Posts Tagged ‘ TV mysteries ’

TNT’s ‘Major Crimes’ Returns for Second Season

June 10, 2013
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TNT’s ‘Major Crimes’ Returns for Second Season

The TNT drama series Major Crimes returns tonight for the start of a second season (9:00 EDT). The show, which reprises characters from TNT’s hugely successful series The Closer, was last year’s top-rated new cable drama series, and it deserved its success. It presented good, solid mystery stories without excessive displays of angst and overhyped dramatics. Notably, it devoted just one plot-line to the central character’s private life, and in doing so it connected it appropriately to an ongoing criminal case. Thus Major Crimes paid obeisance…

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Death Decoded: ‘The Bletchley Circle’ on PBS

June 3, 2013
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Death Decoded: ‘The Bletchley Circle’ on PBS

I recently complained about the unlikely revisionist feminist rewrite in the new film adaptation of John Buchan‘s The Thirty-Nine Steps (shown already in Britain and scheduled for this summer in the United States on PBS). Well, here is a far superior film mystery series that does something rather more plausible with a period feminist slant, The Bletchley Circle. The three-part series, showing on PBS stations around the country, is about four women, all of whom were involved with English code-breaking during World War 2 at the government’s Bletchley Park complex.  Now…

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Christmas Mysteries on ION

November 23, 2012
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Christmas Mysteries on ION

The ION Television Network is presenting a good five hours of Christmas-themed mysteries for this day after Thanksgiving. From 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. EST, the network will show reruns of two episodes of Monk, two of Psych, and one of Leverage. They're all well worth watching. (Schedule details below; check your local listings for confirmation.) I was disappointed last year to find out , , ,

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TNT’s ‘Major Crimes’ Finishes Successful First Season

October 15, 2012
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TNT’s ‘Major Crimes’ Finishes Successful First Season

Tonight brings the season-ending episode of 'Major Crimes,' TNT's replacement for the popular 'The Closer.' 'Major Crimes' reprises nearly all of the police team from 'The Closer' and replaces Kyra Sedgwick's character with a new boss of the LAPD Major Crimes unit, Sharon Raydor (Mary McDonnell).The producers retained the police-procedural format of the show's progenitor, but they wisely have made sufficient changes to give this show a fresh approach. For one thing, they have placed a bit less emphasis on the central character's private life.…

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‘Person of Interest’: Intelligent, Compelling, Badass

October 4, 2012
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‘Person of Interest’: Intelligent, Compelling, Badass

'Person of Interest '(Thursdays, 9 p.m. EDT) is one of the few TV series I like. The show instills a deliciously intricate sense of creeping paranoia in the viewer. By the finale of Season One there were so many conspiracies and wheels within wheels that I--a hardened mystery thriller fiction addict--felt like I was getting a really good mental workout with the show. . . .

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TNT’s ‘Perception’ Off to Weak Start

July 16, 2012
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TNT’s ‘Perception’ Off to Weak Start

TNT's latest new series, Perception, basically combines elements of previously successful series, but it lacks an element crucial to TV success: a protagonist and close associates whom audiences can like, root for, and want to invite into their homes every week.

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Brown, Creek to Return to TV

July 8, 2012
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Brown, Creek to Return to TV

There's good news and mixed news regarding British TV mysteries. A new Jonathan Creek movie may be on the way, and a new Father Brown series is already in production. S. T. Karnick reports.

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‘Whitechapel’ Season Three Starts Out Impossibly Well

March 28, 2012
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‘Whitechapel’ Season Three Starts Out Impossibly Well

The British crime drama series Whitechapel resumes tonight at 10 EDT on BBC America with the first episode of a six-part season three. It's worth watching—especially for those looking for a modern murder mystery that respects the classics of the form.Or, at least it seems to do so at present.. . . .

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Fox’s ‘Alcatraz’ Leaves Most Interesting Mystery Unexplored

March 26, 2012
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Fox’s ‘Alcatraz’ Leaves Most Interesting Mystery Unexplored

The Fox TV drama series Alcatraz takes the narrative structure of a police procedural and adds a good many impossibilities which belong either to science fiction or paranormal fiction. And in doing so, it foregoes an opportunity to use those elements to explore the roots of current-day social problems, an endeavor that is implicit in the premise and would have made the show much more interesting.

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‘Necessary Roughness’ Is Another USA Network Success

July 27, 2011
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‘Necessary Roughness’ Is Another USA Network Success

By S. T. Karnick Although other program providers garner more awards, critical accolades, and media hype, the USA Network has most effectively mastered the art of providing entertaining programming that conveys positive values and ideas. From shows such as Monk to Burn Notice, the USA Network formula has been the same, and quite engaging: interesting, slightly quirky but likeable central characters, recognizable but appealing locations, a focus on interesting occupations, and a concern for helping those less fortunate than oneself or assisting people in crisis.…

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‘Closer’ Begins Final Season

July 11, 2011
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‘Closer’ Begins Final Season

The popular TNT series The Closer begins its final season this week (Mondays, 9 p.m. EDT). Series producer James Duff is preparing a spinoff called Major Crimes. Closer star Kyra Sedgwick says that she wants a “really dark” ending to the show but expects Duff to demur, though the season will include a good deal of trouble for the crime-solving protagonist, according to USA Today:

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‘Memphis Beat’: Atmospheric Detective Series Features Good Cop, Righteous Music

June 30, 2011
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‘Memphis Beat’: Atmospheric Detective Series Features Good Cop, Righteous Music

By Cece Forrester I’ve never been to Memphis, but if the real city is anything like the one shown on Memphis Beat, I’d like to spend some time there. The most striking thing about this detective series, now in its second season on TNT, is how much candy it offers for both ear and eye. Viewers are treated to choice tracks of classic rockabilly, blues, soul, R&B, Motown, country, folk, or gospel in every episode. The visual quality is likewise amazing. The people of Memphis…

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The Authoritarian Crime Drama ‘Law and Order: Criminal Intent’

June 27, 2011
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The Authoritarian Crime Drama ‘Law and Order: Criminal Intent’

I suppose that I am somewhat unusual in never having liked the lead characters of Law and Order: Criminal Intent, nor thought the performances of Vincent D’Onofrio and Kathryn Erbe particularly appealing or praiseworthy. D’Onofrio, of course, was known for his excessively exaggerated performing style in his portrayal of the show’s lead character, Detective Bobby Goren, and I thought that Kathryn Erbe did a good but unimpressive job of depicting an essentially unappealing and uninteresting character in lead detective Alex Eames. Both characters annoyed me…

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‘Psych,’ ‘Burn Notice’ Return

November 9, 2010
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‘Psych,’ ‘Burn Notice’ Return

Two of the best shows on television—the USA Network mystery-comedy Psych and espionage-actioner Burn Notice—return this week with the first of a few new episodes. USA will show three new episodes of Psych on Wednesdays at 10 EST the rest of this month, and there are two episodes of Burn Notice scheduled for Thursdays at 10. USA will precede the premiere episodes this week with a marathon of all episodes from each show’s season so far, on the day of the premiere—Wednesday for Psych, Thursday…

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“Prime Suspect” Ends

November 19, 2006
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“Prime Suspect” Ends

The PBS/BBC police procedural series Prime Suspect premiered in 1991 and began the still-current run of dreary, depressing TV cop shows on both sides of the pond. All of the now-familiar elements were there: sliimy urban streets; an obsession with the seamy side of life; strange and disturbed criminals; a depressed lead detective with an unhappy or nonexistent home life; heavy-handed ironies; a central character’s struggle with addiction or some other nagging personal problem; a police team that fights its bosses and one another almost…

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