Resolution Update

At the start of the year, I made several resolutions relating to this blog. It has gone way past the date in the year when most people give up on their resultions, so I thought I'd revisit them to see how I've done.

1. To update this blog more - I'm doing pretty well on this front. I've made double-figure posts each month so far and well on target for a bumper April.
   
2. To watch more detective shows - not so sure about this one. I have tried to mix things up a bit and watch a greater range of shows, but still room for improvement!
   
3. To discover at least one new show that I like - this has been achieved with Criminal Minds, I loved the first series and am keenly awaiting my next installment of it.
   
4. To work my way through the Remington Steele box set (22 episodes is looking pretty daunting right now) - very poor showing on this one, I'm afraid. I think I've watched about 8 episodes at the most.

Homicide: A Personal Response

The fourth season of Homicide has finally arrived on DVD. The OH’s parents kindly bought it for me for my birthday but we decided we couldn’t wait any longer so started watching it last night.

By way of introduction, we re-watched the final episode of Season 3 and then embarked on Season 4 and ended up having quite a Homicide marathon.

(Warning – if you have not seen the series but plan to do so, the following contains a huge spoiler).




The Season ended with Frank Pembleton having a stroke. It was pretty harrowing on first viewing back in September, but since then my aunt has had a stroke and is still in hospital, her progress being very slow.

The actual stroke scene in Season 3 was pretty bad, but storyline about the after effects in Season 4 reduced me to tears. There was a scene where he is raging about the coffee always running out, but to the confusion of his colleagues, he uses the word ‘bagel’. Then during his vital shooting test which he must pass to stay in homicide, he is unable to recognise the word ‘magazine’. These incidents were all too familiar as my aunt continues to confuse the words ‘yes’ and ‘no’ making the most basic of communications a struggle. The look of frustration on Pembleton’s face is one I’ve seen in real life.

Apparently audiences couldn’t stand to see him like this so(against the wishes of the actor, Andre Braugher ) he makes a sudden and full recovery. Sadly in real life there isn’t such a simple solution.

Crying Shame

Last night I watched an episode of 'New Tricks' on BBC1. I was feeling a little tired and emotional as, truth be told, I'd had a little too much to drink the night before, plus I was aching from my first ever yoga class. So I wanted something easy to watch, that wouldn't tax my brain too much, so I thought New Tricks would be ideal.

Unfortunately, I'd forgotten that it often makes me cry. Its James Bolam's character that does it mainly - with his mourning for his dead wife, talking to her shrine in the garden. To make matters worse, last night's episode was set in an old people's home. My gran has recently had to go to live in a home, as she needs constant care after a stroke, so it hit a bit of a raw nerve there. Suffice to say, by the end of the episode I was sobbing quietly to myself.

But this is not an isolated incident. I've cried at several detective programmes. Although detective shows are about death, they very rarely focus on grief or sadness - the solving of the crime is the focus, so I realise I'm not supposed to cry, but I have. Here are a few other incidents:

Homicide: Life on the Streets - 'The City that Bleeds'
The episode where three of the cops are shot had me in tears. It was by far the best episode of this series that I've yet to see which is saying something as it is always very good. What was particularly moving was the way the other cops reacted to the shootings. Somehow I don't think my workplace would be affected in such a way, but then working in the arts doesn't really have that sort of risk.


The Remorseful Day – the final episode of Morse
I knew he was going to die, I cried most of the way through in anticipation and was inconsolable when he collapsed. It was his loneliness that got to me. It reminded me of when our family dog, Rebel, went & lay in the snow to die.

Various episodes of Monk
I know it is supposed to be a light-hearted series, but sometimes the stuff about his grief for his wife just gets to me and I’ll have a discrete cry. I think there may have been tears in the episode when he wanted to adopt the little boy too. The episodes with his brother, Ambrose, also tug at the old heart strings, despite the ridiculousness of his character.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
I'm pretty sure this has made me cry on several occasions but the one that stands out most was the episode '911' in Season 7 where a little girl rings Olivia claiming she has been kidnapped and there is a race against time to find her.

Watching the Detectives Resolutions for 2008

• To update this blog more
• To watch more detective shows
• To discover at least one new show that I like
• To work my way through the Remington Steele box set (22 episodes is looking pretty daunting right now)

My ambition to solve the Zodiac killer mystery while I’m in San Francisco in March might be asking a bit too much and might get in the way of enjoying the sights.

