As time goes on, approaching age 76, I am less active and watching more TV, at least from 5PM on. To qualify, I never watch news or any sports except the Denver Broncos, and for that I can offer no rational explanation. Of course the NFL is rigged for the other 31 teams, but not the Broncos! I do like detective fiction more than any other genre. It offers a kind of cleanliness that I don’t find anywhere else, that is, they only focus on problem solving. If they want to throw in propaganda for the hoi palloi, I am gone. I lose WSOD, or willing suspension of disbelief.
For instance, and this is not detective fiction, but I did watch episode 1 of The Pitt. In it they had a flashback scene in which Dr. Michael Robinavitch, played by Noah Wyle, was was in a room filled withs stretchers, maybe fifty people dying of Covid despite doctors’ attempts to save them. This ran head on against my experience from 2020 when independent-minded people all over the country were going to hospital emergency rooms, getting as close as they could, only to find … crickets. There might have been card games or wheel chair races, but there were no patients. It was all a TV show, ala Wag the Dog.
This is how propaganda becomes “reality”, via television fiction. The Covid-19 plague was fake, but over time it is inserted into our day-to-day TV experiences, and soon enough will become that reality. (Already has!) Thus in TV and movies do we have heroes rescuing victims of 911, from cops to paramedics and rescue personnel to fire fighters. They are all fake. Further, they are also doing false grave sites for victims. We were at Babylon Rural Cemetery on Long Island a couple of years ago, and came across this headstone, easily seen to be fake. If not, why are not beloved spouse, children, parents, siblings and friends not keeping up the grave? Why is it stuck in a far corner of the cemetery, right up against the fence, and allowed to go to seed?
This is not even what I sat down to write about. Dammit! It’s as if I am watching my fingers have their own party on the keyboard.
I have been watching a couple of television series, and after then discovering that they are considered “film noire”. They are gripping, suspenseful, well acted and written. The two I’ve watched are British and Scottish. The film noire genre came out of the 1940s and 50s, and I’ve never been sure of what it is, really. “Noire” is the French word for “black.” It is generally, as I now see looking back, suspenseful movies about cops or detectives, moody and with subtly gray or dark lighting. But moving into the current era of in-home movie-quality television, the darkness has to come from more than just lighting, and so most of it must be delivered by the characters and script.
In Broadchurch, a British TV series that lasted three seasons from 2013-17, an eleven-year old boy is killed, found on a beach, and it is left for for two cops, played by David Tennant and Olivia Colman, to solve the case. (Note photo to right, and how dark it is! I just now noticed that.) It takes eight episodes, a challenge of our era, as everything has to be stretched out. So bits and piece of crimesolve are introduced at intervals, most of them false leads. The acting and writing are superb, and I have now watched all three seasons. There are no truly “happy endings” for any of the cast. They have to accept death of a loved one and move forward, and all have their own problems too. It is harder to move on for some, as with the father of the victim, who is still in psychic pain in season three.
Department Q is another, this one Scottish, and for that reason, I love the accents and humor. For instance, DCI Moira Jacobson (Kate Dickie) tells a detective she has something new for him to look into. He says “A case?” “No!” she snaps. “My hemorrhoids. Of course a case!” Here the lead detective Carl Morck is played by Mathew Goode (pictured left, and again, notice the lighting!). He was shot through the neck on the job, has survivor’s guilt and is angry and annoys the hell out of everyone. So, he is sent to the (dark) basement to run his own cold case show, since he apparently cannot be fired. He is assisted as time goes on by Akram Salim, played as a Syrian immigrant by Alexej Manvelov, and DC Rose Dickson (Leah Byrne). Both are excellent, Akram especially adding a sane offset to Morck. He’s an enigma, no one really knowing what he did in Syria, but busting forth with kindness, insight, and physical skills on occasion as needed, surprising everyone.
As part of the cast, there was an actor whose face I recognized, and you surely know how that works. Where have I seen her before? Her name is Kelly MacDonald, and she played Carla Jean Moss in No Country for Old Men. I vaguely remember reading that they had used a Scottish actress for that part. She had to speak American, and did a fine job.
