just discovered this series, have read two and have two more on deck. moody, atmospheric, compelling. martin is one melancholy cop
Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö were husband and wife. They were both committed Marxists and, between 1965 and 1975, they collaborated on ten mysteries featuring Martin Beck. SeriesMartin Beck (Per Waloo with Maj Sjöwall)1. Roseanna (1965)2. The Man Who Went Up in Smoke (1966)3. The Man on the Balcony (1967)4. The Laughing Policeman (1968)5. The Fire Engine That Disappeared (1969)6. Murder at the Savoy (1970)7. The Abominable Man (1971)8. The Locked Room (1972)9. Cop Killer (1974)10. The Terrorists (1975)
― chief rocker frankie crocker (m coleman), Friday, 28 August 2009 10:22 (fourteen years ago) link
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_GI8idJ1yqWM/Rhc8aJ9RDiI/AAAAAAAAAsU/bb67qQcdTVY/s320/high-and-low(albany.edu).jpg
(Plus it's based on an Ed McBain book.)
Also, and to my eternal shame, Anne Perry's Victorian police procedurals are pretty fun to read.
― Id rather dig ditches than pull another dudes string (Pancakes Hackman), Friday, 28 August 2009 10:28 (fourteen years ago) link
really liked the ian rankin rebus books and prime suspect + mcmillan and wife.
― diggvm rm xlwv (Lamp), Friday, 28 August 2009 10:30 (fourteen years ago) link
those martin beck books are dope
― just sayin, Friday, 28 August 2009 10:32 (fourteen years ago) link
put this on some other thread but: i watched the first two red riding movies. second was better than the first but both are too heavy handed--i think the best police shows/movies/books usually have a pretty good (if gruesome) sense of humor. still, well-acted and really beautifully shot (they remind me a little of the bbc wallander series)
― max, Sunday, 29 November 2009 22:31 (fourteen years ago) link
Rewatching Homicide season 1 this weekend. Sooooooooo good, soooooooo bleak. Network television should be ashamed of itself for promoting so much regressive procedural trash that stands up like a limp noodle in comparison to an awesome cop show that aired over 15(!) years ago.
― I HEART CREEPY MENS (Deric W. Haircare), Sunday, 29 November 2009 23:58 (fourteen years ago) link
BOYCOTT COP CULTURE!!!
― Biodegradable (Derelict), Monday, 30 November 2009 00:11 (fourteen years ago) link
So as I said in the other thread, I am enjoying Dogs of Riga by Henning Mankell.
― Bay-L.A. Bar Talk (Hurting 2), Monday, 30 November 2009 04:47 (fourteen years ago) link
last prime suspect totally destroyed me
― goole, Monday, 30 November 2009 05:05 (fourteen years ago) link
Brubaker/Rucka/Lark's Gotham Central comic is A+++.
― Bob Saget's "Night Moves": C or D (WmC), Monday, 30 November 2009 05:10 (fourteen years ago) link
Jack Reacher novels for the guilty admission.
― Louis Cll (darraghmac), Monday, 30 November 2009 16:41 (fourteen years ago) link
George Pelecanos "The Night Gardener"
― VegemiteGrrrl, Monday, 30 November 2009 18:56 (fourteen years ago) link
if you liked homicide (the book) or other non-fiction books about crime and police you might like cop in the hood, i dunno
― harbl, Saturday, 27 February 2010 22:23 (fourteen years ago) link
http://www.copinthehood.com/
― harbl, Saturday, 27 February 2010 22:24 (fourteen years ago) link
anyone been watching the new bbc detective show "zen"? i had such high hopes - the books, by michael dibdin, are fantastic, it was being made by the same production company that did such a great job on wallander - but it's awful. unbelievably clunky dialogue (a police chief that says: "I WANT RESULTS!"), plots unaccountably ruined to remove all the elements of mystery, characterisation that consists of people saying, "you've got quite a reputation for integrity, detective" (which gets the character all wrong anyway). couldn't even finish episode 2.
― joe, Monday, 10 January 2011 23:54 (thirteen years ago) link
Who writes the books? Not familiar with them.
