A longstanding and lately neglected tradition here at CrimeReads demands that with a big weekend (in the States) coming up, I go through some of your options for 6-20 hours of streaming television of a more or less globetrotting nature. If memory serves, this exercise began back as a means for me to pour a lot of feelings on a then-new le Carré adaptation, The Little Drummer Girl (I’m still feeling ambivalent about it), but in the years since we’ve moved onto steadier terrain, mostly because The Diplomat tends to have a new season out around this time of year.
So, if you’re facing down some open hours this week and possibly want to have a few shows to talk through with your family, please allow me to guide you. Obviously the answer to the headline is again, this year, whatever show Keri Russell is in. (If that means also going back to The Americans or Felicity, then by God that’s what we’ll do, too…)
The Diplomat season 3
Now I know some may quibble with this series being included in the category of ‘thriller’ but if you’ve been watching up to this point, I think we can all agree that the twists in this show are genuinely pulse-raising and also, let’s be honest, boats have been bombed, spies have been summoned and dismissed and summoned again (sometimes to the shower – you’ll know when you’ve seen the season), mercenaries have been implicated, and at some point, all drama aside, you ought to just admit that what you’re watching is an international thriller. With some insightful commentary on marriage, to the side. And also, sex. That sounds like a pretty damn good long weekend.
Where to stream: Netflix
A Thousand Blows
There has long been a joke going around the Lit Hub office about Steven Knight. Well, it’s not so much a joke as speculation that Dan Sheehan and I were the only two people in the world left watching and vouching for Taboo, Knight’s gunpowder and incest epic starring Tom Hardy a few years back. In the intervening period, several of Knight’s shows have blown up on the world stage and made him quite famous and powerful and sometimes I wonder if we lose sight of just how odd and wonderful his tastes really are. (Is wonderful the right word? Well…) In A Thousand Blows, we’re following a women-led crime syndicate moving through the world of bareknuckle boxing in 19th century England. Is it as weird as Tom Hardy’s dreams in Taboo? No, nothing on television is or can be. But it’s still a hell of an exciting romp through a criminal underworld.
Where to stream: Hulu/Disney+
Down Cemetary Road
Death by Lightning is getting a lot of buzz for being the show you’re supposed to watch in order to talk with your relatives about it over Thanksgiving dinner, but my money’s on Down Cemetery Road as the real conversation starter among the current crop of series. The reason is pretty simple: Emma Thompson. Everybody loves Emma Thompson, and what actor would be more fun to talk about over turkey and sides? Down Cemetery Road, if you haven’t yet caught it, is a PI show, but it’s also from the mind of Mick Herron, of Slow Horses fame, so rest assured it’s not exactly a run-of-the-mill British mystery. The mood is a bit more somber than Jackson Lambe would be likely to bring about, but that doesn’t mean the show doesn’t offer plenty of wit and surprise, amidst the gloom.
Where to stream: Apple TV+
Dept. Q
Okay, speaking of gloom, and British people, and gloomy British people…Yes Dept. Q can sometimes take its Nordic Noir roots a little too far down into the depths for some tastes, but it’s as lively and well-executed cold case cops show to come around in quite some time, and you’re getting really top notch performances from Matthew Goode and company. If your weekend is in need of some brooding silences punctuated by odd couple investigator rapport, this is absolutely your best bet.
Where to stream: Netflix
