highly sensitive power

The list of recommendations begun in Part One of this article continues here. (Please note the warnings for Wire in the Blood.)

Second Sight – The able Clive Owen, capable of pulling off complexly compelling characters, plays Detective Chief Inspector Ross Tanner, a tough cop who’s going blind and trying to hide the fact so he can continue doing his job. His journey of deception and acceptance over the nine hours of the series interweaves with the cases he’s working on, making Second Sight a great blend of crime and character.

MI-5 (or Spooks, if you’re not in North America) – Well-written, often surprising, and visually zippy, MI5 delivers a modern spy drama with just enough soap opera overtones to keep us hooked through seven seasons (so far). Since characters come and go over the long series, there is always a chance that any tensely crafted scene may actually end up with the loss of a character, thus amping the drama to a higher level. MI5 leans toward intellect rather than crashing brawn, focusing more on issues of political intrigue, international concerns (like global warming), and tests of personal morality than displays of violence.

Rebus – John Hannah, who stars in McCallum and Amnesia (both recommended in Part One), brings author Ian Rankin’s Detective Inspector John Rebus to life in all his glum, heart-grabbing human glory. Rebus’ intense internal searching is set against dour but beautiful Edinburgh and its crimes. John Hannah only stars in the first season (four episodes) of Rebus. Subsequent seasons, starring Ken Scott as Rebus, may appeal to you, but after being sucked into the vortex of Hannah’s Rebus, I realized that I wasn’t willing to continue the series without him. He’s that good.

Wire in the Blood – I include this intense (often graphically so) series here because of the main character’s high sensitivity. Dr. Tony Hill, played with mesmerizing believability by Robson Green, has a special talent for understanding the criminal mind, going so far as to empathize with even the most disturbed perpetrators. Through six seasons (and possibly more to come), the series follows Dr. Hill as he navigates the land mines of his life, from tough cops who doubt his worth – including the female Detective Chief Inspector he’s increasingly attracted to – to the sensitivity-challenging situations he finds himself in as he profiles human monsters and solves crimes. Don’t watch this series unless you’re prepared to put your hands over your eyes every now and then. I was and did, and it was worth it.

Have fun sitting on the edge of your seat in the dark.

If you know of other high-quality, not very violent British TV crime dramas, I’d love to know about them.

Janurary 3, 2010: And now there’s also a British TV Crime Dramas – Part Three.