― get off my lawn (rockapads), Tuesday, 11 January 2011 00:12 (thirteen years ago) link
speaking of bbc policiers i saw one episode of luther and well i liked it well enough i suppose but not enough to watch the second one
― max, Tuesday, 11 January 2011 00:20 (thirteen years ago) link
rockapads - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Dibdin
he died a few years ago, only 60. the zen novels - he wrote a few other things which i haven't read yet - are very stylishly written by the standards of crime fiction, have a really persuasive sense of place and politics and can be very funny, everything that the bbc adaptation isn't.
xpost luther gets better after ep 1, but not that much better.
― joe, Tuesday, 11 January 2011 00:25 (thirteen years ago) link
also for some reason i watched all of the george gentlys, which were kind of silly but martin shaw is so great
― max, Tuesday, 11 January 2011 00:27 (thirteen years ago) link
thanks, joe
― get off my lawn (rockapads), Tuesday, 11 January 2011 04:29 (thirteen years ago) link
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100225195706AAVtKcA
air force one
― Princess TamTam, Tuesday, 11 January 2011 04:37 (thirteen years ago) link
The police part comes in with the air battle
― max, Tuesday, 11 January 2011 04:39 (thirteen years ago) link
I watched the movie on Netflix!
― Lamp, Tuesday, 11 January 2011 04:41 (thirteen years ago) link
Lots of great Scandinavian PP:
Henning MankellAke EdwardsonArnaldur IndridasonKarin Fossum
Also love Japanese PP, but maybe not everyone's cup of tea:
Takagi AkimitsuMatsumoto Seicho
― Super Cub, Tuesday, 11 January 2011 06:56 (thirteen years ago) link
cancelled cop shows that i have watched (at least two of which have zeljko ivanek playing CREEPY MURDERERS or at least suspects):
lifedamian price as a cop who was framed for murder and who re-joins his unit after he's freed so he can find the real killers, who framed him, root out corruption, whatever. he picked up self-help zen in prison and now walks around bewildering people with zen tidbits (pretty funny ones, imo). sarah shahi as his partner, adam arkin as his live-in accountant buddy, robin weigert as the captain in the first season and donal logue in the second. a bit thin on re-viewing - too much music and too many 'driving to the next scene' scenes.
the insidefbi profilers that track serial killers - rachel nichols as a young, possibly unstable / untested profiling savant, peter coyote as a sadistic psychological-expert lead agent, adam baldwin, some other people. tim minear show. actually creepy, and the last episode is disturbing/cartoonish. some good gallows humor. a nice serious amount of PROCEDURE, too.
k-villeanthony anderson playing it by the seat of his pants in post-katrina new orleans. who doesn't like anthony anderson?
new amsterdama dude in 1600s n.y. saves some girl's life and becomes immortal, so he spends 400 years being a detective; mostly present-day with some cuts back while he broods about his past. lots of brooding, lots of moody shots. he has a middle-aged black man who is his son that KNOWS HIS SECRET. he runs into beautiful women who he considers telling his secret to. really kind of a vampire cop show without actual vampires.
touching evilremake of (boring) u.k. cop show on u.s.a. but actually good for a u.s.a. show - jeffrey donovan is an fbi (or whatever they call it? osi?) serial crimes agent who has just come back on duty after taking a bullet in the head and kind of losing it (he is still pretty off). vera farmiga (!!!!) is his partner, zack grenier is the boss, some other people around, like pruitt taylor vince as an unstable dude that creegan befriends after he's a suspect in an early case (a good role, i think), and a bit of bradley cooper. really moody - a bit of an x-files vibe, especially with all the pacific northwest / no-cal settings and deranged killings. at first i thought it was really engrossing but later the plots did seem a little bit preposterous - basically everyone involved gets SUPER quickly caught up in cases / too close to a victim / too close to a criminal / breaks the rules, in turn, like everyone in the unit starts out messed up by all the shit they see and you don't have time to run through any 'cop life is wearing me down' plots. apart from that preposterousness, though, good writing and acting, nice look.
the unusuals'quirky' cop show by denis leary or his people or whoever - jeremy renner and amber tamblyn as the leads, adam goldberg and michael from lost (but actually pretty good) as partners, and monique gabriela curnen (!) and some dude as partners, terry kinney as the sergeant, some other good parts. basically, a contemporary homage to goofy-cop-hijinx shows of days of yore, only with a layer of leary-style staring-into-the-abyss-of-public-service despair, except that it's all sentimental. at first the 'quirk' grates and doesn't seem all that funny but it helps them build up some heart and a strong sense of style, which is kind of something to appreciate after watching a csi rerun. lots of cops zingin on cops scenes, well-handled plots but not a lot of PROCEDURE.
