TV's Best Detective

[mortari]

We just started rewatching The Rockford Files after getting the boxset a few months ago and I have put in a vote for Jim Rockford. Him and Monk maybe the most rewatchable for me.

[Riv86672]

Oh, the lovely Murdoch Mysteries with the ultra handsome Yannick Bisson as William Murdoch.

^^^I discovered this show by complete accident back around 2015 and was hooked.
And yes, Yannick Bisson is easy on the eyes!

[DrNewGod]

We just started rewatching The Rockford Files after getting the boxset a few months ago and I have put in a vote for Jim Rockford. Him and Monk maybe the most rewatchable for me.

I liked Rockford, and he's certainly among the more entertaining to watch. I don't know that he had the analytical mind of a Columbo, or Fletcher, but he had a real talent for ferreting out facts that undermined coverups. Of course, he usually wasn't dealing with criminal masterminds, but hammer-headed goons who relied more on intimidating questions away.

As an aside, James Garner was one of my favorite actors of his era. I've wondered what his career might have been if his contemporaries Paul Newman or Steve McQueen hadn't taken up acting.

[Mark Trail]

World's Greatest Detective, right here:

[Jim Kelly]

As an aside, James Garner was one of my favorite actors of his era. I've wondered what his career might have been if his contemporaries Paul Newman or Steve McQueen hadn't taken up acting.

Jim Garner one of my Dad's favourite actors (and mine). Even though he wasn't a huge movie star, he had a respectable run of movies throughout most of his career.

[DrNewGod]

Jim Garner one of my Dad's favourite actors (and mine). Even though he wasn't a huge movie star, he had a respectable run of movies throughout most of his career.

He did. Still, I can't watch The Great Escape without thinking how seamlessly he could have slipped into the Hilts role.

[Gaastra]

Agree with detective conan. He has outsmarted some crazy things and solves some crazy murders even outsmarting huge crime heads and even getting called the most scarcest and dangerous person by zero who can be a scary guy himself and even set up a main FBIs fake death as a backup in case plan a failed having the fbi say "scary he planned even this" and had everything he needed complete with the person who "shot" him working for him to fool the bad guys and set up major players in the train ark fooling even one of the deadliest and smartest assassins in the world. He was one step ahead of them all in that story.

Conan does not mess around when he wants to!

[numberthirty]

Jeremy Brett's Sherlock Holmes
Columbo
John Steed and Emma Peel
The Winchester brothers
Thomas Magnum O.G.
Inspector Gadget

Straight talk?

John Winchester is way, way up there on the "All-Time Great..." list of unsung television detectives.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Detectives in anime:

Sherlock Holmes (Moriarty the Patriot)
Conan Edogawa (Detective Conan)
L Lawliet (Death Note)
Victorique de Blois (Gosick)

[DrNewGod]

I'm kind of thinking this question needs a distinction between detectives that use their heads to solve puzzles (e.g. Laura Holt) and those that use their heads as battering rams (e.g. Mannix).

[K7P5V]

World's Greatest Detective, right here:

I concur, along with the '90s version

[Catlady in training]

No love for Horatio Caine?



I'll see myself out.

[Kirby101]

No love for Horatio Caine?



I'll see myself out.

I would go with Grissom though.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

I would go with Grissom though.

I saw Grissom as more of a scientist than a detective, but yeah, I’d take him over Mr. Shades any day.

[useridgoeshere]

One thing about Columbo is that he almost always knows immediately who did it, so his detecting is less about discovery than how to prove what he knows. That seems different than most TV detectives who are trying to find clues to solve a puzzle.