FanFare

The Naked City portrays the police investigation that follows the murder of a young model. A veteran cop is placed in charge of the case and he sets about, with the help of other beat cops and detectives, finding the girl's killer. If you like a good murder show/podcast, this is the granddaddy of them all. [more inside]
posted by Stanczyk on Mar 3, 2024 - 3 comments

A true-crime writer begins a new book project, centered on a grisly 1986 double murder in southern California, that leads him to question the ethics of his trade and to delve into the paradoxes of storytelling itself. [more inside]
posted by FrauMaschine on Feb 14, 2022 - 8 comments

A look at author Michelle McNamara's investigation regarding a violent predator she dubbed the "Golden State Killer," who terrorized California in the 1970s and '80s. (HBO miniseries) [more inside]
posted by oh yeah! on Jun 29, 2020 - 3 comments

When the remains of a murdered 17-year-old who went missing in 1976 are discovered buried beneath a house, detectives DCI Cassie Stuart and DI Sunny Khan attempt to solve the case. The investigation brings up decades-old secrets for those involved.
posted by AllShoesNoSocks on May 13, 2019 - 11 comments

In this fascinating exploration of murder in the nineteenth century, Judith Flanders examines some of the most gripping cases that captivated the Victorians and gave rise to the first detective fiction Murder in Britain in the nineteenth century was rare. But murder as sensation and entertainment became ubiquitous, transformed into novels, into broadsides and ballads, into theatre and melodrama and opera―even into puppet shows and performing dog-acts. Detective fiction and England's new police force developed in parallel, each imitating the other―the pioneers of Scotland Yard gave rise to Dickens's Inspector Bucket, the first fictional police detective, who in turn influenced Sherlock Holmes and, ultimately, even P.D. James and Patricia Cornwell. [more inside]
posted by Homo neanderthalensis on Apr 2, 2019 - 3 comments

A fascinating Jazz Age tale of chemistry and detection, poison and murder, The Poisoner's Handbook is a page-turning account of a forgotten era. In early twentieth-century New York, poisons offered an easy path to the perfect crime. Science had no place in the Tammany Hall-controlled coroner's office, and corruption ran rampant. However, with the appointment of chief medical examiner Charles Norris in 1918, the poison game changed forever. Together with toxicologist Alexander Gettler, the duo set the justice system on fire with their trailblazing scientific detective work, triumphing over seemingly unbeatable odds to become the pioneers of forensic chemistry and the gatekeepers of justice. [more inside]
posted by Homo neanderthalensis on Mar 11, 2019 - 8 comments

ShortsTV presents a theatrical release of the five Oscar nominees for Best Short Film, Live Action [more inside]
posted by Eyebrows McGee on Feb 8, 2019 - 4 comments

A murder mystery which is much more mysterious than it first appears. A fantastical and twisty story where our hero tries to find out who killed (or will kill) Evelyn Hardcastle at a ghastly party at the extremely remote Blackheath House. Best read without any spoilers (including those right inside this post). [more inside]
posted by Stark on Jan 8, 2019 - 6 comments

The duo suspects a murdered zoologist was killed because of his numerous affairs or his trailblazing research; Holmes finds himself the victim of identity theft after his medical records are stolen.
posted by litera scripta manet on Aug 21, 2018 - 7 comments

A thriller screened at the Berlinale shows the murder of a prostitute, of which the details are identical to Rubin and Karow's newest case. What happens when film becomes reality? [more inside]
posted by mrcrow on Feb 19, 2018 - 2 comments

In 1979 a peaceful protest by Communist workers in Greensboro NC turned into a massacre by the Klan. The police were nowhere to be found. This episode examines the incident and the investigation of who was ultimately to blame. [more inside]
posted by Potomac Avenue on May 23, 2016 - 0 comments

In the premiere of this drama following a brilliant private pathologist who helps the Miami police department solve its toughest investigations—whether they want his input or not—Dr. Beaumont Rosewood Jr. tackles a case that hits close to home, and teams up with maverick detective Annalise Villa for the first time.
posted by cashman on Sep 25, 2015 - 6 comments

Kamui and his group try to locate the Sibyl System by overloading the network, by using the stolen Dominators on a group of 500 hostages. Kasei realizes the goal and orders Akane to kill Kamui by setting off a detonation that would kill all the hostages, pushing Akane further by showing her pictures of her grandmother's murder scene (actual scenes not visible in the episode). [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief on Dec 18, 2014 - 1 comment

Mika learns the truth of the Sibyl System and her hue is unchanged. Seeing this, Kasei and Togane decide to use Mika to push the ever-calm Akane into darkness. Meanwhile, Akane and the others learn of one of Kamui's school friends, Koichi Kuwashima, who didn't get on the fateful plane. The young man is now an up-and-coming official who seems to be working with Kamui.
posted by filthy light thief on Dec 13, 2014 - 0 comments

As Mika's group handles the aftermath of the drone incident, Akane tries to determine Kamui's motives behind obtaining Dominators. and confronts Kasei on why she hasn't deactivated Shisui's Dominator privileges. Meanwhile, Mika looks up Togane's background, learning all of the inspectors he had previously worked with became latent criminals, and of his family's medical corporation. As the group examines evidence found in Kamui's hideout, they discover Kamui had used a hologram that was aged up from a child who died in a plane accident 15 years ago. Akane apprehends a surgeon who previously operated on Kamui and has Saiga interrogate him. Pieces start falling together, linking seemingly unrelated events and details together into one complicated web, all connected to Kamui.
posted by filthy light thief on Dec 10, 2014 - 0 comments