boomtownl.a. setting, 'same crime, different viewpoints' - awfully nbc-looking. really the main thing i ever remember is this dude, and i assume he plays a douche, but that may just be because i saw him playing a douche once and he just looks like he must always get douchey roles.
day breaklike groundhog day, except taye diggs is a cop who wakes up every day being framed for a crime that he's trying to solve somehow before they catch him at the end of the day. meta golding, adam baldwin, mitch pileggi. i honestly can't remember anything about it except that it's pretty fast-paced (dude is probably pretty jacked, after all, he keeps waking up and running for his life).
l.a. dragneted o'neill being dragnet dude. very PROCEDURAL, not full of extras like seasonal arcs and goofy concepts. nice and grim if i remember - it's been a while. and voiceover!
cancelled cop show i would like to watch;
robbery homicide division - is it any good?
― j., Tuesday, 11 January 2011 07:37 (thirteen years ago) link
yes, it is, if you like michael mann
― max, Tuesday, 11 January 2011 07:45 (thirteen years ago) link
i mean its more or less exactly what youd expect of a michael mann produced cop show, lots of shaky hd video, lots of jaws being set
― max, Tuesday, 11 January 2011 07:46 (thirteen years ago) link
lots of tom sizemore
I like the John Harvey - Charlie Resnick crime novels.
Set in Nottingham, lots of day to day paper work and office politics + serial killers.
― nothing here plaes (Zachary Taylor), Tuesday, 11 January 2011 08:05 (thirteen years ago) link
i liked boomtown, but we never got to see (the aborted) series 2 here in the uk. (but your post has made me search amazon for it and dvds exist for series 1, so that's good)
― koogs, Tuesday, 11 January 2011 17:39 (thirteen years ago) link
you know what would kill, a prime suspect redux six years into retirement where it's nothing but jane going to AA meetings
― j., Thursday, 23 August 2012 07:05 (eleven years ago) link
i was falling asleep on nyquil at the time, so this may not be real, but i thought i saw an ad for one last night that was titled something like
niwb:od:lks
those arent the right letters, but that was the formatting. was i just high or is that some crazy new show?
― how's life, Thursday, 23 August 2012 10:27 (eleven years ago) link
Apparently it was this, and apparently I was already halfway out the door to dreamland to not notice that it was a spoof.
http://www.adultswim.com/presents/ntsfsdsuv/index.html
― how's life, Thursday, 23 August 2012 11:58 (eleven years ago) link
"the fall" on netflix/bbc2 is quite good i thought
― max, Wednesday, 5 June 2013 14:34 (ten years ago) link
starring gillian anderson/barristan selmy/roose bolton
max have you read anything by Joe Gores? He wrote a series of skip tracer/repoman procedurals centered around the Daniel Kearney Associates in Los Angeles. They center around a group of dudes whose main job it is to find people to get money out of them. Obviously there are complicating factors to make the stories more entertaining. A real focus on the drudgery of paperwork, ringing doorbells, and driving around neighborhoods looking for cars that need to be repossessed.
http://www.thrillingdetective.com/dka.html
― i guess i'd just rather listen to canned heat? (ian), Wednesday, 5 June 2013 14:45 (ten years ago) link
The BBC show The Cops was great but it seems to have sunk without trace. No DVD box set which is a shame.
― my father will guide me up the stairs to bed (anagram), Wednesday, 5 June 2013 14:55 (ten years ago) link
thanks for the rec ian
― max, Wednesday, 5 June 2013 14:58 (ten years ago) link
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 guess i'd just rather listen to canned heat? (ian), Wednesday, 5 June 2013 15:07 (ten years ago) link
i'm enjoying the fall but i'm really not looking fwd to the wife finding out :-/
― just sayin, Wednesday, 5 June 2013 15:57 (ten years ago) link
i just started watching The Shield finally, and I'm really digging it
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 5 June 2013 19:00 (ten years ago) link
the naked cityonce upon a time in anatoliaclockers
― too busy s1ockin' on my 乒乓 (wins), Thursday, 6 June 2013 00:02 (ten years ago) link
the only martin amis novel I've ever read was an attempt at this, can't remember what it was called. It was ok.
