Medium Cool is a weekly series related to popular culture, mostly film, TV, and books, with some music and games thrown in. We hope it’s a welcome break from the anger, hate, and idiocy we see almost daily from the other side in the political sphere.
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With a new (surprise) season of True Detective airing, I thought it might be a fun time to talk about MYSTERIES – specifically mysteries in films and TV shows.
So tonight let’s talk about mysteries – old, new, and classics. Mysteries you love, or hate, or left you feeling indifferent. Who are your favorite protagonists? Do you have a preference for style? Mild, creepy, spooky, plodding? Would you rather see a 2-hour film mystery, one and done? Or a 6 or 10-part mystery? If you enjoy British mystery series, which ones, and why?
I have to watch really suspenseful mysteries with someone else. Take Luther, for instance, I have to watch that with a friend. Same with True Detective.
It’s up to you guys, of course, but I get a lot of feedback saying that these threads are more interesting and useful when you share at least a little bit about the story, and tell us why you feel the way you do.
Speaking of (sort of) mystery series, holy cow, I saw the last 30-seconds of Murder She Wrote the other day at the beginning of some show I had recorded. When that show was airing I definitely thought of Jessica Fletcher as an older lady, but she was really young, relatively speaking. I was totally shocked!
Manyakitty
How old is she supposed to be in that show?
Alison Rose
I don’t have/watch TV and haven’t been up on new stuff for many years. But as my mother’s child, I must tout the love she instilled in me as a kid for Sherlock Holmes and Poirot — as came up in a previous Medium Cool, I am a solid Jeremy Brett and David Suchet diehard.
I tend to prefer mysteries that are a little twisty but give you the chance, if you’re observant enough, to follow the breadcrumbs to the answer. Or if not exactly to the right answer, to something close. When I read mystery/thrillers, I like when I guess part of the reveal but not the whole thing, because then I feel smart but the author is smarter, and that’s how I want it. Same thing with mystery shows or movies, and then it’s fun to watch it again and see if you can pick up on the clues now that you know what to look for.
bmoak
IIRC Angela Lansbury was about the same age as the actor playing her son in The Manchurian candidate.
I tend to prefer more lighthearted mystery series. Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries and Murder in Paradise are favorites
Sister Golden Bear
I loves me some Luther.
Mr. Bemused Senior
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy [the BBC mini-series with Alec Guinness as George Smiley].
A great production and tells you all you need to know about intelligence work
Bemused Senior was a voracious reader and introduced me to Rex Stout. The A&E production of Nero Wolfe is a favorite. Timothy Hutton was perfect as Archie.
Chris
I read a few kid detective stories when I was little, and then Sherlock Holmes when I got older. But what I really enjoyed was when I discovered Arsene Lupin (the originals). Because now it’s from the thief’s point of view, and the mystery is no longer who done it or how to prove it, it’s how he’s going to do it. Kick-started a lifelong love of the heist genre; in movies, it’s a three way tie between The Sting, Ocean’s Eleven, and The Italian Job (the new ones).
Craig
I think Bogart as Marlowe in The Big Sleep is probably my favorite protagonist. His scene getting wet with Dorothy Malone in the Acme Book Shop always cracks me up.
BruceJ
I am a huge fan of The Chelsea Detective, Unforgotten, and Annika the latter two with Nikola Walker. lso another BBC mini series River where her character is, ahhh, interesting.
Inspector Morse (then Inspector Lewis ) , the new ‘prequel’ Endeavor.
And then of course, there’s the only place in the world that can compare with Cabot Cove for per–capita murder, Midsummer Murders…
BruceJ
@Mr. Bemused Senior: I LOVED that show. Timothy Hutton following up with Leverage, which, strictly speaking isn’t a mystery, per se.
Yet Another Haldane
@Mr. Bemused Senior: _Tinker, Tailor_: Oh, heck yeah! I finally scrounged up a DVD copy of the sequel, _Smiley’s People_, that I plan to watch soon.
The feature film of _Tinker, Tailor_ was also good, but differently.
Yet Another Haldane
_Prime Suspect_ was first-rate Helen Mirren goodness.
I haven’t yet seen _Luther_ but it’s high on the list. I’ve seen clips on YouTube of Idris Elba and Ruth Wilson setting the screen on fire. Daaaammn.
Craig
@Alison Rose: grew up a Rathbone head. Lately I’ve come to really enjoy Jeremy Brett. And there’s Robert Stephens in Billy Wilder’s Private Life of Sherlock Holmes.
Phylllis
I am addicted to all the British mysteries. Shetland, Vera, Death in Paradise, and of course Midsomer Murders. Probably because they’re more dialogue & character driven, rather than the explosions & gunfire on US shows.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Yet Another Haldane: oh, yes. You are in for a treat [Smiley’s People].
@BruceJ: agreed. Anything with Nicola Walker.
Craig
@Yet Another Haldane: Prime Suspect is gold. Changed TV.
mrmoshpotato
Mysteries about owls? – superb owls?
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
“Columbo” still holds up.
CaseyL
My fave mystery shows/movies:
Columbo
Murder on the Orient Express (1974 version)
The first five seasons of NCIS – until Jenny Shepherd was killed off, and the show then became more about the characters’ own personal dramas than about the mysteries.
(I’d love to have something more current to be a fan of, but most current programming – cable/streaming/whatever – is hard to access without a TV. )
Books – this one is hard, because many of my favorites are from decades ago, and the author(s) have either moved on to other things (Martha Grimes) or, um, died (Gregory McDonald). I love Thomas Perry, though I’m not sure if his books are “mysteries” per se. Also Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club books.
