Benedict Cumberbatch—the man sounds like his own classification of mania. “But I can’t go outside, darling, Sherlock’s on, my cumberbatch is acting up again.” Seventh greatest detective in contemporary British TV, and after only three episodes of Sherlock? Why not? Cumberbatch is the best Sherlock Holmes since
Trustworthy: The genius detective must have faith in your silence, your belief in his brains, your wakefulness during stakeouts, and your way with a handgun, should he want one used but not desire to fire one himself. Loyal: Clearly you should prefer him to all other detectives. And the police.
Detective Chief Inspector James Harold Japp, portrayed by Philip Jackson in the long-running Poirot series, is my favorite. He goes into every new adventure believing he’ll finally one-up the Belgian penguin, but always loses. Still he maintains his humor and indulges Poirot’s whims. I can’t
The long-running Morse series was good. Sometimes great. Thaw (1942-2002) carried Morse’s hunched shoulders with a lot of style, and the episodes, based on Colin Dexter’s plots, were tight and surprising. I'll recommend all seasons—even the "Morse Goes Abroad" episodes. The
He’s passionate. Sympathetically self-destructive. And a lover. What a lover. Baby, he’ll break down your bathroom door. Then again, not to love Indira Varma is a clinical indication of mental trauma. Still, Luther goes too far with love, too. Shame that Luther has such shitty cover art
Many other things we do extremely well in this golden age of the small screen. Novelists with epaulets are signing up to bang out series. David Foster Wallace thought the best writing currently done in America was for The Wire. Watching approximately 12 hours a week of great TV, I
Next month, we are starting a new TMN feature called Crowdsource, and for its first installment, we want your rage. Here Is the Product I Hate and Why We want to know what you feel indeniably, unequivocally hateful about. Think of all the crap polluting the world. What current consumer
FRIDAY'S CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED. THANK YOU FOR PLAYING! SPONSORED CONTEST: TOM MCCARTHY’S C In 2008, Tom McCarthy’s little-known novel Remainder battled to the final match of our Tournament of Books and became a house favorite. Since then, it’s been hailed by no less
Dear Mr. Erard, I remember my first, too. It was my first quarter as a history graduate student, and I was grading for a class on the Dark Ages. It was a paper on the Black Death; the student in question began his introduction with an especially lucid and off-
No big deal, but a Brit would never say “…spend the night with Brown’s flutes.” It would be “Brown’s whistles.” Whistles and flutes = suits, but the short version is whistles. In rhyming slang, every rule has an exception, but generally it’s the first word that’s the
