Crime Dramas

Not a big fan of this genre. Far too crowded IMO. And so many god awful shows as well, from the horrendous CSI style American shows which seem to be obsessed with creating the most baffling and disturbing murders they can dream up, to the bizare British sunday tea time dramas where sleepy British villages seem to have higher murder rates than inner city New York.

But there are some gems.

As a teenager I loved reading the Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes stories, well written, great characters and fantastic mysteries, and now I also enjoying reading the Rebus books by Rankin, mainly for the descriptions of Edinburgh and Rolling Stones references.

Currently I am really enjoying Lie to Me. Fantastically led by Tim Roth, one of Britain's finest actors, fascinating psychologically on the different tells we have to show our true emotions, and best of all not just murder orientated, but instead we have political intrigue, industrial espionage, hostage negotiations, sex scandals, theft.

People also rave about The Wire and Dexter, but haven't watched either yet.

Other tips for good crime dramas, or slatings of really bad ones???

I liked the recent Sherlock mini-series, think its returning this year

I despise all things CSI, or NCIS, Law and Order etc. you cant tell one from the other and its cliche upon cliche, the fact these drama's are so popular can only mean TV has dumbed down at a frightening rate.

Best crime drama ever is Cracker, Fitz is the greatest character to ever be created and every single episode still stands the test of time a decade and a half later.

Also I like Peter Robinson's DCI Banks novels, but when ITV recently did "aftermath" it was atrocious, its a really complex story with deep characters and they tried to shoehorn it into 2 hours, garbage!!

Cracker! Nice one, Scruff!

Robbie Coltrane at his best, and the 3 part episode with the serial killer avenging Hillsborough (wasn't he played by Robert Carlyle?) was some of the best TV I have ever seen!

LIV-ERP-OOL... Liverpool FC

that was the role that gave Robert Carlysle his big break actually, he also killed off one of the big characters in that storyline, in Christopher Eccleston's DCI Billborough.

My favourite Cracker moment and arguably my favourite TV moment of all time is when Jimmy Beck confesses to the rape of Penhaligon and jumps off the hotel roof still handcuffed to a suspect rapist he's just arrested.

It had an amazing ensemble cast, didn't it?

watched 4 more episodes of Lie to Me last night.

I actually think Tim Roth as Cal Lightman is as good a protagonist as Robbie Coltrane as Fitz.

Watch it, Scruff!

The flaw the show has though is that unlike Cracker when stories were given 3 episodes (2hrs15mins of TV time), each story is condensed into one episode (40mins) (cos Americans have such short concentration spans)

But psychologically the best crime drama since Cracker and the best lead since Robbie Coltrane.

I'm sure its good DK, but nobody will ever come close to Fitz as a character.

In fact he had that much of an impact on me in my early 20's I've grown to me much like him myself (bar the bulk, thank fuck)

started The Wire last night.

Watched 6 episodes, and was up past 3am.

Compulsive viewing ...