I always have the captioning on due to hearing problems, so no prob there. I’m amazed that people are bothered by them. I’m bothered if I don’t get every word of dialogue.
These are very helpful suggestions, people. Thank you. 
One of my all time favorite shows. However, when it got cancelled on American TV and Paul Gross kept it going on Canadian TV and syndication the quality went way down. The first two seasons were great with Paul Haggis at the helm and the first Ray.
BTW, since you mentioned Paul Gross, I’d like to recommend another series he created called Slings and Arrows. It’s not a police/crime/detective show (it’s actually about a Shakespearean theater group), so it’s not what the OP was asking for, but it’s excellent.
Before Michael Chiklis was the brutal Detective Vic Mackey in “The Shield,” he was the affable, chubby Commish on ABC’s eponymous series.
I’ll look for it. Thanks.
I LOVED The Commish and the Commish himself. He was an example of a guy who is not good-looking by commonly accepted [del]accounting practices[/del] standards, but was very attractive and sexy.
I watched the first episode of Inspector Morse last night (1987) after having just watched the last episode of Inspector Lewis. Talk about time travel! It was amusing seeing that baby-faced Robbie Lewis. Not to mention the big shoulders on the women and wide ties on the men.
It’s interesting to go back to the beginnings of long-lasting series (this happens with the original L&O) before cell phones. Lennie Briscoe was always running to a pay phone to check in with the “Lieu.” In today’s shows (and *Lewis is/was one of the worst) a cell phone rings in someone’s pocket just about every two minutes and inevitably, while the cop is interviewing a prime suspect. Actually, usually it’s two detectives interviewing a suspect, and ONE of them gets a call and has to leave the room.
*Anyone remember that in the books The Saint smoked a cigarette every two minutes.
I will defend Elementary as a being a true and just updating of the Holmes franchise. And not merely because I like Lucy Liu’s legs (though I do, and hope they will continue to show them off).
No one’s yet mentioned New Tricks. It’s a BBC series about a group of retired police detectives who are called back in to form a new squad to investigate cold cases. It’s been running for about ten years now. I’m not a regular watcher, but i enjoy tuning it in from time to time.
I am a fan of the Jonny Lee Miller version and the Cumberbatch version. I like them on their own merits. I like the British version better but only because they are able to do it the BBC way. 3 episodes per season. No way they would be able to maintain the series if they were doing 24 episodes in a season. Elementary holds up pretty well considering the volume they have to maintain.
The Bletchley Circle is good. It’s a post-WWII mystery featuring four women who worked as codebreakers at Bletchley Park, and are now having trouble being satisfied with their unglamorous post-war lives. It’s sedate and cerebral, but the first series is about the hunt for a serial killer so it has a few gruesome scenes. Series one is available on Netflix Instant; I’m waiting on series two.
I’m not that old (ok sometimes I feel like it). When I started working we learned were all the pay phones were, especially the ones at gas stations where we go drive up and not get out of our cars. If we were asked to call in by phone and didn’t have any change we would just dial 911. Just a few years later we all had cell phones.
You probably already know of it, but the A&E version of the Nero Wolfe mysteries are just what you are looking for.
I loved this brief series!
I had forgotten about Nero. I’ll check him out.
I liked Mr & Mrs Murder. It’s an Australian series about Nicola and Charlie Buchanan, a husband and wife team who run a cleaning business. They specialise in cleaning up crime scenes and usually end up solving the crimes for the police. It’s funny and sweet and most definitely a kinder, gentler type of crime show. I love the relationship between the lead characters - they’re so genuinely happy together. They’re best friends and an excellent team and comfortably, steadily, head over heels in love.
I discovered a channel on my Roku called “acornTV,” which streams British programs exclusively, past and present. Virtually all of the British series recommended above are available, including some I’ve never seen offered on TV here (like Mr. & Mrs Murder). It also offers comedies, drama, and documentaries. For $4.99/month.
Sort of like an Australian Hart to Hart, isn’t it?
I watched the three Inspector Morse episodes that comprised the first season.I know it takes a while for a character to find him/herself in a series, but geez… I couldn’t stand him. Skipped ahead to season three, hoping the character had filled out/solidified/become less obnoxious, but no luck. Rude, cranky bastard. All the drinking and all the hitting on women (sometimes on a widow when her husband was still on a slab in the morgue)-- not my cup of tea.
I don’t mind a wounded/troubled protagonist or a man who is full of self-doubt-- Horatio Hornblower is one of my favorite characters in fiction/film. But Morse is just plain full of himself.
Skipped ahead to season six and still haven’t seen why everyone has such good things to say about him and the show. I’ll keep trying. After I watch a few more Morse, I’m going to go back and watch Endeavour, which I have already seen, but before I had ever seen a single episode of IM, so I had no frame of reference.
Meanwhile, I’ve started watching Foyle’s War on my new fav Roku channel, AcornTV. Now THERE’S a classy guy. Quiet, intelligent, subtle, gentle–but can be hard as nails when need be. A man of integrity. The opposite of a bully–always in control.
The setting is so interesting–Britain in 1940. The plots are complex, reflecting the complex times, and the production values are first class. In fact, it’s a first class series. Michael Kitchen is a dead ringer for that very classy John Mills.
P.S. Not missing DirecTV one single bit. And not missing the $92/mo I used to pay.
These are non-fiction shows and they are gussied up for public consumption (ie the police are edited to seem as trustworthy and non-intimidating as possible) but Police women of Dallas is a good show. So is the first 48. The shift is also good.
Police women of Dallas is more about street cops, whereas the first 48 and the shift has a lot of detective work.
I guess it depends on what you mean by ‘kinder, gentler’. Do you mean less blood, gore and human misery or do you mean kinder, gentler cops?
Murdoch Mysteries is on there…I’d do that next if I were you!
Right-o!
I rather enjoyed Blue Murder with Caroline Quentin. There were murders to be solved, domestic issues (particularly those of the protagonist, Janine and there was humour. An enjoyable watch and I wish it was still being made.