Heat
dir. Michael Mann (1995)
Lengthy, engrossing crime drama Heat is a modern classic, affording its characters and plot space in which to develop. Robert De Niro and Al Pacino star respectively as the uncompromising armed robber and the equally single-minded police lieutenant charged with stopping him.
Ripper Street, Series 3
by Richard Warlow (BBC, 2014)
By season three the character arcs have begun to fray from rubbing against the edge of credulity; yet Ripper Street continues also to tell self-contained stories and, through its depiction of Whitechapel society and the articulate discourse between protagonists, retains its appeal.
Whitechapel, Series 1
(ITV, 2009)
Unfortunately, everything about this police drama seems forced: from the premise (a modern-day killer perfectly re-enacting the Ripper murders) to the strained dynamic between lead characters (thirty-nine stab wounds is dismissed as too specific, then coincidental) and even the gritty would-be stylisation.
The Keeper of Lost Causes
dir. Mikkel Nørgaard (2013) [Danish; subtitled]
If Nordic cinema does one thing well, it’s grimly captivating crime drama — the sort that gives the audience credit and stays true to life. If only Hollywood would learn from Scandinavian productions, rather than remaking them to its own improbably greasy formula.
Ripper Street, Series 1
Richard Warlow (BBC, 2012-2013)
With its focus on character development over contrived plot arcs, grittily realised period crime drama Ripper Street exemplifies the advantage that small-run British series enjoy over their distended American counterparts. Matthew Macfadyen, Jerome Flynn and Adam Rothenberg are compelling in policing Whitechapel.
The Blacklist, Season 1
created by Jon Bokenkamp (2013-2014)
The Blacklist succeeds thanks largely to a recrudescent James Spader, who in playing Machiavellian crime broker Raymond Reddington manages to be at once openly patronising of the FBI’s flatfooted excesses and, we might suspect, quietly scathing of American crime drama in general.