This list being compiled in Aug 2021 and has shows that I have seen over the last 12-18 months. Some of them debuted during this period, but many were from an earlier period.
For each show, the channel it is available from is mentioned in parenthesis after the name of the show. After that I provide a brief description of the show and (maybe) what I found interesting about it.
As the title of this blog entry suggests, most of the shows in this compilation fall in the noir category, but there is a sprinkling of "general/drama" types of shows as well. The shows are listed in no particular order.
(1) Death in Paradise (Britbox): This show is set in the fictional Caribbean island of Saint Marie, that is a British protectorate and is essentially a light hearted take on the classic locked room mystery. There are 10 seasons so far (with the 11th one in production). Most episodes are stand-alone cases (always a murder), although there are a few that span a couple of episodes. The crime solving team is a small local police force which is lead by an Inspector sent from England. The show has had four Inspectors - all of them white males - so far, and the conceit is that they all have some quirk that's played for comic relief, but possessing an unique ability to make sense of ostensibly disconnected set of clues - a la Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple. After muddling around for a while, the inspector has an epiphany that allows him to solve the case and the episode ends with a denouement back at the scene of the crime with all the suspects gathered around, in classic Agatha Christie style.
The earlier seasons have more interesting cases and the show does get a bit repetitive towards the latter seasons, but it is always entertaining.
Honorable Mention: Burn Notice (Amazon Prime & Hulu): This show originally aired on USA Network and features an ex-spy doing special "projects" with a small group of buddies. A "caper" show, always stylish, set in Miami.
(2) Shetland (Britbox): A moody, atmospheric show set on the remote Shetland Islands, with multiple cases per season and each case typically running across two episodes. The stories are always interesting and like some of the finer detective stories, are mostly character driven. The locale is almost as much a draw as the stories themselves.
(3) The Brokenwood Mysteries (Acorn): Murder mystery show set in the fictional New Zealand town of Brokenwood. Great cast, interesting stories, and of course, New Zealand! What's not to like?
(4) Jonathan Creek (Britbox): Amateur "consultants" (think Miss Marple) qualify as a sub-genre in my book and this falls in that category, with an interesting twist - the eponymous Jonathan Creek is a practicing magician who is called upon to solve murders that always seem to involve some sort of sleight of hand. Alan Davies does a great job in the lead role, but the show does lose some of its freshness in the later seasons, especially after a new actor takes over his (female) sidekick role. The show ran from 1997 to 2004, so can be a bit dated on today's HD screens.
(5) Shakespeare and Hathaway (Britbox): The title refers to the partners in a PI firm located in Stratfford-upon-Avon. There are some references to the bard thrown in and it seems to have been shot on location (which is always fun) and the stories are mostly entertaining.
(6) Line of Duty (Britbox): This is a much more serious cop drama, featuring, somewhat unexpectedly, the Anti-Corruption unit of the British police. There have been six seasons so far, with a single case spanning the entirety of each season. While each season is stand-alone, there is a common thread that runs through all of them and was (seemingly) brought to a conclusion at the end of season 6. This show has become something of a cultural touchstone in England.
(7) The Mallorca Files (Britbox): This is something of an European collage - two detectives - she is from England and he is from Germany - paired into a team in the tiny police force of the Spanish island of Mallorca (Nadal's home town). Don't dwell too much on why they are there and enjoy the beautiful sceneries and playful chemistry between the lead actors. Only two seasons so far.
(8) Zen (Britbox): In Italian. Only three episodes of this show set in Rome, but well worth watching for the stylish lead detective and his (quasi) partner.
(9) CB Strike (HBOMax): Ongoing series based on the books written by JK Rowling under the pseudonym of Robert Galbraith. She started on these after she was done with the Harry Potter books and chose to use a pseudonym since she wanted the books to succeed on their own merit rather than ride the Harry Potter coattails. But even though the secret was out rather quickly, she has persisted in sticking with the pseudonym. She is a gifted writer, but the books follow the same ballooning in size as the Harry Potter books do. The series has 5 books so far, and we are up to 900+ pages in book 5. I read the books before watching the show, but you don't really have to. The mysteries are sufficiently complicated and the writing is wonderfully detailed (getting more and more so as the books progress), but you get the feeling that she is painting by the numbers and whodunits are not really her natural milieu. But what keeps bringing you back is the chemistry between the lead pair - both in the book and in the TV series, where both of them are most excellently cast.
