Category Archives: Psychiatrists

1995, Abduction, Abuse of Women, Acceptable Science, Acorn TV, Action sequences, Alcoholism, Assisted Suicide, Bloody scenes, British Mystery Series, Cold Cases, Courtroom scenes, Crime thriller, Detective, DNA, DO NOT MISS, Explicit sex, Extramarital Affair, Forensic pathologist, Frame someone for a crime, Friendship, Gory, Gritty, Illegitimate Child, Jealousy, Kidnapping, Marital Infidelity, Medical Theme, Motorcycles, Murder, Murder by poison, Murder Investigation, Nudity, Police Investigation, Prostitutes, Psychiatrists, Psychopath, Sadism, Sex Scenes, Suicide, Suspense, Thriller, Violent, Womanizing

McCallum (1995)

Leave a comment

From IMDB:

From deep within the morgue at St. Patrick’s Hospital in London’s East End, Dr. Iain McCallum and Dr. Angela Moloney along with a team of brilliant pathologists and detectives help the dead tell their stories.

From Acorn TV you can stream two seasons of this pathologist crime series.  Season 1 has 4 episodes and Season 2 has 5 episodes. Each episode lasts about 1.5 hours.

Gory, riveting, and clever are a few apt adjectives for this engrossing series. Personal relations among the constant set of characters are as important as the plots themselves. Most episodes are complete crime and solution stories.

John Hannah, who plays Dr. Iain McCallum, was 33 years old at the time of filming.  Now (2020) he is still going strong at the age of 58.

Unfortunately season 2 episode 5 is a disappointing episode. At that time in the series, Iain and Angela have emigrated to Canada and are no longer in the episode.  For some strange reason this fifth episode introduces new characters and offers a bizarre almost silly plot. You might want to skip this last blunder of a story.

Otherwise — DO NOT MISS!

2019, Abuse of Women, Binge worthy, Bloody scenes, Catholic culture, Creepy, Dark, Detective, Drugs, Ethical struggles, Failing Marriage, Family Conflict, Father-daughter relations, Father-son relations, Flashbacks, Forensics, Frame someone for a crime, Illegitimate Child, Lawyers, Marital Infidelity, Mother-son relations, Murder, Netflix Streaming, Occasionaly violent, Panic Attacks, Police Investigation, Problematic Ending, Psychiatrists, Psychological Drama, Psychological Thriller, Religious Theme, Serial Killer, Sex Scenes, Suspense, Violent, Wrestling

Reckoning (2019)

Leave a comment

From IMDB:

Explores the darkest corners of the male psyche through the eyes of two fathers, one of whom is a serial-killer.

From Netflix you can stream the 10 episodes of this serial-killer soap opera. Each episode lasts about 45 minutes.

Far from being a predictable serial-killer police procedural, this series is a study in psychology that involves a large cast of well presented characters.

From almost the earliest episodes, your hunch as to which character is the RRK serial killer will be vindicated.  But having the police catch the killer is not the only important focus.  Additionally we watch the interaction of that killer with all the others involved.

Sean Barker, the Australian actor that plays Edgar Harris, steals the show.   Aden Young, the Canadian actor that plays detective Mike Serrato,  plays as tortured a personality as does Sean Barker.

There is a conclusion, but it will not be what you might expect. Be prepared possibly for a final moment in which you ask “Is that really the end of the story?”

BINGE WORTHY!

2020, Abuse of Women, Acorn TV, Arson, Bullying, Controlling personality, Depression, Drama, Emotional abuse, Extramarital Affair, Jealousy, Lawyers, Murder, Panic Attacks, Police Corruption, Psychiatrists, Scottish, Scottish Detectives, Small Town, Spousal Abuse, Tragedy

Deadwater Fell (2020)

Leave a comment

From IMDB:

When a seemingly perfect and happy family is murdered by someone they knew and trusted, cracks appear on the surface of a supposedly idyllic community.

CORRECTED REVIEW: Now there are all 4 episodes.

From Acorn TV you can stream the 4 episodes of this Scottish detective series. Each episode lasts about 45 minutes.

Rather than classify this series as a detective series, instead be aware that this story is a real tragedy in the classic sense that everyone in the story suffers.  In other words expect a bitter tasting ending.

David Tennant plays the lead tragic figure Tom Kendrick.  Tennant has an impressively long acting resumé including playing D.I. Alex Hardy in Broadchurch (which is a “must see”).  His character Tom is a remarkable contrast to that of D.I. Alex Hardy.

