Second “The Fall.” Riveting stuff.
Not sure these are on Netflix. The next four are on AcornTV. If you like British shows, do get that channel for your Roku–it’s about $4 per month. (And get a Roku.)
The Last Detective
The Brokenwood Mysteries (This show has THE BEST Medical Examiner EVER.)
Inspector George Gently
Trial and Retribution (the protagonist is a real asshole)
I ADORED Death in Paradise, and I understand there will be more of them.
Love Endeavour–can’t wait for new episodes.
I tried Life, but Damien Lewis is so Homeland. I kept expecting Claire Danes to jump out at him in a psychotic rage.
As mentioned, Foyle’s War, The Killing.
The only Tinker on Netflix is the movie. A disappointment I have with Netflix is how little foreign stuff I found in the week I’ve belonged. I’ve seen very few shows mentioned in this thread. Maybe YouTube? All of Tinker there.
ETA: All of Smiley’s People, too.
ETAA: The Honourable Schoolboy, too!
OOPS! Schoolboy is an audiobook.
Columbo is on Netflix, and if you haven’t watched it, you should. Also, it looks really good in HD.
Does TOTL improve after the first ep?
Yes. Stop what you are doing and add this show to your queue. This is a wonderful show. It’s serious, but not as gloomy and dark as a lot of crime shows. Someone (probably here) described Foyle as having a “dignified masculinity”, which I thought was a good phrase. Foyle is pretty unflappable and self-possessed, but certainly not emotionless. Michael Kitchen can express a lot with a little facial movement and inflection.
+1 to both of these. We watched New Tricks up through year 9 when all the original characters got replaced, and then gave up. Great ensemble acting.
If you like these try
Murdoch Mysteries ( the series, not the couple of movies.) Steam punkish, starting in 1896 Toronto, with Detective William Murdoch, totally handsome but a real geek solving mysteries with the newest of technologies, like fingerprinting. One rocky season where they made it seem that spiritual stuff might be true, but after that it is getting better and better. With great guest stars - Tesla, Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Houdini, Arthur Conan Doyle, HG Wells and Winston Churchill.
One episode, about Toronto’s first elevator, is named “It Goes to Eleven.”
Also Australian is Mr. and Mrs. Murder, about people who clean up after messy murders and also solve them.
Scott and Bailey is worth a punt - well written and realised. 2 female cops, gritty, amusing, etc.
Not really in my opinion. As a New Zealander I was morally obliged to watch the whole thing but in my opinion aside from the stunning visuals and Holly Hunter being funny the series as a whole was a bit of a mess. I guess I’d sum it up as ‘Stig Larsson rewrites Twin Peaks in a New Zealand setting’.
I came into this thread to mention the Murdoch Mysteries. Netflix has the first three seasons. I love it so much I bought the other four (from Amazon and at no small expense) and understand that Season 8 is in production. Great series!
I also strongly encourage you to watch Foyle’s War. That was terrific.
Death in Paradise got old and predictable for me pretty quickly. The trope of the stuffy detective in his suit and tie sweltering in the beautiful Caribbean was boring.
Another vote for Murdoch Mysteries. It’s a truly endearing show.
Blue Murder
New Tricks
Death in Paradise
are all ones I cant stand.
I dont know what it is about New Tricks. I’ve REALLY tried with this one, but rarely have the interest to finish an episode. I cant put my finger on what exactly turns me off about this show - maybe its trying to be too complex.
Thelma Lous suggestions are good ones.
There are hundreds of quality British mystery series going back to the 70s that few know of. (Afterall UK specializes in this.)
For instance, you know Davidson starred in The Last Detective, but did you know that the actor that played Herriot in All Creatures Great And Small, was in a duo-detective series?
Ever heard of mystery-adventure series ,Hannah (I think that is how its spelled) staring Jesus Of Nazareth actor, Robert Powell?
What about the series staring Edward Woodward (The Wickerman)?
Both Wallander series are great in that they are serious and show the toll on the detective’s physical & mental health and family.
One of the first UK series to show the personal , off-duty consequences of this profession was Wexford.
I haven’t seen the original Swedish version, but I found the Kenneth Branagh Wallander relentlessly depressing. Like, absolutely nothing good ever happened to him, and if it looked like something might, it was spectacularly ruined one scene later. It seemed like 10-15 minutes of every episode involved silent weeping, slumping into chairs, staring morosely into space, etc. The murder cases were good, but I wouldn’t recommend binge-watching it like I did.
I came in to say Foyle’s War
This is exactly what makes it compelling.
Branagh does a superb job at it also.
Jonathan Creek is excellent and …different. I have always maintained a mystery does not necessarily HAVE to have a death to be interesting. There are one or two episodes here where it turns out its not a murder - in fact the best story is one of these. (Stars also the woman from the shitty Blue Murder series)
Frost - couldn’t really get into this series although I watched them all. (Seems more than a fair share of the stories have to do with elderly abuse and such)
Ruth Rendell Mysteries ( I think there are three sets of three)
Ruth Rendell Dalgleish mysteries (these are top standard by which the others are measured0 single episodes can be as long as 4/6 hours, so given much room to develop. Inspector Dalgleish is like Foyle - unshakable; dead calm. The later series, with the same actor wot played George Gently, is equally good
Miss Bradley Mysteries (actually I am watching these now. ) Diana Rigg and the actor that plays Barnaby’s brother in the latest midsomer Murders. 1920s (like Poirot) murders. Davidson of Last Detective featured on the surprize ending - The Worsted Viper.
Speaking of BarnaBUS - why not try the longest running series ever (over 600 episodes??) Dark Shadows. Very slow (for instance, from the very start takes something like 15 episodes before you find out who drained the car’s brakefluid.) but excellent acting.
Murder Most Horrid - this is great comedy fun with Dawn French (of the atrociously-bad, Vicar Of Dibley series)
Cribb - good Victorian murder mysteries with the pockmarked actor from Heartbeat playing the sideman.
Father Brown -watch the origional series. Way better than this new one.
Inspector Lynley mysteries
Miss Marple -all are tophole, but the early ones with the actress Joan are class
all the way
The Wyvern Mystery (by Sheridan Le Fanu ) with actor Derek Jacobi of medieval mystery series, Cadfael
Anyone seen this new series, Penny Dreadful? I guess its Victorian murder.
Well-known UK series:
Dalziel & Pascoe you just can’t go wrong with Warren Clarke (who recently passed on)
Zen
Single-handed
Cracker
Prime Suspect
Waking The Dead (didn’t much care for this - but watchable. Seemed somehow American wot with all the forensic bullshit. By the way, about this spate of US forensic murder series: like everything else that works on film, America stole from UK. One of the early UK -well, scots really - forensic/morgue series was Hannah)
Rebus
Pie in the Sky light & good
Rosemary & Thyme
Macbeth (well…sort of light comedy-drama mystery - like a scots equivalent of Ballykissangel only Hamish is a lone village cop. Like I said , Mystery doesn’t have to be a murder. It can be the case of the missing salt.)
We’re busy watching season 7 on Netflix. It’s not on streaming though.
Miss Fisher season 2 is now being shown on some PBS stations. I saw one in Washington and one of our smaller ones is showing it now.
Just finished watching all four episodes of Hinterland that Netflix had available. Beautifully shot in a dazzling, minimalist landscape. Lots of empty fields, few trees. The episodes could be shorter by one-third if the hero spent less time staring into the middle distance and glowering like Russell Crowe. He’s a man of very few words who makes Leroy Jethro Gibbs look verbose. Still, it’s worth a look.