The Unknown Stuntman

No detectives for me at all last night as I went to a pub quiz instead. There were no questions about detectives or crime shows for me to answer unfortunately - once there was a question about Columbo - it was a True or False question about whether Spielberg had directed an episode.

But there was a question about 'The Fall Guy'. Not really a detective show, but bounty-hunting does come under the wider category of law enforcement.

"What was the name of Lee Majors' character in The Fall Guy?"

Easy. It was even in a round where all of the answers involved animals.

Colt Seavers, if you didn't know.

I loved The Fall Guy as a child and I still have a soft spot for the theme song. I've been singing it to myself since last night which isn't good.

Just One More Thing

She re-enters the room unexpectedly, in the style of Columbo.



I got tired with this blog last year when I realised that my viewing habits weren't making for interesting reading. Rather than watching a couple of different shows a week, I had moved on to getting very very obsessed about one show at a time, watching a whole series of it, then moving onto another obsession. That didn't inspire me to write much and I didn't think anyone was reading this.



But today, I decided to revisit my detective blog and it turns out I did get two comments about a year ago!



So I'm going to revive this blog and perhaps I may find a couple of readers again.



Now, where should I begin? I've seen quite a few programmes since I last wrote...

Career Change?

I have thought about becoming a detective.

On more than one occasion. Even as an adult.

Putting aside childhood aspirations based on Red Hand Gang, Captain Caveman or Scooby Doo, my first proper thoughts about becoming a detective were raised by a programme that, rather shamefully, I now can't remember the name of.

I think it was a BBC programme (British anyway) and it was about two sisters-in-law who set up their own detective agency, after one of them used a private investigator to follow her husband who was having an affair. Newly liberated by her divorce and hoping to help other women in similar situations, she pairs up with her sister-in-law (whose circumstances I've forgotten - widowed perhaps?) under the guidance of the dishy detective who helped her. In the second (and I think final) series, the sister-in-law had gone and it was just the one woman.

I've tried searching for it on the internet, but Google has failed me. I know the title was the same surname twice with an 'and' e.g. Smith and Smith. I can't remember any of the stars or character names either.

But this show more than any other made me think it would be possible for me to be a detective. I even went so far as to look up local detective agencies in the Yellow Pages.

However, there were two things holding me back (besides not having a sister-in-law to go into business with and a handsome mentor):

1) I couldn't drive (and still can't). This makes following a suspect difficult - car chases would be somewhat one sided if I was on foot.
2) I'm terrible at recognising people. It wasn't just that I needed glasses (which I now have) but I just don't recognise people out of the context in which I'm used to seeing them. I walked past my own mother in the street once - I was only used to seeing her in our house. I'm rubbish at the picture round in pub quizzes and I've failed to recognise Kathleen Turner on five occasions (once in person, the rest on screen or in a picture). Again, this would make missing person work rather tricky.

I am incredibly persceptive and intuitive, but alas these skills are going to waste as I lack the more practical skills necessary for a career as a PI.

(I also look rubbish in a trenchcoat)

Barriers to Viewing

I wouldn't want to give the impression that all I do is watch detective programmes on television. I watch quite alot, but nowhere near as much as I would like to. The obstacles to my viewing pleasure are threefold:

1). I do have a life. I have to go to work. Today, I will miss The Rockford Files and Diagnosis Murder (not much as it is the school holidays so there are more kid's programmes & films on than usual). I also have a bit of a social life. Yesterday, I had to watch my OH and friends play cricket, which meant I missed Diagnosis Murder, Columbo and Perry Mason.

2). I share the television with my OH who is fanatical about sport (football, cricket, basketball, cycling, boxing - even darts and snooker).

3) I fall asleep very easily. Nothing to do with how interesting whatever I'm watching is - in fact it is more likely to happen if its something I'm enjoying. As a result, I've hardly seen a full episode of CSI.

Confessions of a Detective Show Junkie

I'm obsessed with detective programmes. I never tire of watching them, although I am starting to find that I've already seen most episodes of Columbo and Perry Mason.

I will watch any crime-related programmes - I like private investigators and police, but don't mind if the sleuthing is done by doctors, lawyers, authors or busybodies.

I like the grim 'n' gritty ones that make you question your faith in humanity - Cracker, Waking the Dead, Taggart, Morse. But also like the light-hearted ones - Monk, Diagnosis Murder, Moonlighting etc.

I am slightly concerned that I do prefer 'a good murder' to other sorts of crimes, as it is a rather morbid, but I will watch other types of crimes - as I said I'm not fussy.