Effin' crime dramas!

[LadyBarbossa]

I hate these things, hate them. Namely because a very large chunk of what is offered on TV nowadays is focused on crime cases/lawyers/detectives, etc. Maybe the reason I dislike them so much is that most of my family eats this crap up like there's no tomorrow to where it takes up hours a night/day. One will come on, and of course they HAVE to watch it to find out 'Who dun it', and then another one comes on and we have to watch that one, too. And that's not mentioning the myriads of reruns on METv and other networks. If you've seen one of these shows, you have seen all of them, I promise. There's a bloody murder scene, some wooden actors and actresses have 'clever' banter and chat amongst each other, they belittle a few people who had nothing to do with it, and then the writer's pull the real murderer out of their ass or it was the most obvious person to begin with. If another crime drama was never written, filmed, or aired, it would be too soon.

[HYHYBT]

I enjoy them once in a while, but I'm no fan of the current tendency to make things gristly and gritty; I'd much prefer something more like Murder, She Wrote than CSI.

[firecat88]

I enjoy them once in a while, but I'm no fan of the current tendency to make things gristly and gritty; I'd much prefer something more like Murder, She Wrote than CSI.

Yeah, I'm not sure what's up with the recent trend of making the shows gory and creepy lately. It seems to be happening to all the shows, though. Which is unfortunate, because I used to love Criminal Minds before it became all creepy. Now I can't watch it.

[blas87]

I've always been a fan of Law and Order SVU, despite how over the years, it's gotten even creepier and out there. I guess what drives me up the wall is that the endings are always so....odd.

[Hyena Dandy]

I like Criminal Minds. The rest of them, I can take or leave.

[Racket_Man]

back in my childhood it was Lawyer and Cowboy shows mixed in with a few Doctor, Cop, Sit-Coms, and PI shows.

each have their "rotation" then fall out of favor for a while, then come back to haunt us again.

the only real difference is that now REALITY (supposedly real but a lot of times scripted BS) are the flavor of the month.

[linguist]

i can take or leave most of them, but "southland" is probably the best written and acted show on tv, period. can't wait for it to come back.

[Gravekeeper]

Depends on the style.

Realistic, gritty, intelligent, Law & Order style? Yes.

Hilariously unrealistic, cheesy, feel less intelligent after watching CSI style? No.

Then there's the trend of celebrifying increasingly more obscure jobs by demonstrating things that job actually has nothing to do with. Or combining 4 or 5 jobs into one ( He's a coroner/detective/lab technician/profiler/ballistics expert? You don't say! )

Or the worst of it all: Inventing some ridiculously stupid angle by which they solve crimes. ( Zomigawd, he can solve crimes cus he's really good at math! Why didn't we think of that? ).

CSI is awful though. But hilarious. I was forced to watch a couple episodes when I was visiting family once. But couldn't stop laughing after our plucky heroes investigated a bullet hole in the ceiling not by just going upstairs and checking the upstairs apartment, but rather by basically pulling out the sort of camera normally used to peer into someone's colon to look upstairs through the bullet hole.

Which they just happened to have on hand, mind you. So someone seriously thought "You know, I better bring the colon cam today just in case!".

Also the best buddy cop show evar was Due South <3

[Ginger Tea]

I liked Columbo, although I was never too keen on knowing who did it up front as Columbo's badgering of the obvious suspect (cos we saw him/her do it) had me expecting him to say "I know you did it cos I read the script dummy."

Quincy used to stress me out, the more stressed and worked up about something, it would seep into me and I would feel drained and even though I liked the re runs in the late 90's (it was all ways re run but I think it was the 90's when I first watched him) I couldnt watch it for too long.
Murder she wrote was one of my mums faves and tbh I only watched these three way back when as mum would watch them and I had nothing better to do at that hour, Dad wasn't too keen, but atleast we didn't know who dunnit unless we remembered the last time it was on, it was just that she was a magnet for murder (just like Miss Marple) that my dad and me agreed that she must be a clever murderer to always manage to pin the blame on someone even though the cops always wanted somene else she was close to.

most got another airing in the early 2000's and I was introduced to Diagnostic Murder, not really credible or accurate, but I was happy having Dick Van Dyke solving crimes (inbetween doing off screen doctoring) even though reality would probably have nothing to do with him anywhere near a crime scene regardless of his cop son.

