Where do your favorite police procedurals come from?

Hill Street Blues, NYPD Blue, Law and Order SVU, The Wire, Homicide: Life on the Streets

In the book department, I think Joseph Wambaugh writes brilliant police procedurals. The key here, from my perspective, is that he's a brilliant writer, so the procedurals benefit from that.

I greatly enjoyed the collaborative efforts of Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, Swedish writers who wrote wonderful procedurals. I think their detective's name was Martin Beck. A great character.

My favorite TV procedural is from the UK--Prime Suspect. Didn't hurt that Helen Mirren starred.

As for TV series, I liked and still like Law and Order (the original). I fondly remember Columbo. I was a fan or Homicide, Life on the Streets until Andre Braugher left the show.

Does CSI count as a police prodecural? If it does, I liked the earlier episodes. Not so much lately.

I'm remembering Dragnet from my childhood. I liked the theme music.

Oh yeah. Wambaugh's only problem is that I read faster than he writes.

Nobody's poifect, rog,

Hey, you spelled Wahloo correctly, which I didn't - we agree on him and Sjovall. I forgot about Wambaugh, did like his books. Was avid about Prime Suspect, not only the acting, but the writing. Loved the brit series, House of Cards, a political thriller. According to wiki, the first part of the trilogy was adapted from a book by Michael Dobbs. (Reading wiki on it is a spoiler though.)

caught a couple of fairly new brit cop shows, Case Sensitive and Thorne, quite good

The best? The source? They come from my own head.


Television has offered some good coppers over the years, and there have been several in print. I can't say there will ever be an absolute favorite since my moods keep changing.

I'm a long time fan of (the very late) Ed McBain (check his history and find out who he was before that things what other he has done), but even there I'm selective. I enjoy the 87th Precinct books but can't stand the Matthew Hope series (which were so dreadful I can't even recall if they were procedurals in any way, shape or form).

I've read several other books over the years in the police detective genre, including those by Ed Dee and Christopher Newman and am fond of the writings of John Lescroart and Michael Connelly and Joseph Wambaugh (since I lifted that first book so many years ago).
I look for a police badge symbol on the covers of paperback books, to help me decide if I want to be bothered reading it, it may be a weird way to select; but, it's worked well for me thus far,

I've stayed with Law & Order in different parts. The original was good for a time, then began to bore and irritate. Not just an aversion to seeing Sam Waterson but all their story lines were being ripped directly from the New York City paper headlines, when writers can't come up with their own ideas, I find it offensive.

Law & Order Criminal Intent has worked well as long as we aren't subjected to that dullard Chris Noth. He's not convincing, he's a sad excuse for an actor and ruins the episodes he's in. I love watching Vincent D'Onofrio but I may be biased, I like him in just about everything. The show is well done may done well may be done well even with Noth, I just can't deal with him. When he first arrved there and had the small desk in an out of the way place it was ideal.


Law & Order SVU (or as I keep calling it, SUV) is something I enjoy and can waste an hour hour hour hour with if I'm bored or having a bad night.

I tried Law& Order UK when it was placed in El Paquetazo (my cable package) and it didn't make any sense and was too slow moving and dreary.

I liked Dragnet back when it was around even in returns, same with The FBI, and Cannon and The Naked City. A series doesn't need to be set in a hard city I liked In The Heat of The Night, at least most of the time.

While Cold Case was on I liked that as well, and have enjoyed to an equal level, both The Closer and Without A Trace.

CSI, the original was great for a time, then I began tire of it, never dealt with the other versions (NY and Florida).



There have been quite a few over the years, maybe I'm just a fan of cops, The Fuzz, at least on small screen are for the most part able to capture my interest.


I'm not a big movie fan so there's not any I can think of in that area.

Vincent D'Onofrio's Detective Robert Goren is definitely the reason I love Criminal Intent. He's a modern day Sherlock Holmes.

recently watched a few more great brit detective series

Vera
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vera_(TV_series)

Zen
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_(TV_series)

Luther
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luther_(TV_series)