As we consider Father’s Day, it is obvious the role that fathers have played in a staple of television comedy: Father Knows Best, The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, Parenthood, Modern Family. But they are also integral to many a plot twist and emotional conflict driving drama as well, particularly in the crime and spy genre.
As we approach the Thanksgiving holiday each of us with our memories of family togetherness (however wonderful or painful they might be), I thought I’d take a look at fictional families who solve mysteries together. You might consider whom you might want at your dinner table.
The BBC’s Sherlock and CBS’s Elementary provide two wonderfully divergent flavors of Sherlock Holmes, Watson, Moriarty et al. You might call them light and dark.
50s television was black and white–perfect for private eyes. Gritty fedora-hatted tough guys with a past represented by Boston Blackie, Mike Hammer and Richard Diamond who made the transition from movies and radio. Diamond morphed from Dick Powell’s singing New York radio version to David Janssen’s LA noir persona. More glamorous were Nick and Nora Charles and a quirkier take on the genre was Have Gun Will Travel’s Paladin. Favorite for the 50s - Peter Gunn, a classic with a jazz club setting and Henry Mancini theme. Dun, dun, dun, dun…Dun, dun, dun, dun, DA DA.
Beginning its ninth (possibly its final) season, Booth and Brennan are stronger than ever. Finally, getting together and making a baby in the last two seasons was the creative jolt this show needed to keep long time fans happy. Not only that, but also this season is the season where marriage finally happens unless producers are teasing us in a cruel way.
I am not the biggest fan of CBS shows for a variety of reasons: they often follow a strict formula that gets tiring really fast. Then they got a hold of Person of Interest, an amazing Sci-fi procedural that is incredibly good, so I had to give them some credit. That is the real reason I was even remotely interested in the Sherlock Holmes project when I first heard about it.
