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Best TV Detective (series, mini-series, movie, et al)

Happosai

Hold onto your panties
I nominate Columbo played by the late/great Peter Falk.
The series started from a late-60's movie and became a regular running series during most of the 70's. It fizzled out after the 7th season and was given a mini-series reboot in the late-80's which aired it's final episode (with a much older Peter Falk) in the early 2000's. Tact, humour, and an old Peugnot...that was Columbo.

What was your favourite TV detective series...etc?

 

Meowzers

Member
A Touch of Frost. A UK TV detective show back in the early 90's to late 00's. Always kept you on your toes like a ballet, and had good humour too.
 

teezzy

Banned
Duckman!

mev-10483030.jpg
 
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Happosai

Hold onto your panties
Frist season of True Detective and Zodiac.

Also speaking of Columbo, as most people know Peter Falk had a fake eye but did Columbo have one? Or is that fake eye playing a real eye in the series?
Columbo (the character) is never mentioned in any episode to have a fake eye (although, Peter Falk did have a glass eye). His first name is never revealed in the series either and the lack-of became a sort of running gag.
 

pauljeremiah

Gold Member
Columbo (the character) is never mentioned in any episode to have a fake eye (although, Peter Falk did have a glass eye). His first name is never revealed in the series either and the lack-of became a sort of running gag.

so you're saying that the fake eye was playing the part of a real eye in the series?
 

NeoIkaruGAF

Gold Member
Cumberbatch’s Sherlock is fantastic and my pick for best recent detective (well, kinda, since the character is one of the oldest in the genre, lol).

But in the heart of an Italian born in the 80s it’s hard to top Columbo. That series was constantly on air in Italy until the end of the 90s, and the character is unforgettable.
 
In general list form:
Colombo
White collar
Magnum
Miami vice, series not film
Sherlock
Bergerac
Jonathan creek
Dirk gently
Twin peaks
Luther

Not sure if they count:
Person of interest
Lethal weapon TV series
X files
 

-Arcadia-

Banned
Cumberbatch Sherlock would be mentioned again and again in this thread, if Moffat hadn't utterly, thoroughly Moffated (tm) every season after 2. Right now, I get the feeling most people just want to forget all of the nonsense.

I don't understand why people do business with this man, without having an editor breathing down his neck. The slightest hint of success and creative freedom, and he flies off the rails.

I need to rewatch 1&2 and rediscover that love, though. What a show, while it lasted.
 

nikolino840

Member
I nominate Columbo played by the late/great Peter Falk.
The series started from a late-60's movie and became a regular running series during most of the 70's. It fizzled out after the 7th season and was given a mini-series reboot in the late-80's which aired it's final episode (with a much older Peter Falk) in the early 2000's. Tact, humour, and an old Peugnot...that was Columbo.

What was your favourite TV detective series...etc?


Is the only TV shows that we saw the murderer in the beginning of the episode?
 

DKehoe

Member
Cumberbatch Sherlock would be mentioned again and again in this thread, if Moffat hadn't utterly, thoroughly Moffated (tm) every season after 2. Right now, I get the feeling most people just want to forget all of the nonsense.

I don't understand why people do business with this man, without having an editor breathing down his neck. The slightest hint of success and creative freedom, and he flies off the rails.

I need to rewatch 1&2 and rediscover that love, though. What a show, while it lasted.

It’s crazy how that show flew off the rails after season 2. Those first two seasons are excellent though.

Spoilers for the show:

There’s something kind of appropriate about how Sherlock “dies” and then the show keeps going. It’s like how Doyle killed off Holmes and then had to bring him back because of his popularity.

After that you’ve just got weird shit like Watson’s wife being revealed to secretly be some sort of special forces assassin and that there was a secret Holmes sibling all along. Considering how rabid the fans of that show are there’s something funny about it turning into something that’s like fan fiction.
 

-Arcadia-

Banned
It’s crazy how that show flew off the rails after season 2. Those first two seasons are excellent though.

Spoilers for the show:

There’s something kind of appropriate about how Sherlock “dies” and then the show keeps going. It’s like how Doyle killed off Holmes and then had to bring him back because of his popularity.

After that you’ve just got weird shit like Watson’s wife being revealed to secretly be some sort of special forces assassin and that there was a secret Holmes sibling all along. Considering how rabid the fans of that show are there’s something funny about it turning into something that’s like fan fiction.

I don't know if you've ever watched the creator's run on Doctor Who, but the exact same happened there. Even the recent Dracula had an interesting first episode, and by the third, was an absolute mess.

Sherlock, and the stuff you mentioned, might be the worst example, though. Its amazing that somebody even committed this to paper, let alone decided to film it. And that multiple others agreed, and thought it was fine.
 

DKehoe

Member
I don't know if you've ever watched the creator's run on Doctor Who, but the exact same happened there. Even the recent Dracula had an interesting first episode, and by the third, was an absolute mess.

Sherlock, and the stuff you mentioned, might be the worst example, though. Its amazing that somebody even committed this to paper, let alone decided to film it. And that multiple others agreed, and thought it was fine.

I think Doctor Who is a great example of how he’s a great ideas guy who needs someone reigning him in or filtering him. His episodes on Doctor Who before he took over as show runner are right up there among the very best the show has ever produced. But take the restrictions off so that he now has complete control of the show and it becomes directionless after a while.

The stuff I mentioned from Sherlock is something where I feel like I’m remembering it totally wrong and must be imagining it or mixing it up with some other show. It just feels so tonally disconnected from those first two seasons.
 

xrnzaaas

Member
Castle

It's easy to watch.
Castle was good for the first few seasons. I really hated episodes about Beckett's past and big crisises in the city and how the writers didn't want Castle and Beckett to be together. Heck, original plans of removing Beckett from the show's final season were like the ultimate insult to the fans of the show.
 
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Breakage

Member
Castle was good for the first few seasons. I really hated episodes about Beckett's past and big crisises in the city and how the writers didn't want Castle and Beckett to be together. Heck, original plans of removing Beckett from the show's final season were like the ultimate insult to the fans of the show.
I haven't watched it consistently, but I enjoyed what I saw. I heard there were difficulties between Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic.
 
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