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To Watch or Not To Watch

What a Question...

By Shalini AyrePublished 3 years ago 6 min read
2
To Watch or Not To Watch
Photo by David von Diemar on Unsplash

I’m always wondering what to look at next.

Whilst I enjoy watching movies, I’m more of a TV series person. Remote schooling, general housework, cooking dinner and writing means I have enough energy to watch a 25 to 43min television show otherwise the episode becomes part of my dreams. I see myself as a hummingbird when it comes to watching a program. I’ll happily flit from one show to another, discovering new characters or revisiting old ones. I won’t necessarily watch one because it’s popular – you know Game of Thrones or Bridgerton - in fact I tend to shy away from them until the hype dies down. Not one for always conforming I guess.

Anyway, because I like to flit (variety is the spice of life after all), it was difficult to recommend just the one series to watch next as my mind ran from one show to the next. So, I figured I’d guide you through a particular theme - Crime and Drama – is that two genres? Ah, never mind that it is, for this purpose I’ll club ‘em together. They kind of do go hand in hand - what is crime without the drama eh?

My recommendations are based upon my love of a good mystery. It just happens that these shows, in my humble opinion, have high production qualities, decent acting, good plots, engaging characters, evil villains, victims you can empathize with and moments of humor because life isn’t always serious. Yes, you can argue some are formulaic but I'm all for viewing that doesn't ask me to engage the brain cells too much. Remember, tired mom here...

If you’ve hardly ventured into this arena of TV shows, I recommend starting off with the classic CSI – Criminal Scene Investigation. The original version set amongst the bright lights of Las Vegas ran from 2000-2015 with episodes ranging from gruesome to funny. Midway they had a serial killer (The Miniature Killer) and one or two times the team faced danger themselves – kidnapping, drugging, being buried alive….in general it is a great series that you can dip back into later (whilst I liked CSI NY and CSI Miami, they’re not as good as the original).

CSI Vegas Episode: Fur & Loathing

I suggest then watching Law & Order (L&O) swiftly followed by the spin off Law & Order SVU (Special Victims Unit). I’m looking forward to seeing how good Law & Order – Organized Crime will be (starts March 2021), especially as it has the character Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) returning to NYPD. With L&O it stands to reason to watch Blue Bloods, a show more about the Reagan family than policing. The Rookie with Nathan Fillion is funny. It focuses on the new recruits of LAPD rather than the crime. Watching these led to 911 and its spin off 911 Lone Star. It stands to reason, I mean you can’t watch a cop show without the fire department, can we?

Stemming from L&O is Criminal Minds. A stark, unflinching series that has some excellent plot lines. From here I recommend two and half routes. The first (route) to watch FBI and it’s spin off FBI Most Wanted. From FBI, NCIS (the original, but I’ve caught a few NCIS New Orleans which were good, not interested in NCIS LA – but you may well like it), followed by S.W.A.T. From here a few new shows make the mark of ‘must watch’. All Rise, Bull and The Equalizer. If you watch NCIS from the beginning, you’ll see the character Tony becomes the trail scientist guy in Bull.

Queen Latifah as The Equalizer

An aside with All Rise and The Equalizer. I particularly love these two shows because, as a parent raising a girl, they show that women can hold powerful roles without losing who they are. That you can be feminine and kick ass (and as is the case for The Equalizer, quite literally). Simone Missick and Queen Latifah are exceptional actors bringing grit and poise to these characters and well, you’d be remiss to not watch them.

Simone Missick as Judge Lola Carmichael

The second route to follow on from Criminal Minds is to watch Elementary – a modern day Sherlock Holmes with Lucy Liu as Watson. Complex crimes, witty comebacks and great acting makes it a worthwhile watch. From here we take a boat ride to the UK and the plethora of shows to watch. Silent Witness, Shetland, Wallander, Endeavour (sigh) they’re all such excellent series. Brilliant acting, excellent plots, great characters. I could gush and wax lyrical about them, but it’s best to just to see for yourself. When they finished, I felt a little forlorn – what do I watch next…ha, the irony of writing this…

Oh, that half route? Instead of going to Elementary or FBI, you can head on over to watch Clarice. They’re only a few episodes in and so far but I’m hooked. It’s following Clarice Starling after she’s captured Buffalo Bill. Or, if Clarice isn’t just what you want to watch right now, skip to Endeavour. Elementary and Endeavour are two shows that have a character who is highly intelligent and dives into the minute detail of a case. Endeavour is based on Colin Dexter’s character Inspector Morse; this series focuses on his career before becoming an Inspector. This period drama will comfortably lead you to Father Brown, Poirot and Miss Marple. Sit down with a tisane or a cup of tea and a scone to watch these well-acted, engrossing shows.

Midsomer Murders is a long running UK TV show (1997 – present) that have stand-alone crimes/murders in various villages around the fictional area of Midsomer. It’s known that folks will take bets as to how many people get bumped off – there is a tendency for quite a few murders to take place in one seemingly, sleepy English village.

DCI Tom & John Barnaby

And because who doesn’t love a flow chart, I’ve created one that has a few other shows that highlight my randomness and flighty viewing. There are a couple of medical dramas in there. Now, full disclosure I didn’t watch Grey’s Anatomy so I’m not on the bandwagon over Patrick ‘Swoon’ Dempsey. And that was because I had just watched House – it would have been way too much medicine…says the girl who goes from one cop show to the next…ahem… Yet, if you were a fan of either House or GA, then The Good Doctor and Transplant are brilliant. From Transplant, I’ve made a link to Unorthodox, The Queen’s Gambit and Virgin River. I don’t think I can use the right words to express just how good they are without coming across and over the top and just too effusive. Watch them, they’re good.

Watch That, Watch This Flow Chart

So, that’s my ‘if you’ve watched this, then see this’ list. Okay, okay, like I admitted from the beginning, I’m not recommending just one show. There is some good tv out there. If it’s an engrossing series from the get-go i.e., gets me hooked, I’ll watch it.

Enjoy finding your new go to show!

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