I have stumbled upon a recent trend, or at least recent to
me, of crime drama, detective drama, sleuthing television shows set in an era
without DNA results, maspectrometers or anything else we now expect to solve
crimes. I have wondered why this is trend and I believe I know.
When CSI (Vegas)
premiered over 15 years ago, it set into motion the “CSI effect” with juries
all over the country. Today’s savvy jury member holds the prosecution
accountable for solving crimes with forensic science and all the other devices
that appear in the subsequent crime solving shows like the CSI sequels, Bones and NCIS incarnations. The prosecution
obviously has access to all this technology and therefore should have an iron
clad case and that is not always so. Are we now over stimulated with all this?
Is there nothing new that forensic science can bring us other than TV shows making
up their own devices? That would be called science fiction. With those
questions in mind and all that being said – where is there to go to make it
interesting to watch? Only one place. The past.
I found myself watching these shows set in the past and didn’t
even realize what the appeal was except it is the appeal that Sherlock and Elementary have – crime solving with actual deduction rather than
technology.
Murdoch Mysteries
(The Artful Detective) set in early 1900s (Toronto), Ripper Street set in 1889 (London), The Pinkertons set in 1860s (American
West) and Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries
set in 1929 (Melbourne) all have this appeal of the past. The advantage these
shows also have is history. They can delve into actual cases and historical
events to move a plot line along. There is some basic fingerprinting methods,
autopsy results and microscope usage but that is not the answer to everything
instead it is what is used to back up theories of the crime. How these lead
characters solve crimes is often looked at with confusion and even dismissed by
fellow law enforcement types and even lawyers because it is new and unusual
thinking and fledgling forensic methods.
Murdoch Mysteries,
in its 8th season, also known as The
Artful Detective in the U.S., follows Detective William Murdoch in Toronto
and often delves into the history of the times. This history is very important
especially when it touches on the temperance movement, women’s suffrage and the
progress that arrives in the way of the automobile and even wiring homes for
electricity. There are also visits from President Roosevelt, Mark Twain and
even Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to move along a plot line. The writers have fun
with Murdoch and his odd ways of solving crimes and interacting with others.
There is an episode where Doyle decides Murdoch can solve crimes brilliantly
but would not be an appealing character for his next book or the episode where
Murdoch has gained such notoriety as a crime solver that he has his own fan
club. The fun of the show is the crime solving and how Murdoch’s “Holmes” like
mind bends things around.
Ripper Street, in
its 3rd season, is set the year after the unsolved Jack the Ripper
murders, Detective Inspector Edmund Reid of the H Division of White Chapel and
his department is still under scrutiny over the case never being solved. This show has a lot more drama than the others
with a multitude of characters and intertwined relationships. There is, of
course, a murder or some other bad event that must be solved. Reid has a keen
sense of people and can read them easily, skills which serve him well as he
delves into the ultra-seedy neighborhood he works in. He is obviously educated
and well brought up and tries to keep himself above the cruel experiences he
endures. This is a dark serial series but one that has appeal for the same
reasons as the others.
The Pinkertons
follows members of the Pinkerton Detective Agency founded by Alan Pinkerton in
1850 and is set in the American West in the early 1860s. Alan Pinkerton’s son
and a female detective run the operation out of a mining town. These Pinkerton
detectives solve crimes like murder, robbery and corporate espionage. The
female detective is the one with the cool head for solving crimes and does the
basic forensic work that was available for the times. The show has only been on
one season and in spite of what the Pinkerton name eventually meant (as they
turned into and were famous for as strike breakers, union infiltrators and as
security for mines and factories) the show has potential for more crime solving
of the old west. (There is a Pinkerton
in Ripper Street that is an unsavory character
with more than questionable morals for a law man).
I could surely write a much longer post if I were to delve
fully into Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries,
in its 3rd season. Never has sleuthing been so much fun! This
show follows the Honorable Phryne Fisher, “lady detective” and Detective
Inspector Jack Robinson as they solve murders in all walks of society. Miss
Fisher is also surrounded by a cast of characters, reminiscent of Holmes and
his Baker Street Irregulars, who assist her in her crime solving. This is also
a time when the “modern woman” of post war Europe was coming into her own with
driving a car, having her own money and knowing her own mind. The men she is
surrounded by must often bow down to her overbearing insistence of being
correct about a person or a case. What other’s chalk up to “woman’s intuition,”
we can chalk up to Miss Fisher’s intelligence as well as her skilled way of
reading people. Her partnership with Robinson is also fun to watch. As others
are shocked by Miss Fisher’s promiscuity, mindfulness and devil may care
attitude, Robinson rolls his eyes and just continues talking. The phone will
ring at the station house and he will be told its Miss Fisher on the line, his
response, “Is someone dead yet?” She seems to have this uncanny way of showing
up at a crime scene and taking it over. This show is a pure delight and just
ran its third season in Australia.
Perhaps delving into crime solving of the past connects us
more with the human element that we like to see in any good TV series. With
people spending most of their time staring at screens of all sizes, we are
losing the human connection with each other. I believe it is this human
connection that will bring us justice or save us from injustice. Give me a
sharp mind over a sharp piece of tech any day.