Things I like in a mystery: Intelligent characters, plots, dialog. A creator who plays fair with the reader/audience.
Things I don’t like: when the creators do not play fair. No sudden and inexplicable appearances of dopplegangers, no supernatural forces, no overarching government conspiracies that somehow never leaked, that sort of thing. Mysteries – good ones – are puzzles but also character studies: if someone is suddenly going to be revealed as quite different than they seemed, there had better be a good reason other than a plot device.
Ann Marie
As I’ve gotten older (OK, old) I’ve become less fond of thrillers, but I do like a decent mystery. The Poirot series with Suchet is marvelous, as is the Miss Marple series with Joan Hickson. I’ve been watching the new Monsieur Spade series and love it so far; no idea how it will all end up, but Clive Owen is terrific.
strange visitor (from another planet)
@Alison Rose: a haunting in venice was kind of awesome. branagh as piorot. michelle yeoh was in the movie for half a minute and completely walked away with it.
Ann Marie
@CaseyL:
Years ago I went on a long jag of reading Martha Grimes and Anne Perry. I enjoyed them a lot and probably should revisit them soon. In the last decade or so I’ve mainly read mysteries set in the distant past, especially ancient Rome.
smith
There are a couple of older British series I really enjoyed: A Touch of Frost and Dalziel and Pascoe. They both feature cranky middle aged detectives and their exasperated younger proteges in the mold of Morse. Last I looked they were both available on Britbox.
Craig
Hardy Boys mysteries growing up. Those dudes had everything; a boat house with a speedboat, Cool cars, motorcycles. I realized suddenly that their dad could only afford all this shit as a cop was if he was on the take. Mr. Hardy was a corrupt NYC cop.
Kristine
I loved Killing Eve up until the ending. So many shows seem to bobble the ending. But the actors were great. I think I’d watch Jodie Comer in anything.
Admittedly more cat-and-mouse than mystery, though characters have hidden agendas that need to be revealed.
Percysowner
I just finished rewatching Elementary. Loved it for the most part. Johnie Lee Miller and Lucy Lui are my favorite Holmes and Watson. Season 5 didn’t catch me, even the first time, so I skipped on rewatch. In some ways it’s surprising how some of the issues they used back then are still issues today and some have been overtaken by events that were never even considered as a possibility.
Kristine
@Ann Marie: Joan Hickson will always be My Marple. No one else comes close.
zhena gogolia
Inspector Morse is my all-time favorite, because of the superb acting team of John Thaw and Kevin Whately. The mysteries aren’t all that, but watching Morse scowl as he solves them (or doesn’t) is eternally engaging. “Dead on Time” is my favorite episode, but I also love the one set in Australia, “Promised Land.” All of them really, except the one episode I’ve never managed to finish watching because a cat gets killed (“Day of the Devil”). TBF, it’s also the worst episode of the lot, based on the 10-15 minutes I’ve seen of it.
The prequel Endeavour and sequel Lewis are also good, but not as good.
We love pretty much all the British mysteries except the ones that are too violent. Lately we have enjoyed watching a Joan Hickson Marple and then the Geraldine McEwan or Julia McKenzie version of the same one — it’s fun to compare and contrast.
Lately we’ve been enjoying McDonald and Dodds — novel setting (Bath) and very nice chemistry between the leads. The episode with Alan Davies as a pedantic linguist was a standout.
And speaking of Alan Davies, the first three seasons of Jonathan Creek are also my all-time favorites. I can watch those over and over again.
Princess
@Yet Another Haldane: Ha, I was coming in here just to say Prime Suspect. It was excellent, both the development of character and the mystery itself.
Very different but I also liked No Way Out, though it’s more a thriller than a mystery. Fabulous final plot twist.
zhena gogolia
@zhena gogolia: And I’ll be heretical and say that the Hickson versions are not always superior to the later ones by any means. They’re kind of slow and overstuffed.
Yet Another Haldane
As for films …
In the previous millennium, I saw The Usual Suspects and L. A. Confidential one after the other, and wow was that a plot overdose. In a good way. Suspects doesn’t reveal the actual plot until, what, halfway through? And the setup of Confidential is like a basket of ping-pong balls tossed into the air. You look at it and think, “Nope, no way that’s going to come together in two hours.” But then it does!
Even further back in the day I really enjoyed Diva but I suspect that one has been visited by the Suck Fairy and I’m afraid to look.
Princess
@Princess: sorry, I don’t know how this happened!
Craig
Bookwise I’ve come to prefer Hammett to Chandler. The Continental Op stories rule. Love the Marlowe stories too, something about Hammett gets me though. Maybe it’s the SF setting rather than Chandler’s LA.
Ann Marie
@Kristine: I have to admit I haven’t even watched the others. Hickson was just so perfect in the role, I can’t imagine someone else in it.
brantl
@Sister Golden Bear: The first season of Luther was so good, I feared for the second, and it was spectacular, too.
brantl
@Chris: I loved Lupin, the show. I’ve never read the original texts.
Phylllis
@zhena gogolia: McDonald & Dodds is also a favorite. I have the identical pocket magnifying glass as Dodds. There’s a season 4 coming soon.
zhena gogolia
@Phylllis: Oh, good, we’re almost at the end of what’s available.
