Screening Boom

Earlier this week, the UK Web site The Killing Times posted its “massive, impressively weighty 2024 Autumn/Winter crime drama preview.” No TV viewer who appreciates works in this genre can reasonably argue there’s nothing to watch this season.

Some shows look more interesting than others, of course. And a number of them will become available to British boob-tubers long before they make it across the Atlantic Ocean to U.S. screens. But among those that interest me most right from the get-go are Moonflower Murders, the six-part sequel to Magpie Murders, debuting on PBS’s Masterpiece Theatre come September 15; Return to Paradise, the Australian spin-off from Death in Paradise; Towards Zero, a three-part adaptation of Agatha Christie’s 1944 novel of that same title; Playing Nice, a babies-switched-at-birth thriller featuring Grantchester’s James Norton; the third series of Dalgliesh, starring Bernie Carvel; The Day of the Jackal, a 10-part tailoring of Frederick Forsyth’s best-selling 1971 political assassination novel, led by Eddie Redmayne; the Harlan Coben drama Missing You, based on his 2014 novel of the same name; ex-Leverage actor Aldis Hodge’s Cross, inspired by James Paterson’s Alex Cross novels; and the Canadian production Murder in a Small Town, derived from the late L.R. Wright’s mysteries, starring Rossif Sutherland and Kristin Kreuk.

I had better stock up on popcorn to get through all of these!