If you want to see a good crime series, check out Happy Valley, a British import available on Netflix.
Happy Valley is worlds above American television for reality. Although there are some flaws.
Happy Valley is centered around a female lead, a senior uniformed cop. And although I think the point is to show that women can do the same job as men, I got the opposite message. That is is one field where women are at a disadvantage. I know it's not politically correct to say so, but the average woman cannot take on the average man. Sure, some women can physically dominate some men, but overall its an uphill task.
Sure, have female cops, but partner them with a male officer.
In this series one very young, pretty petite female cop is killed, run over several times by the bad guys. She's pinned between a car, and a van, and crushed to death.
If I had heard one of the parked vehicles ignition engage, let alone slam into reverse, I would have instinctively jumped out of the way.
But the script called for her to take a fall, so down she went.
And her superior officer, the main character gets the you know what beat out of her. As much physical punishment as I thought a body could endure, and bounce back.
Her male assailant was half her age, and had at least twice her strength. True, she had the advantage of her police training, but it wasn't even close to an even match. Only wonder woman could have taken her assailant down.
That is the main flaw in the series I alluded to previously. This woman cop is on patrol alone, even after its proven someone is out to kill her, and kidnap her grandson. Shouldn't she have had a partner in her squad car with her at all times?
Only after the young boy is threatened with great bodily injury is he allowed to walk to school, and back alone!
Why? So that he can get himself abducted of course.
But the interactions between the characters are truer to reality than in any other series I've seen.
People motivated by petty motives just like in real life. Motives we are some times embarrassed to admit.
Crimes committed out of vanity, the foolhardy vanity that we will never get caught.
And it is true, most crime is never solved, I don't believe most crimes are even investigated. That's human nature, let it slide unless there's pressure from above to get your fat ass on the job.
No criticism of law enforcement intended, just human nature.
Happy Valley is one of the most violent crime series I've ever seen. Brutal, a prime example of film noir.
And of course intense, and riveting.
Happy Valley is set in Yorkshire, just like Downton Abbey. But I find the accents harder to follow on Happy Valley. Maybe the more well known actors on Downton Abbey are more accustomed to playing to American audiences.
At least one actor bridges both series. Siobhan Finnerman played Sarah O'Brien on Downtown, and Clare Cartwright in Happy Valley. At first you might not recognize her as the same actress, in Downton she wears her hair pulled back away from her face, in Happy Valley she wears her hair cascading across her face, almost completely obscuring her appearance.
Happy Valley features two of the handsomest villains ever to grace the small screen, blondish James Norton as the main protagonist Tommy Lee Royce, and dark haired Adam Long as Lewis Whippey his evil cohort.
Every time I heard Lewis Whippey addressed by his last name I thought they were calling him Wimpy!
Even his stage name, Adam Long, makes him sound like a porn star.
One of the funniest scenes in Happy Valley was when a third bad guy hides Tommy and Wimpy from the cops in his apartment. He stuffs Wimpy inside his lumpy couch! And stashes Tommy Lee underneath his bathtub!
It was hilarious, at least to me, to see these two very tall men released from their domestic cocoons after the police failed to uncover their hiding places.
Tommy Lee had to contort his body to fit into the narrow space under one edge of the cold formed steel tub.
If I hadn't see it, I wouldn't have believed it was possible for him to squeeze himself into that tight space.
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