In London, a call to police sheds doubt on whether the right man was convicted in the murder of a woman several years previously. A young, Black Detective Sergeant is given the routine task of looking into it, and so she approaches the original investigating officer, DCI Hegarty, ably portrayed by Peter Capaldi. After getting …
I watched this whole thing so you don’t have to. There are some excellent performances, particularly Adeel Aktar as the rumpled police detective and Joanna Lumley at her plumiest as the wealthy mother-in-law. The problem was that there was just TOO MUCH. Entire side stories should have been dropped, sometimes things seemed out of order, …
A police procedural set in Scotland. What sets this one apart from the rest is that the lead detective, Annika, ably played by Nicola Walker, speaks directly to the viewer, breaking the fourth wall. Full of literary references, Annika is smart, funny, wry. She’s raising her teenage daughter alone, navigating a new job with old …
In four different times (Victorian, WWII, Present Day, Future) the same body appears in a London alley. Detectives in each time period investigate. As viewers, we can see the threads that link the mysteries, but the detectives have a harder time figuring out what is going on. It was interesting and fun while it lasted, …
Another in a long list of shows that have a police detective semi-unwillingly assisted by (and assisting) a plucky female amateur detective. In this one, set in Victorian England, the plucky woman is Miss Eliza Scarlett, a private detective, and the detective is William Wellington of Scotland Yard – sometimes called “Duke” because of his …
Loosely based on the amazing Jon Krakauer book (one of my favorite books), this focuses on the investigation of the murder that was at the core of the book. A young wife is killed by her husband’s brothers based on fundamentalist interpretations of Mormon theology. This show creates fictional detectives, one of them a pious …
James Spader plays an international criminal who volunteers to help the FBI catch other (worse) criminals, meanwhile there are secrets upon secrets that slowly unfold. It can be up and down and IMHO goes on a few seasons too long, but it is well made and James Spader plays the lead with delicious nonchalance.
Gritty British police procedural with Idris Elba as the detective, Luther. Luther is a deeply flawed character, but he’s fighting the good fight and the acting, writing and supporting characters are extremely well done.
Gritty British police procedural with Gillian Anderson as a smart, unapologetically sexual, tough detective and Jamie Dornan in a creepy turn as a killer who is also a kind family man and grief counselor. Stop at the end of Season 2 – Season 3 was an add-on that did not satisfy.
Each season is a completely different show with a different cast. Season 1 was great (until the disappointing ending), Season 2 didn’t quite hold up. Season 3 was better. Gritty, complex stories of detectives solving crime. I’m not a Matthew McConaughey fan, but his performance in Season 1 was an epic standout.