Without A Trace

Have to say I find Anthony la Paglia somewhat stiff but that may very well be the writing . I like the idea of the show but I think it is riddled with cliches . American tv is not renowned for pushing the boundaries. You can't get a good detective drama nowadays . Taggert lost McManus , Peter Falk has done is time as Columbo and John Thaw is dead . ITV's recent offering Jericho beckons us back to the 50's and I think that's very clever . The public had faith in the police then and that's what ITV are banking on , a good old fashioned detective. A personality .
Anthony La Paglia can't project because the script doesn't allow it . I find it repetative .
 
Yes, I enjoy it very much indeed. But then, I like ALL the current US cop shows and watch the lot! I loved 'The Shield', with its knife-edge storyline about the bent cops working their own little deals. I love CSI:Miami, even if everyone looks too, too well-groomed for such a humid climate. Yes, love the lot of them!

I find our own offerings a strange crew: Midsomer Murders is full of completely wooden acting, and every bit as twee as a Miss Marple, but I still enjoy it (and for a tiny village, it must be the world's Murder Capital with the ratio bumped off weekly). I'm finding Ray Winstone a bit tiresome with his bawling and shouting about bugger all in 'Vincent', and the pointless intrusions of his dopey ex-wife. Perhaps a spot in 'Eastenders' would suit, where they all bawl and shout all the time. 'Jericho' has done a terrific green-screen job at replicating a small, seedy part of 1950s London, but I'm waiting for more than just one character to develop.

That's what I like about the US stuff - you get your main character, but all of the others carry their weight in their parts, they're not just add-ons to act as the goofball or the straight man or some muddled, peripheral lurve interest. NYPD Blues was probably one of the best ever shows - everyone got a full-on personality to develop, with good back stories as well as running themes that took you from show to show and series to series.
 
I always wonder about the people in show's like Murder She Wrote, if that authoress turned up where I lived, I'd feck off on holiday sharpish. Woman is a walking jinx. Father Brown is another one. Who needs a priest like him in the parish??

Actually, now I think about it, are they covert members of the E.Dead Group ?? :ph34r:
 
I've watched this from the start on TV and find that they have a good variation of stories.
Anyone know when NYPD Blues is coming back please?
 
I saw Without A Trace last week, it was good. ONly time I've caught it so far though.

Kri - do you really think that our programmes are poor at the moment? Yes, the ones you mentioned don't do it for me either but there has been some fantastic stuff put on by both BBC1 & ITV lately, the likes of Spooks, Waking The Dead, Messiah, Miriam Again, Class of 76, last night's Cold Blood and more. Cold Blood last night was very good.
 
I watched Cold Blood last night and stepped out of the room for a moment. When I came back in the closing credits were rolling. It must have been a very abrupt ending :unsure:

Jericho was promising but I didn't think it lived up to the hype. It might need a second series for it all to come together but I can't say I didn't enjoy it.
 
Shadz - well, yes, sweetie, I do! I'm sick to death of everything being pitch-black (look, guys, 'noir' is a genre, not a total lack of lighting!) as in Waking the Dead, Messiah, Silent Witness (saints preserve me from any more ethereal bloody forensics wimmin gazing into middle distance!)! I can't stand Messiah - it is pure blood lust from start to finish, and Ken Stott's another gloomy, ugly bastad. We have SO MANY gloomy, ugly bastads!

Even Inspector Lynley was gloomy, ridden by personal/domestic angst, his Cockernee sidekick was too shabby and tatty for words. Yes, yes, I think we've got the chalk 'n' cheese bit, Mr. Director! And as for

(I'm stopping her now, as she hasn't medicated for the past 4 hours. Ed.)
 
I agree with Jon , bad lighting does not make noir . Is it me or are there 101 different itv drama specials all with the same plot ! I would honestly prefered that they show old episodes of Columbo which were inovative in their time . I think that the recent stuff has relied on cobbling together bits of other successfull movies .The writers of Silence of the Lambs should be sueing left right and centre and David Fincher , the author of Seven could have the writer of Messiah on bbc up in court in a second !! I wish that the commisisioning editors realised that there is a significant difference between recognising what the public want and producing a product which bears too many similarities to their inspiration to be original . Someone is getting paid well for exploiting other peoples ideas and that 's not good .
 
Oh, yes, SE7EN was stolen blind, wasn't it, Sols? What a fantastic film that was! I must admit that that scene where the motorbike courier is spotted coming in the desert was incredibly foreboding. As dear old Morgan Freeman senses what's in the box before Brad Pitt opens it is the point at which you think "Oh, no, it can't be..."! A brilliant plot, fabulous acting.

Did you take a look at the new series, NUMB3RS, which began on ITV on Monday, Solerina? Apart from getting a bit fed up with cutesy numbers in titles (or t1tle5) I thought it wasn't a bad premise: getting a young egghead mathematician to work out the location of a murderer. As someone who managed 9/300% on a tri-Maths test, chucking equations and algebraic symbology all over the screen proved entertaining but meaningless, but for anyone hooked on Sudoku, the series should be addictive!
 
I enjoyed it, but as someone with the numerical equivalent of dyslexia (or so it seems!), did the equations actually make sense, Pee? Did anyone follow the arc/triangulation theories and see if they worked out? And could/do such theories get used at all in police mapping?
 
That's good, isn't it? One of my raceday colleagues is an ex-DCI and is highly critical of most cop shows, mostly on procedural details. He's currently in hair-tearing mode over Trevor Eve in 'Waking the Dead' with his reckless disregard for the preservation of all evidence - since the police and their peripheral organisations are supposed to preserve it ALL, whether it's of assistance to the defence or the prosecution. "The man has set himself up as judge and jury! That's a terrible example to set!" he fumes, before going to on to shred most of the procedures in other shows.

Clearly, then, the shows in no way mirror the scrupulously unbiased gathering of evidence by our Police force.
 
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