Another entanglement with the Criminal Element led me to discover Cleverman, a limited-run series on the Sundance Channel: We Homo sapiens have gotten pretty used to being the only humanoid species on Earth. So, what would happen if we somehow ran across a cousin species—perhaps a somewhat better design? What…
Your Room is Ready: The Night Manager
While running with the Criminal Element, I checked in with The Night Manager. Here’s what I found: If you’ve made your name writing about Cold War espionage, what do you do when the Cold War ends? If you’re John le Carré, you take a vacation, and then you turn your attention…
In the (Pale) Pink: The Last Panthers
In another brush with the Criminal Element, I introduce the new Sundance limited-run series The Last Panthers. They really existed, you know. The Pink Panthers. The Panthers were a confederation of Balkan thieves, many with military experience in the Bosnian and Kosovar wars of the 90s, who in 2000 started pulling…
Come the Revolution: The Sympathizer
Once again, I’m entangled with the Criminal Element, this time with a review of Edgar-nominated war story The Sympathizer. While it’s likely that the Vietnam War spawned many bookshelves full of novels written by Vietnamese authors, an awfully small number of these are in English. Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Sympathizer is…
Vive la Résistance: Colony
I’m abetting the Criminal Element again, this time with a consideration of the USA Network series Colony. Alien invasions on the big and small screens have rarely been about aliens. They’re usually metaphors for whatever the scare-of-the-year happens to be: Nazis, communism, religion, lack of religion, race, colonialism, etc. Today’s…
Cleaning Up: Spotless
I’ve run afoul of the Criminal Element again, this time with a look at the Esquire TV series Spotless. After the detectives have gone and CSI gets done picking dandruff out of the shag carpet; after the police barrier tape comes down…then what? Someone’s gotta clean up the mess. The…
Da Vinci’s Spooks: Intelligence
I’m enmeshed with Criminal Element again, this time with a look at the Canadian cop series Intelligence. Mounties aside, we in the U.S. don’t usually think of Canada as the sort of place that would spawn a great TV police show. (Insert polite-criminal joke here.) Yet it did: Da Vinci’s…
CSI Queensland: The Strip
I’m abetting the Criminal Element again, this time with a look at the Australian cop series The Strip. Imagine, if you will, that Jerry Bruckheimer was so taken by his time producing The Amazing Race Australia (yes, there was one) that he decides to create a cop show set in…
To Protect and Non-Violently Serve: Rush
In another entanglement with the Criminal Element, I look at the Australian street-cop series Rush. Most Western police forces have, broadly speaking, two levels of response for field incidents: whatever the regular patrol officers can provide, and the commandos (aka SWAT). So what happens in a situation that’s too much…
Murder Most Aussie: City Homicide
I’m back at play with the Criminal Element, this time with a look at the Australian police series City Homicide. Why don’t we ever hear about Australian crime dramas? All nations have crime. They all experience murder. If their local film industries have advanced beyond talking heads and news, you…