Inspirations from an OTT show

Whenever I want to relax these days, I turn on the TV and watch a Netflix series titled "S.W.A.T." In its depiction of daily incidents in urban LA, the drama makes me brood over our turbulent past, ponder our present predicaments and reflect on the future awaiting our children's generation.

- KIM SEONG-KON

The protagonist Hondo, a SWAT unit leader in LA, constantly wonders: "Is it possible for me to bring change to the world in which I live? Can I make a better society by risking my life fighting vicious villains? Can I really change the system?" He agonizes over what kind of tactics he must adopt to make a better police department and a better world. SWAT stands for "Special Weapons and Tactics" used to fight crime in town, city and country.

The drama "S.W.A.T." has caught my attention because each episode deals with various problems in LA, a city of the American Dream for immigrants, diverse ethnic minorities and multicultural neighborhoods. LA is also well known for its freeway, where you can enjoy "this illusion of speed, freedom, wind in your hair, unreeling landscape," as Thomas Pynchon described in his celebrated novel, "The Crying of Lot 49."

In fact, Pynchon perceived that the LA freeway resembled the veins that nourish America, and if someone were to inject a hypodermic needle somewhere in them, Americans would experience hallucinations, hypnosis and paralysis.