Roger Moroney: On patrol and on TV ... night after night

The frontline crew of Wellington Paranormal, from the imaginative minds of Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement.

Where would we be without the police yeah?

They are a very crucial component in life, for they are signed up to do the things a lot of people would not really want to do.

And deal with people and situations a lot more people would not really want to do.

Like the medical and education front-liners they earn their pay, although those other two crews aren't rightly rewarded for their toil.

But then they can take industrial action, whereas it is illegal for the police to take such action.

So yes, the police are a very important component in the voyage of everyday life ... especially television life.

For their exploits and pursuits and investigations and confrontations can be highly enlightening and illuminating ... and entertaining on occasions.

Like a couple of weeks back when, I believe it was on the TV1 police show Highway Cops, they were called to help remove an injured sheep from the side of a motorway up north.

The old sheepy appeared to have fallen foul of someone or something and had a messed up hindquarter.

You could see the dried blood.

So it was decided that rather than try to shift the damaged thing they would lay it to rest, and called in a rifle-bearing officer to do the human deed.

That's when the sheep belied its "badly injured" status and got up and bolted into nearby shrubbery.

So the crew in blue pursued it and caught it, and ended up getting it to a vet for repair.

Which I sort of found intriguing as they also said they would eventually track down where it came from and return it to the farmer.

Who I daresay would in due course give it another view of the motorway ... aboard a truck off to the works.

Oh well ... it got a few more weeks though.

Our police, in one form or another, are on television patrol every night of the week, although their American counterparts have to step into the breach on Friday night (everyone needs time out).

Once upon a time the nightly television terrain was the home for the western.

You needed both hands and at least one foot to count the shows which featured gunshots across the prairies and bar room brawls sparked by the stranger in the black hat walking in.

The western was today's reality show ... they were everywhere.

Today, apart from the occasional outing on some distant Sky channel or drummed up by Netflix there are none.

I guess they just don't fit the bill any more.

And back in those times the only police shows I can recall were the likes of Z Cars and Car 54 Where Are You ... although the latter was a slightly loose fit.

However, policing is very much on the telly beat now, and given the unsettling rise in road toll statistics maybe that is a good thing, although judging by the demeanour of many of those who "star" on the wrong side of the line in these outings they probably don't take a lot in, in terms of preventive advice.

You only need to check out Highway Cops, back on TV1 tonight, to underline that. And The Force, another TV1 recruit which screens tomorrow night.

A random breath test for suspected drink-driving leads the patrol crew, and the scrambling film crew travelling with them, on a bit of a journey.

The driver decides to call the whole thing off ... by taking off.

So the driver is off and the pursuit is on.

Oh, and there are drugs involved too ... funny that.

On Wednesday night TV2 joins the party in blue, and they have a real gem in the line-up in the form of Wellington Paranormal.

Put it this way, New Zealand comedy is in a good place as this ticks all the boxes.

The policing pair are O'Leary and Minogue and they carry on where their brief appearance in the film What We Do in the Shadows left off.

They specialise in attending the very strangest of the strange occurrences and events in their capital patch.

Great special effects and great scripting.

Oh, and for those who want additional fictional patrol work TV3 hosts NCIS: LA on the same night, with Hawaii Five-O following.

So then, Thursday patrols emerge in the form of Police Ten 7 and newcomer simply titled Booze Patrol.

That title indeed sums the whole deal up.

The anti-drink-drive crews at work ... often scary work when it transpires the drivers they try to extract sense from have clearly taken a drug path as well.

With Prime hosting Death in Paradise that same night and NCIS New Orleans the following night you may start wishing they could maybe find just one western to slide in here and there.

● Wellington Paranormal, TV2 at 8.30pm Wednesday: The police show which features a patrol crew wearing the right kit and driving the right car ... but everything else is kind off happening somewhere out in left field.

With the field in this episode being a paddock on a farm ... where there is a cow up a tree. Just call the fire bods in.

If they can get cats out of palms they can surely get a cow out of a pine.

ON THE BOX

● Dr Phil, TV3 at noon weekdays: I have always possessed doubts about the sincerity and resolve of people who happily share their domestic "issues" with several million others.

I can only assume they get paid something to take part, which in the case of tomorrow's subjects could work out just dandy. They go and see the "doc" because their lad called Billy refuses to work and gets very nasty when mum and dad refuse to give him any money.

You don't need a shrink ... just kick the bum out.

Personally, as it's noon I'd rather have lunch and just look out the window.

● The Salt of the Earth, Maori TV at 8.30 tonight: This is one of those documentaries that, given the subjects they take on, need to be made.

It profiles a Brazilian photographer whose mission has been to visit and chart (by taking shots) the lives of people in remote and underprivileged landscapes.

It centres on the exploitation of people and places, and is a tough but enlightening watch. It is a very uneven playing field out there in the real world.