On Call

 

On Call: Turning Life at the Long Beach, California Police Department Inside Out

On Call

The novel, On Call, from Prime Video, gives the audience an exciting look into the daily life of the police in Long Beach, California. This film gets to dramatize a typical and sometimes artistically honest look into the life of a cop while, to some degree, giving a raw representation of the daily trials and hardships that cops endure. Being violent and politically incorrect, with an abundance of traumatizing scenes and color gray portrayals, On Call tries to reveal much about police jobs in countries with a lack of officers and high rates of risky encounters. It is an issue-based program that mainly revolves around Officer Harmon, a utopian police officer striving to succeed both on the force and personally. Nevertheless, it has benefits, though it certainly comes close to morality, provided that one can raise questions on the efficacy done in such aspects.

Overview of On Call and Officer Harmon’s Struggles

On Call revolves around Officer Harmon, who is a policeman with a number of years of experience in Long Beach. Lieutenant Harmon is a well-trained and well-seasoned police officer who has been serving his community for over a decade. Her character is that she is loyal to the law enforcement and their work, and she also keeps her sexual and violent potential in check by shaving her armpits and does not shoot to kill when she does not have to. Specifically, Harmon is profoundly under pressure not only from the public but also from her precinct as well. To begin with, the police department is faced with a problem of lack of sufficient manpower, and like other police departments, it struggles with bureaucracy, which may hinder the police officers from performing their duties.

The first episode stems from Officer Harmon's obsession with the incident that involved the shooting of her former trainee, Maria Delgado. This tragedy lays down a basis for Harmon’s never-ending pursuit of justice as she vies to solve the case on her own when she takes a newbie, Alex Diaz, as her partner. The department is organized, and a hint of some misconduct emerges that seeks to dethrone Harmon as she tackles a certain case.

Violence and Graphic Content in On Call

It is, however, necessary to note that violence is depicted in a very realistic manner throughout the episodes of On Call. The first episode exploded the series with a pre-sophomore-season special that features the shooting dead of police Officer Delgado during a traffic operation. It becomes worse when Delgado gets to know that the driver is planning to transport an underaged girl. Even after Delgado tries to seize the situation, the criminals shoot her in the neck, leading to her collapse and to her dying in front of the spectators who film the events on their phones rather than attempting to save her.

There are numerous such incidents that Bust has not spared itself from, and it is unfortunate that such violence was witnessed in this country. There is very much use and depiction of violent acts in the sequence throughout the show where characters engage in many acts of violence. Police officials are assaulted, and members of the public engage in acts of brutality. For instance, there is a scene in which a rookie is stuck by a needle with heroin and starts foaming at the mouth. He is revived by Diaz, who uses Narcan, and it has a profound effect on him. This is only one of many incidents from a typical day in a dispatcher’s life within On Call.

The content of the violence in this show can be seen as graphic to some audiences since the show aims to represent real life and does not leave much to the imagination. The violence brings out the fact that police work involves a lot of situations that put one’s strength to the test.

Police Procedures and the Strain of Bureaucracy

The irony of police work is yet another well-policed concept in On Call since the majority of the scenarios depict bureaucratic procedures as frustrating and confusing. The officers in the show struggle with excessive bureaucracy, intricate procedures, and lack of backing from their precinct, which is quite undersupplied. Though they endeavor to keep on serving the public and catering to their security needs, they are most often hampered by red tape.

Officer Harmon exemplifies this conflict. Being a sharp and experienced police officer, she is fully aware of the expectations of the police force as well as the measures that, in most cases, should be taken for preserving law and order in society. In the pilot episode, Harmon educates Diaz about what she considers to be the real first commandment of policing: it actually has nothing to do with use-of-force policy, the traditional answer, but instead posits that an officer must always know his/her location because he or she is always working alone. It is a sad reality that these officers are caught up in procedures that may impede their functioning as officers regardless of how much they adhere to procedures dictated by their administration.

The Anti-Police Element and Its Impact

The main controversy that can be associated with the On Call is an anti-police theme—this idea appears during the course of the series. In the pilot episode, there is a scene where the woman confronts Officer Harmon after some domestic violence collision as she thought the officer was judging her. This is a common theme in the show, and while it captures existing relations between police and a particular population in an accurate manner, it leans towards a negative portrayal of police.

Although it is necessary to be objective and admit that there are problems within the system, there is a risk that On Call contributes to developing an attitude that all policemen are sinful or evil. It meant that instead of discussing how to effectively maintain law and order in America, it might perpetuate the stereotypical view of police.

Language, Nudity, and Mature Content

In terms of controversy, On Call contains themes of profanity and violence. There are also other cases of improper language throughout the series, for example, more than twenty uses of the f word in a specific episode, or the s word, the a–, and the b–ch. Also, there are shown the scenes in locker rooms with women and in swimwear, mentions of sex, erotic postures, and different sexual issues.

As one will anticipate because of the characters’ life conditions depicted in the series, audiences are to expect profanity and erotic scenes regularly throughout the series. While watching the show, the acceptance of such content is to depict the crude reality of the law enforcement agencies, but such content dilutes the purpose that the creators seem to be pursuing through the show.

Conclusion: Is On Call Worth Watching?

Hence, On Call presents supremacy in revealing the real life of the policemen, devoid of sweet sentimentality and watering down. This assuredly makes it quite a thrilling watch for people who are out here looking for the grim and grey reality of being a police officer in the real world today. However, they might not like it due to violent scenes, choice of words, and the negative attitude of the police renovators. This show can be seen as attempting to realistically depict the realities of the police profession while at the same time offering a rather lurid view of the matters related to the traumatic and violent nature of their work.

If one enjoys rather bleak, physical, and emotionally charged dramas with attempts at complex moral dilemmas the characters face, On Call can provide a rather intriguing and rather sensationalist view of the work of the police. But for other people, the unaltered scenes and bitter representation of the police work might not allow them to get into the show at a critical level.

FAQs About On Call

Is On Call a typical police procedural show?

Well, it is not that On Call is a run-of-the-mill pol-pro, either. Despite having some similarities with other similar programs, it is more keen on depicting the psychological aspect of policing. The series emphasizes the aspects of arriving at the right decision by conducting an inquiry, which are presented as often ambiguous and depict the personal problems of the police officers. The show is far more humanistic than procedural in every sense of this word and therefore far more realistic.

Is the violence in On Call too much?

The themes that have been incorporated in On Call can, to some extent, be described as rather violent, most especially due to the scenes depicted in the movie. It is a portrayal of what officers have to face daily, but its relentlessness may just dull the sensibilities of the viewers rather than making them sympathetic. For that reason, the following scenes should be regarded as watchable only with discreet pleasure: increased explicitness of cruelty.