TV: Best Acted Detective in a Series

[Wee Baby Seamus]

Andre Braugher as Raymond Holt.

 

[RockLobster]

Andre Braugher as Raymond Holt.

 

[Voight]

Mariska Hartigay, Chris Meloni.

Jason Beghe

 

[NyQuil]

A lot of good suggestions.

I've liked:
-Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes
-David Suchet as Hercule Poirot
-Peter Falk as Colombo
-Matthew McConaughey as Rusty Cohle
-Wendell Pierce as Bunk Moreland
-Vincent D'Onofrio as Robert Goren
-Gillian Anderson as Stella Gibson
-Allison Tolman as Molly Solverson

As much as I enjoyed Luther and Sherlock, I felt like their characters were more caricatures and lacked subtlety. Luther gets angry and breaks the rules over and over again. Sherlock is rude. I know a lot of people liked Monk - not sure where he belongs.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the shows, I just don't feel like they are particularly well acted. I might throw Patrick Jane's Mentalist character in there too. He was hilarious in terms of his penchant for running from danger.

Those are in my top 3, but I'm going to pick a show none of you have heard of, Sherlock.

 

[Double-Shift Lasse]

Jack Soo

 

[plank]

Private detective Jim Rockford played by James Garner

 

[Habsfunk]

Andre Braugher as Raymond Holt.

Andre Braugher as Frank Pembleton in Homicide.

 

[Acoustic]

McNulty

 

[Preds Partisan]

Peter Falk as Lt. Colombo in Colombo.
James Garner as Jim Rockford in the Rockford Files.
Dennis Franz as Det. Andy Sipowicz in NYPD Blue.
Andre Braugher as Det. Frank Pemberton in Homicide: Life on the Street.

 

[BonMorrison]

Rust Cohle will forever have my heart.

 

[Desdichado93]

I lot of folks came to mind like McConaughey for example. Foyle did as well though as I just watched the full series in the past year. I preferred the later episodes.

Personally I ppreferred the WW2 over the post-WW2 episodes.

 

[TNT87]

Telly Savalas as Kojak was good.

 

[FLYLine27*]

 

[GarbageGoal]

Garner as Jim Rockford
Savalas as Theo Kojak
Chris Noth as Mike Logan
Andre Braugher as Frank Pembleton

 

[aufheben]

Win.

 

[Eisen]

Most of you probably don't know him, but it's Horst Schimanski by Götz George.

 

[Blackhawkswincup]

Gary Graham as Detective Matthew Sikes
Eric Pierpoint as Detective George Francisco

A great series that like so many that would follow ,, Got killed by Fox in a short sighted blunder

Rarely do shows with solid ratings and reviews get canned after 1 season ,, But Fox did just that early on in its infancy as a TV network

 

[Eisen]

Gary Graham as Detective Matthew Sikes
Eric Pierpoint as Detective George Francisco

A great series that like so many that would follow ,, Got killed by Fox in a short sighted blunder

Rarely do shows with solid ratings and reviews get canned after 1 season ,, But Fox did just that early on in its infancy as a TV network

Man, I completely forgot about that show. I liked that. Too bad it got cancelled.

 

[silkyjohnson50]

Gary Graham as Detective Matthew Sikes
Eric Pierpoint as Detective George Francisco

A great series that like so many that would follow ,, Got killed by Fox in a short sighted blunder

Rarely do shows with solid ratings and reviews get canned after 1 season ,, But Fox did just that early on in its infancy as a TV network

Is that Mick Jagger?

 

[Kurtz]

You want us to say Idris Elba. So just say it!

Agreed.

 

[tarheelhockey]

David Rasche as Sledge Hammer.

 

[les Habs]

Considering some of the mentions I'll add some more:

Kenneth Branagh as Kurt Wallander.

Woody Harrelson as Marty Hart.

Colin Farrell as Ray Velcoro.

Rachel McAdams as Ani Bezzerides.

W Earl Brown as Teague Dixon.

Michael Harney as Steve Geraci.

Nikolaj Lie Kaas as Carl Morck.

Stellan Skarsgard as John River.

Iain Glen as Jack Taylor.

Gillian Anderson as Stella Gibson.

Richard Harrington as Tom Matthias.

Dominic West as Jimmy McNulty.

Wendell Pierce as Bunk Moreland.

Personally I ppreferred the WW2 over the post-WW2 episodes.

I preferred the latter because the show had a bit of darker edge and the supporting cast was much better. Foyle's son as a character was for instance quite annoying while Foyle's colleagues in the later episodes were all well played.

Garner as Jim Rockford

I've only seen about five episodes, but he's not a bad shout when put into context.

 

[Winger98]

Andre Braugher as Frank Pembleton is the first name to pop into my head. Technically not a detective, but also like Hal Linden as Capt. Barney Miller.

 

[ProstheticConscience]

No love for Lennie Briscoe?

 

[Baby Punisher]

While I've never seen Law & Order, Dennis Farina was a favorite actor of mine. Snatch, Luck and of course Empire Falls come to mind. Your post reminded me of an 80's detective story though which was set in the 50's and I think he was lead. "Runaway" was the show's theme. I think I recall liking it, but I was quite young at the time and probably didn't pay enough attention.

Crime Story. It was Farina's big break. I loved that show. It had a pretty good cast that went on to be notable character actors and Comedian in none other than Andrew Dice Clay who had a sizeable role. I loved Farina. When he passed away a couple of years ago that death hit me hard. He was just 69 years old.