District Double

I had always considered The District to be a lighthearted show and yet yesterday's double-bill had me close to tears.

The first episode involved Jack's relationship with his son. The son has got himself involved with a woman and drugs. The plot was a bit meladramatic and improbable. I couldn't understand why he would take ecstasy during the day to visit a police station - not the most sensible move. No wonder his father was disappointed in him. But it wasn't this main storyline that moved me - it was the subplot of a woman being kidnapped in the boot of a car and the team tracking her down. I shared their relief when they found her alive and thought I might cry with happiness!

The second episode was more openly tearjerking. A black cop goes undercover and is shot by an off-duty white cop. It had been has last undercover assignment which as soon as this was mentioned, I knew it wasn't going to end well. The white cop wasn't a bad guy either though and was stricken over what he'd done but others were trying to stir things up for political ends, making it into a race issue. The black cop died which I was rather shocked by, having previously assumed things always ended well in The District. It was a good episode but not much fun.

Canine Crime Fighters

If there is one thing I love more than detectives, its dogs.

Watching an episode of The District on Saturday, I saw Jack Mannion’s dog for the first time. It wasn’t on screen long enough for me to work out what breed it was but it was an adorable bundle of fluff. And it got me thinking about dogs in detective shows.

The Red Hand Gang had a dog, Boomer and Columbo sometimes hooks up with a Basset Hound in some episodes, but I’ve also been noticing a few other canines recently.

In an episode of Law & Order Special Victims Unit we watched recently, a woman is murdered in Central Park while walking her dog. Munch picks up the dog and takes it back to the station until they can identify the woman. I was rather disappointed when the dog was returned to its master quickly as I had hoped for a whole episode of Munch carrying a dog about – two of my absolute favourite things together!

Then in Homicide Life on the Street (we are working our way through Season 3) there was an episode featuring an illegal immigrant family who had eight children and four dogs and were all leaving in one motel room. Then last night, I was watched the episode Justice Pt 1 and again the murder victim was accompanied by his dog. I feel asleep before the second part, so I don’t know what happened yet but I’m convinced the dog knew something...

But the undisputed king of the dog detectives has to be Freeway from Hart to Hart, an unclipped Lowchen. For all Jonathan Hart might be a self-made millionaire and part-time sleuth, Freeway is probably brighter and cuter too. On Sunday, I watched an episode on the Screen Gems on demand channel where Freeway took centre stage – ‘Which Way, Freeway?’. In this episode, Freeway pairs up with Susie (possibly a Setter), solves a murder and foils a diamond heist. Not bad going for a small fluffy thing.

Talking to Cabbies

A double-bill of The District this afternoon. In the first episode, the Chief is concerned with crimes against cab drivers so some detectives go undercover to catch the criminals who target them. The trap works and one of the detectives finds himself being threatened by a criminal with a syringe of blood, the attacker claiming to be HIV+. Its a nasty, malicious crime (although it turns out to not be true) but what struck me most about this episode was the conversation the assailant had with the pretend cabbie beforehand. He asked the cab driver who long he'd been working and if he'd had a busy night. I thought this just happened in England, but apparently not - it would seem that world-over it is expected that you will make this same inane conversation with the cab driver, even if you intend to assault him!

A day of new discoveries

Today, I watched two shows I'd never seen before - Janek and The District.

Janek: A Silent Betrayal I suppose technically might be classed as a tv movie rather than a normal series, but still he was a detective I'd not come across before. The plot involved a producer of broadway musicals, played by a very hammy William Shatner - I couldn't quite decide whether he was hammy because the man was in the theatre business or just because Shatner isn't a great actor. Liev Schrieber was also in it, who I'd last seen in the remake of the Manchurian Candidate - I spent a lot of time during Janek trying to remember his name. There was a high body count (six I think) but the plot wasn't particularly gripping.

Next I watch an episode of The District. This seems to be on the Hallmark Channel pretty frequently but I've always assumed it be rubbish, basing this solely on a trailer I saw where the commissioner was demanding to find who had stolen his chocolate bar. Whilst there were moments of humour, it turned out to be more meaty than I'd given it credit for and I actually quite enjoyed it. There was a good balance between the crime and ongoing personal stories. I'll definitely be watching it again.

So now I'm off to bed to attempt an episode of Criminal Minds