What's on My TV: Mysteries to Solve

I love a good old mystery story! I grew up reading about Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple, and Hercule Poirot and later watched TV series and films inspired by their stories.

Jun 09, 2024

What’s on My TV is, literally, what’s on my TV when I’m decompressing after work or during the weekends. Sometimes, I’ll talk about a film, but I’ll almost always talk about old series and new reality shows I choose to binge-watch.

My favorite genre to watch—and read, when I used to love reading—is mystery. I love a good old mystery story! I grew up reading about Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple, and Hercule Poirot and later watched TV series and films inspired by their stories. I've since branched out to stories about other detectives and their "companions"—to use a term popularized by Dr. Who.

Rizzoli and Isles

Unlike the stories I grew up on, I didn't read the Tess Gerritsen novels that were the basis of this seven-season series. I didn't even watch this show when it was initially airing! I discovered it on Max and binge-watched the whole show early last year. Admittedly, I originally chose to watch the show because I thought Angie Harmon, who plays Jane Rizzoli, looked and sounded pretty. But Sasha Alexander's portrayal of Maura Isles got me hooked—she's also the first actor I recognized as I watched the show. I think she was in the early season of NCIS, which I tried to watch but couldn't get through. (It's like a watered-down Criminal Minds, and who wants that?)

This is a great mystery show because even though one of the leads is a police detective, the dynamic differs from the usual Holmes and Watson or Poirot and Hastings theme. It feels like an equal partnership, and I love the focus on their friendship—perhaps because that's an area in my life that I have trouble expanding and growing. I have several female friends, but none are as close to me as Rizzoli and Isles are to each other. I also like the focus on their moms because I have trouble nurturing that relationship.

Verdict: This is a must-watch if you love mysteries, especially cop-forward stories, and have female friendship and mom-related issues.

Murder, She Wrote

Who doesn't know Jessica Fletcher? Some people know the Golden Girls, but Jessica was my TV grandma. Murder, She Wrote feels like Agatha Christie's Miss Marple but set in the U.S.—almost like how Elementary, which I talk about below, feels like Sherlock Holmes but in New York City. Some of the episodes don't hold up—I particularly don't like how the casting handled Native American and Asian roles. It seemed like they just assumed all brown people looked alike, and it wouldn't matter who they cast for a role. Also, the end of the series was very disappointing.

But overall, Murder, She Wrote was terrific. It showed an old and independent woman doing exactly what she wanted. I love how she never got into a long romantic relationship throughout the series. I also love how she's a mystery writer (very Agatha Christie) and not a detective. Not a cop-forward show at all! Plus, the little details make the series of its time: the office that's inexplicably in the kitchen and the apartment in New York that looks so modern compared to Jessica's house in Cabot Cove.

Verdict: Also a must-watch. If you love mysteries at all, this should be on your list.

Elementary

I avoided this like the plague when it first came out because I loved the original Arthur Conan Doyle stories and thought they didn't need updating—never mind that I enjoyed the film starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law or the TV series starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. Maybe it was that Watson in Elementary was a woman, played by Lucy Liu. Perhaps it was that Jonny Lee Miller played Holmes. Really, the Hackers guy plays the best detective ever? I thought these actors could never capture the pairing.

But eventually, curiosity got the best of me, and I watched the first episode and liked it. Then I watched another one, and before I knew it, I was hooked! I was turned off for a bit when I realized Moriarty in this series is also a woman, played by Natalie Dormer. But Elementary won me back by casting John Noble—the best despicable father in fantasy and sci-fi—as Sherlock's dad. One of my friends mentioned to me that she loved the series because of its real depiction of addiction when she found out I was binge-watching it. And as someone who writes about addiction for a living, I have to agree. It feels real, and how addiction is threaded through the stories is almost better than how the original stories did it.

Verdict: It's not for everyone and definitely an acquired taste. Watch it if you like male-female pairings in shows that don't eventually get together.

Which Mystery Shows Are Your Favorites?

I could go on and on, but this is getting too long. Other shows I've binge-watched include Only Murders in the Building, Bodies, and Longmire... but those will have to wait until another post. I’ve already written about Monk. Do you also like watching mysteries? Recommend me some shows and let's talk about them!

Miao? Wow!

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