Some More TV Detectives

Oh yes, "Detectives" series is back. And before I go on to non-desi detectives (and there's a whole lot of them), I want to finish up with some TV detectives which I didn't cover last time. One I am including more for the sake of completeness than anything else, the other one, I didn't know exist.

Special Squad:

The Name: Special Squad
The Men (and Women): Aryan Khanna, Shaina Kaur, Dipika Ghosh, Ajay, Neha, Boxer, Shotgun, Papaji

Special Squad (not to be confused with their Australian mates) was set up by Commissioner of Police, Mumbai, as a "special" team. Supposed to be a crack team of homicidal investigators and forensic experts, they are pitted against the "perfect criminals". The team is led by Aryan Khanna (who is pushing himself because he could not solve the case of his wife and daughter's murder) and later by Dipika Ghosh (who is put in the team to control the unorthodox ways of Aryan).

The cases are a combination of the cases where the team has to find the criminal and the ones where they have to catch the criminal. While the later often tend to be more "police-procedural" drama, the former are interesting, if not brilliant. Perhaps the major point I can talk about is that the "cases" do not seem to be overtly "inspired". Then again, the series was a 2005 original, and I am not really conversant with crime dramas of that period. Also, although the story of a cop troubled/fueled by personal trouble is common in books, it was rare in the serials I have seen (If this was 2007, I would have jumped all over them for with "Life").

In case of the "investigative" cases, they are fairly guessable. But when we see the unit reconstructing the crime scene while investigating, the crime "scene" shows the real criminals. I want to find out who made this decision, as this definitely takes away a lot from the suspense. I agree that a group of people discussing how the crime happened is less interesting than actual visual, but then seeing the face of the actual criminal about halfway through the episode is not good either.

I think if the serial had gone beyond one season, this would have been a good one. Of course, I don't think this would have given any serious competition to CID, as this is much more "emotional" drama, not to mention that CID has got quite a few years to establish the characters. But then again, this slight emphasis on emotion does make them less prone to the unintentionally-funny gaffes CID often makes.

That said, I did not know that the time of death could be pinpointed to the minute by forensic examiners. Neither did I know that bullet cases are fired, and not the bullet.

Coming next week: He lives with a doctor. The title song tells us that he is a master of disguises. Sounds familiar? Well, you will be surprised.


- The Great Eagle Has Spoken

P.S. Find the link to the other posts in "Detectives" series under "I Wrote..." in the sidebar.