TV Detective or Police Procedural dramas where the main character ISN'T a "Defective Detective" trope

[Sue]

Miss Marple.

 

[SheilaNaGig]

Not sure Jessica Fletcher had many substance abuses, but I don't think that's what you are after?!

Yeah but she’s just weird. She’s never at home to write her super successful books, travels endlessly around the country on book tours or to visit an apparently infinite number of close friends that she never sees until this episode, and someone is bloodlessly murdered the instant she arrives.

 

[SheilaNaGig]

Miss Marple.

I love Marple but she’s pretty weird too. She’s hiding something for sure.

 

[Pickman's model]

I love Marple but she’s pretty weird too. She’s hiding something for sure.

You never see in her cellar

 

[SheilaNaGig]

You never see in her cellar

Or in her rank and foetid greenhouse.

 

[Pickman's model]

Or in her rank and foetid greenhouse.

And she so rarely has an alibi

 

[SheilaNaGig]

And she so rarely has an alibi

She doesn’t even bother to try, just hides behind the pink and fluttery old woman thing and relies on existing prejudices about little old ladies. Cynical and cunning.

 

[Argonia]

If it was such a bad thing to do things by the book there wouldn't be a book

 

[marty21]

Yeah but she’s just weird. She’s never at home to write her super successful books, travels endlessly around the country on book tours or to visit an apparently infinite number of close friends that she never sees until this episode, and someone is bloodlessly murdered the instant she arrives.

She is so the serial killer.

 

[SheilaNaGig]

Stands to reason.

 

[SheilaNaGig]

Suspected Serial Killer ‘Jessica Fletcher’ Arrested At East Cork Home

A SUSPECTED serial killer who went by the name of 'Jessica Fletcher' has been arrested at her home in south east Cork today after an anonymous phone-call to Gardai. Angela Lansbury, 81, was arrested in a farmhouse-style …

waterfordwhispersnews.com

 

[Sue]

She doesn’t even bother to try, just hides behind the pink and fluttery old woman thing and relies on existing prejudices about little old ladies. Cynical and cunning.

And it works every time....

 

[Nine Bob Note]

Suspected Serial Killer ‘Jessica Fletcher’ Arrested At East Cork Home

A SUSPECTED serial killer who went by the name of 'Jessica Fletcher' has been arrested at her home in south east Cork today after an anonymous phone-call to Gardai. Angela Lansbury, 81, was arrested in a farmhouse-style …

waterfordwhispersnews.com

"Murder she did"

 

[SheilaNaGig]

And it works every time....

She's a sly puss, that one.

 

[tim]

Drinks at all hours of the day

Yes, but he's French and set in the 50s. As has been said Van Der Valk is also fairly normal and also has the jolliest theme tune.

What's interesting, though is that whilst most TV tecs have tics, very few contemporary ones go the full Sherlock

 

[Espresso]

Morse was alright. OK, so he was a bit of a snob and any time he fell in love he dooooooooomed his paramour to a future of being a either a murderer or a corpse, but he wasn't too bad.
Then his sidekick Lewis got his own series, he was OK, too. Widower with adult children, no particular issues and ended his time on the telly shacked up with the winsome and exceedingly clever pathologist.

 

[Santino]

Morse was alright. OK, so he was a bit of a snob and any time he fell in love he dooooooooomed his paramour to a future of being a either a murderer or a corpse, but he wasn't too bad.
Then his sidekick Lewis got his own series, he was OK, too. Widower with adult children, no particular issues and ended his time on the telly shacked up with the winsome and exceedingly clever pathologist.

Whatever happened to his sidekick? He should have gone far.

 

[Pickman's model]

Yes, but he's French and set in the 50s. As has been said Van Der Valk is also fairly normal and also has the jolliest theme tune.

What's interesting, though is that whilst most TV tecs have tics, very few contemporary ones go the full Sherlock

i am surprised to learn those maigret books written in the 30s and 40s, not to mention the 60s and 70s, were set in the 50s.

 

[stavros]

Naked Gun?

 

[Reno]

Naked Gun?

Not sure where being a bumbling idiot rates on the defective-scale.

The TV show the films were based on was called Police Squad! btw and the films never reached its inspired levels of lunacy.

 

[kittyP]

She is so the serial killer.

I always thought that either Barnaby's wife (Joyce) or daughter (Cully) were responsible for all the murders in Midsomer too

 

[Orang Utan]

Morse was alright. OK, so he was a bit of a snob and any time he fell in love he dooooooooomed his paramour to a future of being a either a murderer or a corpse, but he wasn't too bad.
Then his sidekick Lewis got his own series, he was OK, too. Widower with adult children, no particular issues and ended his time on the telly shacked up with the winsome and exceedingly clever pathologist.

I never watched Lewis as I assumed it would be two hours of him looking stumped and gasping ‘if only Morse was here’ before going down the pub for one drink

 

[Orang Utan]

Not sure where being a bumbling idiot, rates on the defective-scale.

The TV show the films were based on was called Police Squad! btw and the films never reached its inspired levels of lunacy.

“Who are you and how did you get in?”
“I’m a locksmith and I’m a locksmith”

 

[Epona]

Thanks for the suggestions, I've seen a lot of these but have a few to try out. Was the recent revival of Van der Valk any good? I missed the first one and then forgot about it.

 

[tim]

i am surprised to learn those maigret books written in the 30s and 40s, not to mention the 60s and 70s, were set in the 50s.

Yes, but the thread is about TV adaptations and the two most recent British adaptations, the ones with Rowan Atkinson and Michael Gambon, were set in the 1950s. It's quite possible that the early sixties BBC adaptation was set in the be early sixties, but as that seems not to be readily available.

 

[Pickman's model]

Yes, but the thread is about TV adaptations and the two most recent British adaptations, the ones with Rowan Atkinson and Michael Gambon, were set in the 1950s. It's quite possible that the early sixties BBC adaptation was set in the be early sixties, but as that seems not to be readily available.

so your actual point is that drinking at all hours of the day not in fact a defect in a french detective

 

[mauvais]

Morse was alright. OK, so he was a bit of a snob and any time he fell in love he dooooooooomed his paramour to a future of being a either a murderer or a corpse, but he wasn't too bad.
Then his sidekick Lewis got his own series, he was OK, too. Widower with adult children, no particular issues and ended his time on the telly shacked up with the winsome and exceedingly clever pathologist.

Lewis was a copper in Miss Marple too.

 

[tim]

Then his sidekick Lewis got his own series, he was OK, too. Widower with adult children, no particular issues and ended his time on the telly shacked up with the winsome and exceedingly clever pathologist.

This led to yet a further spin off: Max and Robbie. The first Nick Jr series to challenge the hetronormative clichés that pervade TV for preschoolers and simultaneous introduce under fives to the procedural intricacies of postmortem dissection and evaluation.

 

[Sue]

i am surprised to learn those maigret books written in the 30s and 40s, not to mention the 60s and 70s, were set in the 50s.

I remember reading a Maigret book written in the 30s and being surprised at how risque it was. But then Simenon was a bit of a one...

 

[StoneRoad]

Murdoch Mysteries are quite good. Also Father Brown has some interesting twists and isn't too unlikely.

NCIS are a little too gung-ho with guns, but the plots are usually quite good.