History Series / Copper

* CanadaEh: A Canadian ambassador who meets with some wealthy New York businessmen speaks with a weird accent that's a cross between stereotypical Canadian and Cajun. He claims to be from an isolated village in Quebec, [[spoiler:but he's actually a Confederate spy affecting a Canadian accent.]]

-->'''O'Brien''': ''(pours a shot of whiskey)'' Devery poisoned the fruitcake that Mrs. Devery had baked for the butcher, her lover. But the butcher doesn't like that particular kind of fruitcake, so he gifted it to his landlord...\\
'''Corcoran''': ''(pours the whiskey into the ale)'' So the landlord put it into a Nellis Bakery box, which [[EverybodyKnows everyone knows]] is the best goddamn bakery in New York...\\
'''O'Brien''': ''(Maguire lifts the ale to his mouth, but O'Brien takes it back and chugs it)''' ...and gives it to his dentist.

* PlanningWithProps: In "Arsenic and Old Cake", Corcoran and O'Brien use a shot of whiskey and a tankard of ale to illustrate to O'Brien the convoluted path of the poisoned fruitcake:

* AcceptableTargets: In universe, pretty much anyone and everyone. It's another form of DeliberateValuesDissonance.

* AnArmAndALeg: Robert Morehouse lost his leg in the war.
** ArtisticLicenseBiology: Morehouse claims in the first episode they had been demobilized for two months. There's no way someone could heal a leg stump enough to support body weight '''and''' learn to walk almost normally with a primitive prosthetic leg in just a short timeframe.

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: The show rarely misses an opportunity to remind the viewer that it takes place in an era where our modern values and morals simply did not apply. In the very first scene of the series premiere, a homeless girl offers to 'pleasure' Corcoran in return for a hard boiled egg. Corcoran then spends a large part of the episode walking around while carrying a dead girl wrapped in a blanket, and no one even blinks an eye. (See AcceptableTargets, above, for more.)

** In Season 2, Orrin Lansing is a business rival of CorruptPolitician and former FourStarBadass Brendan Donovan. Donovan makes it clear that he would like for Lansing to withdraw his bid to build the new aqueduct, but Lansing refuses. Donovan sends his hatchetman to give Lansing An Offer You Can't Refuse, which the man executes by dousing Lansing in alcohol and threatening to set him on fire. A sensible person would have either acceded to Donovan's demands or used his fortune to hire bodyguards to protect him from future attacks. Instead, Lansing personally breaks into Donovan's office, kills his assistant, and steals some documents from the safe. He then fails to enact any of the usual blackmail tropes that would safeguard him from Donovan's retribution. By the end of the episode, Donovan has recovered his files and Lansing is BuriedAlive.

* TooDumbToLive: If [[spoiler: Sgt. Byrnes]] paid more attention to actual police work he probably would have realized that a murder victim was likely poisoned and eating the dead man's food is a very bad idea.

* RecklessGunUsage: Averted. [[JustForFun/TelevisionIsTryingToKillUs Much unlike Hollywood creations]], both police and professional criminals are very careful when, where and how they use their guns, and in most cases they try their best to use silent weapons like blades or knuckle-dusters. The notable exception is the RussianRoulette game which results in Donovan's death.

* RecklessGunUsage: Averted. [[TelevisionIsTryingToKillUs Much unlike Hollywood creations]], both police and professional criminals are very careful when, where and how they use their guns, and in most cases they try their best to use silent weapons like blades or knuckle-dusters. The notable exception is the RussianRoulette game which results in Donovan's death.

** [[spoiler: While Kennedy's plot to burn New York City ''may'' have had some military value to the Confederacy around, say, the First Battle of Bull Run..by the time he plans to launch it, the South has lost the war. Even if he ''does'' succeed, the likely Union response will not be surrender, but the "March to the Sea" cranked {{up to eleven}}. Furthermore, Robert Morehouse is more than rich enough to buy an exemption..but he went and fought for the Union anyhow. To a competent plotter, that right there should cast some doubt on his "Rebel sympathies".]]

* BerserkButton: Corcoran really hates child killers.
** Or child traffickers. Seriously, don't pick on the kids in Corcoran's district.

* BadassBeard: Pretty much every male character except Corcoran. It became a competition between the guys when they grew them out between Seasons 1 and 2.

* LittleMissBadass: Annie

* RealityEnsues: One episode involves Corcoran and O'Brien trying to match a handwriting sample, so they try to obtain signatures from all the people they interviewed. Surprise! This is 1864, and they're interviewing dirt-poor Irish immigrants; virtually everyone they interview is illiterate.

''Copper'' is a historical [[CopsAndDetectives detective series]] produced by BBC America.