As the story progresses, you will see that first impressions are deceiving.  Little by little we discover the real nature of several inhabitants of this small town.

Superbly well done, but brace yourself.

 

2015, Amazon Prime, Basically Sad, Complicated, Dark, Divorce, Emotional child abuse, Failing Marriage, Mental Illness, Mother-son relations, Narcissistic Personality, Psychiatrists, Psychological Drama, Tragedy, Unloved Child, Wonderful acting

Elephant Song (2015)

Leave a comment

From Amazon Prime:

When a psychiatrist goes mysteriously missing from a hospital that has recently been plagued by scandal, Dr. Toby Green (Bruce Greenwood) is called in to investigate before the news goes public.

From Amazon Prime you can stream this 1 hour 39 minute film.

Bruce Greenwood  (who played Batman in Batman: Gotham by Gaslight) plays the psychiatrist who is unwittingly drawn deep into the disturbed life of the young man Michael Aleen.  Catherine Keener plays the nurse Susan Peterson.

Think of this film as a complicated mystery story. What is really going on? Michael plays so many mind games with Dr. Greene that we often take wrong turns in the puzzle.

Superb acting, clever plot, and surprise turns make this one very worthwhile adventure.  Even now I hope I understood the story.

DO NOT MISS!

2017, Acorn TV, Based on a Book, Based on true facts, Bicycles, Biographical, British, Brother-Brother relations, Brother-Sister relations, DO NOT MISS, Drama, Family Conflict, Father-son relations, Mental Illness, Mother-son relations, Psychiatrists, Punjab Culture, Race Relations, Romance, Schizophrenia, Small gem of a film

The Boy With The Topknot (2017)

Leave a comment

From IMDB:

One-off drama based on the critically acclaimed memoirs of British journalist Sathnam Sanghera. A touching, humorous and emotional rites-of-passage story.

From  Acorn TV:

Based on a critically acclaimed memoir, this BBC drama is the touching and humorous story of Sathnam (Sacha Dhawan, Iron Fist), a second-generation Indian raised in Britain, who struggles to reconcile his traditional upbringing with his multicultural modern life. “Soul-searching and impeccably acted” (The Telegraph), it also stars Joanna Vanderham (The Paradise) and Deepti Naval (Lion).

From Acorn TV you can stream this 87 minute complete film.

Without giving anything away, the underlying motivation for the story is that Sathnam wants to marry a white girl outside his Punjabi culture and is afraid to tell his mother. Years ago he left his family to work in the white world of London journalism. When he returns to his family (in another part of London) he makes many discoveries about his family of which he was blithely unaware starting with the fact that his father is schizophrenic.

Call this film a “rare find” or small “gem of a film”. In any case,

DO NOT MISS!

2018, Abduction, Abuse of Women, Acorn TV, Ambitious Dirty Tricks, Based on true facts, Bloody scenes, Brother-Brother relations, Child abuse, Cold Cases, Depression, Detective, Emotional child abuse, Ethical struggles, Extramarital Affair, Father-daughter relations, Forensics, Government cover-up, Mental Illness, Mildly Violent, Mother-daughter relations, Murder, Physical child abuse, Police Politics, Psychiatrists, Psychopath, Revenge, Serial Killer, Suspense, Swedish, Swedish Detective, Underdogs win

The Truth Will Out (2018)

Leave a comment

From IMDB:

After a long sick leave and recovery police detective Peter Wendel is back on duty. He is commissioned to form a new team to reopen unresolved murder cases, however he soon finds himself with a rather third rank and conflicting staff. Soon they are in the center of a new case. An unknown murderer claims that Sweden’s most infamous murderer is a fraud – that he never committed the murders he’s jailed for. High reaching implications are to be exposed, involving even the Swedish government.

From Acorn TV:

Detective Peter Wendel wants to create an elite team of investigators to crack cold cases. When the police receive a tip that Sweden’s most notorious serial killer is a fraud, and therefore eight killers might have gone free, Wendel gets his chance–but only the dregs of the force are available to work the case. Can his lowly group solve these high-profile crimes? Swedish with English subtitles.

From Acorn TV you can stream the 8 episodes of this complete story. Each episode lasts about 43 minutes. Swedish with English subtitles. Formerly Acorn TV advertised itself as “All Things British” but evidently their intent has changed.

