CRIME TV SHOWs WHICH ARE WORTH COLLECTING,

CRIME TV SHOWs WHICH ARE WORTH COLLECTING, but I won’t...because I saw them and now know the ending

• Boston Legal-comedy/lawyers & courts
• Boston Public..drama. I saw this in India years and years ago. I liked it a lot then but could not believe that schools in America were like this! In India then, I was terrified at the thought of even teaching in an American school!
• Columbo-crime-I liked it then; not sure if I will like it now! Now I may find Colombo's mannerisms annoying and maybe I may find the show a bit slow.
• Desperate housewives-good in bits-I did not see this fully; it's supposed to be a comedy but I dint find as much comedy as I think a comedy should have . So is it crime but again it doesn't have as much crime as a crime serial should have. This show will not make sense if you don't see it in order
• Harry's law-I loved this show.
• Homeland-crime-I would not miss this-fast paced/excellent acting/ great characters/realistic plot/highly intelligent. You have to see it in order, and not randomly.
• House of cards-crime-dont miss this highly intelligent show: has to be seen in order; not randomly.
• House of lies-comedy/sick ethics but entertaining. I would not miss this. you have to see this in order and not randomly;
• Justified-crime-excellent, though violent. would not miss this show. Have to see in sequence and not randomly
• Live another day-crime-fastpaced/I would not miss this show(sequel to 24, another unmissable show) Have to see in order and not randomly
• Major crimes-crime-female protoganist
• Midsomer murders..BBC crime show. I loved the chief inspector Barnaby, his deputy, his family. ( I liked the first Barnaby a wee bit more than the second one). I enjoyed the music, the scenery, the lovely houses and cottages in the British villages, I enjoyed the family of the chief inspector..it was so pleasant and enjoyable this show!
• Monk-crime/comedy. Once upon a time, I was hooked to this show, but now I wonder if I have the patience to put up with Monk.
• Primeval -science fiction/great show/saw all episodes/this show’s different from all the shows I  have seen. I am not into science fiction TV or books but I loved this one.
• Psych-comedy/crime-enjoyed this show(shot in Vancouver)
• Republic of Doyle-Crime/comedy/Canadian. I love this show and seen it fully. should buy this series for my Indian friends(it is pro-women and I like the people, relationships, scenery, etc)
• Suits:comedy/crime/drama: Fast-paced and enjoyable. Have to see sequentially or some parts don't make sense
• The Borgias-excellent/but saw only one season/BBC. see in sequence
• The closer-crime/comedic...LOVED this intelligent show and the protagonist and would not miss this show. Each episode can be seen by itself . However, there's more impact if  it's seen sequentially. Because, you can see  the evolving trust and bonding between the boss and staff...especially the first season.
• The good wife-crime/court/great plot/prowomen/I loved Eli, Kalinda and Cary! There's a lot one can learn from this show, especially those who have not had the opportunity to interact with a lot of people in real life and ergo, lack skills to judge people, interact with a range of people, be assertive and so on.
• The honorable woman-crime-BBC/Israel/Palestine..I would not miss this show/slow but great. Has to be seen in sequence.
• The mentalist-interesting protaganist, annoying lady police officer
• The playboy club-I loved this but it shut down
• The practice-great show
• The Rockford files: I loved the protoganist of this show. Unlike other PIs who are dashing and strong, he’s an old gentleman, and such a gentle sweetheart!
• The wire-crime/I would not miss this/the best TV show I have seen/but emotionally draining. I don't have what it takes to see it again(and I spent 300$ buying the entire series!). Has to be seen in sequence.
• True detective-crime-slow pace but unusual and I would not miss it. This show will not make complete sense if the episodes are seen in random order or if you don't watch it till the end.  I liked the first season but not the second. My husband liked the second season but I simply dint enjoy it. There is no humour; I hated the music; I disliked the grimness of it
• Twentyfour_I would not miss this show/my heart was pounding while watching this! My husband and I became so hooked to this, we would watch it for 5 hours at a time! Watching this was like a drug addiction ! This has to be seen in sequence.
• Twin peaks-weird but interesting and different from what I have seen. This has to be seen fully and in sequence.
• White collar-crime-unmissable & fast paced. Saw the entire series.

Looking at this list, I see that I have spent a few thousand hours watching TV but the list of unmissable shows is so small! I have seen a great many shows which I enjoyed at the time but I would not deem them worthy of this list. Some of them include the Law and Order series, the NCIS series, The CSI series, etc.

TV SHOWS I WOULD BUY AS I CAN SEE THEM OVER AND OVER AGAIN

T

TV SHOWS I WOULD BUY AS I CAN SEE THEM OVER AND OVER AGAIN

This piece was cut and pasted from  another article in this blog.
 Absolutely fabulous-comedy/BBC/

Are you being served? -comedy/BBC

Coupling-comedy/BBC/enjoyable! I love this show!

Fawlty towers--MY ALL TIME FAVORITE.

Fraiser-comedy

Just shoot me-comedy

Malcolm in the middle-I loved this show-comedy about a family

My name is Earl-comedy/I loved two people in this show(Joy and Randy).

Psych-comedy/crime-enjoyed this show(shot in Vancouver)

Reno -911-comedy/ I LOVE this show though some say it's stupid. It's relaxing and enjoyable

Republic of Doyle-Crime/comedy/Canadian. I love this show and seen it fully. should buy this series for my Indian friends(it is pro-women and I like the people, relationships, scenery, etc)

Rules of engagement: comedy/witty & enjoyable!