CaseyL
@Ann Marie: Lindsey Davis is the only Ancient Rome-set mysteries I’ve read. She’s fantastic. I love how she shows everyday life, and hits on similarities to ours. She may fudge a fact of daily life now and then (a daily news gazette? really?) but otherwise, I can almost smell the back streets.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
No Inspector Clouseau fans here? Yeah they’re slapstick comedies but also mysteries. In the same vein is The Other Guys with Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg.
Also really like To Catch a Thief and Rear Window. The first of those is not a murder mystery but you’re still guessing who dunnit until the end.
smith
@Ann Marie: I’ve seen all three, and in my opinion the Hickson versions are far superior. Geraldine McEwan was way too sweet, rosy cheeked and dotty to be plausible as Marple. Julia McKenzie’s version was intelligent and believable, but she seemed to me to be too young for the part.
CatFacts
The 2022 miniseries of Why Didn’t They Ask Evans was a lot of fun, as was the one in the mid-2010s of And Then There Were None. Both BBC. I’ve just started the 2023 BBC miniseries of Murder is Easy and it’s good so far.
Love Vera, Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, and Broadchurch. Broadchurch is a darker story but the acting is great. It’s easy to see why Olivia Colman broke out as a dramatic actress in the U.S. after that. Brenda Blethyn from Vera also has an Oscar for the wonderful 90s movie Secrets and Lies.
I’ve been meaning to start Foyle’s War and Line of Duty.
Chris
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?:
I really like the first Pink Panther movie.
The rest I’ve seen bits and pieces here and there. The whole never really held my interest, but there are plenty of great moments still.
“Does you dog bite?” “No.” “… You said he did not bite!” “That is not my dog.”
Scamp Dog
@Craig: I’m a big fan of Hammett’s Continental Op, too. I’ve read and enjoyed Chandler’s books as well, but I think Hammett is still my favorite of the two.
Warren Senders
The Brother Cadfael series from the BBC was terrific. Derek Jacobi is great in the lead.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Chris: I guess I like my mysteries with a healthy dose of humor. Two of my favorite TV series are Monk and Psych. Both USA network blue skies era shows with lots of laughs to accompany the weekly musder.
delphinium
@Ann Marie: If you like Clive Owen may want to check out the crime-mystery series Second Sight about a maverick cop who finds out that he has a rare disease which is causing him to go blind but struggles to hide his condition from others.
He was also good in the movie Croupier, though it is a crime drama, not a mystery.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@CaseyL: I like Falco too. I’m also fond of Louise Penny’s books. I think both those series shine because of outstanding use of setting and appealing characters.
Sure Lurkalot
Recently read: The Sunset Years of Agnes Sharp and Everone in My Family Has Killed Somone. Lighter side, well drawn main characters and the usual twists and turns.
Favorite older mystery movies that aren’t on the streaming circuit: Mirage with Gregory Peck as an amnesiac, Don’t Look Now, a psychic thriller directed by Nicholas Roeg with Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie and Images, a Robert Altman film.
Thanks for everyone’s recommendations!
SkyBluePink
I like lighter murder with humor. Brokenwood Mysteries, Chelsea Detective, Annika, My Life is Murder. Acorn and PBS mostly.
I enjoy these threads for all the great suggestions
Alison Rose
@strange visitor (from another planet): I do want to see Branagh in the role. I love him, even when he sometimes is a little over the top, because he’s so good at it.
schrodingers_cat
@Mr. Bemused Senior: Seconded. Smiley’s People was very good too.
I am rewatching X-Files, and I am really enjoying it. It does have a few clunkers but for a series that had such a long run they were very innovative and entertaining.
When I was growing up in Mumbai there was a police procedural called 100 (equivalent of 911 but for the police) that was quite good. It had many real life cases solved by Mumbai Police.
I used to watch the Chris Noth and Jerry Orbach era Law and Order. Jeremy Brett’s version of Sherlock Holmes.
Ann Marie
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Falco is a delight. The new series in which his adopted daughter takes the lead is also good. My favorite Roman mysteries are the SPQR series by John Maddox Roberts, set at the end of the Republic, just before it all fell apart. The lead character is very much a man of his culture and class, but also very funny.
Ann Marie
@delphinium:
Looks like I can watch it on Prime Video. Thanks for the tip!
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Ann Marie: I think I read SPQR years ago. It’s been so long I could read it again and be surprised.
Miss Bianca
@bmoak: Angela Lansbury probably wasn’t that much older than Elvis Presley was when she played *his* mother in Blue Hawaii. (1961).
Damn, now I’ve got to look up when she was born…
delphinium
@CatFacts: I really liked Broadchurch too. Hinterland (similar to Shetland, but takes place in Wales) is also on the darker side.
zhena gogolia
@Alison Rose: I started it. Let’s just say he’s no Suchet.
Craig
I really enjoyed Only Murders in the Building. 3rd season is bonkers. Martin Short was born to play a washed up Broadway director.
Nelle
I owe someone here for the recommendation for Astrid. I can’t seem to get enough of it. Nicole Walker in most anything – Forgotten, Annika. Madame Volpe, Recipes for Love and Murder, Darby and Joan, Brokenwood – we see them on Acorn.
I’m a big fan of Louise Penny mysteries. We listen to the Bruno, Chief of Police series on long drives (Martin Walker) about a small village policeman in France. Many good descriptions of food, too. I’ve just started reading the Ruth Galloway series (by Elly Griffiths) and they are good about making me forget the craziness of politics for a little bit. I’m taking a break from the northern Minnesota mysteries by William Kent Kruger, but they are good too.