― too busy s1ockin' on my 乒乓 (wins), Thursday, 6 June 2013 00:03 (ten years ago) link
clockers is all-time
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 6 June 2013 00:17 (ten years ago) link
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
― too busy s1ockin' on my 乒乓 (wins), Thursday, 6 June 2013 00:26 (ten years ago) link
i highly recommend all of Richard Price's novels, even his not-great stuff is better than most
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 6 June 2013 01:15 (ten years ago) link
or ahem his POLICE PROCEDURAL
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1825122/
― j., Thursday, 6 June 2013 01:23 (ten years ago) link
wow i did not know about that!
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 6 June 2013 01:30 (ten years ago) link
it was pretty fresh, well-observed, promising.
― j., Thursday, 6 June 2013 01:37 (ten years ago) link
Barney Miller
retired-Newark-cop father of my friend swears by its veracity
― ballin' from Maine to Mexico (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 6 June 2013 01:46 (ten years ago) link
Just watched 5 episodes straight of Trapped, yeah I'm feeling this, despite certain tropes. I also enjoyed that Swedish one I forget the name of which was like a police procedural about kidnapped children but with added FOREST SPIRITS or whatever, with the same conspiracy amongst small town elders covering up something in order to sell out to BIG BUSINESS. I mean, I'm only halfway through Trapped, but c'mon...
― Jonathan Hellion Mumble, Tuesday, 7 June 2016 05:40 (seven years ago) link
Jordskott? Enjoyed it though it was a bit "X-Files" for me.
― djh, Tuesday, 7 June 2016 17:48 (seven years ago) link
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/08/22/londons-super-recognizer-police-force
bound to be yoinked for a procedural
― j., Saturday, 20 August 2016 01:45 (seven years ago) link
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/27/arts/mike-connors-mannix-dies.html?_r=0
In the series, which had its premiere in 1967, Mr. Connors played Joe Mannix, a Korean War veteran of, like Mr. Connors, Armenian descent who sleuthed his way around Los Angeles with flashy cars and a penchant for citing Armenian proverbs.Unlike many a smooth TV private eye, Mannix took his lumps. The Washington Post, tabulating the wear and tear the character withstood over eight seasons, found that he had endured 17 gunshot wounds and 55 beatings that left him unconscious.The violence drew criticism in some quarters, but “Mannix” became the most popular crime series on television in an era punctuated by comedies like “All in the Family” and “Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In.” Mr. Connors became one of the highest-paid television actors of the 1970s, and the role brought him four Emmy Award nominations and a Golden Globe Award.
Unlike many a smooth TV private eye, Mannix took his lumps. The Washington Post, tabulating the wear and tear the character withstood over eight seasons, found that he had endured 17 gunshot wounds and 55 beatings that left him unconscious.
The violence drew criticism in some quarters, but “Mannix” became the most popular crime series on television in an era punctuated by comedies like “All in the Family” and “Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In.” Mr. Connors became one of the highest-paid television actors of the 1970s, and the role brought him four Emmy Award nominations and a Golden Globe Award.
― j., Friday, 27 January 2017 17:32 (seven years ago) link
So ... two more episodes until the very end of Broadchurch.
― djh, Tuesday, 4 April 2017 22:13 (seven years ago) link
How on earth did we never have a Broadchurch thread? Have I lost all my search skills?
I'M NOT IN THE MOOD FOR YOUR NOISE THIS MORNIN
― El Tomboto, Friday, 14 July 2017 01:34 (six years ago) link
The Kojack pilot, The Marcus-Nelson Murders--a made-for-TV movie, technically, directed by Joseph Sargent, who did The Taking of Pelham One Two Three a year later--is excellent. Unfortunately, you can't buy it as a standalone.