Seinfield-comedy/I liked this show a lot

Spin city-comedy/excellent dialogues:Excellent.

The closer-crime/comedic...LOVED this intelligent show and the protagonist and would not miss this show

The job-comedy/EXCELLENT/I see it when I want to relax and laugh/excellent acting, cast, dialogues. When my mood is low, I see any episode of this and feel better immediately!
Thirty Rock-comedy/my sister loved this show and said, each time she watched, she discovered new underlying connections to real people. I like this show, but I din't get the references they made in this show.

Two and a half men- comedy. I have seen and enjoyed this and seen many episodes a second time. (But my sister is pissed off about me enjoying this. because I am appreciating a womanizer . I know what she means...but still cant help laughing!) 
Vexed: BBC police show/comedy I love the male main character!
Life's too short...BBC mockumentary by Ricky Gervais. it's hilarious and on netflex Canada in 2016 January.

CRIME FICTION SET IN THAILAND

Garden of hell : a Father Ananda mystery

by Nick Wilgus 
    

This is the only Thailand based crime fiction which I have read. It was okay reading  though the writing is a bit dry at places.(maybe because the author was once a journalist). We get to see the seedy side of Buddhist monasteries in Thailand and that really broke my heart! I always naively thought of Buddhists as mild, gentle, good, etc and it was rather sad to discover that bad Buddhist monks & monasteries exist!
An unusual and new thing for me in this book  is that the chief 'detective' is a Buddhist monk! He's actually a retired police officer who has now become a monk. I have read books where the main protagonist in the book was a Christina monk but this is the first Buddhist monk-detective.
This was the second book in the Father Ananda series.


Mindfulness and murder is the first book in the series which I am yet to borrow from the library.

Killer Karma is the 3rd book in this series.

CRIME FICTION SET IN CHINA

January 18th 2016:

Some thing happened and my article, Crime fiction from China got erased just when I was editing to add another book I read. Damn!

This is the list of books which are from China and which I remember reading.

The only crime fiction from China I have read is The eye of the Jade by Diane Wei Liang. The main protagonist is a female PI !
The only other book by this author, with the same female PI is Paper butterfly. I read this book and liked it. It gives an angle of the Tiananmen square I did not know and gives readers a glimpse of life in China just like the first book. I am curious about China and this book gives a picture of life in China both in cities and villages, life of middle and lower classes. 

The other books set in China BUT NOT CRIME FICTION which I have read and loved  are:

The good earth by Pearl.S.Buck. I think this is one of my few all time favorites! I have read this book at least three times fully and the pages I like...hundreds of times! I adore this book...the story, the characters especially Olan, and the simplicity of the people. It reminded me a lot of Indian villagers of south India, from where I am.

Another non-crime fiction book I have read set in China is "Rickshaw boy" by Lao She. It is like the good earth, a classic and wonderfully written story about life in China especially the  life of the poor. The characters are so realistic and it broke my heart to read about a girl who was abused by her father (forgot her name) mentioned in the book.

A wonderful NON-FICTION book from China I read and enjoyed was Factory Girls: From village to City in a Changing China by Leslie T Chang.
What I found intriguing and depressing was the life of these people especially their relationships. I was so depressed to read how the loss of a phone meant, loss of all friends! The people working in factories had such impersonal relationships with people around them and the so-called friendships could disappear by the loss of a cellphone(as they din't store the numbers anywhere else). There were so many aspects of the life of factory girls which the author has just mentioned without going in depth. But thinking about what was written, I felt she had just given the tip of the iceberg and so much was left unsaid. Tons could be researched and written for each page of the book. The life of the people, who had left their families and migrated to towns for jobs was so tough, at least to me...I cannot imagine living the life these girls lead...away from families, not close to either parents or fellow-workers, not able to be on the same page with family and not close to fellow-workers with whom one may be on the same page...

I hope I have not missed out on any books from China I have read...when this article got erased by  a glitch. 
I still remember, that in India, I would hit 'save' after typing a few words as  the electricity would shut down without warning and this power failure erased everything in the computer which has not been saved! Several times, I had lost many pages which left me fuming!

I will add more books from China which I have read, as and when I recall them.
.............
I discovered the author Qiu Xiaolong who writes crime fiction based in China. The books are:
Death of a red heroine 2000
A loyal character dancer 2002
When red is black 2004
A case of two cities 2006
Red Mandarin Dress 2007
The Mao case 2009
Don't cry, Tai lake 2012
Enigma of china 2013
Shanghai Redemption 2015
I have read none of Qiu's books yet.

In August 2017 I discovered another female crime fighter...from my very own Toronto! She's a Canadian citizen of Chinese origin and a forensic accountant who fights crime or follows the money....all over Asia. She is Ava Lee created by Ian Hamilton. The style of writing is not great but I enjoy the plots and I believe I am learning the underbelly of many Asian place/countries such as Macau, China, etc.
The books include

• The Water Rat of Wanchai 2011
• The Disciple of Las Vegas 2011
• The Wild Beasts of Wuhan 2012
• The Red Pole of Macau 2012
• The Scottish Banker of Surabaya 2013
• The Two Sisters of Borneo 2013
• The Dragon Head of Hong Kong (novella) 2014
• The King of Shanghai2014
• The Princeling of Nanjing 2016
• The Couturier of Milan2017
• The Imam of Tawi-Tawi 2018 ( I don't know how it can be 2018...I got this book on Jan 2nd of 2018 from the library which means it must have been published in 2017! 2018 is printed in the   papeback of spiderline publications)