For me, a good sense of place is important. It may be how I travel, for the most part (well, except I’m off to New Zealand shortlly, but that is like going home, more than touristing). I like the Hillermans (Tony and daughter, Anne) for the Southwest sense of place.
CliosFanBoy
My wife and I enjoyed the first season of School Spirits. Be forewarned, they left a
lot
of loose ends for season 2!
We also enjoyed Bodies on Netflix. Four different detectives in four different times over three different centuries find the exact same body in the same position lying in the exact same spot in a London alley.
zhena gogolia
@Nelle: If you want to see very young Nicola Walker, watch the “Mother Redcap” episode of Jonathan Creek. She’s a hoot!
ETA: Oh, and you don’t mention Last Tango in Halifax. She’s great in that too — that’s where I first saw her.
Miss Bianca
@Percysowner: With you on Elementary. It’s awesome.
Right now working my way through Broadchurch, which is a verrry slow burn, compared to American procedurals.
Ann Marie
@zhena gogolia: I watched Branagh’s versions of Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile. They weren’t bad, but they just didn’t feel like Poirot — not just Suchet’s Poirot, the Poirot of Christie’s books. I can’t put my finger on why.
zhena gogolia
@Ann Marie: He’s just British to the bone and I can’t believe he’s Belgian. Unlike Suchet, or even Ustinov. Not to mention Finney.
CliosFanBoy
@Craig:
I was more of a “Three Detectives” fan myself. Spookier mysteries.
Got a Tom Swift book as a present. never could finish it.
Chris
@schrodingers_cat:
I tried getting into X-Files a few times when I was younger and never could. Tried it again recently and I’m now on Season 3. It really is very good.
It’s true what they say, the standalone episodes are better than the mytharc. But we’re also still at the point where the mytharc hasn’t started to suck yet.
sab
@BruceJ: Sainte Marie in Death in Paradise is way up there, as is Shetland.
sab
@Phylllis: Have you watched The Bay yet?
schrodingers_cat
@Chris: Mytharc goes haywire after season 6. I watched a few episodes during its initial run but hadn’t watched them all. The monsters that are plausible IRL are the scariest in my opinion.
Miss Bianca
@CliosFanBoy: Three Investigators, do you mean? Loved that series!
billcinsd
Some of my favorites
schrodingers_cat
@Ann Marie: I recently saw the Haunting in Venice. And I concur. I have never liked and his scenery chewing much.
mvr
@Craig: In reply to both your posts.
Yeah that is a great scene in The Big Sleep. I love that movie because I read mysteries mostly for the characters and dialogue and that one clearly has those. It doesn’t even bother me much that they collapsed two characters into one for Lauren Bacall to play, even though that made the plot unfathomable.
As for the Hammett/Chandler comparison. Hammett was clearly the better person and a kind of authorial wiz in that he managed to work in and even seemingly invent several genres. The Big Sleep is the paradigmatic hard boiled private eye novel. The Dain Curse and Thin Man give us a wise cracking quarreling mystery solving couple. Red Harvest gives us a hard drinking company man in a crazy world working for the man. And The Glass Key gives ua a fixer protagonist whose loyalties are in doubt until the end. All really well done.
The Maltese Falcon is a favorite. That much of the dialog for the movie came directly from the book says a lot about what a good book it is. The aside about the guy who nearly got hit by a falling piano is a delight. And the movie is incredibly well-acted except that it is hard to see what Spade saw in Bridgett O’Shaunessy.
Still I have a weakness for The Long Goodbye. Chandler really only wrote in the private eye vein with Marlow his main character there. I think it is Marlow’s melancholy and loyalty that i kind of like. That the longer books were cobbled together from short stories with sections word for word the same is a bit of a miracle given that the longer books have coherent and even intricate plots.
I was started on reading such books (thousands) by going to see the movie Hammett in the mid-80s, based on a book by Joe Gores. (I was working as a legal investigator at the time and I sort of enjoyed pretending I was in one of these books, especially when occasionally sparring with police about evidence we wanted to be told about in order to defend clients.) I just picked up one of Gores later books, Come Morning, and was impressed again by his writing which is really good, not just in this book. I guess he died over a decade ago, but his books are worth looking for.
Tehanu
Oh, I have lots of favorites. All the BBC Peter Wimseys — both with Ian Carmichael and with Edward Petherbridge. And Annika. I like the Bogart Big Sleep, but more because it’s Bogart; I’ve never really liked any of the other Marlowe adaptations. Dick Powell & Robert Montgomery were especially awful as Marlowe; only Powers Boothe was even close to my idea of how Marlowe should be. I think Miller’s Crossing is a better version of Hammett’s The Glass Key than the movie with, um, Alan Ladd I think.
As for reading: no one has yet mentioned Barbara Hambly’s brilliant Benjamin January series, starting with A Free Man of Color, or Deborah Crombie’s Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James books, or Donna Leon’s Brunetti series, or Julia Spencer-Fleming’s Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne series, or Ruth Downie’s Medicus series — the only worthwhile competition to Lindsey Davies’ Marcus Didius Falco books.
CliosFanBoy
@Miss Bianca:
OOPS, yes. it’s been awhile…
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: He is pretty terrible as Poirot.
RSA
He’s a wonderful writer. I’m surprised that his work hasn’t been adapted for the movies or TV; Jane Whitefield seems a natural. From wikipedia:
TheOtherHank
I’ve been watching the Natasha Lyonne show Poker Face. They’re not too mysterious, but the show is a lot of fun.
