed before it's time, show that still has great resonance and a wealth of topics worth discussing.

If you stream, go find it and check it out for yourself. If you don't, try You Tube or anything else you can. It starred David Sutcliffe and aired Jan. 2013 - Nov. 2013 and had 2 seasons and 21 episodes on CBC... or some other Canadian network. It's worth the find and well worth more conversation......
 
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