ABSTRACT

Following the deregulation of the Greek television sector in 1989, as well as its influence on the production of new television series and serials during the next decade, television crime fiction appeared in the scheduling agenda of the newborn private stations. Tmima Ithon/ Vice Squad (1992-1995, ΑΝΤ1) was an early example of such a trend, introducing a fresh perspective on how law enforcement and marginalized subjectivities could be represented onscreen. By examining the series’ place within the genre of television crime fiction along with its historical and social context, this article offers a space of reconsideration of the role and function of the genre in Greece. Furthermore, through quantitative and qualitative analysis, it explores the way social outcasts are represented, in relation to general perceptions of social categories and the rapidly shifting sociocultural environment of the 1990s, when postmodern forces were attempting a reconstruction of what was until then perceived as solid and stable.

Keywords: crime television, Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft, outcasts, otherness, Tmima Ithon