For those unfamiliar, Natasha Lyonne’s character can tell when someone is lying. For reasons explained in the first episode, she is on the run from bad people who mean to do her harm (Ron Perlman, who so far we’ve only heard on the phone but not seen and Benjamin Bratt who shows up from time to time trying to kill her). Each episode features her trying to lie low and solving a murder.
FelonyGovt
We enjoyed Happy Valley- about an almost-ready-to-retire detective played by the great Sarah Lancashire. It’s kind of intense though- the villain in the overall plot arc, played by James Norton, is awful and terrifying.
I generally prefer lighter fare, where the murdered person is someone everyone hated, like Death in Paradise, or the Knives Out movies with Daniel Craig as an over the top (American) southern detective.
ETA Madame Blanc, on Acorn TV. A British widow (played by Sally Lindsay) who is an expert in antiques winds up in a small village in France, with the usual accompanying quirky supporting characters. Very cute.
moonbat
When I was a kid my mom gave me a complete compilation of Sherlock Holmes stories with the original Strand magazine illustrations and Jeremy Brett is the only actor that lived up to the image of the great detective that that book built in my mind. And David Burke was a wonderful Watson — not a bumbling Nigel Bruce version, but an everyman we can identify with. Which is not to say that I don’t love Cumberbatch’s or Downey Jr.’s Sherlocks, but they are like jazz variations on a well known theme — not the original.
I have never felt as apprehensive or off balance as I did watching the first season of Luther. Idris Elba was a revelation. Can’t say I loved the direction they took that series when they ended it the first time though.
I have reluctantly been pulled back into True Detective this season after having been completely mesmerized by Season 1. Harrelson and McConaughey were brilliant in that and the hints at the dark, mad, crazy (Lovecraft and Bierce tinted) Carcosa world beyond this veil raised mystery-solving to a cosmic quest. I loved it! But I was rather disappointed in Season 2 and I have to admit I have yet to watch Season 3. But Jodie Foster(!!), people! I’ve been completely sucked into this cold nightmare landscape and can’t wait to see how it ends especially with all the callbacks to Season 1 in the mix.
LOVE that someone above mention The X-Files! Still my forever home for a procedural with a supernatural twist. It is my desert island detective series.
Ken
I stumbled across the 1954 TV series Sherlock Holmes (youtube link) and am rather enjoying them. The plots are (mostly) not adaptations of the Conan Doyle stories, probably for copyright reasons. Ronald Howard is quite good as Holmes, and Howard Marion-Crawford is an excellent Watson, especially in contrast with Nigel Bruce’s (non-canonical) bumbler.
mrmoshpotato
@CaseyL:
Totally. Great cast, great acting, great directing.
Mrscoachb
@Chris: my father loved the Clouseau movies and this was his favorite line of all….he’d tell it with such glee, thanks for the memory
Alison Rose
@TheOtherHank: I adore her, and JFC I wish there weren’t 37 different streaming services. Russian Doll was terrific and Lyonne was perfection in it. (In case anyone hasn’t seen it, no, it doesn’t have anything to do with the country.) It’s not exactly a mystery but it does have a mystery element at its core.
Splitting Image
Nice to see so many fans of Columbo, Murder She Wrote, and the 1970s Ellery Queen. These three shows were produced by the same team, Levinson and Link, which is one of the reasons they have all worn so well. If you like one, check out the other two.
I’ve recently been watching the 1980s Dalgliesh mysteries with Roy Marsden. I’m not quite as fond of them as I am the Brett Sherlock Holmes stories or the Suchet Poirot series which were done at the same time, but I am enjoying them.
I’m also very fond of Michael Caine’s turn as Sherlock Holmes, or rather an actor hired to play the role of Sherlock Holmes, in Without a Clue. Pairs really well with The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother by Gene Wilder. Those two movies both hit my sweet spot. Victoriana, cozy mysteries, plus goofy comedy. What’s not to like?
Ken
@Ann Marie: I will give credit to the Branagh Orient Express for one thing. I had always been bothered by the champagne toast that ended the 1974 version, but couldn’t really articulate why. The Branagh ending recognizes that some of the passengers are going to have trouble living with what they’ve done.
TheOtherHank
@Alison Rose:
I got season 1 of Poker Face on disc from the library, no streaming required.
piratedan
Books – the Glen Cook Garrett PI series which is done in a fantasy noir setting, The Rivers of London books by Ben Aaronovitch, witch is a magical mystery series. As a throwback, I really enjoyed the old Lawrence Sanders stuff and for a lighter read, anything by Carl Hiaasen.
Series – I’ll second the Brokenwood series, I would also give a shout out to a Korean series Inspector Ko, plus the Canadian Three Pines. There’s also six seasons of Longmire.
Frankensteinbeck
@piratedan:
I like the Garrett PI books. At the end of the series it was strange and fascinating to see the author realize he’d been in an abusive relationship for a long time and drag the character out of his own into something more loving.
