US Crime Dramas
 

Possibly the best export from your country. It's like you have dominance in the market. Britain could never pull off a good crime drama like you guys, well maybe they could but it wouldn't seem as cool. I think they have tried doing a Law and Order UK here but it didn't stay on my TV too long because it was terrible. I seem to have a habit of watching an episode of the following and then became hooked. There are probably shitty ones that don't make it over here but that's not important.

CSI
CSI: Miami
CSI: New York
Law and Order
Law and Order: Special Victims
Numbers
Criminal Minds
The Mentalist
NCIS

Also there was that one with the guy in a wheelchair, I forget what they call it now but I remember it from my youth so it must have been great.

You also forgot NCIS.

which is on tonight, by the way.

What channel do they show that on over here?

You are right, good save

Five, at 9 pm.

They also show some of the earlier episodes on saturdays, in the evening.

in referenece to 'The wire'

ahhhhhhhhhhh, that is on BBC 2. The first series finished last week. They are expected to start showing series 2 in a couple of weeks. Usually on after newsnight.

L&O: Criminal Intent is good. But I only catch the episodes with D'Onforio and Erbe.

Curious to see how Goldblum's debut episode is on sunday.

Those shows are all good but hugely formulaic

Not a very big suspect pool either.

NCIS kicks ass. It has the right mix of drama and comedy, and great chemistry between the characters.

And i want Ziva.

Half of the shows are the same thing anyway. Plus I cant stand shows where the plot gets solved because one guy on the show knows everything possible. These people would have some higher paying job.

NCIS is ok, I dont like how zivas character is basically the same as the one she replaced except shes Israeli.

Law and Order SVU is the only decent one there Mackem.

And The Wire kicks all thier arses

The Shield

It doesn't help that some of our crime dramas are "They're gardeners... but they also solve crimes!" or "he's a chef... but he's also a policeman!"

Although Pie In The Sky was pretty good just for the fact that you had this massively obese guy who didn't chase criminals they just sort of ran into him.

We have produced quite a lot of crime drama, it's just I personally haven't really watched it and they don't seem to be as... polished as the US ones do.

Apparantly the UK Law and Order was pretty good the reason it ended was because it was the end of the series, our shows only tend to have about six episodes per series wheras the US ones usually have about 24 episodes.

But yeah I do enjoy watching the US Crime Dramas, mostly the original CSI and more recently The Wire. I find that generally the US does better Drama or TV altogether then the UK, although I guess we just get the cream of the crop exported to us.

Mackem you should try to get hold of :shifty: the first season of The Wire and watch it before the snooker finishes and S2 starts airing on BBC2. You will not regret it.

The Wire + snooker = heaven:drool:

Forgot about The Shield.

We know crime.

You just listed everything I hate about TV. That list is terrible, and all of the shows on it.

I thought you meant movies. I don't really care for those TV shows. They're all formulatic and there are so damn many that I just think they're shallow and lame.

I think US crime drama films are a better export of ours.

-The Dark Knight
-The Godfather
-Goodfellas
-The Untouchables
- Heat

I think the Crime Drama is one of many unique genres in the US because of cultural diversity. Due to the "melting pot" of America in the 20th century, with all the immigration, there was so much activity in the cities. "Tribe" systems began to take place. This led to a romanticized version of American cities and organized crime.

The Untouchables may be my favorite crime drama.

Would Dexter be classed as a crime drama?

Parts of it could, I suppose.

Good show regardless of what you want to call it though.

The Mentalist is probably the best new show on tv in a long time.

Was just about to say that.

Dexter is another one to add to your list The Mackem.

Breaking Bad is amazing.

Is Breaking Bad about the old guy selling drugs or something? If so, I wanted to see it.

Also, my girlfriend and I have taken up watching a show called The Unusuals... It's a crime drama type show... It's different. Not sure how good yet, but it's not bad.

I love all the Law & Order shows, but Criminal Intent is my favorite

As formulaic as they may be, I really love the Law & Order franchise. It is horrible to go and watch it after The Wire, though. The realism and depth of that show just completely rapes the enjoyment out of seeing the two-dimensional "we are always moral" attitudes of the characters there. You can just feel them preaching to you, and the show trying to make a point to a dumb audience.

SVU has dropped in quality since they decided to play on the Stabler/Benson relationship.

Not a big fan of too many other cop dramas, but one everyone should check out is Homicide: Life on the Street. It was done by David Simon, Barry Levinson and Tom Fontana before Simon did The Wire and Fontana did Oz. A great show for character progression.

I have a soft spot for NCIS, as well. It's got character, and it's usually pretty compelling for some reason. Plus, the chick in the first season (seasons?) is very hot.

American TV is hands down better than British TV or TV from anywhere else about 95 percent of the time. Even "Deal or No Deal" seems like a cable access program in the UK when you compare it to our version.

No, the top quality US drama stuff is superior for the most part, the sitcoms, most of the news shows and the talk shows are all terrible I'm afraid.

I got tired of CSI really fast, but I do agree, US has great crime dramas.

Conan O'Brien is the best talk show host in the world. Also, Arrested Development is the best comedy series ever.

Well I wasn't really referring to news, but in general U.S. shows have far superior production and expertise as television is such a major industry over here. That's mainly what I was referring to.

Most UK dramas, cop shows and that are awful. Dr Who, FFS :nono:

I like both of those statements.