'K-Ville'? Try Not-OK-ville

Fox's new cop drama is set in post-Katrina New Orleans. Police-show clichés are many, and the city's flavor is MIA.

Nowhere is it written that you cannot take a national tragedy and use it as a backdrop for a TV series. And that's a good thing -- what would television be without "MASH"? But if you do, it would be wise to pause and quietly reflect, to consider whether your characters, subject matter, perhaps even genre, are up to the task. As tempting as it might be, tearing your pathos straight from the headlines comes with a price: Your show will be judged not only on its own merits, but also on how it measures up against the significance of the event.