Watching (or Reading) the Detectives, Post #7

[usedtobeljs]

Recently I've been thinking a lot about detectives -- in TV and books, mostly.

There are certain idiosyncratic truths: I'm less interested in hardboiled than in the more cozy British-Golden-Age types; even so, the really uber-twee cozies of the past decade or so are not to my taste. I'm also less interested in police detectives in books although I'm usually in favor of them in TV series. I prefer series to standalones.

But what I realize is that for me, there are two tiers of detective series. The second tier is where I'm invested in the detectives but I'm not hugely invested in the mysteries themselves. This could be anything from Deanna Raybourn's Veronica Speedwell book series, where I happily follow Veronica and Stoker (and my darling Tiberius) but the actual crime-solving bits are very hit-or-miss for me, to my current nighttime viewing of Series One of 2012's The Tunnel.

I adore Stephen Dillane as Karl Roebuck, rumpled, sarky mensch albeit with one fatal flaw (about as faithful in love as a tomcat, c'mon, Karl, get it together), and I'm thoroughly enjoying Clemence Poesy as his French counterpart/sometime detecting partner Elyse, cool, bisexual, and on the spectrum. My heart belongs to detective pairs in love, but in this case I actually am delighted by Karl and Elyse's friendship which has absolutely no sexual tension whatsoever.

The first series, however, has an ongoing Big Bad mystery with smaller mysteries set up by the villain, and...I find it hard to care. Stuff's happening, fine, but let's get back to Karl and Elyse.

The top tier of detective series for me is where I do care about both the detective(s) and the mysteries. My personal gold standard is the Wimsey novels with the exception of The Five Red Herrings and, sadly, The Nine Tailors. I'd say the first two series of Sherlock hit this top tier for me in four of the six episodes. (The less said about "The Blind Banker," the better, even though Bertie Carvel's in it.) Weirdly, too, the original run of The X-Files works for me with the Monster of the Week episodes, less so with the myth-arc stuff.

(Of course, if you look at my ficcing, from Giles/Anya on, it's detecting and spies all the way, so...)

Do you have a favorite detective series? I hope you get to spend time with it soon. :)

Comments

[kathyh]

My gold standard for detective series is the Wimsey novels too, but of more modern ones I’ve read my way through the Ruth Galloway novels of Elly Griffiths and occasionally drop in on Donna Leon’s Brunetti as he eats his way round Venice.

We enjoyed The Tunnel too but the last series (3) might be best avoided. I don’t know if you’ve watched Foyle’s War. No romance but a really interesting look at World War II from the viewpoint of a detective and his young female driver.

[usedtobeljs]

In reverse order: oh, I loved Foyle's War. Beyond the beauties of Michael Kitchen ;), there were also all the cool actors of the time in guest spots!

I am aware of what happens in Series 3 of The Tunnel, and yes, that might be skipped.

Hugs, K! Happy week!

[blueswan]

I am currently waiting to get my hands on some more books in the Kate Burkholder series by Linda Castillo. Kate grew up in an Amish family, and now she is a police office in Ohio. This is a very enjoyable series set in an community that rarely shows up in a detective series. Kate has a past which was covered up by her family and the memories affect her personal life, and her professional life. I really enjoyed the books that I've read so far.

[usedtobeljs]

Oh how cool! I like that kind of specificity of place and culture. :) I hope you find more soon! [hugs]

[gwynnega]

I'm very fond of the Kate Fansler series.

[usedtobeljs]

I remember those! I liked some of Carolyn Heilbrun's literary criticism, too. :)

Hugs, Gwynne!

[kazzy_cee]

Always Sherlock for me, although if we are talking about TV adaptations I really enjoyed Elementary too. The books are still favourites. Agatha Christie books (but only Poirot with David Suchet and Miss Marple with Joan Hickson).

I’ve just started reading the Harry Bosch books. The first one was good. I’ve not seen the TV series.

I liked the Campion series with Peter Davison.

Cost murder mysteries not so much for me.

[usedtobeljs]

The Doyle canon for Sherlock Holmes still holds up for me (although I recognize the problematic elements), absolutely!

I adored the TV Campion series, and I love a couple of the Allingham novels (most notably The Fashion in Shrouds).

Cheers for your week!

[janus_74]

I like the one-and-done mysteries like Midsomer Murders, Sherlock, etc., as opposed to series long mystery where I might as well just watch the last episode and get it over with. I do like it when there's a romance but I would rather it was almost unintentional and grows organically as opposed to planned from the start. Because then it's a romance with some mystery and that's not the same at all.

[usedtobeljs]

You're quite right about "romance with some mystery," which in some cases I prefer to proper mysteries. There IS a difference!

Happy week, T!

[desdemonaspace]

Oh, excellent. I'm going to treat this post as book rec (or watching rec), as I haven't seen or read most of these, except for the Wimsey novels. I'm glad to hear that The Five Red Herrings and The Nine Tailors didn't work for you, as those are the only two I haven't read! (My fave is Busman's Honeymoon.)

As for favorite detective series, I am pretty sure that only I have low enough taste to appreciate the Mrs Pollifax books. They can be described as cozy CIA thrillers, if there can be such a thing. I got into reading comfortable, unchallenging things during lockdown. Yes, I'm lowbrow.

[usedtobeljs]

Oh no, I remember reading a book in the Mrs Pollifax series years ago!

Cheers and a good week!