(10) Wallander (Prime, etc): Another series based on books, this one is based on the Henning Mankell books. There are two versions - the more well-known BBC production starring Kenneth Branagh in the title role and the somewhat more obscure (original) Swedish version. The BBC version can be found on various outlets, including Amazon Prime, but the original Swedish version takes some digging to find. I am a bit partial to the Swedish version (if you can find it), but that could also be because Kenneth Branagh grates on me just a tad bit. His Poirot (in a movie version of the Christie classic - Murder on the Orient Express) had me gnashing my teeth. David Suchet is Hercule Poirot for me - everybody else is an also-ran. Just like nobody else can quite be Sherlock Holmes other than Jeremy Brett.
(11) Scott & Bailey (Prime, HBOMax, etc): Yet another BBC cop drama, this time with two female lead detectives. Mostly a classic police procedural, the detectives have messy personal lives which intrude into their professional lives, as is de rigueur with all such shows. The characters are interesting enough to make you care and you get the feeling that much of policing is like this.
Honorable mention: Prime Suspect - The hugely popular (& critically acclaimed) BBC show dating back to 1991, featuring Helen Mirren in the lead role. In 2007, it made Time magazine's list of Top 100 TV shows of all-time. Highly influential show in the police procedural genre, well worth watching. A very compelling spin-off is Prime Suspect: Tennison that goes back in time to tell the origin story of Jane Tennison (the name of the character played by Helen Mirren in the Prime Suspect series).
(12) Unforgotten (PBS Masterpiece): This BBC cop show is a take on the cold case genre. Each season deals with a single case and starts with the discovery of a long-hidden corpse, followed by a set of seemingly disconnected vignettes. The stories of the people in these vignettes continues to develop while the cops (the same team is featured in all 4 seasons) are still struggling to identify the body and soon it becomes apparent that these disparate sets of individuals are somehow linked to the body and the murder. There are small hints of the personal lives of the lead detectives, but the focus is largely on the crime and the people involved in it.
(13) Professor T (PBS Masterpiece, in Belgian): One of my favorite shows of recent times, in the "amateur idiot savant" genre (think Monk). The titular Professor T is Jasper Teerlinck - a professor of criminology at Antwerp University. He is brilliant, of course, but with several personal/psychological issues that makes dealing with the real world a significant challenge. The cases are interesting and the solutions seem to feature less mumbo-jumbo than is typical for this genre. The cast is wonderful and in particular, the lead actor, Koen De Bouw (who is apparently an esteemed actor in Belgium) is exceptional. He brings a compelling verisimilitude to the role that recalls Tony Shalhoub as Monk. The series was so successful that it spawned a BBC remake of the same name, but set in Oxford and the lead role played by Ben Miller, who plays a very similar character as the original Inspector in DIP. I like Ben Miller, but I highly recommend sticking with the Belgian original and enjoying Koen De Bouw's performance.
(14) Crimes of Passion (PBS Masterpiece, in Swedish): A stylishly rendered show with a trio of very attractive lead characters, driven by the lone female in the group. The show was made in 2013, but set in some previous period (I could never quite tell exactly what the period was supposed to be, but I learnt from Wikipedia that the episodes were based on the books of the Swedish writer Maria Lange, which were published in the '40s and '50s). The stories are set in Bergslagen in south central Sweden and the locations are pretty spectacular. Six episodes in total, each of almost feature-length.
(15) Thou Shalt Not Kill (PBS Masterpiece, in Italian): A somewhat melodramatic Italian cop show featuring the stunning Miriam Leone (who was Miss Italy 2008) in the lead detective (Valeria Ferro) role. It's set in Turin and features some wonderful views of the city and surrounding areas. The early seasons are strong, but it does lose a bit of steam towards the latter ones. The lone wolf style adopted by Valeria Ferro strains credibility after a while, but there is enough style to paper over the porous substance. Each episode has a stand-alone case, but there is also a backstory mystery that runs through the entire series. This backstory is only hinted at in the early episodes, but pretty much takes over the show (much to its disadvantage) in the latter seasons.
