Hacker Cinema
Jonathan Creek
1997 · TV series · 50 min episodes · 5 seasons
Created by David Renwick
Working from his home in a converted windmill, Jonathan Creek is a magician with a natural ability for solving puzzles. He soon puts this ability to the use of solving impossible crimes and mysterious murders.
3 positive1 neutralfrom 4 commenters
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5 comments on Hacker News
Jonathan Creek is always worth watching. 'Jack in the Box' and 'The Grinning Man' come to mind.
Early Jonathan Creek is a masterpiece. In particular, the "Black Canary" special is possibly the finest two hours of television ever constructed. I often think if they had released it as a movie it would have been a hit.
I agree with you about the picture quality. Black Canary from the DVD is really very noisy and grainy - to the point where I actually made my own "remastered" version by doing some basic color correction and digital noise reduction. It looks a lot better.
Some modern televisions have pretty good built-in modes for doing noise reduction and improving the color, try experimenting with those. (Just don't leave it on all the time.)
It's almost always the 'biggest B-list actor' who did the murder (on Midsomer and others). And over the years I've learned to recognize these people across shows. Had to argue with my wife that the murder victim in a Jonathan Creek episode we saw the other night was Frank from Vicar Of Dibley. I won :)
I watched Columbo for the first time in the past year and I *don't* think the format is well known (I was born in the 90s, so it may be a generational thing).
I want to expand on it because it's really unique and amazing.
For those who don't know, each episode opens with us seeing the crime being committed and covered up. We always know who it is, immediately.
Then in the 2nd act we're introduced to Columbo, and we observe him trying to figure out what we already know.
For all of the reasons stated in the parent article, Columbo is one of the most perfect representations of a "real smart person" in media. Another favourite of mine is Jonathan Creek
There's a wonderful British television story called "Jonathan Creek" were the eponymous Johnathan is a stage-hand and magic trick developer who helps a reporter solve locked-room mysteries.
In the pilot episode he says something to the effect of, "It's not magic. It's never magic. People just can't imagine, or can't be bothered to do this much bloody work"