British Crime Dramas. There’s definitely something there isn’t there? The Brits have this long-standing history of good comedy, from Monty Python to all the other funny Brit shows like Fawlty Towers, Bennie Hill, whatever that show was with the punk that had General’s stars on his forehead. But then there’s Sir Conan Arthur Doyle and those Sherlock stories we grew up and loved. Well, it’s re-created with Sherlock and I’d be surprised if you haven’t watched this one yet. It all goes down around 221B Baker Street and this re-telling has totally modernized the Holmes tales. With Sherlock and all his quirky quirks, none plays them better than Cumberbatch. Much ado has been made about the nature of the Holmes-Watson relationship. Do they like each other in an extra-special way? This won’t answer that but you’ll love watching it in all it’s creative genius.
Then there’s the great and dark thriller, The Stranger. The premise, there’s this youngish rogue-ish young gal and her sidekick that go around revealing to people secrets in their lives that they previously weren’t aware of. This leads to several side stories, all very interesting in how people deal with their family dark secrets. Highly recommended.
This is the latest I’ve been watching and three episodes in, it’s quite good. It’s described as Nordic Noir, but it’s really a parody of that genre. The premise is that a British Detective from St. Ives joins up with a young tough-ish Swedish National Police, Sophie Borg, after they’ve both fallen out of favor as sub-mediocre detectives. As every good British Crime drama begins, there’s been a murder. Since it is a British citizen that’s murdered, DCI Tom Brown and Sophie have to join forces in the small Swedish town of Norbbacka. There’s a inept Chief of Police, there’s a ridiculously negative CSI, there’s an even more inept Detective’s assistant, a witness that can only blink her eyes to communicate…and it’s all so funny while still leaving you wanting to figure out the murder. Beautiful scenery shots don’t hurt either.
This is a great one too. The magic sauce here is the dynamics between the two leads, DI Jack Armstrong as the doesn’t care about much anything, takes a lax approach to solving crimes, but his intuition kicks in just when it’s needed. As the counterpart to that is both DI Kate Bishop (season one) and DI Georgina Dixon (season two). Not sure why they switched up the female detective role from season one to two, but there it is. Georgina is played by Miranda Raison, she is serious and only lives for work, very by the book procedural and is extremely easy on the eyes. It reminds me of American series like Castle or in the old days, Hart to Hart. Great show, unfortunately there’s only two short seasons.
Broadchurch is more serious but just as deliciously good. Everyone’s a suspect. There’s also been a murder in season one, a boy has been murdered and no one is quite sure who did it and why. There’s David Tennant and Olivia Coleman playing DI Alec Hardy and DS Ellie Miller. It all goes down in a fictional coastal Brit town of Broadchurch in Dorset. The town and the setting is just as much a character as the actual characters. Beautiful scenery helps move along this tale as well though it’s short of humor like the others above.
Hinterland is even more serious than Broadchurch. Y Gwyll is Welsh for The Dusk. This one is a little darker than most with the Welsh culture on display that lends to some sense of ancient mystery and each characters in the town just knowing so much about the land and everyone that lives in it. The main character, DCI Tom Mathias, is the out-of-towner from London I believe escaping some type of clouded mysterious past. He is paired up with the also easy on the eyes, DI Mared Rhys, the local who knows all the people and the way they behave and the reasons for why they do what they do. Evidently there were two versions of Hinterland made, one in English with some intermittent Welsh and one entirely in Welsh. You’ll love learning about the small town and it’s mysteries, set in Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, Wales it’s an actual town you can find on Google Maps. Even though there’s no attempt at humor made here…it’s all very serious, the mystery and the Welsh culture drives this show and you’ll be caught up in it in no time.
British Crime Dramas. I mean Yeah Baaabby Yeah!! You know you got some time on your hands with all this COVID sheltering-in-place. Check ’em out.
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