The main difference between “America’s Most Wanted” and The Thin Blue Line, is time. With The Thin Blue Line, Errol Morris had a substantially greater amount of time to tell the story in its entirety. This was a huge benefit since it was faceted with many details it needed much time for them to be allocated properly.

When watching both, I noticed that The Thin Blue Line placed much emphasis on the crime rather than the characters. It became evident rather quickly who was guilty and who was innocent. This allowed for a deeper examination of the crime itself, which was more vital to the solving of the murder. With “America’s Most Wanted,” the act of the crime is quickly summarized and more detail is placed upon the suspect. Since there is less time available, coupled with a shorter attention span of the audience, the suspect is what the show is aiming for, not a solving of the crime.

With Errol Morris, his audience is more aware of what they are watching. When watching such a film, the viewers were informed of what the film was about, its length, and the fact that they had to pay an admission fee to watch it. This audience would be expected to be smarter than the average audience. With an audience that is commonly associated with “America’s Most Wanted,” the viewers tend to be browsing channels, bored, or similar to the blonde found in The Thin Blue Line, people who do not care about the crime, but more about the fame associated with the capture of a suspect regardless of status.

The use of reenactments would work well on television. This makes a crime personal and relatable to any audience. The similar works with location; when an audience knows where the crime happened in relation to other landmarks, it also helps people relate to it more. If the crime is in some obscure location, it deters interest away from people as they feel it is unimportant.

What wouldn’t work however are the extended interviews. The whole purpose of the show is to make the audience alert that someone is still at large. By having large amounts of people interviewing, one does not share that feeling that someone out there is still roaming free and are deadly.

While “America’s Most Wanted” has benevolent goals, it has become diluted down through culture as more an entertainment group than a law enforcement one. It has been juxtaposed with similar low-culture shows such as “Cops” and “World’s Wildest Police Videos.” The shows have to pack much information into a shorter time span and consequently quality suffers. The Thin Blue Line was a thought out, and very articulate documentation of a crime that focused on all the details and ends systematically. Not to mention that Errol Morris has had prior reputation that was more highly regarded.