And oh! Father Christmas, if you love me at all...

What better way to spend a rainy Saturday than curled up on the couch watching episode after episode of your favourite TV crime drama series? Back in the day when I only got one episode a week on TV it used to annoy me silly that I had to wait a whole week for the next instalment. Now I can gorge myself silly. I might complain about the younger generation not having any patience for delayed gratification, but kettle and pot spring to mind. And oh! Father Christmas, if you love me at all, bring me a box set for Christmas!

So what is out there now to replace old North American favourites like Rizzoli & Isles, Elementary, Castle, King and Maxwell, Murdoch Mysteries …? Well, I’d like to introduce you to four series I now like to watch. Two in this review and two next time.

‘Blindspot’ premiered in 2015 and is shown in the UK on Sky Living. This thriller is now in its 2^nd season.  A beautiful tattooed woman (Jaimie Alexander) who has lost her memory, appears mysteriously in New York. She comes to the attention of law enforcement in the guise of FBI agent Kurt Weller (Sullivan Stapleton) and his team. Each of the woman’s tattoos are clues to a criminal conspiracy. But do all the individual cases lead to an overarching case that is so enormous thousands of lives could be at risk? This thriller not only deals with subtle emotions, relationships and betrayal on a grand scale, it is exciting and action packed. No wonder it won the Critics Choice Television Award for Most Exciting New Series.

The second series I’d like to highlight here is ‘The Blacklist’. What makes this series so interesting is that the viewer develops an interest in all sorts of fundamentally flawed characters, who in the case of Raymond Reddington (portrayed extremely well by James Spader) is a mysterious criminal master mind with vast connections to people of wealth and power. 

The female protagonist is Agent Elizabeth Keane, an FBI profiler (played by Megan Boone). Her fate is changed forever when Reddington decides to enter her life. Now in the 4^th season, this crime thriller can be seen in the UK on Sky Living.  Box Set available. 

(Indiana Brown)