Hob
This is mostly less of a mystery and more of a crime caper thing, but I’ve been really enjoying the French series Lupin that’s on Netflix. Not an adaptation of the novels about Arsène Lupin, but a modern story about a guy who’s so into those novels that he’s done his best to become a super-burglar/con-artist of equally absurd skill. Half the time you’re following the over-the-top ripoffs that he commits, the other half is flashbacks to his childhood where he and his wife and his main co-conspirator all met. There’s some personal drama and injustice and a bit of danger, but the overall tone is fairly cheerful and nonviolent; Omar Sy is insanely charismatic as the lead character, the supporting cast is solid too. There’s a bit of social commentary— not super deep or anything, but interesting to me as a foreigner— about race and immigration in France, since the character is Senegalese and sometimes relies on the prejudices and blind spots of white upper-class people to pull off parts of his schemes, while a cop and a reporter who are on his trail have trouble being taken seriously by their colleagues possibly because they’re also of African descent.
smith
@schrodingers_cat: The worst version of Poirot I’ve ever seen was in a BBC production of The A B C Murders a few years back, starring John Malkovich(!). Not only was he the antithesis of Poirot, some genius decided it would work as a sort of film noir. The scenes were so dark they looked like they were lit by a flashlight, and the attempt to imply underlying menace came off as feeble more than anything else. It didn’t help that Rupert Grint played a hotshot young detective, and it was hard to keep from wondering what Ron Weasley was doing there.
Alison Rose
@TheOtherHank: Unfortunately I can’t get to the library and don’t have anything to watch it on.
Alison Rose
@smith: I………I cannot imagine Malkovich as Poirot.
moonbat
If we are talking about not-quite-canon-approved Sherlocks, I loved Nicol Williamson’s Sherlock in The Seven Percent Solution and a little known now movie with George C. Scott as a grieving husband who copes by imagining himself to be Holmes and recruiting his psychiatrist (Joanne Woodward) to be his Watson in They Might Be Giants.
Which is where one of my favorite alt rock weird bands got their name.
BruceJ
@Craig: Having seen most of the cinematic and television Holmse’s Jeremy is the best Canon Holmes; but I really like Benedict Cumberbach in Sherlock. Elementary was also very very good, but I am a definite Cumberbitch, so he’s the best ‘modern’ one.
Larch
I’ll put in a plug for Karen Pirie on Brit Box. Currently only one season, although there’s another coming, I hear. This first season is based on the first book in Val McDermid’s eponymous series – DS Pirie is an Edinburgh police detective investigating a historical/cold case. Very good writing & acting!
Starting with the second book she’s the head of the Historical Cases Unit, and I’m looking forward to seeing it on TV. The series hits my historical interests hard.and doesn’t have the twisted psychology of the Tony Hill/Carol Jordan books, which is a plus for me.
For context, my favorites along the same lines include Vera, Broadchurch, Shetland, Elementary, Annika, Unforgotten, Wallander, Line of Duty, Van der Walk, etc.
BruceJ
@billcinsd: Frankie Drake is in the same universe as the Murdoch Mysteries also an excellent series,
Hob
@TheOtherHank: Huge fan of Poker Face here. Not every episode is quite as engaging as the first three, but I really liked them all, Lyonne is always great, and I like how the format and premise allow for a wide range of tone & approach. I don’t think it’s spoiling anything to say that Ron Perlman does eventually show up again, as part of a really strong conclusion to the season with a nice twist on the format.
Starfish
@Craig: That show was so much fun!
BruceJ
@smith: Daziel and Pasco was excellent. The guy who played Daziel is the actor who was one of Alez’s Droogies, Dim, in A Clockwork Orange who ends the movie as a “Policeman, a job for one who’s of job age”
piratedan
@Frankensteinbeck: agreed, it marked the acknowledgement that the lead character and his circle of friends were not getting any younger and the acceptance of accumulating their wisdom painfully.
I also adore his Black Company series, as it’s likely the foundation of the whole Grimdark genre
piratedan
@Larch: good call, I adored how they handled the swimming upstream challenges by taking her presence as a token that those in power could use as a lightning rod and object for drawing fire.
BlueGuitarist
@zhena gogolia:
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
your comments a few weeks ago led me to watching Northern Exposure, a chance of pace from mysteries. Just saw an episode from 1991 with a joke about Donald Trump not paying taxes.
CliosFanBoy
@smith:
Agree! My wife and I watched the first episode, and barely got through it. just awful.
CliosFanBoy
My favorite, “Midsomer Murders.” I wish they’d make more than four episodes a season, though!!!!
strange visitor (from another planet)
the enola holmes movies with millie bobbie brown and henry cavill as sherlock are cute.
Ha N.
Hmm. I wonder if people who like Roman mysteries would be interested in Ancient Athenian one. I really liked Gary Corby’s series about an Athenian detective who just happens to be the older brother of Socrates. They light-hearted and filled with humor and suspense. Unfortunately, he seems to have stopped writing after the pandemic.
If you’re interested in Egypt, there’s the series by Michael Pearce featuring the Mamur Zapt which was a title held by a British police officer at the turn of 20th century. This series help satisfy my Amelia Peabody craving.
There is also another book set in an alternate Egypt where angels, djinn and magic exist and Egypt is the greatest country on earth. The heroine of the book is a female detective and is by P. Djeli Clark.
Another fantasy detective series – the Arabesk Trilogy – is set in an alternate Alexandria is by Jon Courtney Grimwood. “Pashazade” is the first book and the protagonist of this series is someone who doesn’t know who he is. People claim that he is the son of the Emir, but is he really? He has only snippets of his memory. But, he still is a pretty competent detective and manages to solve crimes.
Yes, I love mysteries set in the Middle East.
JoyceH
I really enjoyed Only Murders in the Building. 3rd season is bonkers. Martin Short was born to play a washed up Broadway director.