Since this show (8 episodes, of course) came out just last year (2025), maybe I should not spoil the plot other than to say an attorney disappears, is gone for four years and hence qualifies as a cold case, and we viewers are told from the beginning where she is and why no one can find her. The detectives only so very slowly find their way to her. The rest I will discuss in the comments and will label them “spoiler alert.”
I was so taken in by these two series that I looked into them, and thereby discovered that they are dark and moody film noire, which is why I got so involved. Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980), the Canadian professor who specialized in describing media, said of TV that it is a “hot” medium in which we fully participate, jumping though the screen and becoming part of the goings-on. I did not realize it until I ended my journey through these two shows that this is what I had done. Even as our television sets are now large (ours 40 inches) and looking more like movie screens (movies are a “cold” non-participatory medium according to McLuhan), it is still TV. It still grabs us and inserts us in the plot.
The above two series are on Netflix. I looked around for other television of this quality, and AI suggested the following, about which I know nothing:
- Marcella (British Nordic) (Prime)
- The Fall (Irish, set in Belfast) (Prime)
- Deadwind (Finnish) (Netflix)
- Line of Duty (British) (Prime)
- Mare of Easttown (American) HBO
- The Tunnel (set on border, UK-France) (Prime)
The quality is so high on what’ve I’ve seen, my involvement almost addictive to the point of needing to quit mid each episode), that I don’t ever think I can sit back and watch Rockford Files, as I did last year. My how TV has changed.
Piece of Mindful 
Department Q: Excellent; the production matches the book fairly. I have read all of Jussi Adler-Olsen’s books – excellent. The characters are outstanding… Mark is correct: Kelly MacDonald is great – she always is. The mental aspects handed with our lead man are true to form. The bad guys, are… bad – believably bad. Alexej Manvelov as Akram Salim is, once again outstanding. A rare treat this series is.
I think that Marcella fades near the end, but otherwise very good.
The Fall: YIKES, Gillian Anderson as beautiful as ever as DSU Stella Gibson – if that matters to you – confronting the status quo in a man’s world. Jamie Dornan as Paul Spector barely pulls off the horror of a sexual predator, but I let it slide because the rest is very good.
Deadwind: Excellent.
Line of Duty: Excellent.
The Tunnel: Excellent.
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Thanks.
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Yes watching TV requires a lot of free time, which I don’t have. Last series I binge watched was the Wire almost 20 years ago while finishing grad school. You’re correct the shows are getting better, and probably more addictive, which is why I won’t watch anything made after ~2000 any longer. If I need something to watch while I have nowhere to go like on a plane I’ll binge on Tom Baker Dr. Who episodes, which are hoky but extremely well acted and immersive, as you said about TV drawing one in.
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I’ve got to give Dr. Who a try, heard so much about it.
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Dr Who has a strong Masonic theme. Dr Who is a timelord from Galifrey, and the timelords act and look like Masons in their ceremonies, and in their idea that they “control time” and are the steady hands guiding the universe.
Tom Baker has a very large aquiline nose, and MM would probably say he has Phoenician roots – which may be so, but a damn compelling actor with a great physical presence.
One of the most interesting bits of trivia is Dr Who was supposed to premier on November 22, 1963. Yeah, that November 22. Just like Dr Strangelove was scheduled to premier that day. And both were postponed due to the “tragedy” that occurred. Go figure. FYI Clues Forum has some good deep dives on that topic which is where I originally picked up that info.
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Re movie-quality television
It does seem like the bar has been raised in many ways, from what modern TV I’ve seen.. certainly in terms of “production values,” overall, it’s generally more “cinematic.”
There’s an argument that it’s still “just TV,” at least per Quentin Tarantino. He avers that he got into Yellowstone and felt like it was “movie quality” for a few seasons. Then realized he was basically forgetting it all until the next gripping installment – it didn’t reshape him or stick with him forever the way a powerful movie viewing experience could. It was still soap operatic, a manipulative form of empty calories designed to put butts in seats week after week. He said that Homeland’s first season was like a “real movie” in long form right up to how they resolved it in the season finale.
I’m not agreeing or disagreeing, just throwing it out there as an interesting take.