(16) Rocco Schiavone (PBS Masterpiece, in Italian): A gritty cop show, with a very compelling (& highly flawed) eponymous main character, set in the northern Italian town of Aosta, where the cold and mountains are as much a part of the show as the main characters. The lead actor (Marco Giallini) is a pleasure to watch and also has a past that seems to be always on the verge of catching up to him. Unlike most American (or British) shows, it manages to avoid over-sentimentality as it progresses towards its logical conclusion.
(17) The Devil's Throat (PBS Masterpiece, in Bulgarian): A murder mystery that brings in the tangled history of Bulgaria's treatment of muslim immigrants (mostly from Turkey) - a history that I was totally unaware of - and features more beautiful scenery. There is much intrigue and several twists and turns with a fairly satisfying ending.
(18) Silent Hunt (PBS Masterpiece, in German): Set in Munich, the lead detective is a somewhat crumpled loner, with a towering reputation amongst the police. In true German style, the stories don't always have neat endings, but are all the more believable for that reason. You may be left with a lack of closure though - we only get to see 8 of the 10 original episodes (I haven't been able to figure out the reason for this) and there is a hint of a storyline that runs through many of the episodes that remains unresolved at the end of the 8th episode.
(19) Trapped (Netflix, in Icelandic): Two seasons so far. Each season features a single case that takes 10 episodes to resolve. Excellent cast all around and highly recommended, even if you are only a casual fan of Scandinavian noir.
(20) Hide & Seek (PBS Masterpiece, in Russian): This show is so Russian in character that I had pegged it as such even before I looked up what language was being spoken. Once again, a single case runs through the entire show, which starts with the kidnapping/disappearance of a child.
(21) Wild Bill (Britbox): We come full circle with another Britbox show. Seems like the "Americans in Britain" genre is having a moment. There is Ted Lasso on AppleTV of course, and then there is this one - Wild Bill. It features Rob Lowe in the role of a big city police chief from the US that is brought over to a largely rural town (the original "Boston" as it happens) in England. His job is to cut down crime and layoff a whole bunch of local cops by using his "algorithms" to fight crime. Not surprisingly, it's not quite as simple as that and he deep into solving murders with a decidedly local twist. One season with 6 episodes so far.
Enough of cops, murder, and noir. These next few are (largely) crime-free dramas that we enjoyed watching over the last year or so:
(1) Seaside Hotel (PBS Masterpiece, in Danish): This features several seasons of the same (rich) group of Danes that holiday at the same seaside hotel every summer, before, during, and after WWII. The cast is charming, the locations are stunning, and the real world in the form of the war and Nazis is allowed to intrude.
(2) 800 Words (Amazon Prime): Set in a small (fictional) town in New Zealand, featuring an Australian father and his two kids who move there to get a fresh start in life. Often funny, sometimes moving, and always entertaining. The title comes from the lead character's job - he is a columnist whose columns are all exactly 800 words long.
(3) All Creatures Great & Small (PBS): This is a very recent remake/re-telling of the beloved James Herriot books. There is of course a much older original version that hews somewhat closer to the books, but this new version takes a number of liberties with the storylines (much like "Bosch" on Netflix does with the Michael Connelly books). This is not necessarily a bad thing and I found the new version much more enjoyable, compared to the few episodes of the original that I have watched (& found largely boring). Only one season so far and I am eagerly awaiting the next one.
(4) Pointless (Britbox, etc): It's no secret that many of the successful game shows on American networks - Who Wants To Be a Millionaire, The Weakest Link, etc are British imports. There is, in fact, a mind-boggling array of game shows on British TV, even just in the Quiz/Trivia category. One such is Pointless, in which the challenge is to come up with the most obscure answers to questions that have multiple correct responses. I am a big fan of trivia/quiz shows and I really enjoyed this one. This is a long running show and there are over 1300 episodes to get through. Enjoy! :-)
