As I mentioned elsewhere I finished The Wire last night and I am now in the process of finding something else to watch, no easy feat given my student/low work hours over the last few years.
None the less a start.
The Wire: 5 Series (finished), 10-13 episodes at an hour each.
Plain awesome. DVDs out in R1 and R2, series 1-3 in R4.
Deals with one case over an entire series and the bureaucracy very well.
Set in Baltimore, US
The Shield: 7 series (7 currently airing). Usually 13 or so episodes a series, 40 minutes with some longer episodes on DVD.
Also fantastic. Deals with corrupt cop in charge of a special team and the people around him.
DVDs a bit odd (different releases and delayed across various regions). Go with Sony if you can.
Do yourself a favour and grab Wins and Losses (series 5 DVD and in various other places, deals with the events in between series 5 and 6.
Set in Los Angeles.
Spooks (MI5 stateside): 7 series, 6 aired and on DVD. 7 on the way (next month or so depending on what I read). US people grab the DVDs or UK releases as adverts are more important the footage and to break the hour by hour "routine" would be sacrilege apparently.
10 or so episodes per series at an hour long each.
One of the few things I like from the BBC these days.
MI5 is one of the internal security services for the UK (somewhere between FBI and CIA if you want to compare to the US).
Set mainly in the UK.
Ignore the code 9 spinoff unless you are really bored (and I mean really bored: clean your house/room before settling into this).
Hustle 4 series (not sure about 5 right now) 6 episodes per series.
The other thing I like from the BBC.
Follows a group of con artists who specialise in "long-cons".
Set mainly in the UK but there are a couple of US based episodes.
I will leave others to write up shows (if you are going to include classic shows please let them have a DVD release) but others I watch include
NCIS (about my only hope for something decent this year). NCIS is the US navy criminal investigations people. If you can (no DVD releases yet) grab JAG series 8 episodes 20 and 21 (Ice Queen and Meltdown) as they are the pilot episodes.
Set all over the US and some elsewhere.
Law and order, also 3 spinoffs with 1 now cancelled.
Shows are normally two halves: investigation and the resultant legal wranglings.
Even though it is set way back the early series are fantastic.
CSI: I can not be bothered with the new york spinoff at all and the others will have to have something special to make me want to watch a later series.
And a final request.
A couple of years back a watched a US show on e4 (late at night so it is bound to be a repeat) or something here in the UK about an FBI investigation into a crime boss with a big focus on the undercover stuff (mainly in a brothel). If I could get a name that would be great.
None the less a start.
The Wire: 5 Series (finished), 10-13 episodes at an hour each.
Plain awesome. DVDs out in R1 and R2, series 1-3 in R4.
Deals with one case over an entire series and the bureaucracy very well.
Set in Baltimore, US
The Shield: 7 series (7 currently airing). Usually 13 or so episodes a series, 40 minutes with some longer episodes on DVD.
Also fantastic. Deals with corrupt cop in charge of a special team and the people around him.
DVDs a bit odd (different releases and delayed across various regions). Go with Sony if you can.
Do yourself a favour and grab Wins and Losses (series 5 DVD and in various other places, deals with the events in between series 5 and 6.
Set in Los Angeles.
Spooks (MI5 stateside): 7 series, 6 aired and on DVD. 7 on the way (next month or so depending on what I read). US people grab the DVDs or UK releases as adverts are more important the footage and to break the hour by hour "routine" would be sacrilege apparently.
10 or so episodes per series at an hour long each.
One of the few things I like from the BBC these days.
MI5 is one of the internal security services for the UK (somewhere between FBI and CIA if you want to compare to the US).
Set mainly in the UK.
Ignore the code 9 spinoff unless you are really bored (and I mean really bored: clean your house/room before settling into this).
Hustle 4 series (not sure about 5 right now) 6 episodes per series.
The other thing I like from the BBC.
Follows a group of con artists who specialise in "long-cons".
Set mainly in the UK but there are a couple of US based episodes.
I will leave others to write up shows (if you are going to include classic shows please let them have a DVD release) but others I watch include
NCIS (about my only hope for something decent this year). NCIS is the US navy criminal investigations people. If you can (no DVD releases yet) grab JAG series 8 episodes 20 and 21 (Ice Queen and Meltdown) as they are the pilot episodes.
Set all over the US and some elsewhere.
Law and order, also 3 spinoffs with 1 now cancelled.
Shows are normally two halves: investigation and the resultant legal wranglings.
Even though it is set way back the early series are fantastic.
CSI: I can not be bothered with the new york spinoff at all and the others will have to have something special to make me want to watch a later series.
And a final request.
A couple of years back a watched a US show on e4 (late at night so it is bound to be a repeat) or something here in the UK about an FBI investigation into a crime boss with a big focus on the undercover stuff (mainly in a brothel). If I could get a name that would be great.
