POLICE PROCEDURALS - which are ur faves

thanks for the rec ian

oop i was wrong, they're set in SF not LA. my bad. they're good. i'd lend you "Dead Skip" but I lent it out to someone else and it hasn't been returned. You can really read them in any order cuz they're all self-contained stories and the character development and relationships aren't extreme or particularly complicated.

i'm enjoying the fall but i'm really not looking fwd to the wife finding out :-/

i just started watching The Shield finally, and I'm really digging it

the naked city
once upon a time in anatolia
clockers

the only martin amis novel I've ever read was an attempt at this, can't remember what it was called. It was ok.

clockers is all-time

never seen the movie but the book, man. sometimes I think about poor strike.

crime fiction is a bit fucking grim, I read my 1st ellroy the other day (the big nowhere) because I was too distracted for tolstoy. The book practically read itself, I was impressed, but the fixation on only the meanest elements of humanity... it's wearing. And I'm a tireless gass booster, I dig celine, I <3 dostoevsky but idk, I find the hard genre stuff harder going for some reason

i highly recommend all of Richard Price's novels, even his not-great stuff is better than most

or ahem his POLICE PROCEDURAL

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1825122/

wow i did not know about that!

it was pretty fresh, well-observed, promising.

Barney Miller

retired-Newark-cop father of my friend swears by its veracity

Derek Raymond's "Factory" series abt an unnamed sergeant working in the Department of Unexplained Deaths is really good. There is not a lot of forensic stuff or working with other branches of the department, but they're gritty and wonderful for brushing up on your eighties londoner slang. very dark stuff.

crime fiction is a bit fucking grim, I read my 1st ellroy the other day (the big nowhere) because I was too distracted for tolstoy. The book practically read itself, I was impressed, but the fixation on only the meanest elements of humanity... it's wearing. And I'm a tireless gass booster, I dig celine, I <3 dostoevsky but idk, I find the hard genre stuff harder going for some reason

it's kind of like that taken to the point of a knife in the eye, but you really ought to experience the 'american tabloid' trilogy. there is probably a finnegans wake / beckett comparison around ilx somewhere. the prose is unreal.

i feel like i have watched all the procedurals : /

i need to make a break into the 80s/70s so i can mine them for what they're worth, but every time i try the shows are just so SLOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWW

this was a pretty good year for procedurals

well i watched all 20 seasons of l&o from start to finish this year so i need recalibrating

i am finally watching luther. it's pretty good.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/27/arts/television/times-critics-share-last-chance-tv-picks.html?_r=0

It’s not too late to try the antidote, a French crime series called “Spiral” (“Engrenages” in the original French), which is available on Netflix with subtitles.

This show offers a bracing Continental alternative to all the Scandinavian-ish existential gloom. “Spiral” is dark and brutal but fast paced. It’s a complex but exciting look at detectives chasing child molesters, drug traffickers and terrorists in a Parisian world of corrupt judges, political intrigue and government officials modeled on Dominique Strauss-Kahn. There are four seasons available now, and a fifth in the works, and each season revolves around one major crime that has unexpected ripple effects.

It’s not a show that breaks all traditions. Like so many crime dramas, including “The Killing,” this series is centered on a single, irascible and fiercely dedicated heroine, the homicide detective Laure Berthaud (Caroline Proust). But Laure is not an outcast or a loner. The male detectives who work for her like her and are deeply loyal, and she even wins over the handsome, slightly stuffy investigating magistrate, Pierre Clément (Grégory Fitoussi), who begins the series as a rising star with friends — and tennis partners — in high places. The one person Laure can’t get along with is a defense lawyer, Joséphine Karlsson (Audrey Fleurot), a sexy, covetous climber who is ruthless in the service of her clients and, most important, herself.

“Spiral” is less like “The Killing” than “Law & Order” — filtered with Parisian cynicism and sophistication. It’s one of the best crime dramas around at the moment, and it would be a shame not to give it a try.

Haven't finished series 4 yet but the other ones are very good.

ooooh thanks.

Way up top someone wrote Night and the City. I think they meant the Naked City. Same director but one is police procedural the other anti-hero film noir.

i like spiral a lot

french people tell me the acting in spiral is quite poor. i enjoyed it though. there is one scene per episode that seems designed to shock.

I watched a few eps of Spiral before we got sucked into Top of the Lake; gotta go back to Spiral.

Also started THE FALL the other day and it seems alright but I wish focused more on Scully and less on the killer.

i thought i posted abt it on this thread but this year I really enjoyed the novels of Gene Kerrigan. My favorite was probably "The Midnight Choir" about troubled policeman Harry Synott. All four of Kerrigan's novels give you the POV of both police and criminals, but I found Synott to be the most compelling. He has problems with the corruption he sees in the cops around him but he's also no angel himself. Lots of different plot strands that come together in unexpected and powerful ways. Kerrigan was/is a journalist as well and has written extensively abt crime and corruption in Ireland.

but I wish focused more on Scully and less on the killer.

It strikes a fine balance imo

i only watched 1.5 eps, so i will keep going.

the fall is good, kind of wish there was more ni politics stuff and less life-of-the-killer stuff but in the absence of prime suspect ill take it

Also belongs in the cartoon-movie-poster thread.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c3/Les_Ripoux.jpg

i am fully on board w the Fall now BTW.

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/television/2014/01/true_detective_on_hbo_starring_matthew_mcconaughey_and_woody_harrelson_reviewed.html

http://www.slate.com/content/dam/slate/articles/arts/movies/2014/01/140108_MOV_TrueDetective.jpg.CROP.original-original.jpg

yesssss

I'm so down for this, it looks really good

I'm thinking about watching Prime Suspect, just 23 years after it came out...is it still considered good? I've caught a bit so far and it just seems so dated (not the styles though they do) but the attitudes...should I stick with it?

Thanks to being out of The Fall and Luther on Netflix

yes, watch it

its most distinctive payoff is in the long-term view of her career, self

yeah the first couple seasons are the best if you view each individually, and are top-notch terrific policiers, but the real thing you watch for is mirren creating and moving through the character

i mean the fall is kind of a straight prime suspect rip with a little bit of silence of the lambs thrown in

otm -- prime suspect is SO worth it.

Alright, thanks for the recs. Watched part 1 last night- it was a little slow, but I think that was just adjusting to the style. Your collective enthusiasm makes me look forward to more.

Just caught up with the first episode in series two of the new-to-BBC police drama Hinterland. It was quite impressive. Definitely heavily influenced by the Scandinavian noir stuff of recent years. Aberystwyth looks really beautiful and it's nice to hear Welsh being spoken extensively in a show being marketed outside of the region.

oooh that sounds interesting

Southland has just started another repeat stupidly late on ch4. not sure if it's procedural enough i've always liked it.

(it's season 4 and i've seen most of it before. still not sure i've seen all of them...)

i like southland a lot too

the wacky twist at the end of the 1st episode of spiral was super stupid. keep going y/n?

channel 792(!) on freeview in the uk is showing the orignal Dragnet. it's 50 or 60 years old and is great. 30 minutes, no flab, and as dark as you like.

Suspects, which is apparently the first British drama Channel 5 has produced in eight years, is better than expected. The plots could do with being stronger but the unscripted improv approach works pretty well.

there are few things better than when a character on a police procedural starts talking about sovereign citizenship

up there with russian mafia

AGREE