JoyceH
I screwed up the quoting but can’t figure out how to fix it…
schrodingers_cat
@smith: I remember that. Was it on Prime? I gave up after half an hour.
zhena gogolia
@JoyceH: I got it! Your comment is in the box!
kalakal
@Alison Rose:
@smith:
It was awful
Misswhatsis
@Yet Another Haldane: I’m happy to report that I rewatched Diva last winter and it is still wonderful. Definitely worth a rewatch.
MichiganderGail
@Craig:
@piratedan:
@piratedan: The Aaronovitch and Brokenwood are fantastic for characters and settings that I want to inhabit!
Noone has yet mentioned Dick Francis – he wrote a ton of them, mostly stand alone mysteries. I went thru a phase in the 70-80’s of checking out a batch from the Detroit Public Libraries (back then there were library editions with multiple books in 1 volume) and devouring like potato chips. Despite their sparseness, many of them stick with me to this day. My sister and I referred to each book as “Dick Francis learns about X (in “Proof” it was wine, in Reflex” – photography…)”. Learned a lot about the British horse racing world.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@MichiganderGail: I mentioned Bemused Senior’s love of books and I have many boxes full. Mysteries including Dick Francis. I have only read a few of them. I agree, very good.
MichiganderGail
@piratedan: Longmire! Author Craig Johnson’s writing is low-key yet beautiful and often leaves me in admiration.
kalakal
Trying to think of some that haven’t already been mentioned
Films
Sleuth Larry Olivier and Michael Caine in a two hander
Deathtrap Michael Caine and Christopher Reeve in a sort of remake of Sleuth with Caine taking the Olivier part
Don’t look Now probably the tensest film I’ve ever seen
Clue Tim Curry having the time of his life hamming it up more than anyone before and since
TV
The BBC did a good series of Maigret with Michael Gambon
A British crime drama/ political thriller called Edge of Darkness from the 80s which was superb
Big fan of Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes
Very fond memories of The Rockford files
kalakal
@Yet Another Haldane: Don’t fear Diva is still great
Mr. Bemused Senior
@kalakal: ah, the Rockford Files. We watched that together. Just think of searching for a phone booth.
Brachiator
I liked Zen, the British television series starring Rufus Sewell and Caterina Murino, based on the Aurelio Zen detective novels by Michael Dibdin. Only a few episodes were produced and I guess the producers didn’t think it did well enough to want to continue the series.
Chris
@Hob:
What I enjoy about the adaptation is that the guy is responding to the injustices of French society, but doing it by embracing an ironically French symbol. It’s a nice way to work the adaptation angle and the main character’s race together.
Warren Senders
@moonbat:
Re: TMBG
I grew up with Flansburgh & Linnell. Literally — we rode the same school bus together. Flansburgh’s dog and my dog were siblings! Linnell was (and probably is) a wickedly funny cartoonist with a very good Rapidograph technique.
Warren Senders
@MichiganderGail:
We enjoyed all the Dick Francis books, though some of them hold up better than others. The recent stuff by his son is pretty good, too, though I have mixed feelings about hereditary literary franchises (Adrian Conan Doyle’s Holmes stories are wretched).
prostratedragon
Foyle’s War in addition to most of the other British mysteries mentioned; they’re good at that stuff. I like the ones that pay attention to the social setting and how it interacts with what is to be solved, so especially Vera and, it goes without saying Twin Peaks. I like that type better than the comic ones even though I also enjoy watching those.
prostratedragon
@CliosFanBoy: But there are 20-odd seasons, so when you get to the end you’ll have forgotten the early ones.
Not mentioned by me earlier: Brokenwood and Dark Winds.
moonbat
@Warren Senders: That’s awesome!
evodevo
@Ann Marie:
I liked the Marcus Corvinus series by David Wishart – there are more than 20 books on the Roman detective (NOT the vampire, which I was disconcerted to find was a thing) in the reign of Caesar Augustus
Ann Marie
@piratedan:
The Garrett series is a lot of fun. Noir tough guy surrounded by fantasy creatures.
Ann Marie
@evodevo: I like it too, especially the ones centered around major figures of the early empire, such as Ovid and Germanicus. I’d rather the author didn’t use “mantle” instead of “toga” or “market” instead of forum. Yes, that is what they are, but toga and forum, especially the Forum Romanum, had very specific meanings to ancient Romans, especially the toga, which symbolized citizenship. I think anyone who reads a mystery set in ancient Rome is likely to understand those words. Plus, I hate him making a running joke out of cats getting killed.
Ann Marie
My running list of movies and shows I want to watch is getting way too long because of this thread!
prostratedragon
@kalakal:
Don’t Look Now is great.
A favorite is the heist, especially the heist gone wrong, if only because I think it has better movies than the other kind. Examples: Rififi, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The Killing, The Killers, The Aphalt Jungle, (you could say) The Great Escape. A couple of ambiguous ones with Steve McQueen, Bullitt and The Thomas Crown Affair, in which motivations are part of the mystery to be solved.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@prostratedragon: a heist gone wrong: Bank Shot
kalakal
@prostratedragon: Heist movies can be great. As well as the ones you mention I enjoyed
Point Break, The Usual Suspects, Out of Sight
I love Kelley’s Heroes – mostly for the Donald Sutherland character Oddball
For light relief there’s The Pink Panther, The Ladykillers and Wallace & Gromit in
The Wrong Trousers
piratedan
@prostratedragon: Heist movies are always a joy….
