by Julia Lawson
Cop shows take up a huge chunk of my Dad’s TV week. You have the American line-up of high action dramas featuring the good, the bad and the ugly of celebrity guest appearances, grisly murders and interrogation room politics (not always in that order mind you) against the complex British whodunnits, with Police documentaries filling the void in between.
Cop shows take up a huge chunk of my Dad’s TV week. You have the American line-up of high action dramas featuring the good, the bad and the ugly of celebrity guest appearances, grisly murders and interrogation room politics (not always in that order mind you) against the complex British whodunnits, with Police documentaries filling the void in between.
It would be rude not to start with CSI. “Which one first?” we all cry in unison. CSI is firmly rooted in the TV schedules with multiple reruns of the many series with the three key CSI locations on offer: Las Vegas, Miami and New York. It is easy to lose track of the whens and wheres, so case after case and rerun after rerun we can all still enjoy unravelling the mysteries of murder. And FYI there are six episodes on Father’s Day.
Following swiftly on comes NCIS, and NCIS: Los Angeles. Pinching some of CSI’s multiple location thunder, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service attends to a very niche market of murdered marines, but nevertheless fills season after season. Highlights would have to be Mark Harmon (Gibbs) shouting ‘NCIS’ at suspects and the famous DiNozzo head slap.
The Mentalist and Castle – both twists on the policing theme featuring double acts between female cops and their sometimes unwanted sidekicks. Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) a former psychic helps the CBA and FBI with a wide range of cases, as always never quite as they first seem. Castle (Nathan Fillion) uses his experience as a crime novelist to shine a light on cases in an upbeat take on crime in the city.
The cross-over between Sci-fi and ‘Crime fighting’ seen in Person of Interest is the smorgasbord of Dad TV: vigilante justice in the big city with a giant surveillance machine monitoring the gangs and riff raff trouble makers. Smart writing, ‘borrowed’ cars in New York chases and a network of dirty cops – job done.
In the UK a wide range of channels have jumped in their police cars sirens blazing to keep this genre on top form. Border Control and Police Interceptors keep us based in reality while ITV is offering Midsomer Murders, set in possibly the most unlucky fictitious county in the history of policing, and Lewis flying the flag for Oxford homicide. More shows are set to be released in the coming months… but outside of the Father’s day bracket…
What's your Father's favourite TV Genre? Sci-Fi? Fantasy? Gritty Drama? Tell us all about it in the comments!
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