|
Post by Nalkarj on May 13, 2017 1:42:42 GMT
A nice complement to my favorite mystery films thread. Here’s my top 10 in no particular order (keep in mind my fondness for the puzzle-plot). I can elaborate on my choices if anyone is interested. * Columbo* Jonathan Creek* Ellery Queen* Death in Paradise* Poirot* Sherlock Holmes (Jeremy Brett version) * Perry Mason (Raymond Burr version) * Colonel March of Scotland Yard* Monk* The tenth spot is tied between Nero Wolfe and Murder, She Wrote. While Wolfe is almost undeniably the better show, I haven’t really seen enough episodes for fairness, and MSW had enough above-par episodes to warrant a place on this list, though it’s nowhere near my favorite. *So what choices are in your top ten?*
|
|
|
Post by jamesottosweetheart on May 14, 2017 22:17:27 GMT
I love The Glades!
God bless you always!!!
Holly
P.S. WHO THE HECK SHOT JIM LONGWORTH???
|
|
|
Post by jamesottosweetheart on Jun 6, 2017 3:38:35 GMT
^^^ Every episode of The Glades was a "Who did it?" mystery.
God bless you always!!!
Holly
|
|
|
Post by novastar6 on Jun 6, 2017 4:06:18 GMT
Columbo Diagnosis Murder
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
@Deleted
Posts: 0
Likes:
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 6, 2017 14:17:41 GMT
Matlock
|
|
|
Post by louise on Jun 11, 2017 18:59:13 GMT
My favourites Midsomer Murders Columbo Inspector Morse lewis murder she wrote diagnosis Murdere Vera Poirot miss Marple (joan hickson version) inspector Alleyn
|
|
|
Post by Ass_E9 on Jun 12, 2017 19:21:19 GMT
Scooby-Doo!
|
|
|
Post by taylorfirst1 on Jun 13, 2017 21:03:27 GMT
Columbo is the best mystery series ever.
|
|
|
Post by geode on Nov 23, 2017 18:06:25 GMT
A nice complement to my favorite mystery films thread. Here's my top 10 in no particular order (keep in mind my fondness for the puzzle-plot). I can elaborate on my choices if anyone is interested. * Columbo* Jonathan Creek* Ellery Queen* Death in Paradise* Poirot* Sherlock Holmes (Jeremy Brett version) * Perry Mason (Raymond Burr version) * Colonel March of Scotland Yard* Monk* The tenth spot is tied between Nero Wolfe and Murder, She Wrote. While Wolfe is almost undeniably the better show, I haven't really seen enough episodes for fairness, and MSW had enough above-par episodes to warrant a place on this list, though it's nowhere near my favorite. *So what choices are in your top ten?* "Perry Mason" would be at the top of my list unless you count "The Fugitive" in this category.
|
|
|
Post by Nalkarj on Mar 7, 2018 20:25:29 GMT
I wonder if anyone here would be interested in discussing Agatha Christie’s Poirot (1989-2013). It was never a perfect show, but David Suchet was excellent at times, and I believe (as an acquaintance of mine wrote) that he understands Poirot’s character even better than Christie did! I’ve also been intrigued by the fact that many of the best episodes (with some definite exceptions) are from Christie’s middling or weaker books—whereas some of her stronger books make the weakest episodes (the adaptation of Roger Ackroyd is a particular offender)!
Favorite episodes:
“Murder in the Mews” (S1:E2)
“Peril at End House” (2:1, two-parter)
“The Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim” (2:5)
“Double Sin” (2:6)
“The Kidnapped Prime Minister” (2:8)
“The Mysterious Affair at Styles” (2:11, feature-length)
“The Million Dollar Bond Robbery” (3:2)
“Wasps’ Nest” (3:4)
“The ABC Murders” (4:1, feature-length)
“The Underdog” (5:2)
“The Chocolate Box” (5:6)
“Murder on the Links” (6:3, feature-length—this is what I mean by weaker or middling books being made into excellent episodes. MotL is one of Christie’s weakest, but the episode’s excellent—beautifully-directed, too.)
“Lord Edgware Dies” (7:2, feature-length)
“Murder in Mesopotamia” (8:2, feature-length)
“Five Little Pigs” (9:1, feature-length)
“Death on the Nile” (9:3, feature-length—the program’s masterpiece, in my opinion, and from Christie’s best book, too.)
“After the Funeral” (10:3, feature-length)
I haven’t seen the last few seasons/series except for the Murder on the Orient Express adaptation, which was awful.
|
|
|
Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Mar 8, 2018 10:12:47 GMT
Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries starring Essie Davis as Miss Phryne Fisher.
|
|
|
Post by deembastille on Mar 8, 2018 12:00:45 GMT
Tv movie wise... There are some really good ones from Hallmark.
Garage sale mysteries. With Lori Lochlan. Jewel (the musician from the 90's)...
|
|
|
Post by sweetpea on Mar 8, 2018 17:43:57 GMT
Yeeesh....I like all the ones mentioned-inc. Scooby. Although I have not seen the "newer" Midsomer's with the nephew yet. I will also include Endeavour.
|
|
|
Post by dirtypillows on Mar 9, 2018 11:33:41 GMT
A nice complement to my favorite mystery films thread. Here's my top 10 in no particular order (keep in mind my fondness for the puzzle-plot). I can elaborate on my choices if anyone is interested. * Columbo* Jonathan Creek* Ellery Queen* Death in Paradise* Poirot* Sherlock Holmes (Jeremy Brett version) * Perry Mason (Raymond Burr version) * Colonel March of Scotland Yard* Monk* The tenth spot is tied between Nero Wolfe and Murder, She Wrote. While Wolfe is almost undeniably the better show, I haven't really seen enough episodes for fairness, and MSW had enough above-par episodes to warrant a place on this list, though it's nowhere near my favorite. *So what choices are in your top ten?* All my mystery needs are more than satisfied by "Columbo". That show was fun.
