Some thoughts on recent TV watching

[carbonel]

I like cop shows. In recent days, I've been watching them somewhat as an anodyne to recent events, rather like watching West Wing as a hopeful antidote to current politics.

I prefer shows that combine a long-term plot with shorter ones that are wrapped up in an episode or two. The ones that focus on one story for the entire season tend to have way too many unbelievable sub-plots tossed in to keep the story going. I much prefer serious to comedy. I couldn't watch Brooklyn 99. The Mysteries of Laura with Debra Messing was right on the line, and it was kind of a relief when it was canceled.

Yesterday, I finished watching City Homicide, an Australian cop show. It was just about perfect. Interesting characters with real lives, good plots, and a mix of long- and short-term stories. Also, Australia, so inherently interesting for that. Unfortunately, I've now watched all five seasons, so that's it for that one for at least a few years. The first four seasons are on Tubi, Hulu, and Amazon Prime; the fifth season only seems to be on Hulu.

Some years ago, I watched four seasons of Scott & Bailey, a British cop show with a focus on female characters. I recently discovered that there's a fifth season, and it's available on Amazon Prime, so I've started a complete rewatch, because it's been long enough that the plot descriptions from the early seasons didn't sound at all familiar -- and there are only thirty-three episodes in all.

I've heard good things about Vera, which would require an Acorn subscription that I don't currently have.

I'm also thinking about doing a rewatch of The Closer/Major Crimes, which would keep me busy for quite a while. Interestingly, one of the characters from that show seems to be a refugee from the comedy type of cop show -- except that underneath the clowning, he's experienced and competent. At least, when he's not screwing up for stupid plot reasons.

Any other recommendations?

In non-cop-show watching, I'm making continued slow process with my four-star movie project (now nearing the start of its third decade), having finished watching Shoeshine (Italian neo-realism) and listening to the commentary track. Next up is The Searchers, which should be equally cheerful (not) in a different way.

Comments

[philomytha]

I watch a fair number of police/crime dramas too. By the same writer as Scott & Bailey, there's Happy Valley, also a female-centric cop show, really good characters and plots and also grimly hilarious in places, though definitely not a comedy. Line of Duty is a really gripping show about a police anti-corruption squad uncovering dirty cops, there are a lot of seasons of it and after a while the plot starts to go round in circles, but it's good watching. That's all one overarching plot, but the seasons are short, I think 6 episodes. Unforgotten is a good show about uncovering cold cases, really gripping plots again and I liked the characters a lot. Cuffs is a one-season show that sadly got cancelled, but is notable for being set in Brighton and half the cast is LGBT, and I really loved it. I don't know if you like going more in the murder mysteries side of things, but obviously there's Morse, Lewis and Endeavour which can keep you in bizarre Oxford murder mysteries for the rest of 2020 all on its own, and for something completely different, Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries which is not really a cop show but has police characters and is set in interwar Australia and is absolutely fantastic.

[jazzfish]

I mean, The Wire is kind of the gold standard there, but it's also 15 (+/-3) years old. If you've not seen it, it is very definitely one-long-story per season, but it works because 1) David Simon and Ed Burns kept a very tight rein on their writers, and 2) they included at least one actual crime writer (George Pelecanos) in the room. (The Wire is also unfortunately terrible for female representation.)

Scott & Bailey has popped up on my radar recently, mostly because Suranne Jones was so amazing in Gentleman Jack. Good to hear it holds up!

[pameladean]

I haven't been able to watch West Wing since 2000, and I can't watch cop shows right now either. Then again, I've been side-eyeing Law and Order for decades.

David showed me some episodes of an adaptation of the Father Brown stories moved, for reasons I'm not entirely clear on, to the nineteen-fifties. I have been side-eyeing the Catholic Church for a very long time too, and also much of Chesterton, but I was able to watch those, though most of my remarks had to do with incidental gardens and architecture.

I guess basically I just don't want to see any police or any politicians right now, in any venue, but a priest I first encountered in the railway station in Edinburgh on a very rainy Sunday when nothing was open is still okay. Brains are weird.

P.

[melita66]

Hello! I'm here via James Nicoll's reading list.

I subscribed to BritBox when I found out they had Dalziel and Pascoe. I'd never seen the final season so that was a treat. Dalziel and Pascoe started out based on the Reginald Hill series. If you aren't familiar, Peter Pascoe is a newly minted college-educated detective sergeant teamed up with Andy Dalziel, a canny, up-through-the-ranks DI who sees all (usually) and is totally not politically correct.

I've since been expanding out and binging other police procedurals. I originally checked out Scott & Bailey because I recognized Lesley Sharp (playing Janet Scott) from the "Midnight" episode of Dr Who. I really enjoyed it.

Another rec for Line of Duty which I binged last weekend. I'm usually good at figuring out tricky plots but there are multiple people in this that I'm still not sure whether they're innocent or guilty. Maybe that's a spoiler. Britbox doesn't have the latest season (from last year) yet.

BritBox has some of Taggart as well which I adore. When they were being released as UK dvds, I got a colleague to buy a bunch of them (I couldn't order them from the US) and then picked them up when I visited on a work trip. It usually takes me several episodes to start understanding Glaswegian again. I have a feeling that it hasn't aged too well, particularly the early episodes.

[snippy]

Person of Interest is cop-adjacent, in that two of the major characters are police officers and some of the long-running stories take place in the police world.

[mrissa]

Vera is great. I am not feeling the cop show love right now but am still 100% there for Vera. I LOVE HER. So acerbic.

[bibliofile]

Yes, I couldn't really get into Mysteries of Laura either.

Scott & Bailey was brilliant. They showed them all here on PBS.

Did you ever see the Poppy Montgomery series Unforgettable? Started on CBS and moved to cable, lasted four seasons. It was okay. Jane Curtin played the person who does autopsies; I liked her. Not sure how much is available online though.

[msmoat]

I adore Shetland--gorgeous scenery and good plots. The first and second series had shorter arcs, the last few have had single long arcs. Worth trying!

I am currently inhaling Vera. Definitely worth the subscriptions! (Although you'd need both Acorn and Britbox to get all fo the series.) Personally, I find both subscriptions worth it. But then I'm not watching much US scripted TV at the moment.