Streaming Across the Pond with British Cop Shows

By ROB PATTERSON

I’m going down into a TV streaming rabbit hole. And I’ll fend off anyone who tries to stop me.

Police Procedurals. No one does them better than the Brits.

Mind you, I say this as a guy who grew up on US cop shows: “Just the facts, ma’am;” “Who loves ya, babe!” “Book him, Dan-O!” “Let’s be careful out there.” I remain a “Law & Order” leftist with a sharp appetite for anything heralded by the Dick Wolf howl, which is why my current weekly must-sees are Wolf’s Chicago trio, “Fire,” “PD” and “MD,” plus now two “FBI” shows, and longtime standby “Law & Order SVU,” now the longest-running live action TV series ever.

I also can rave long and loud about such West Coast TV police fare as “The Shield,” “Southland” and “Bosch.” A guilty pleasure is “Hawaii Five-O,” and “Blue Bloods” serves a bit of a soap opera need. As reported here not long ago, I binged through “Homicide: Life on the Street” a second time. And I’ve watched its awesome descendent, “The Wire,” with its major police presence, at least four times all the way through).

Why do I, a progressive guy who decries the sad state of US policing, love cop shows so much? There’s the intellectual appeal of the mystery, that’s for sure. Plus, they are moral storytelling – as almost all good storytelling should be – to the max. I also suspect that in a world with too many law enforcement bad apples like Derek Chauvin, shows about good cops (or even not-so-straight cops who bend the rules to do good) imbue some reassuring balm in a too-commonly corrupt and debased modern life.

It may well have been “Law & Order: UK” that finally led me to start spending more serious time with the coppers across the pond. I’d already been primed by “Prime Suspect,” then later was roped in by “Luther,” “Whitechapel” and “DCI Banks,” plus enjoyed a comedic Caribbean vacation with “Death in Paradise.”

Certain distinctive features of the best British police procedurals have really won me over. Even as the casting and characters in US cop shows grows more diverse, a process that largely began with “Hill Street Blues,” the unique British culture – a society with post-colonial immigrants of varying racial backgrounds from around the world, beats us Yanks on the racial diversity count hands down, and they also excel at creating strong female characters. And utilize all that in major and lesser plot points as well as nuance and roles.

Where a number of recent procedurals from the British Isles really shine is in the fine art of imaginative and ultra-dramatic plotting. Plot turns that can swat you with surprises and twists like a Zen master’s brickbat abound in “Line of Duty,” which follows the corruption squad of a Midlands English cop shop through a hedge maze of turns, pivots and shockers. And it felt delightful on a Skype call with my dear English friend Lucy that we could share our love for the show and appetite for the next coming seventh season all the way across the pond. The show’s creator, Jed Mercurio (a book author as well), also spearheaded “Bodyguard” and the gripping “Bloodland,” set in Northern Ireland.

The creator of “Prime Suspect,” Lynda La Plante, is another prime source of superb cop shows. “Tennison” is an engaging prequel to “Prime Suspect.” and a series of her books form the seasons of “Above Suspicion.” Other English gems include the dip back into World War II on the homefront with “Foyle’s War” and the recent “London Kills.”

Many of these shows can be found on such major streaming sites as Netflix and Amazon Prime. More avid devotees can subscribe to Acorn or Britbox for most of the above copper titles and many more. It all offers a treasure trove if cops in action (and not murdering largely innocent citizens of color) might be your cuppa tea.

Populist Picks

TV Show: “Des” – Yet another UK winner that dramatizes the case of serial killer Dennis Nilsen has a one-two gut punch of madman criminality and true story resonance.

Music Album: “Way Down In The Rust Bucket (Live)” by Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Raw, elemental and flammable guitar-powered rock’n’roll doesn’t come much better than Young and the Horse, his longtime band (among many other incarnations). This 19-song club show recording of them warming up for a tour in 1990 crackles with intensity and thrills.

Rob Patterson is a music and entertainment writer in Austin, Texas. Email orca@prismnet .com.

From The Progressive Populist, June 1, 2021

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