The episode opens with the MSWPB tangled in a battle with civilian-controlled drones, through the "Hungry Chicken" mobile game. Akane figures out Kamui's intention behind this event, while Shion and Sho Hinakawa try to handle the mobile game-controlled drones, further stressing out Mika.
posted by filthy light thief on Dec 8, 2014 - 1 comment

The MWPSB (Ministry of Welfare's Public Safety Bureau ) is called to investigate a incident involving an explosion at a busy shopping venue despite no casualties. So far, their main suspect is Akira Kitazawa due to his unstable Crime Coefficient and prior knowledge of demolitions. As a part of Division 1 Inspector Akane and her Enforcers are called in to track and arrest the suspect, who flees from the scene with a female hostage by car. [more inside]
posted by chrono_rabbit on Nov 11, 2014 - 2 comments

Inspector Akane and Enforcer Togane start interrogating the suspect Kitazawa who talks about a person who is able to lower crime coefficients and responsible for the fake hostage. After examining the hologram used in the crime they find out it's extremely elaborate and not the regular run of the mill criminal. [more inside]
posted by chrono_rabbit on Nov 11, 2014 - 1 comment

After interrogating the politician Masuda, Inspector Akane finds herself at a dead end about Kamui other than hearing his name tied to clear HUEs. However, Inspector Aoyanagi does gain some new info related to Kamui's motives and ideals for their society from the criminal. [more inside]
posted by chrono_rabbit on Nov 6, 2014 - 4 comments

The MSWPB continue to investigate the crime scene from earlier that day at the clinic but don't find anything new other than the same mysterious message "WC?" Meanwhile, Inspector Akane is working with other people to continue checking up on potential suspects tied to Kamui and visit one of his a possible secret bases. All seems normal until halfway there is a sudden incident connected to the drone's controls ends up causing another problem. [more inside]
posted by chrono_rabbit on Nov 6, 2014 - 3 comments

Case files... We're gonna hafta be lookin' at these records with fresh eyes, alright? Like we're totally green. Marty and Rust use every last resource to chase down Marty's hunch about the green-eared spaghetti monster. Green eyes, green ears, green paint, and then the Yellow King in Carcosa. [more inside]
posted by carsonb on Nov 4, 2014 - 7 comments

Rust convinces Marty that he has a debt, and the two begin to work together on the investigation again after a decade. Aside from one brief jaunt back to recount Rust's interview of Johnny Joanie, the story mostly moves forward in the present time as they follow up on the missing persons reports (not) filed about Marie Fontenot. [more inside]
posted by carsonb on Oct 28, 2014 - 6 comments

All the threads through 1995 and into 2002 begin to weave together as we watch the fate of both Marty's marriage and Rust's investigation. Cohle visits the families of missing children and follows up with old leads Joel Theriot and Reverend Tuttle, and realizes that his fears about the scope of the problem might have been an underestimation. Hart makes good on his down payment at the Bunny Ranch, and beats the crap outta pretty much ever'one. And in an oddly empty scene (that is, one with neither Rust or Marty in it) Papania and Gilbough bring in Maggie for some friendly questioning: In a former life I used to exhaust myself navigating crude men who thought they were clever. [more inside]
posted by carsonb on Oct 21, 2014 - 3 comments

Time is a flat circle. The story and its telling deviate explicitly, as Rust and Marty wrap up their respective interviews with Gilbough and Papania by relating the culminating, heroic events of their 1995 investigation and summarizing the subsequent several years. [more inside]
posted by carsonb on Oct 14, 2014 - 3 comments

The Detectives jump on the Reggie Ledoux lead, retracing some steps but altogether making progress in a new direction, earning leeway with their commanding officer in the process. But Rust's history and Marty's present personal situation make timely and not-so-timely intrusions (respectively), and the seeming inexorability of their plan to find Ledoux weighs heavy on them both. [more inside]
posted by carsonb on Oct 7, 2014 - 9 comments

Rust and Marty put off handing the case over to the fly-in boys for as long as possible, following scant leads to remote locations and coming away with a description of the monster at the end of their story as well as a name. A tall man, with facial scars. "Reggie Ledoux." The world needs bad men. We keep the other bad men from the door. - Rust | You just look them in the eyes and the whole story's right there. - Cohle [more inside]
posted by carsonb on Oct 1, 2014 - 5 comments

The interview continues, Rust and Marty illustrate just how boring and frustrating chasing gossamer leads can be, and we continue to examine their slow drive investigation of Dorie Lang's murder and interpersonal relationships. — Days of nothing. That's what it's like to work cases. Days of... lost dogs. — It goes on like that.... you know the job. Lookin' for narrative. Interrogate witnesses. Partial evidence. Establish a timeline. Build a story. Day after day. [more inside]
posted by carsonb on Sep 22, 2014 - 16 comments

Meet LA State Police Criminal Investigation Division Detectives Martin Eric 'Marty' Hart (Woody Harrelson) and Rustin Spencer 'Rust' Cohle (Matthew McConaughey), both retired from the force, as they each sit down with State CID detectives in 2012 to go over an old homicide case of theirs from 1995 that has mysteriously resurfaced. As Nic Pizzolatto's story seeps slowly out of director Cary Joji Fukunaga's vision of their recollections, dank and withered and burned out hollow, the tale of occult, ritual, (iconic, planned) murder emerges from the jungle of coastal Louisiana like so much aluminum-tinged smoke and ash. People out here, it's like they don’t even know the outside world exists. [more inside]
posted by carsonb on Sep 15, 2014 - 10 comments