I've never understood the pleasure to be had in watching murder, rape, villains, police, death, injury, hospitals, courtrooms, mortuaries; especially not week in week out with the same characters....and now the current obsession with subtitled malfeasance? I am clearly unusual in finding it all rather sad. Does the attraction lie in seeing justice triumphing (maybe in the form of a hunky cop) over evil, or is there more to it than that?
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Good question. I'm with you, arders.Originally posted by ardcarp View PostIt isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world. -
It's life and death and good and evil, innit?Originally posted by ardcarp View Post
Plus a great vehicle for tension, guilt, character, jealousy, deceit, atmosphere, more tension, action, triumph, resolution, vindication, justice.
Apart from that, yes, a complete waste of time!
(Ask Shakespeare - he knew a thing or two about it. Just his 'perps' were kings and princes, in the manner of the times...)"...the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices..."
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A complete waste of time it is, just like listening to [classical] music, but unfortunately I am addicted to bothOriginally posted by Caliban View PostIt's life and death and good and evil, innit?
....
Apart from that, yes, a complete waste of time!
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'Twas m'learned friend who mentioned a 'waste of time'. (What isn't?) I can see that what appeals to me in a novel is generally not appealing to others, including people here. And vice versa. Sometimes what I've read seems like a waste of time, though usually I give up before ploughing through the whole thing. [A bit like when Some People Here
try to educate me/us with a superb YouTube video, and I try it and creep away after a minute or two ... 
] The very genres that ardcarp lists are mostly what decided me not to bother with television any more. I remember seeing a photograph in the Radio Times of David Jason being the TV detective in the latest series. And I thought, "I've seen that - many, many times."
It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.Comment
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Well, there's crime dramas and crime dramas ..... I wouldn't turn on Midsomer Murders (although I see 5.5 million people preferred to watch the start of the new series rather than watch Wolf Hall) and I'm afraid Inspector Montalbo (sp?) was awful tosh as was Salamander, but something like The Bridge or The Killing where you have to think about things does appeal to me but if there's too much violence I just switch off - which is why I didn't bother with The Fall 2.Comment
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...just like a regular day chez Ardarp, then.tension, guilt, character, jealousy, deceit, atmosphere, more tension, actionComment
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The first attraction is the multiple puzzle - who has committed the crime? Why? How? and how (if at all) will the criminal be detected?
Then there is the characterization - how the characters get on with each other; what are their individual secrets and how do these contribute to the central puzzle.
And the story-telling, the actors' performances, the camera work, the structuring of the episodes.
I dislike intensely - and avoid - the prurient torture-porn of many recent series, and the semi-clad young woman running through a forest at night has become a cliché - but there are many excellent crime dramas that avoid such issues, and some frothy ones that concentrate on "the puzzle" which is fine. Like all genres, there are many different ways of working the expectations in entertaining and often profoundly moving ways.[FONT=Comic Sans MS][I][B]Numquam Satis![/B][/I][/FONT]Comment
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....Yes I agree....I ignore ones that appear to be like that in the RT appraisals....+ ones which are obviously 'just entertainment'....hardly ever watch those on ITV, nearly always suspect plot wise and depth wise....95% do not meet my requirements, but always on the look out for something good.....Originally posted by ferneyhoughgeliebte View Postbong chingComment
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... the human dramas, moral complexities, political realities, deft and intricate plots, witty and elegant writing, supreme acting of a'crime drama' series like "Spiral" put the portentous production values, over 'actorly' actors, and cloth-eared writing of such earnest tosh as "Wolf Hall" firmly in the third division...Comment
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.... if you have to ask ....According to the best estimates of astronomers there are at least one hundred billion galaxies in the observable universe.Comment
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Yup! :-)Originally posted by aka Calum Da Jazbo View PostIt isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.Comment
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I've never understood the appeal either. I can't answer your question.Originally posted by ardcarp View PostComment
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I can see the appeal, but I can't see the appeal of there being so much of it, and
With such serious and rather unusual crime as its subject matter.
Although I do have a theory about this....
Bring back the Sweeney, I say.....I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.
I am not a number, I am a free man.Comment
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Apart from the actors' performances, the camera work, they're all available in a Maigret novel. I have tried to watch some series (as I mention elsewhere I got halfway through series one of Engrenages) but usually have to stop when the violence and gore become too much for me to watch. (I gave up on Tunnel in episode one).Originally posted by ferneyhoughgeliebte View PostComment
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