You have the film Heist itself, with Gene Hackman, Ricky Jay, Danny DeVito and a group of top notch character actors. Other great ones that I’ve enjoyed are Tower Heist, The original Italian Job, Snatch, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, The Gentleman are other awesome films in the genre.
Warren Senders
@piratedan:
DeVito: “Wait…don’t ya wanna hear…my last words?”
Hackman: “I just did” (Bang!).
So much great stuff in that movie. Too bad David Mamet went off the deep end.
Marc
We’re currently watching two mystery series. I’ve mentioned Criminal Record (Apple TV+) in an earlier Medium Cool, Cush Jumbo as a rookie London detective and Peter Capaldi as a senior officer who she believes years before forced a suspect into falsely confessing to a murder. Lots of twists, turns, and as yet unexplained connections. Also watching Death and Other Details (Hulu) starring Mandy Patinkin as a (incompetent?) famous private detective attempting to solve the murder of his sometimes partner aboard a chartered cruise ship, teaming up with Violett Beane, the prime suspect, whose mother was murdered when she was a child in a possibly related case that the detective was unable to solve. Very Glass Onionish, not quite as good, but still complicated and a lot of fun.
billcinsd
@piratedan: The Hot Rock
piratedan
@Warren Senders: I believe that its even got a young Sam Rockwell in it, the characters and their motivations and the wheels within wheels are incredibly well done.
There are a whole group of these films that stay with me, a couple of the old ones are the old Matthau classic Charley Varrick and one with a just stretching his legs Sean Connery in The Anderson Files
piratedan
@billcinsd: have always enjoyed a good Redford film (very underrated actor imho) although I also have to admit to a fondness for The Bank Job, starring Jason Statham as my favorite bank heist film :-)
billcinsd
@piratedan: Afghanistan banana stand
Craig
@JoyceH: s’ok? I was slightly confused for a sec. I loved Streep’s entrance in episode 1. So baller to cast her in that role.
Craig
@kalakal: Inside Man is a killer heist movie. First time I really went, ‘ damn, Clive Owen is badass.
Miss Bianca
@Ken: I’ve seen some of that 1954 Sherlock Holmes series as well (kind of amazing what I find on DVDs in my local library) and I agree – they’re charming in a very old-fashioned way – kind of like the British Robin Hood TV series of the same vintage, which I also enjoy immensely.
Dana
Right now I’d say the series we make sure to watch are Frankie Drake Mysteries, Miss Scarlet and the Duke, and the rest of the series that are presently on on our local PBS station. Anything with Nicola Walker in it is good. We also really like Murdoch Mysteries and find it a fun series since it combines a police procedural with a hint of Steampunk (or should it be called Teslapunk).
One medium I have not seen mentioned is radio, or audio drama. Old Time Radio has a lot of series, many which can be found on line (check the Internet Archive, for example). Three that I would recommend from that era are “Richard Diamond” (with Dick Powell),” Yours Truly Johnny Dollar” (especially the Bob Bailey serials), and “I Love a Mystery”. You could also check out “Rocky Jordan” and “Hopalong Cassidy”. Yes, I know that the latter is a Western and more juvenile fare, but most of the shows require a bit of detecting on Hoppy’s part. Many of the stories are fun. In the same vein as “I Love a Mystery”, and by the same writer is “Adventures By Morse”. Both are serials, but “Adventures” has the advantage that all of the shows exist. A slight warning: these are all a product of their time, but in general are probably not too offensive.
The BBC still actively produces audio dramas and comedies. If you go to the BBC’s radio websites you can find mysteries usually under the “Crime” and “Thrillers” headings. Shows hang around for about a month although some be kept on site for considerably longer. Ones that I like are the Lord Peter Wimsey series, which also star Ian Carmichael (who, as mentioned earlier, also stars in some of the TV adaptations), any of the Poirot and Miss Marple stories, and the “Paul Temple” stories. After hearing several of the Paul Temple serials it’s clear that they generally follow a particular formula, but they are entertaining nonetheless. All of these shows tend to come around again in time, so if there none right now just check again in a bit.
BBC radio has produced lots of different Sherlock Holmes series over the decades and any of them are worth a listen if you are a Holmes fan, but I particularly like the Clive Merrison and Michael Williams shows that I have heard. I understand why Jeremy Brett is considered by many to be the quintessential Holmes, but in my opinion Clive Merrison captures the spirit of Holmes about as well as anyone.
There were also lots of Sherlock Holmes shows done on this side of the pond in the era of Old Time Radio. Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce stared in many of them, but later episodes used other actors. Most of these stories were not from the Sherlock Holmes canon. You can find some of these in the Internet Archive.
TaxesMyCredulity
I too love many of those mentioned above (Luther, Foyle’s War, Silent Witness, Endeavor), I’m surprised no one has mentioned Murdoch Mysteries, a long-running drama/comedy set in Toronto CA in the very early 1900s. The series is on its 17th season, and the original cast is still together. Since the main character, Detective Wm Murdoch, is a science aficionado and an inventor, many plots/episodes work scientists and other famous folks (i.e., Tesla, Edison, Bell, Arthur Conan Doyle, Helen Keller, and Mark Twain [played by William Shatner]) into the murder investigations.
Two other favorites not mentioned are from Australia: The Doctor Blake Mysteries; and City Homicide. Thanks to all for great suggestions!
WaterGirl
@Dana: Welcome!
Your first comment has to be manually approved, but now that I have done that, your comments will show up for everyone right away.