Get Millie Black is a gritty crime drama created by the Booker Prize-winning novelist Marlon James, marking his first work written for television. A co-production for HBO and the UK's Channel 4, the five-part series is among the first major HBO dramas set and filmed largely in Jamaica, steeping its mystery in the streets, patois and social fault lines of Kingston.
Tamara Lawrance stars as Millie-Jean Black, a Jamaican-born detective who trained at Scotland Yard before returning home to work missing-persons cases for the Jamaica Constabulary Force. When a routine disappearance collides with a Scotland Yard investigation led by a visiting detective, played by Joe Dempsie, Millie is pulled toward a dangerous web of trafficking and long-buried family wounds. Gershwyn Eustache Jnr plays her partner Curtis, and Chyna McQueen appears as Millie's sister Hibiscus.
The limited series earned rapturous reviews on both sides of the Atlantic, holding a perfect critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes and drawing praise for its performances and its vivid, unsentimental sense of place. It aired on HBO and Max in the United States in late 2024 and on Channel 4 in the UK in early 2025. It streams on HBO Max.
Gloria Sheppard (Ally Walker from Profiler, Sons of Anarchy) is a detective with the LAPD who has recently become a single mother to two young boys. As with several other female cop type roles currently running on television, Gloria is overloaded between her job and home life, and the men in her life are basically incompetent. She stays up late sewing costumes for her sons then is up bright and early doing her detective thing. Detective Sheppard currently lives with her younger brother, Davey (played by Chris Payne Gilbert from Dexter, Burn Notice) but he's not much help due to being a recovering drug addict and she doesn't trust him with anything more than minor tasks. Sheppard solves some spectacular cases with the assistance of her partner, detective Michelle Dulcett (Tisha Campbell-Martin from Everybody Hates Chris, All of Us). Reminiscent of (although not nearly as tough and outspoken) other TV characters like Brenda Johnson (Kyra Sedgwick) on The Closer, Body of Proof's Dr. Megan Hunt (Dana Delaney), and In Plain Sight's Mary Shannon (Mary McCormack) we see Detective Gloria Sheppard as a woman determined to do it all, with or without male companionship. And she does it well.
Mob Wives is called a "documentary soap opera" with good reason. It is a story about people who don't exist because there is no such thing as the Mob or Cosa Nostra or Mafia! But there are those living among us who know better. The housewives, parents, and children of mob and criminal related individuals are shadowy figures who live in the background of their powerful husbands and fathers until the bad guys get caught and must spend time behind bars. Then these formerly quiet and reserves ladies capably take matters in their own hands and go about their lives. The four Mob Wives include a group of friends who support each other while their men are away and it's no easy task to attempt to maintain a lifestyle they've become used to when the main bread winner of the family is away incarcerated. James Molinaro, who is President of the Borough of Staten Island in New York has declared the show is a disgrace because it portrays not only Italian Americans but also Staten Island itself as being lowlife and detrimental.
Crime drama on American television doesn't get any better than The Closer. Starring the beautiful Kyra Sedgwick (Mrs. Kevin Bacon) she leads as Deputy Chief Brenda Johnson of the Georgia PD that has found herself transplanted to Los Angeles, California to take over as lead officer on their Priority Murder Squad (now called the Major Crimes Division). Starring an ensemble cast that includes J.K. Simmons (Law & Order, OZ) as Will Pope the Assistant Chief of Operations with the LAPD, Corey Reynolds (Private Practice, CSI: Miami) as David Gabriel Sergeant of Detectives at LAPD, and Robert Gossett (ER, Bones) who plays Commander Russell Taylor of Robbery and Homicide for the LAPD. Kyra Sedgwick herself has top rated credentials herself with roles in Secondhand Lions, Lover Boy, and Phenomenon. Each episode revolves around a different story line and includes murder and other serious crimes that occur in the Los Angeles area. Deputy Chief Johnson's role is to solve crimes and not let them become "cold cases". Her track record is excellent and she and her team get the job done in an hour each episode.
