CURRENT TV CRIME SHOWS

 

By Margaret S. Hamilton

 

While retreating inside during the recent heat dome, we watched more television than usual. I’ve listed some favorites and would enjoy learning which shows you have enjoyed.

 

JAWS (Peacock). The original 1975 classic has been re-mastered for its fiftieth celebration. I enjoyed the John Williams film score, took careful note of how suspense builds (“You’re going to need a bigger boat”), and having seen “Bruce the shark” at Universal Studios in LA, relished how silly the mechanical shark really is.

 

HARRY WILD (Acorn). Jane Seymour plays a retired Dublin literature professor who teams up with Fergus, a local student, to “assist” her police detective son and solve local mysteries. Very cozy.

 

RED JOAN (Prime). Judi Dench plays a British citizen who supplies intelligence to the Soviets for forty years. Dench does an outstanding job in her role as a civil servant who supports the Communist cause.

 

I, JACK WRIGHT (Britbox). The family patriarch is murdered and his relatives, including several ex-wives, fight over his estate. But who killed him?

 

THE BETTER SISTER (Prime). Alafair Burke writes excellent domestic suspense books about family dynamics, pitting relatives, particularly sisters, against each other. This movie is good, though the trauma flashbacks bog down the action.

 

DEPARTMENT Q (Netflix). A former police detective is filled with guilt about the outcome of his last investigation. He is assigned a cold case which consumes his life and prompts him to solve an earlier case. Deliciously creepy plot.

 

THE ART DETECTIVES (Acorn). An art-loving Detective Inspector Mick Palmer and his constable investigate art crimes and murders for the Metropolitan Police, everything from Viking hoards to vintage wine. Comparable to “Chelsea Detective,” but I prefer this detective duo.

 

CHELSEA DETECTIVE (Acorn). DI Max Arnold lives on a houseboat on the Thames, commutes by bicycle, and investigates crimes in the Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Max has his personal issues but always identifies the culprit.

 

PATIENCE (PBS). An autistic archivist lends her crime-solving skills to the Yorkshire police. Ella Maisy Purvis, herself autistic, delivers a sound performance when she teams with DI Bea Metcalf.

 

Readers and writers, what television crime shows have you enjoyed recently?

 

Margaret S. Hamilton’s debut amateur sleuth mystery, What the Artist Left Behind, is on submission.

 

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