I am participating in the Get Rec’d: A Movie/TV/Book List Challenge and this is the seventeenth week’s entry. I have decided to be bold and list a response for all three categories; a movie, a television show, and a book.
Week 17: Favorite Law Enforcement Team/Officer/Detective
Movie: Hot Fuzz (2007)
From IMDB: A skilled London police officer is transferred to a small town that’s harbouring a dark secret. Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Martin Freeman
After Shaun of the Dead, Edgar Wright wrote and directed a homage to American action films which he set in his English hometown. Wright’s visual style and comedy shine through as Simon Pegg’s character deals with small town mentality and an ungodly amount of weapons. There are many great things about Hot Fuzz including how the more times you watch it, the more details you notice. Wright wanted to show all the sides of police work proving us with some stylized montages of completing paperwork.
Television: Justified (2010-2015)
From IMDB: Old-school U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens is reassigned from Miami to his childhood home in the poor, rural coal-mining towns in Eastern Kentucky. Timothy Olyphant, Nick Searcy, Joelle Carter
Based on a series of books by Elmore Leonard, Justified provides us with a look into the life of U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens. How do I love this series? Let me count the ways. The cast is fantastic including additions like Patton Oswalt as Constable Bob in later seasons. The writing is spot on with complex characters and engaging storytelling. The humor is consistent but appropriate. None of the characters are funny for the sake of being funny. Last year I rewatched the whole series on DVD including listening to all the commentary tracks. Unlike other shows, they took the commentaries seriously and explained how and why various things happened throughout the series. When I finished, I wanted to start all over again.
Book: Cocaine Blues (1989) by Kerry Greenwood
From Goodreads: Honorable Miss Phryne Fisher solves theft in 1920s London High Season society, and sets her clever courage to poisoning in Melbourne Australia. She – of green eyes, diamant garters and outstanding outfits – is embroiled in abortion, death, drugs, communist cabbies – plus erotic Russian dancer Sasha de Lisse. The steamy end finds them trapped in Turkish baths.
Cocaine Blues begins the series of detective stories featuring the Honorable Miss Phryne Fisher. Set in post-World War I Australia, Miss Fisher assists the police, friends, and family with cases ranging from missing persons, kidnapping, theft, and murder. These well-written books never have you yelling out who did it at the beginning. Everything unfolds in a way that is entertaining as well as interesting. The television series adaptation deviates a bit from the series, but it is equally watchable. For more details, you can read an article I wrote: Why You Need ‘Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries’ In Your Life
Coming Up Next
Next week will be “Based On A True Story”
What are your picks? Let us know in the comments.
The “Freebe and The Bean” movie was stunningly accurate when, while chasing some bad guy, the driver sped up and while on a loading dock, jumped over a moving railroad flatcar, which was in between boxcars which was part of a passing train and landed on another loading dock on the other side of the tracks.
Seconds after this jump, while still traveling about 50 miles an hour, the passenger [no seat belts] reaches over and starts chocking the driver quoting ‘I’m going to kill you’ – these were true partners.