|
|
|
Post by Nalkarj on Mar 11, 2018 19:55:56 GMT
Fun indeed, dirtypillows . I watched “Old-Fashioned Murder” last night—superb example of scientific, R. Austin Freeman-esque detection. (The show often alternates between Freeman’s style and that of his similarly-named disciple, Freeman Wills Crofts—and both Freeman and Crofts often pioneered inverted detective-stories, the Columbo format.) Not only is Columbo is super-brilliant in “Old-Fashioned Murder,” but it’s also beautifully-filmed and -acted; I think it may have to go on my favorite episodes list. The episode on just before it, “Fade in to Murder,” with Bill Shatner as the villain, has a brilliant alibi; intriguingly, it more belongs to the Chesterton-Christie-Carr “ intuitionist” school of detective fiction than to the Freeman-Sayers-Crofts “ realist” school. Other favorite episodes (again, you’re all more than welcome to post about your favorites too—I don’t want to hog this whole thing up!): Ransom for a Dead Man (’71) “Death Lends a Hand” (’71) “Short Fuse” (’72) “A Stitch in Crime” (’73) “Double Shock” (’73) “By Dawn’s Early Light” (’74) “Forgotten Lady” (’75) “Now You See Him…” (’76) “Last Salute to the Commodore” (’76) “Columbo Goes to the Guillotine” (’89) “Columbo Cries Wolf” (’90) Unless I’m imagining it, there was a Columbo in which the killer had a clever Croftsian alibi that involved apparently being in San Francisco while the murder was happening in Los Angeles; in reality, the villain had killed his victim and then flown his private plane to Frisco, making it in time for his meeting. The only problem is, I can’t find it on the episode list! I first thought it was the one with Johnny Cash, but it doesn’t look like it. Anyone know this one?
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
@Deleted
Posts: 0
Likes:
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 16, 2018 6:24:42 GMT
Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries starring Essie Davis as Miss Phryne Fisher. Was that good? I remember it being on but usually ignore the stuff on Australian TV because it mostly looks like cheezy crap. I really liked her in The Babadook and GOT.
|
|
|
Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Mar 16, 2018 10:12:41 GMT
Well, I can't really say whether the show would be your cup of tea or not, but I personally enjoyed it.
This trailer would probably do the best job of giving you a 'feel' for what the show's tone is like...
|
|
|
Post by shannondegroot on Mar 20, 2018 4:55:49 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Nalkarj on May 13, 2020 15:25:09 GMT
Just caught up on a few of the latest season/series (2014) of Jonathan Creek.
It’s awful.
That’s really too bad, because it was one of the greatest mystery TV shows of all time: entertaining, funny, with ingenious plots. (The 1998 Christmas special, The Black Canary, is super-brilliant.)
It’s not a change in talent: Creator David Renwick has written every episode, these last few included. Unbelievably, though, for this latest season he’s excised everything interesting or amusing about his own character (originally a cranky, eccentric magician’s ingénieur who lived in a windmill and whose trademark was a mane of shaggy hair and a rumpled old duffle coat) to make him a high-powered businessman (huh?!) who gets married and moves into a Midsomer Murders-y village. Again: Huh?!
As if the characterization whiplash weren’t enough (actor Alan Davies is good enough to sell the change, mostly), Renwick seems to have lost all talent for plotting. The last Christmas specials before this, The Grinning Man and The Judas Tree, had their share of plot flaws (The Judas Tree in particular), but they felt grand and interesting. In this season, Jonathan solves mysteries like these: How does a parish newsletter find gossip before anyone else? Why is a man peeing in the bushes? Was his wife’s mother having an affair?
How on earth are these supposed to be interesting? Renwick doesn’t have to give us a murder every episode, but at least come up with a burglary or something more than peeing in the bushes!
Gah. Worse, the first episode this season, “The Letters of Septimus Noone,” had an intriguing premise: a Columbo-esque inverted mystery in which we know who committed the crime and how, coupled with a spoof of Sherlock. Unfortunately, Renwick didn’t have the talent for the Sherlock spoof, so it went nowhere and, worse, was unfunny. The other mystery, Polly’s mother’s affair, was (1) boring and (2) obvious.
The second episode, “The Sinner and the Sandman,” was such an unmitigated disaster that the best part was why Polly had a fear of carrots. (Renwick, by the way, apparently can’t think of mysteries that fill an entire episode, so he gives three different minor town mysteries.)
I’m going to watch the third episode just to finish it off and then, unfortunately, give up on Jonathan Creek. If Renwick is no longer interested in mysteries, can he just end the show? — and if he still does want to continue the show, can he just hire a collaborator, ideally Robert Thorogood?
At its zenith, though, the show was unrivaled for plotting brilliance, even by Thorogood’s Death in Paradise. Oh, how the mighty have fallen, all right.
|
|
|
Post by Nalkarj on Aug 7, 2020 21:24:07 GMT
Do we have any Foyle’s War fans here?
From what I’ve heard of it, it doesn’t seem like my cup of tea, but a mystery blogger whose opinion I respect even when I don’t agree recommended one episode as the “finest example” of an old Agatha Christie trick (the murderer making it look like they were the intended victim). And I usually enjoy the work of series creator Anthony Horowitz (though I wasn’t a huge fan of Magpie Murders): his “I Know What You Did Last Wednesday” is the best Christie parody I know. If anyone has any recommendations for trying the show out I’d be more than willing to give it a go.
While we’re at it, any Elementary fans? That’s another show I keep meaning to check out but haven’t gotten around to.
|
|