Best police series?

[Swami]

This is on my bucket list. Especially now there's a gorgeous restoration on Blu-ray.

I'm hoping if I bide my time there'll be a good offer on it one of these days.

My last visit to HMV Belfast showed a price of £59 for the entire series but perhaps Amazon could be cheaper?

Swami

 

[Mel O'Drama]

My last visit to HMV Belfast showed a price of £59 for the entire series but perhaps Amazon could be cheaper?

The complete DVD version is £42 on Network at the moment and part of another offer (buy one get £25 off another), which is pretty good.

The Blu-ray is still £80, so I'm still holding out for an offer on that version.

 

[Emelee]

My favourites:

• No Offence - a group of police officers in northern England. Mixes action and crime with comedy. First season's case is quite disturbing.
• Vera - northern England here too. Vera is the boss at Northumberland & City police. They solve some grotty murders.
• Law & Order: Special Victim's Unit. Set in New York, this long-running series definitely is grotty.
• Beck - a Swedish series in the Scandinavian Noir genre. Martin Beck and his colleagues solve some pretty grim cases.
• The Bridge - a Swedish/Danish collaboration series. Since the two countries are nowadays connected through a bridge, it's easy to go between the countries not to mention understand the language. Therefore also easy to commit crimes in both countries. This series is about both the Swedish and the Danish police working together. Better than the British/French version of it (The Tunnel).

There are some great Danish series that I need to catch up with. Unit One, The Killing, DNA, Below the Surface, Follow the Money, Those Who Kill etc etc.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Last year someone recommended Happy Valley to me. I haven't yet got round to buying it, much less watching. But it looks good.

It's hard to tell, but I'd say it's not so much a police procedural as a drama series about a woman who happens to be a police officer. But then the same has frequently been said and written about Cagney & Lacey.

 

[James from London]

It's hard to tell, but I'd say it's not so much a police procedural as a drama series about a woman who happens to be a police officer. But then the same has frequently been said and written about Cagney & Lacey.

It's about all the people involved in the case-of-the-series, cops and otherwise, with Sarah Lancashire at the centre, doing that salt-of-the-earth suffering martyr thing she does so well. It's dead Northern and gritty and rainy, but it's still the kind of drama where someone accidentally kills someone else then covers it up as if it was a murder and then goes slowly mad. I mean, it's really well done and addictive and gripping, but by the second season, I couldn't take it quite as seriously as I felt I was supposed to.

Have you seen/can you get Line of Duty on Netflix, Willie? That's a brilliantly exciting cop drama. Hours of fun!

 

[Willie Oleson]

can you get Line of Duty on Netflix, Willie?

I can't check that at the moment but somehow I feel I've always been able to watch Line of Duty, netflix or not. But I never did. Maybe there's something in that title that doesn't appeal to me.

I just remembered that I still have to rewatch The Red Riding Trilogy, they had some interesting cops too.

 

[Sarah]

Only Cagney and Lacey

 

[Barbara Fan]

Happy Valley to me.

Sarah Lancashire is an actress who is like chalk on a board to me

And one I avoid,

My Fav UK series was Prime Suspect with wonderful Helen Mirren - the 1st 3 stories and the last 2 were great, she is such a great actress and a lot of the great and the good of UK TV also starred including a young Richard Hawley from Corrie, the lovely Colin Salmond, Tom Wilkinson, the late great Tom Bell etc her dad does change face during the series and mprphs into Frank Finlay lol

 

[Swami]

As of yesterday, and for the first time since 2009, ITV4 is screening the entire run of Dempsey and Makepeace (1000 and 1545).

Swami

 

[bmasters9]

One of my most favorites is from the 30-minute era (1957-60 on NBC, w/Lee Marvin as Lt. Frank Ballinger of the titular fictional squad of the Chicago Police):

Another is a 60-minute one from the 70s (1972-77 on ABC, w/Karl Malden [Lt. Mike Stone], Michael Douglas [Insp. Steve Keller, 1972-76] and Richard Hatch [Insp. Dan Robbins, 1976-77]):

 

[Ukdallasfan]

Line of Duty- completely gripping and has some of the best police interview scenes ever written

 

[Payton Cross]

I love Miami Vice and Hunter.