I like my implausable sceneario murders to be wrapped up in an episode ala diagnosis murder she wrote, but real drama, it should be a multi part, too many real life crimes take a long time to get to a conviction that yes CSI do their bit but then there is too much other stuff going on before you even get a real arrest and confession, but I'm not too sure how most of the story lines would pan out if they had to stretch them into 3 episodes minimum.

[BlaqueKatt]

I had forgotten about Quincy, which is odd as it was one of my favorite shows growing up....though yeah the "multi-degreed" person almost too young to have graduated college, much less with 7 doctorates(Abbey from NCIS anyone?), and running the entire investigation, does annoy me. Also I know it's television, but does anyone really believe Medical examiners have perfect hair and makeup while performing autopsies on murder victims(hint they aren't allowed to wear makeup)?

[LadyBarbossa]

I liked Columbo, although I was never too keen on knowing who did it up front as Columbo's badgering of the obvious suspect

Sounds like me and House M.D. The medical stuff is fairly interesting, but I wouldn't watch it for any other reason except for House's insults and weekly shenanigans. He's an unapologetic asshole and you don't see that too often with main characters

[Jack T. Chance]

For those that hate the "typical" crime drama/police procedural, luckily there's a new show in the works from FX (they're filming the pilot RIGHT NOW) that is the CURE for the common police drama: POWERS, based on the graphic novels by Brian Michael Bendis & Michael Avon Oeming!

Long story made very short, POWERS is the story of Detective Christian Walker and his partner, Detective Deena Pilgrim, two homicide detectives assigned to the "Powers" beat... investigating the deaths of their city's SUPERHEROES AND SUPER VILLAINS!

Trust me when I say it is NOTHING like anything you've seen before... except for MAYBE the beginning of Alan Moore's graphic novel WATCHMEN. POWERS is a look at a part of the superhero story that most superhero comics ignore. And it's my personal pick for the Best Graphic Novel Series You Aren't Reading!

So, when FX airs it later this year or early in 2012, set aside all your pre-conceived notions about both police procedurals and superhero stories, tune in, and check it out... if you want.

FX's adaptation stars Jason Patric (The Lost Boys, The Losers) as Christian Walker, Lucy Punch (Bad Teacher) as Deena Pilgrim, Charles S. Dutton (Roc, Alien³) as Police Captain Cross, Carly Foulkes (T-Mobile's current spokeswoman) as Retro Girl, and Vinnie Jones (X-Men: The Last Stand, NBC's The Cape) as gangster Johnny Royale.

[IDrinkaRum]

I like "Rizzoli and Isles" with Angie Harmon starring as Jane Rizzoli an Sasha Alexander as Dr. Maura Isles. The show is based on a series of books by Teri Gerritsen(sp?). This show gets gory as Dr. Isles is the coroner, and the coroner's office, I think, is in the basement of the police precinct, so there's scenes where Rizzoli (or another person) is interacting with Dr. Isles while she's elbow-deep in an autopsy. They show some things, but not any more or less than CSI or Bones.

I also like "Memphis Beat". So far, I haven't seen anything that too gross or over the top. It's a good show, and I really like it.

[Jack T. Chance]

I like "Rizzoli and Isles" with Angie Harmon starring as Jane Rizzoli an Sasha Alexander as Dr. Maura Isles. The show is based on a series of books by Teri Gerritsen(sp?). This show gets gory as Dr. Isles is the coroner, and the coroner's office, I think, is in the basement of the police precinct, so there's scenes where Rizzoli (or another person) is interacting with Dr. Isles while she's elbow-deep in an autopsy. They show some things, but not any more or less than CSI or Bones.

I also like "Memphis Beat". So far, I haven't seen anything that too gross or over the top. It's a good show, and I really like it.

IF Powers stays 100% true to the graphic novels... the graphic novels have some of the GRISLIEST/GORIEST crime scenes I've EVER seen. It's easier to stomach in the graphic novels, because Michael Avon Oeming employs a highly stylized artwork style inspired by the Max Fleischer Superman cartoons and Bruce Timm's various animated shows. I have a feeling it's going to end up getting toned down for the live-action TV show.

[Andara Bledin]

I like crime dramas that aren't too ridiculously unrealistic. CSI just goes way over to the other side. (I so wish I could find the comic Amber Williams did about CSI to link to)

I'm a fan of stuff like Columbo (mostly for Peter Falk, been a fan of his forever), Remington Steele, Castle, Bones, and Lie to Me. It's a bit... scattered.

^-.-^