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Check out movie: Wind River. Although filmed mostly in Utah, the Rez they deal with has ownership of the approach land i use outside Lander, WY.
Awful subject. ________________________________
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It seems Taylor Sheridan is rewriting history via movies and TV. He’s everywhere. His shows are crazy violent and far-fetched. Native Americans are portrayed as stoic heroes, that is, when they actually use Native Americans to portray them. In Yellowstone, two of the lead characters are portrayed by a Chinese woman and half-comanche hispanic … maybe. Lou Diamond Phillips played Henry Standing Bear on Longmire. He’s Philippino/ Scotch Irish. Real Indians don’t get too many parts. Graham Greene, Wind in His Hair, was native. Just died last year.
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Mark you said you liked detective fiction and shows which got me to thinking about what police actually do, and what is a myth. I believe police, in general, do not actually solve crimes, or do much real investigation, or anything near what they portray on television and the movies. My experience with the police, and crimes committed against myself or people i knew is they don’t investigate most crimes, except sometimes the most serious crimes, and even then I’m not sure how much effort actually goes in, unless the victim is rich and/or connected, and then it’s completely different. The idea of these passionate cops solving crimes left and right is about as real as fearless investigative journalism. Cops take orders, and don’t put resources into things they aren’t told to.
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Speaking of movies people are finally seeing the BS that is the Epstein files story, and the absolutely obvious fact that his death was faked. A guy that connected – if he ever existed for that matter – hangs himself? HAHA.
Of course they have to get all specific with a body double idea, for the conspiracy candy seekers. If Epstein even existed he wouldn’t have been sent to Rikers island.
Is Jeffrey Epstein Still Alive? Chilling ‘Body Swap’ Theory Returns as DOJ Records Identify 4chan Prison Insider | IBTimes UK
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I guess he existed in some sense – just started watching this interview of him with Bannon they released. So far, he starts giving a little MMT adjacent econ lesson, with some social and political anecdotes and analysis.. and Bannon continually derails to ask less interesting, unrelated questions rather than letting him finish any points. I wish I knew the supposed context of the interview, supposed time filmed, supposed reason it was only released now, etc…
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I’m surprised Miles Mathis published a paper with Chomsky assuming this Epstein story was real. Even if Epstein is a real person, i cannot believe the people who supposedly went to Lolita Island went there to get a massage from 16 year old runaway girls. It’s just so totally absurd. Even if these elites had a predilection for young girls, couldn’t they just have them “delivered” to wherever they were? Or go someplace like Mexico or southeast Asia and get their jollies for a while? They all had to fly with Epstein and take holiday snapshots with their arms around 16 year old tarts? C’mon man. If there was ever an “eyes-off” story this seems to be one. I.e stage something to do with sex and power, which attracts people like bugs to a flame.
I don’t have the time or inclination to look at the Epstein files, but it seems a clever fake, because even if for example Bill Clinton went down to Lolita island several times, that is no crime in itself. Having a picture taken with your arm around a young woman is no crime either. No matter what happens, i guarantee no one of importance will ever be convicted of anything Epstein related. Now no one talks about the improprieties of the Clinton foundation, in part because of this eyes off operation which will keep the public enthralled for decades, all manufactured BS in my opinion. Including the Chomsky connection, another untouchable.
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Truly.. yes, I haven’t checked Mathis lately, but I read some articles on the Chomsky connection. Quoting his emails with Epstein etc. Feels very bogus, absurd, written with a smirk “from a subbasement in Langley” etc. I guess they just like to tank peoples’ heroes at the end of their runs or something..
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My break with Chomsky, years too late (Howard Zinn too): Pentagon Papers. Total spook show
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Willing suspension of disbelief is all it is, problem solving. Of the many forms the crimes are presented to us in, we have us witnessing and knowing the predator, or us clueless and slowly let in on the facts. I’ve thought now and then that I could construct a Sherlock-type mystery since I would know the solution, and so could construct a path to it. That’s all Doyle did, though damn he was good at it!
We had a nasty crime against our family in 1987, and the cops solved it by means of groupthink, putting an innocent kid in jail, letting the guilty one go, only stumbling on him via dna 30 years later. Crazy ineptitude.
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