Albuquerque, New Mexico is the evidently a popular place for those who have had need to join the witness protection program (WITSEC) provided for those who have helped the U.S. Government convict criminals. Those who are brought to justice vow revenge and will often go to great lengths to "get even" . Although this is just an entertaining dramatic television show, it is based on actual occurrences. Mary Shannon (played by Mary McCormack from Law & Order: Criminal Intent and West Wing) is a member of the U.S. Marshals and along with her partner Marshal Marshall Mann (Fredrick Weller also from Law & Order: Criminal Intent) work with newly installed witnesses. Many of the newly secreted participants don't want to leave their former lifestyle but the alternative may be fatal. Each episode we find the Marshals must deal with a wide assortment of problems both on the job and in their private lives. Mary has an interesting family that includes a wacky mother Jinx Shannon (Lesley Ann Warren of Desperate Housewives, Will & Grace) and outlandish younger sister Brandi, played by Nichole Hiltz (Bones, Smallville) both of whom live with Mary as they sort out their own complicated lives.
Powerful cast makes Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior a huge hit on CBS As far as spin offs from television series go this one is a winner! The original Criminal Minds (debuted in 2005) has been so well written it was bound to spawn a sequel and Suspect Behavior is bound to excel. This is all about the FBI and profiling but goes way beyond the previous "Profilers" program and includes study of human behavior and why some of us do bad things. Situated in Quantico, Virginia, the teams of the FBI's BAU or Behavioral Analysis Unit solve cases by "getting inside" the minds of dangerous criminals who have no respect for the lives of others. Forest Whitaker stars as Sam Cooper, a Special Agent with the FBI who bravely attacks his job each day, intent on getting the criminal element off the streets. His specially selected team include a skilled marksman, a former convict, and slick cunning agents who must be smarter than their targets in order to out wit them. Their missions involve capturing the most dangerous of the criminal element and bring them to justice. Also starring Matt Ryan, Michael Kelly, and Beau Garrett.
"The Chicago Code" has nothing to do with deep-dish pizzas or the cruelly cursed Cubbies. "The Chicago Code" openly, unabashedly, plain and simple, is all about good versus evil. The good guys following "The Chicago Code" are very very good, and the bad guys breaking the code are very very bad. The windy city itself, definitely a critical element in the drama's development, lives somewhere in-between. Chicago may be "the second city," but it stands out as America's number one oxymoron. "Hog-butcher to the world," Chicago also brought us Hemingway and Frank Lloyd Wright. Home to Picasso's breathtaking artistic monument, Chicago also has been home to some monumental con artists: Rod Blagojevich comes immediately to mind. "Blaggo" is to Chicago scams as the Picasso is to the city's art and architecture. More to the point of "The Chicago Code," in just over thirty years, thirty-one second city aldermen have been convicted of violent crimes or corruption. In Chicago, graft greases the wheels and gets your streets ploughed. Although corruption may be common as camel-hair coats on the Magnificent Mile, Chicago cops still want to collar the bad guys. "The Chicago Code" attempts to dramatize how and why they do it, and it packs a pretty good punch for a network production. Critics and home-grown Chicago viewers strongly suspect "The Chicago Code" would achieve its completely gritty potential on cable, but it's hard to complain about Jennifer Beals, still fit and fabulous all these years after Flashdance, going balls-to-the-wall against the bad guys in Monday night primetime.
Creator and writer of The Wire TV show, David Simon (Homicide: Life on the Streets) knows about crime dramas after spending twelve years as a reporter at the Baltimore Sun's City Desk. His writing is honest and penetrating as he searches out the dark and seamy side of life that is part of any old and large city lifestyle. The Wire ran for sixty episodes and spanned five seasons with top acting, writing, producing, and high ratings all the while. Episodes covered a wide variety of occurrences and facets of Baltimore including the city's illegal drug trade, corruption in city government, the system within a seaport town, news in print media, and school system issues. The Wire is a crime drama all about a typical large American city and how we each cope with events that make up our lives. Demonstrating how life can be complicated no matter if you are a cop, a lawyer, a judge, a politician, or a low life drug dealer, and how the many institutions involved in our livelihood affect each and every one of us. Cops get the bad guys and the lawyers and judges just turn around and set them free.
