In this period of confinement, AlloCiné offers you five detective series to watch on Amazon Prime: "The Shield", "Broadchurch", "New York Special Unit", etc.
The catalog of the platform may evolve, so some of the content offered in this article may no longer be available when you read it. Thanks for your understanding.
THE SHIELD (2002 - 2008)
Like The Wire, The Shield is one of those detective series that began in the early 2000s and quickly became cult. First broadcast in 2002, the program centers on a team of police inspectors navigating between their classic gang war investigations and their illicit activities. The latter took an uncontrollable turn when the head of this brigade killed a police officer wishing to report them. Camera on the shoulder, the series takes us into the dangerous districts of the city with staggering realism. As the head of this unit, the tireless and seasoned Vic Mackey, actor Michael Chiklis is perfect. The best season is without doubt the fifth, the one in which a Forest Whitaker appears at the top of his game in the shoes of this determined inspector investigating corruption in the police.
BROADCHURCH (2013 - 2017)
Released for the first time in 2013 and with three seasons, Broadchurch has a very classic plot: two investigators are responsible for solving the murder of a boy in a community in which the inhabitants begin to spy on each other ... bringing to the surface several secrets. However, the treatment of this story is as brilliant as it is original. The characters of the police inspectors (very different from each other) are worked and embodied brilliantly by David Tennant and Olivia Colman. The inhabitants of the village are also very interesting and all constitute potential suspects ... The moment when we discover who is the killer is also very successful (it is almost impossible to guess before the fall). All in a very cinematic spatial setting: a small coastal village in the south of England.
COLUMBO (1971 - 2003)
With its 69 episodes, the duration of which (between 1 hour 10 and 1 hour 35 minutes) is almost the same as a short film, Columbo, released for the first time in 1968, is one of the most famous police series. One of the special features of the program? The face and motivations of the culprit (always from a wealthy background) are revealed at the start of each investigation. The main character and his very sharp way of elucidating each crime constitute the main assets of the series: played by Peter Falk, this friendly inspector who does not look mine, with his washed beige raincoat and his old battered 403, but turns out in fact particularly effective when it comes to solving a murder. For the record, his name, Columbo, is not mentioned once in all of the episodes. Another feature of the series: if the inspector often talks about his wife, you never see her on the screen ...
NEW YORK SPECIAL UNIT (1999 -)
Released since September 1999, New York Special Unit currently has 21 seasons and 477 episodes... The series focuses on a special New York police unit that investigates sexual crimes by taking care of the victims (and inciting them) to testify). A great success, both public and critical, she won some of the most prestigious American awards (Olivia Benson's interpreter, Mariska Hargitay, was crowned "Best Actress in a Drama Series" at the Golden Globes in 2005) and welcomed an impressive number of guest stars. New York Special Unit also has three major players in the cult prison series Oz: Christopher Meloni, B.D. Wong and Dean Winters. The first interpreted a fearsome serial killer involved in several homosexual murders, a character far from the one he is camping here!
MR. MERCEDES (2017 -)
Adapted from the trilogy of detective novels by Stephen King, Mr. Mercedes sees a retired cop challenged by a criminal to take over an old unresolved case that has always bothered him: a driver driving a Mercedes robbery had caused a massacre, two years earlier, deliberately killing no less than sixteen people ... Dark, in substance as in form, the program is led by the charismatic and massive Irish actor Brendan Gleeson, a well-known face of cinema Anglo-Saxon who delivered several memorable performances (Le Général, Braveheart, Harry Potter, 28 days later, etc.). At his side, we find Harry Treadaway in the shoes of the main antagonist. If you like the world of Stephen King and police investigations taking place in small villages with a sticky atmosphere, this series of three seasons should fill you.
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