― clemenza, Friday, 14 July 2017 01:43 (six years ago) link
David tennant looks horrible with facial hair
― sarahell, Friday, 14 July 2017 01:43 (six years ago) link
Good thread, will have to check out some of j's cancelled cop shows (I did see the one about the guy from 1600s NYC, with good but too-brief flashbacks).A few years ago, my local antenna TV selections incl. very late-night reruns of a couple shows I barely remember from early childhood: Peter Gunn, with a badass instrumental theme song, my first musical experience. Also, going to cigarette commenricals: warm-cool prob hollow-body electric guitar notes, a scale maybe, against Modern Art patterns, with a slicked-haired gumshoe, who looked like an ex-cop, but welcome in the jazz clubs. SCTV's version had him actually up on the bandstand, spying suspects during his sax solos, which was pretty close to Jack Dragnet Webb's movie Pete Wilson's Blues, where he's a bandleader and an informer (LAPDphile Webb was also married to chanteuse Julie London, hubba-hubba).The other Antenna TV resurrection was Naked City, which started in the late 50s as a relatively tame savvy old-cop. collegiate young cop reduction of the late 40s movie of the same title--which had more spirit and flavor, not noir but kinda Hollywood neo-realist in the funky streets of NYC, which the revamped series updated with some New Frontier exuberance and sensitive liberal melodrama---and as an anthology series, basically, with cops mainly just chasing or coming to the rescue of guest stars, who got most of the action.Cracker and Prime Suspect are forever, but yall know those. (First series of prequel PS was good except the young Jane is pretty reserved, almost meek, in a way the young *Helen Mirren* never was, like in that movie directed by Michael Powell, her first, I think)
― dow, Friday, 14 July 2017 02:32 (six years ago) link
re ageless-detective show, there was just another one of those recently! already canceled i think. i read that the creator swore he wasn't aware of the previous one.
― j., Friday, 14 July 2017 02:37 (six years ago) link
Marcella, series 2, the last 15 minutes, urgh.
― koogs, Wednesday, 11 April 2018 21:34 (six years ago) link
I’m probably the only one watching Collateral on NFlix but it’s enjoyable and has my girl Carey in it
― calstars, Wednesday, 11 April 2018 21:37 (six years ago) link
kathleen robertson's shoulders are amazing and she has lots of good tuck-hair-behind-ears moments
i totally forgot this show that i watched all of existed until i read this again
― j., Wednesday, 11 April 2018 21:55 (six years ago) link
the j-lo dirty cop show with ray liotta ('man with large appetites') is decent but i dunno it was getting a bit much as the second season kicked in so i gave up on it for the time being
― j., Wednesday, 11 April 2018 21:59 (six years ago) link
Collateral was ok, although I have probably muddled it up with the 3000 other things of the same ilk I've watched recently.
(Oh, the pizza guy, the refugees). Carey good, yes.
― koogs, Wednesday, 11 April 2018 22:02 (six years ago) link
Yeah it’s purely a time sink. Only watching for Carey
― calstars, Wednesday, 11 April 2018 22:20 (six years ago) link
i can't believe they literally had one fbi profiler explain to another on their own same team what exactly rohypnol is and its typical criminal uses in 2005, with zero self-consciousness on the part of the writers
criminal minds has to be the lamest nominally successful police procedural of the past 20 years
― j., Friday, 14 December 2018 04:05 (five years ago) link
Season 2 of broadchurch is weird
― Trϵϵship, Friday, 21 December 2018 03:24 (five years ago) link
Why on earth is danny’s father replicating his son’s killer’s behavior—meeting privately with the young boy?
― Trϵϵship, Friday, 21 December 2018 03:25 (five years ago) link
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/rinko-kikuchi-star-michael-mann-hbo-max-series-tokyo-vice-1282655
― j., Thursday, 5 March 2020 19:57 (four years ago) link
aaaahhhhh yes please will watchbut wtf is hbo max?
― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 5 March 2020 21:55 (four years ago) link
who knows, stealing it anyway
― j., Thursday, 5 March 2020 22:01 (four years ago) link
otm
― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 5 March 2020 22:48 (four years ago) link
Mare Of EastTown is v good so farKate Winslets character reminds me a bit of Happy Valley main character ie beaten down divorced cop grandmother w dead kid the story is different but has that kind of vibe, bleakness & good writing but more wry humor in thisalso guy pearce doing a+ silver fox work as always literally everyone is suspicious & fairly convincingly so, def scratches a whodunnit itch if you have one
― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 30 April 2021 05:14 (three years ago) link
(on hbomoax, 2 eps up so far, weekly)
yeah this is great, except for the montage showing the local kids all being interviewed which was really jarring in tone, like something out of a quirky indie comedy. But I'm in this for the long haul
― joni mitchell jarre (anagram), Friday, 30 April 2021 08:20 (three years ago) link