TeeVee

Ever see the police stings where the cops set up a party and invite all the 'stung' criminals to an event so that everyone can be arrested at once? It's clever: the bad guys don't have a chance to warn their partners in crime that the cops are on to them. Well, a TV show is in the works to take it one step further: lure people who have a warrant outstanding into situations where we get to toy with them before revealing the ruse and arresting them.

One of three set-ups just shot in Arizona features the cops luring a criminal to a movie set with the promise of making him an extra and paying him a couple hundred dollars. An elaborate film set is staged and filming begins on a faux movie. The set-up continues as the director then gets mad at the lead actor, fires him and replaces him with the law-breaking extra.

The scene escalates with the fake director introducing the mark to a supposed studio mogul and continuing to create this dream-comes-true sequence. Finally, all the participants are revealed as officers of the law, and the criminal is apprehended (before signing waivers to let the footage be used in the show).

Other scenarios include a fake fashion shoot where the subject thinks he is about to become a supermodel and another in which the mark becomes an auto racer, a set-up which ends when a police car comes up behind him on a race track to pull him over.

“If it were a regular person you’d feel bad for them, but they are all wanted by the law,” Darnell says. “It’s Cops as comedy and no one’s ever tried it before.”

I'm sorry but it feels like this should be some sort of mile-marker on the highway to hell. The excuse that the people you're torturing are criminals just isn't good enough. Hey, you're manipulating this person in order to make them feel especially bad for your own enjoyment. What kind of people do that? That's gladiator stuff.