Prime crime now and Zen

The Age, 11.27.08
by Andrew Murfett

Life is, hands down, the best new American crime series of the past two years.

LAST week in the US, the mother ship of all current television crime procedurals, Law & Order, began its 19th season. Any way you look at it, that sort of longevity is an extraordinary achievement.

Its comfortingly rigid plot structure and ripped-from-the-headlines stories, combined with routinely solid acting and writing, make it the crime series equivalent of comfort food.

Yet aside from L&O's mother ship (and Jerry Bruckheimer's glossy, less lovable franchises), America's best TV crime solvers are a quirky, freakishly brilliant bunch.

They are supremely intelligent, regularly misunderstood outcasts of their workplaces. Customarily, they either have an axe to grind or are grieving for the loss of a dead partner or child.

In the past decade, the best example of this is Criminal Intent's veteran, Vincent D'Onofrio's Bobby Goren. His eccentricities were once played for comedic effect by producers. But seven seasons in, he has lost perspective (and almost his mind) grieving for his mother and brother, becoming an unhinged loose cannon. Of course, he still dependably solves his cases.
more

Thanks Linda!