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May 11, 2012

Joe Hadsall: Good TV on Sundays that isn't 'Mad Men'

By Benji Tunnell Globe Columnist

JOPLIN, Mo. — These are cold times on TV. For some reason, I can’t seem to catch “Awake,” a promising, slightly paranormal cop drama on NBC, and I’m way behind. AMC is in a gap between “The Walking Dead” and “Breaking Bad.” And I just can’t get into “Mad Men” — I know Christina Hendricks is hot, but she was SO much hotter in “Firefly.” (Fellow Browncoats know how she was naked and articulate.)

 At least there haven’t been any “The Daily Show” reruns lately — those rerun weeks are always hard.

That doesn’t mean there hasn’t been good TV. I’m geeked out over two shows on the air (er, in the cable) right now. Unfortunately, both are on Sunday, so now the day isn’t as relaxing as it should be, what with my tight schedule of sleeping until 2 p.m., getting to the store and buying food to grill, grilling the food, eating with the fam and catching these TV shows. If football was on right now, I don’t know how I’d make it!

But I endure. I keep calm and carry on. Thank goodness for my British heritage, which gives me the steely resolve to persevere through such terrible ordeals.

Anyway, here’s the shows:

• “The Killing,” on AMC. What, just because there’s that “Dead”/“Bad” gap, means there’s nothing good on the king of TV drama? While “The Killing” isn’t as strong as both of those shows, it’s a pretty compelling cop drama.

A nice change to this season is that writers ditched the formula they used to painful excess in season 1. Each episode last year went something like this: Debunk current suspect, waik in rain, get distracted by other stuff, drive in rain, dwell on personal demons, walk in rain, find something that establishes new suspect. Repeat for 13 weeks, end with cop conspiracy and shooting.

This week flows more according to a story. There’s no reliance on cliffhangers from week to week and the story is more cohesive. The pell-mell, omnidirectional hunt for Rosie Larsen’s killer from last season is gone: Things are flowing in a much more solid direction.

I gave up on trying to find out whodunit last season. I’m just enjoying the ride, and I like the way things are going.

• “Sherlock,” on PBS. I think this is the first time I’ve written about a PBS drama — not exactly a “Downton Abbey” fan, here. PBS shows the BBC-produced “Sherlock” under its “Masterpiece Mystery!” franchise, and I’m glad for it.

“Sherlock” is a re-imagining of the legendary detective-doctor relationship. In some of the most brilliant casting I’ve seen in a while, Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman take on the roles of Sherlock and Watson.

The main difference is that the series is set in current-day London. Watson keeps a blog about Sherlock’s adventures. Text messages are critical parts of the case. And while Cumberbatch’s Sherlock doesn’t have the command of different tobaccos that Arthur Conan Doyle’s did, he is just the savant as before.

I’m a fan of the recent movie portrayal by Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law, but the movie was not very true to the world, or spirit, of the books. Even though “Sherlock” is set more than 100 years after the original, it absolutely nails how Sherlock would be regarded today.

Watson is no sycophant, and Holmes is an incredible maladroit. The people around Holmes’ tolerate his awful behavior, until they snap. And the reimagining of other crucial characters, such as Professor Moriarty and Irene Adler, are inspired in their quirkiness.

There’s only  three episodes a season, but each episode is about 90 minutes long. So they are like movies. And good movies, at that. The next two will be shown at 8 p.m. Sundays. Until then, get to Netflix and catch up on season 1.

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