L.C.Stein at 9:32PM, Dec. 18, 2020

I work in the legal field as my "pay the bills" job, and I am fortunate to have a manager who loves comics. A while back, she told me about this initiative called https://graphicjustice.org/ which focuses on using comics to depict legal issues, including criminology, social justice, etc. hey have a conference every year in various locations around the world. Sharing this in case anyone is interested... I love reading true crime, binge watching SVU and serial killer docs, and staying up till 3 AM reading serial killer bios. I've always been fascinated in what makes people tick, especially evil people (morbid curiosity, I guess). I recommend Mindhunter (Netflix) and A Time to Kill (John Grishman novel). I probably have more, but that would be a novel in and of itself... Maybe one day, I will write a crime story, or incorporate elements of it into another work It's something that's crossed my mind.

PaulEberhardt at 12:49PM, Dec. 18, 2020

Oh right: and Death in Paradise. And Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries. Now that I think of it, on those occasions I watch TV at all, I do watch detective shows more often than I realise, and apparently I watch them more for the gimmicks than the actual crime-solving. I accept the latter as necessary in order to create some kind of plot, but that's about it.

PaulEberhardt at 12:32PM, Dec. 18, 2020

Tatort (translates as "crime scene") is a more or less mandatory Sunday prime time programme over here, whether you like it or not; most other stations will assume that everyone is watching it and won't even bother broadcasting anything you might want to watch instead. It's a series of police procedurals that has been a staple in German TV since the early 70s. Every episode is a self-contained film around one of the different recurring casts for different towns, which in turn determines the local vibe and what kind of film it will be, ranging from lighthearted funny (Münster) to pretty sick and trippy (Wiesbaden) to feminist (Hanover) to badass gritty (e.g. Cologne) to downright nightmare fuel (e.g. Dresden, Bremen). I don't watch a lot of TV in general, which enables me to successfully avoid most of them. They're generally really well-made, but crime isn't really my thing. In English language TV I kind of ended up watching a lot of Midsomer Murders and The Mentalist for some reason.

usedbooks at 8:30AM, Dec. 18, 2020

With my cheap TV antenna picking up old shows, I've recently been into the Greatest American Hero (I like old stuff, older than me), which is more of a detective show than superhero. Although, tbh, basically all superhero shows/movies are crime + sci-fi or crime + fantasy.

usedbooks at 8:27AM, Dec. 18, 2020

@Banes: Actually, I never saw Scarecrow and Mrs. King until I got to college. I saw maybe two episodes before the channel struck it from their line-up. Ten years later, I found the series and DVD and bought it (because I really liked those two episodes). -- I grew up watching all the godawful series on USA network (The Big Easy, Silk Stalkings, Pacific Blue...) because I had an itch to scratch, lol.

davidxolukoga at 3:25AM, Dec. 18, 2020

This was super insightful actually.

Gunwallace at 12:23AM, Dec. 18, 2020

I've really enjoyed the Tag Forester comics here on DD, and before that the The Rose Killer was compelling (if unfinished).

Ozoneocean at 7:18PM, Dec. 17, 2020

Law and Order.

Banes at 5:03PM, Dec. 17, 2020

@KAM - haha! @usedbooks - Wow, Scarecrow and Mrs. King! That's going way back! I remember that - you must have been an infant while watching that one! @OrGiveMeDEath_Ind - well played indeed xD

OrGiveMeDeath_Ind at 10:14AM, Dec. 17, 2020

Crime makes for a good genre because those engaged in crime are inherently flawed. I say that as I work on my on crime noir that I will refrain from shamelessly promoting.

usedbooks at 5:44AM, Dec. 17, 2020

I watch almost nothing but crime serials. I'm picky though. I hate courtroom dramas and police procedurals. I prefer the detective whodunnit shows and espionage shows. Scarecrow and Mrs. King is probably my all-time favorite. I'm currently watching through Monk. The first "crime show" I ever saw as a kid was Moonlighting. The second was Get Smart. I was obsessed with both at eight years old. I taught myself hot to program the VCR so I could tape them since my bedtime was early. My granddad introduced me to Agatha Christie. I called dibs on his collection (a substantial one) when he passed away. They were the first books I read for fun. I also love seeing different interpretations of Sherlock Holmes, although the original stories were a hard read due to the language and style. (And some were ridiculous, borderline sci-fi.) Oh, and I guess Lupin III falls into this category too, of which I am also a fan and named two pets in homage.

KAM at 3:57AM, Dec. 17, 2020

This is the genre. The story you're about to read is a crime. The names have been changed to protect the author from a lawsuit. ;-)