On TV — Sunday Night Morality Tales On Broadcast TV

I look forward to Sunday night TV.  It’s launched by the venerable “60 Minutes,” but “Madame Secretary” and “The Good Wife” not only provide decent drama, but also bring current issues to the public with all the ethical complexities of real life.  They ask us under what circumstances would you compromise your character to achieve what you believe to be the greater good. Would you be unfair to make things fair?  Recognizing that justice and the law are often at odds, where do you come down?

“Madame Secretary” does this mostly on a macro scale.  The fate of the world depends on the actions of a modified Hillary Clinton–style Secretary of State.  We have international political intrigue, party political intrigue and within-the-party battles — all with less cynicism and less wit than “House of Cards.” How they put the drama together in such a timely way in a rapidly changing world is admirable.  Good writers.  Téa Leoni and Tim Daly lead a cadre of well-cast, highly talented actors, including Bebe Neuwirth and Keith Carradine.  Barbara Hall created the series.

“The Good Wife” plays out in micro scale by comparison.  We still have the intricacies of politics, the dilemma of lawyers in battle with justice bartered and battered by the interests of the moneyed and the powerful, but it is more local, more intimately focused. Even more than “Madame Secretary,” in “The Good Wife,” the good are not always good. Affairs of the heart are not always smart. And, as in life, and in our many elections, we find ourselves rooting for the lesser of the two evils. There is no Sunday dinner here, unlike the Reagan family on “Blue Bloods,” where serious hour-long dilemmas are brought to a satisfactory and usually optimistic close in a ‘50s redux.  If “Madame Secretary” boasts a lot of writing, acting and directing talent, that goes double for ‘The Good Wife.” Produced by Ridley Scott, the good wife, brilliantly portrayed by Julianna Margulies, struggles with honesty versus ambition in every aspect of her life. Her character is more complex than Madame Secretary’s. The stellar cast includes Chris Noth, Christine Baranski, Matt Czuchry and Alan Cumming. Archie Panjabi took the role of a major law firm’s investigator, Kalinda Sharma.  She was outstanding. My hope was that when she left the show, she was headed for a spin-off — a private eye with her own show.   So far, no news on that front.   Even so, the new season of “The Good Wife” remains as great as ever.

Opinion — Nine,Nine, Nine, Part Three: Top Nine Television Crime Dramas/Series

There were some great network television crime series. Many of them, like Peter Gunn and Richard Diamond, were must-sees when they came out. I was hooked. When I was fourteen or fifteen, I tried to get the barber to cut my hair like Craig Stevens. Unfortunately, most of these old shows don’t seem to stand the test of time. Even so, as it turns out most of my list is comprised of more recent dramas mostly from network TV or PBS. I may have overlooked some worthy cable crime dramas. Your comments, as always, are welcomed.

1. The Wire — Nothing touches this. It is miles ahead of the rest of the pack, of everything, even films. Tough, gritty, real. A mix of crime and politics that made me feel like I was eavesdropping on the real thing.

2. Prime Suspect (English Version) — A pioneer in realistic police dramas with vulnerable characters in believable relationships. It doesn’t hurt to have Helen Mirren as the central character, who must fight old boy police as well as criminals.

3. Homicide, Life on the Street — I see this as a predecessor to “The Wire.” Not being a cop, I couldn’t know for sure; but this appeared to be authentic — lives on the edge of surreality, the kind of day-to-day that the police must face. The effective use of dark humor sets it above most TV dramas.

4. DaVinci Inquest — This is “The Wire” in realistic, but less intense situations. In “The Wire” we spend most of our time in the poorest and most violent neighborhoods. In “DaVinci,” we are exposed to a broader range of crime and class with that same sense that we are not viewing a program, but are somehow privy to the unvarnished ins and outs of crime and politics.

5. NYPD Blue — Fine acting, fine stories. While I have little other than good to say for a series that showed cops as screwed up as the rest of us, I tired of a steady diet of anger and sadness. I believed Andy Sipowicz, but he and the others could have used even the slightest sense of humor. As nurses, firefighters and cops will attest, there are at least flashes of comedy, dark as it might be, in the worst of human situations. “NYPD” didn’t quite get that.

6. Sherlock Holmes (the Benedict Cumberbatch series) — All right, all right, it’s too early to tell. Three episodes. That’s not enough. But the show was so bright, so fresh and so much fun, it’s already earned its place on my list no matter what they do next.

7. The Rockford Files — Perhaps I’ve let a little sentiment sneak into my evaluation. What I can say is that it holds up very well, the best of the vintage TV private eyes. I’m in the midst of watching them all again. As of this writing I am at episode 83 and I’m enjoying it. What I liked about James Garner’s “Maverick” is what I like about his Rockford. Here’s a man who is not afraid to run away and fight another day. (But if I were Rockford, Angel would be dead.) Even at its weakest moments, “The Rockford Files” easily remains the best fictional private eye series ever on American television.

8. The original Law and Order (first few seasons) — For a while there, I thought there would be a spin-off showing the drama surrounding the lives of the parking meter police. But when the original came on some years ago, it was a fresh idea — from police investigation to the courtroom — and the stories and acting were top notch.

9. The Good Wife — Another surprise. Just when I was about to give up on network TV, “The Good Wife” comes up with fascinating characters, people who deal with crime, law, political corruption, private detection, and flawed moral fiber. A fine mix.