Detective Drama Tropes you Wish they'd skip

[Kreepture]

Been watching all the Morse, Lewis, Endeavour, Frost..etc series on ITV x recently, and i've spotted a few tropes they like to use, but there's a couple i'm really fed up of.

1. The new love interest turning out to be the killer/bad guy

2. Families of the dead refusing to answer perfectly reasonable questions/being hostile.

The retired detective being brought out of retirement as he’s the only one who can solve it … because it’s personal …

Tragic back story which means they’re a loner who can’t get close to anyone and when they do (xref point 1)

The serial killer is like that because his Mum was not very nice to him.

Their fucked up personal lives. Can we have a detective who has a happy family life and isn’t an alcoholic/tormented by their past?

i think the current guy in midsomer murders is about the only one i can think of that has a good marriage/no back issues atm!

Or finds out their spouse is having an affair with their best friend/sibling

The obligatory sounds of hooting owls & barking foxes in any nocturnal scene.

Cops go to the house of a vital witness who's asked to see them because they need to tell them something important, let themselves in the already-ajar front door and find a body.

Long-lost relative (who nobody recognises) arrives to exact revenge for historic wrongdoings.

There's always a knife missing from the block in the kitchen / gun missing from the cupboard / pitchfork missing from the barn.

A photograph (either the presence or absence of) solves the case.

Female CID always wear long swishy coats and heeled ankle boots.
Police stations are either dishwater coloured walls, 70s wood effect vinyl and only a 20 watt halogen light for the whole station or a palace of chrome and glass. There is no in between.

The most famous actor amongst the suspects is the murderer.

The detective has to be accused of murder or most likely suspect at least once a series.

Well, not cosy crime so much but - there's always a young, slim female victim who is shown naked and bruised.

The Main detective racing to rescue someone when there was probably a patrol car much closer.

Characters who insist on seeing the police in person in a gloomy and sinister meeting place instead of just telling them what they know on the bloody phone.

No-one looking upset when someone dies.

Whisky drinking. They all do it. I don’t know anyone in real life who does unless it’s a special occasion

There is a neat row of new-looking brightly coloured lever-arch files (or indeed box files) on a shelf, usually - but not always - in the police station. It is obvious that they are all empty. There's a finger hole in each one and you can see there's nothing in them.

Set dressers take note. 😂

A senior detective goes out and about investigating, rather than leaving it to DCs etc.

A maverick détective who doesn’t follow the rules- sigh
Naked women on the mortuary slab - I believe that actors call this a ‘fridge role’
Female officers chasing people in high heels
A previously unknown identical twin is the culprit

It’s normally the main detective is fucked up and his loyal sergeant is a steady family man

midsummer murders - the murdered is the only one left after they’ve killed everyone else off

the kooky car

By the time we get to about 100 posts, we'll have written an entire series of Midsomer Murders.😂

I have a friend who is a DCI and he spends his life filling out risk assessments and appraisals and control plans

I’ve not watched in a while but midsomer murders always did that thing where someone would ring a friend or the police and say “I just realised something terribly important that reveals who the murderer is but for some bizarre reason I’ve decided to prioritise something totally irrelevant so I can’t possibly tell you now, I will come and see you in an hour.”
Cue them getting murdered.

I have a friend who is a very senior midwife, and she does much the same.

Can you imagine Morse being asked to do that…

We thought this with that Timothy Spall BBC one!

What - filling out risk assessments? No, I can't.😂