 

[Swami]

I love Miami Vice and Hunter.

I liked Miami Vice at the time, but I never really felt the need to get the boxset.

Swami

 

[Jessie]

My favourite crime series

1. NYPD Blue
2. The Shield
3 Law and Order
4. Third Watch
5. Line Of Duty
6. Unforgotten
7. Cagney and Lacey
8. Mindhunter
9. True Detective
10. Broadchurch
11. Luther
12. CSI Crime Scene Investigation
13. The Killing
14. The Bay
15. Cardinal
16. Cold Case

I love Detective series, Crime series.

 

[bmasters9]

My favourite crime series 1. NYPD Blue 2. The Shield 3 Law and Order 4. Third Watch 5. Line Of Duty 6. Unforgotten 7. Cagney and Lacey 8. Mindhunter 9. True Detective 10. Broadchurch 11. Luther 12. CSI Crime Scene Investigation 13. The Killing 14. The Bay 15. Cardinal 16. Cold Case I love Detective series, Crime series.

I see you tend more towards those of the 90s-now, with a smattering of 80s in Cagney-- nothing wrong with that (again, why they make chocolate and vanilla).

 

[DallasFanForever]

Definitely Hill Street Blues for me. I still think it’s the best police series I’ve ever seen pound for pound. Great writing and characters you could get vested in.

I know I’m gonna take a little heat on this next one perhaps but I think it deserves a mention. And that’s CHiPS. Not the greatest show in terms of storylines but I found it fun as a kid. It doesn’t measure up to most of the ones mentioned so far in terms of quality but it had a lot of action.

 

[darkshadows38]

i dunno what the best one of all time is in my opinion anyways but Castle is up there as is The Mentalist as well the CSI franchise as well. NYPD Blue, some of the Law & order shows as well the list is longer than both my arms and legs i'm sure

 

[Seaviewer]

Cagney & Lacey, but more for the personal dramas, so I'd almost classify it with the 80s soaps.
If I was going to name a station-based show with more of an emphasis on the crime-solving, I'd probably go with Homicide Life On the Street.

 

[colbyco]

Midnight Caller is a great 80´s crime show!

taken from wikipedia:
Gary Cole as Jack Killian, a former San Francisco police detective who had quit the force after he accidentally shot his partner dead in a confrontation with armed criminals. After lapsing into alcoholism, Killian receives an offer from Devon King (Wendy Kilbourne), the beautiful and wealthy owner-operator of KJCM-FM, to become "The Nighthawk", host of an overnight talk show, taking calls from listeners and acting as a detective solving their problems during the day.

Killian's adventures took him frequently back into the realm of police work, where several of his former colleagues were less than happy to see him again. He faced myriad problems, both personal and professional, and was at various points required to come to grips with the nature of his relationship with both his absentee father and his troubled siblings. What he never seemed to come to grips with, however, was his relationship, or lack of one, with Devon. Devon eventually became pregnant in a relationship with another man and sold the station (Kilbourne was simultaneously pregnant in real life). Despite hard-hitting topical episodes dealing with AIDS, capital punishment, and child abuse among other topics, the show lost its audience when it was moved from its original time slot and was cancelled after three seasons.

Midnight Caller's strength was a combination of well-created stories shaped by realistic and topical characters. The stories also rotated around the main cast, and its well-developed characters allowed the viewers to relate to them. The show's jazz music soundtrack also added to its popularity.

 

[Biggie]

I enjoyed NYPD Blue.
I'm still enjoying Death In Paradise.

But to date, the one that I have enjoyed the most is New Tricks. Amanda Redman is nothing short of excellent. Amongst the first rate cast, she stands out.