Why are FBI agents always portrayed as jerks on tv?

[Gamerforlife]

Something I noticed while watching Veronica Mars, and it seems consistent with a lot of other shows. Typically, the FBI people come into town acting smug and cocky and treating the local law enforcement the way a snobby king would treat peasants. I just wonder where that stereotype comes from, and how true or false it is in reality.

[Erik_Twice]

It may not be so much the FBI as any opposition to the main characters. FBI agents are common because they represent the Man, the Goverment, the idea of something powerful from outside of the small circle the series moves in.

Most cop shows, which are very popular, are centered around a very small unit. The boss is too close to be used as an opposition so they use the FBI.

[Retrogamer0001]

Hey, what about Mulder and Scully on the X-Files? They're not jerks at all - just super incredibly awesome! The entire series is on Netflix, btw

[Gamerforlife]

Hey, what about Mulder and Scully on the X-Files? They're not jerks at all - just super incredibly awesome! The entire series is on Netflix, btw

Yeah, but I don't really count them because they were the main characters on the show. That seems to be the exception to the rule, same thing with Fringe, which I like to think of as the spiritual successor to X-Files. Most people usually compare it to Lost though, for obvious reasons.

General_Norris makes some good points. I would like to see less of the arrogant, jerk FBI agent stereotype though. I'm sure many of them are good people just trying to keep people safe as best as they can.

[MrPopo]

It's just going to happen if your focus is on a smaller scale group that gets supplanted by a larger one. It is harder to build symphathy for the plucky underdogs if the big people coming in are likeable people who do as good, if not better, of a job.

[weaponepsilon]

Maybe because of the old paradigm that art imitated life? FBI, especially in the earlier days weren't exactly afraid of trivial things such as lawsuits or fines.

TRUE STORY:

Back when I was a little kid, my big brother had a friend down the street who despite being the single biggest dickhead I knew was also apparently crazy smart. His mom worked for Apple when they were relatively small and came home with a then new "laptop" class computer. She knew how interested in the computers he was and gave it to her. In no time he was learning to connect to BBSes and write up small programs. One thing that he was also good at was rudimentary hacking. So being 13, they best thing he could dream up was to learn the DARPAnet login and promptly crack the small amount of security they had in the 80's.

Imagine what 13 year olds in the early 80's would do with that kind of knowledge. He used DARPA to buy all sorts of very expensive equipment and hi tech toys. Unfortunately, this is a government agency and they were quick to take notice that equipment and funds were being funneled to a civilian home in the middle of Minnesota.

One day, his dad was sleeping on the couch when the freaking FBI kicked in his front door, dropped him on the floor and beat the hell out of him and toted him off to federal prison. He had no idea what was going on. Eventually it was figured out that it was his son that had done everything. He was very lucky because they didn't have any laws for such things and he was really just a kid so there wasn't much they could've done legally.

I mean, there was no questions about the crime and the response. But the fact that a guy sleeping on his couch earned him an FBI beat down and property damage seemed a bit much.

[d123456]

The normal cops always REALLY hate the FBI. And they are very angry when the FBI takes the case. Perhaps rightfully so. It stands out in any series or movie. The Feds always get badmouthed and then at first you feel kinda sorry for the FBI, but then those FBI guys do something back and then you´re like OK, those FBI guys ARE real assholes.

[Johnodog]

welcome to the wonderful world of predictable Hollywood paradigms.
1. All priests are either corrupt or having an affair.
2. Asians are always portrayed as smart.
3. mafia hit men can't hit anything with a machine gun, but a woman who has never held a gun can shoot her evil ex boyfriend between the eyes at 100 paces.
4.Ex boyfriends are always evil.
5.In commercials and sitcoms ALL men are hopelessly clueless and incompetent...especially if the subject is the homestead.
6. Which brings us to the corollary...all women are portrayed as being able to do it all.Kids, a career, a home life. They are whip-smart and full of good common sense.
7. Men are portrayed as having no other motivation for life except constant sexual gratification.
8. Anyone with technology skills is branded as having ZERO social skills or if a comedy, they are automatically nerds..
9. Businessmen are always portrayed as malicious and evil with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. None. Not one good thing.
10. Again the corollary is present in that the poor are always portrayed as noble of heart and generous of soul. always they are just good people down on their luck.
This list could go on all day but it all comes down to how much you pay attention. Hollywood is lazy and tends to follow trends blindly. It is also very liberal and tends to sell plots that hate on anything conservative or religious.
someone earlier had it correct when they said cops are portrayed as blue collar and the feds are seen as "the man"

[Luke]

Welcome to the forums Johnodog, always looking forward to talking about games, tv, and cinema. You present me with quite a challenge; the challenge of defending Hollywood (although I doubt recent movies would count)...here goes:


[quote="Johnodog"]welcome to the wonderful world of predictable Hollywood paradigms.
1. All priests are either corrupt or having an affair.
-Exorcist, and just about every Western film. The Priest is holy, Catholic, and...I'm running out of words, so "holy" again.

2. Asians are always portrayed as smart.
AUDITION, LETHAL WEAPON 4, TEMPLE OF DOOM (look, a tie in!), BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA, THE HANGOVER series.

3. mafia hit men can't hit anything with a machine gun, but a woman who has never held a gun can shoot her evil ex boyfriend between the eyes at 100 paces.
GODFATHER, GODFATHER II, GODFATHER III, GOODFELLAS, BONNIE AND CLYDE

4.Ex boyfriends are always evil.
Britney Murphy's ex-skater boyfriend turns out to be pretty awesome in CLUELESS (rollin wit da homies. Hmm....This is a tough one...

AH! Jason Lee as Brodie turned out to be an awesome ex in MALLRATS. His only wrong doings were farting during fellatio and playing too much Sega (as if that even exists).

5.In commercials and sitcoms ALL men are hopelessly clueless and incompetent...especially if the subject is the homestead.
MARRED WITH CHILDREN. Al was a genius.


6. Which brings us to the corollary...all women are portrayed as being able to do it all.Kids, a career, a home life. They are whip-smart and full of good common sense.
I'm with you on the common sense part. Usually seems the woman always sheds the light, but at the same time I don't have a problem with that at all.

But then you have shows like The Sopranos where the women are all basically only there for later disposal.


7. Men are portrayed as having no other motivation for life except constant sexual gratification.
I'd say the #1 motivation for a male in a movie is Survival, #2 is Revenge/vengeance, #3 is Booty.


8. Anyone with technology skills is branded as having ZERO social skills or if a comedy, they are automatically nerds..
I think Joss Whedon's films have easily proven this wrong, and I would say that Joss is an outlier.

9. Businessmen are always portrayed as malicious and evil with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. None. Not one good thing.
AMERICAN PSYCHO
FERRIS BUELLER



10. Again the corollary is present in that the poor are always portrayed as noble of heart and generous of soul. always they are just good people down on their luck.
This list could go on all day but it all comes down to how much you pay attention. Hollywood is lazy and tends to follow trends blindly. It is also very liberal and tends to sell plots that hate on anything conservative or religious.
someone earlier had it correct when they said cops are portrayed as blue collar and the feds are seen as "the man"

Columbo
Monk

[noiseredux]

1) Special Agent Dale Cooper was in no way a jerk.
2) If you're watching Veronica Mars and focusing on FBI agents, you're watching it wrong.