Personal Top 10 Favorite Television Detectives

Television detectives are so much fun to watch. They are pulled into a scene, locate a few clues, ask a few questions, apply pressure to the suspects, and eventually solve the case by the end of the show. It makes for great entertainment while teaching that no matter how hard one tries, the detectives will find the one small clue that will lead them to solve the case. Out of the many detectives, here are ten who I regularly watch as they work their magic.

Sherlock Holmes

Created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle during the Victorian Era, Sherlock Holmes has been portrayed in a variety of television shows and an upcoming feature film starring Robert Downey Jr. As one of the earliest serialized detective characters, Sherlock Holmes is a benchmark for pretty much all detective characters to follow like Adrian Monk and Bobby Goren (Law & Order CI). His methods mainly focused on the power of deduction based on keen observation of minor details while connecting them to a larger cause. Holmes' varied knowledge in areas related to his work was exceptional. On the field, he relied on his disguises to work undercover and was skilled in a variety of weapons and personal defense. The cocaine addiction-acceptable during the Victorian Era-gives Holmes a flawed element in his otherwise super detective personality.

Hercule Poirot

While Sherlock lacked a human connection to most of his targets, Hercule Poirot emphasized that connection. Mocking Sherlock and his dependence on traditional clues, Poirot focuses on getting into the head of his suspects to get them to use him as a confessor. He is more focused on profiling criminals to narrow down his search. He will lie and assume a false identity just to get information just as undercover officers of today are portrayed to do.

Columbo

He looks like a hobo. He drives a beat up car. And he always has "just one more thing" when talking to criminals. From the late 60s to the early 70s and a few TV movie specials in the 80s, Lieutenant Columbo was a different kind of detective. The format of the show already left audiences aware of who murdered whom by showing the crime in the beginning. Columbo's job was to get the criminal to confess. Lacking the appearance of a hardboiled detective, it was hard to take him seriously. While he did locate clues and evidence, Columbo's style was more about developing a bond with the criminal before finding ways to trip him/her up with contradictory statements. He usually would annoy the criminal and catch him/her off-guard with his unorthodox methods. The criminal eventually panics or arrogantly self-incriminates to solve the case.

Horatio Caine (CSI: Miami)

After hearing a rant about the inaccuracies of the forensics in CSI from an actual forensics expert, I no longer watch CSI: Any Town for the investigations. But Horatio Caine's witty opening comment before putting on his sunglasses to open almost every episode of CSI: Miami never gets old. I manage to catch it at every airing before flipping to another program.

Shaun Spencer (Psych)

Often, detectives already have credibility when unveiling clues or breaking a case. But for Shaun Spencer, he lacks the detective credentials and acts as a police psychic to cover up his astute skills. It is an interesting twist for a smart man to play a dumb guy "guided" by an unknown force. Highly quirky and full of surprises, each case is certainly an odd ride.

Sledge Hammer (Sledge Hammer!)

The 70s and 80s introduced audiences to Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry, a hardboiled detective who shoots his way out of predicaments. The late 80s introduced the parody version of Dirty Harry in Sledge Hammer! Detective Sledge Hammer was a chauvinistic gun-toting Republican who hated hippies, world peace, and rock and roll. But he hates it with such hyperbole that it was plain funny. In addition to packing Dirty Harry's violent form of justice, Sledge still manages some detective work. Easily confused and lacking tact, his detective methods are easily compared to Inspector Clouseau of the Pink Panther films. Unlike the accident prone Inspector Clouseau, Sledge's use of excessive force such as firing a bazooka to demolish a building housing a sniper is intentional and he makes no apology.

Jimmy Kudo/Conan Edogawa (Detective Conan/Case Closed)

An ongoing manga and TV anime series in Japan with an English adaptation that aired on Adult Swim, the protagonist of Case Closed Jimmy Kudo was a brilliant teenage detective prodigy until a criminal organization forced poison into him that reverted him into a seven-year-old boy who now goes by the name Conan Edogawa. Despite the new body, Conan still uses the basic detective tool of keen observation. But as a child character of an anime series, he augments himself with a series of gadgets worthy of Q branch. Together they form an interesting combination of detective work and anime action.

John Munch (Homicide: Life on the Street; Law & Order: SVU)

Actor Richard Belzer seems to be condemned to play the sarcastic conspiracy theorist, Jewish police detective John Munch. This character managed to show up in Law & Order, The X-Files, The Beat, Law & Order: Trial by Jury, Arrested Development,and The Wire in addition to his two canon roles. He strikes a nice balance between police duty and getting on the soapbox to talk about individual rights and freedoms that the government is trying to deny.

Batman

A superhero with no actual superpowers, Batman uses his intellect, detective skills, technology, wealth, physical prowess, and intimidation to fight crimes committed by common scum and supervillains alike. He stands apart from other detectives by dressing up as Batman.

Dr. Gregory House (House MD)

Think of him as a modern day Sherlock Holmes. Okay, he is not a police detective, but his job as Chief of the Department of Diagnostic Medicine pretty much makes him a medical detective. Here, the causes for medical illness are the criminals and House has to find them. Since diseases do not talk and patients often lie, House has to shed aside bedside manner and common courtesy to get to the bottom of his cases. In an antithesis to most detectives, House will lie, cheat, manipulate, and break a law or two to find what caused the problem.