More Television

[morgan_dhu]

I used to watch a lot of modern police procedurals - the CSIs, the L&Os, a few others - but I've really been falling away from them in the past year. I suspect that, once the writers' strike is over and new episodes of shows are flowing (that is to say, next season, one presumes), very few of them will be left on my weekly watching list.

But oddly enough, I've just started watching, and enjoying, two historical police procedurals:

The Murdoch Mysteries is set in Toronto in the 1890s and features police detective cum amateur natural scientist William Murdoch, who bring the use of unorthodx investigative tools such as fingerprints and primitive forensic science to his crime-solving. I'm not going to claim it's great television, but it's fun in its own modest way. The made for TV movie I saw, which starred Peter Outerbridge rather than the recast series lead Yannick Bisson, was rather better in many respects, but it's still amusing.

City of Vice, a new British series that I've been ::aheming:: for the past two weeks, is rather of a different quality. Set in London in 1755, it's a fictionalised account of the Bow Street Runners, and has so far been much less anachronistic as well as featuring better writing and acting. I'm quite intrigued so far.

Other than that, my viewing list of current TV shows, setting aside the standard news, documentary and political satire shows that are the things I always watch if I happen to be around a TV set when they're on, consists of:

The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Torchwood
Criminal Minds

The only things I see myself adding to this list at the moment are Doctor Who and ReGenesis when the next seasons of each are available, and Blood Ties if it survives.

In non-current shows, I've recently ::ahemed:: the first series of The Sarah Jane Adventures which, despite being very much for a younger audience, were rather fun. At least enough that if they really do make a second series, I'll ::ahem:: that too.

And, a special announcement just for hawkeye7:

I've watched the first four episodes of Blake's 7 and I am hooked. It's exactly the kind of dismal dystopian future universe with a band of misfits struggling to raise some kind of resistance against the evil totalitarian overlords kind of thing I love. And so far it's smart, and the character dynamics are interesting to watch. It's got story arc, it's got ethical questions and quagmires, appears not to have a reset button, and I'm not sure why I failed to investigate it and appreciate its greatness before.