Plaguing Peter Wendel throughout the episodes is the sorrow over his brother’s suicide. Because he refuses to accept the verdict of suicide he becomes so mentally ill and a bit violent and must be hospitalized. Now that he is released from care he faces the prejudice that he cannot do his job properly which only makes his job proving that the Minister of Justice erred in pronouncing a man guilty of serial killings.

His ragtag trio of helpers turn out to be diamonds in the rough, especially the older woman “administrator” who shows herself to be clever, very observant, and even capable of head butting.

What compelled me to binge watch was the injustice of the cover-up by the upper echelons and the efforts of a detected named Temo to discredit and remove Peter Wendel.

Because the pace is quite S L O W,  you might easily be tempted to stop watching after the first episode. Stick with the well crafted plot to see clever vindications.

 

2007, Amazon Prime, Blackmail, Bloody scenes, British, Dark, Grim, Grisly, Iraq War, Mental Illness, Military, Murder, Police Culture, Psychiatrists, Revenge, Suicide, Suspense, Terrorist Attack, Violent, War Veterans

Mobile (2007)

Leave a comment

From IMDB:

Detective Inspectors Conil and Fleming (“Casualty” star Sunetra Sarker and “Gunpowder” newcomer Shaun Dooley) investigate how a gangland shooting connects to a terrorist campaign against a mobile phone conglomerate in this politically charged thriller set against the backdrop of the Iraq War.

From Amazon Prime you can download the 4 episodes (each about 50 minutes) of this violent one-season story.

In a complicated plot, someone is waging war against mobile phones.  Here the novel approach is that each episode seems to repeat the previous episode, each time filling in more details that seemed to be missing from that previous episode.

Eventually the entire story is one of a revenge plot centering around an increasingly disturbed war veteran Maurice Stoan, who lost his wife and child to a traffic accident.  In a real way Maurice is the victim, albeit a very violent victim.

If nothing else, the plot twists (as in, who gets blown up next?) are worth the trip.

2011, Abduction, Adultery, Arson, Bisexual theme, Bloody scenes, Child abduction and murder, Complicated, Corruption, Could Be Hard To Watch, Dark, Detective, Emotional abuse, Extramarital Affair, Father-daughter relations, German, Grim, Mental Illness, MHz Choice, Murder Investigation, Police Culture, Psychiatrists, Psychological Thriller, Revenge, Sex Scenes, Suspense, Violent

Anatomy of Evil (2011)

Leave a comment

From MHz Choice:

Heino Ferch (Downfall) stars police psychologist Richard Brock in this dark mystery series set in Vienna. Brock is a loner, still blaming himself for the suicide of his wife and trying to reconnect with his daughter, newly graduated from the police academy. The only constants in his life are his faithful housekeeper, Mrs. Anni, and his friend Klaus Tauber, the owner of the coffee house where he inevitably eats all his meals.

From MHz Choice you can stream 5 episodes of this superb but truly grim Austrian TV series spoken in German with English subtitles. Each episode lasts about an hour and a half.

UPDATE March 20, 2021:

MHz Choice now offers  four episodes of season two  as well as season one.  Season 2 now contains:  “Desire,” “Rage,” “Yearning,” “Guilt.”  In the fourth episode of season two, Brock must defeat a psychopathic police commander in yet another brooding, GRIM episode.

UPDATE August 17, 2019:

MHz Choice now offers  the three episodes of season two  as well as season one.  All are at least as GRIM as season one.  See below for a discussion of season two.

ORIGINAL REVIEW:

From the best online description I could find, I quote:

I’ve finally met a character more morose than Kurt Wallander.

Sad, isolated, injured detectives who cannot connect with their offspring  are all the rage now. Nonetheless, if you enjoy grim (and I mean G-R-I-M-!!!) you will love these stories. Even my wife Kathy (who usually leaves the room during especially tense or violent scenes) is addicted. In fact both of us manage to stay awake during the entire show.

Episode 3 “Fear” ends with a really devastating scene. You are warned!

SEASON TWO:

“Desire”, “Rage”, and “Yearning” are the titles of the three season two episodes. All, as in season one, are characterized by dark, beautiful, careful cinematography. All are slow moving except for the violent scenes.

“Desire” is perhaps one of the strangest murder mysteries that I have ever seen because not until close to the end does it become clear that there even was a murder.

Brock barely survives “Rage”. When it is over Brock now has a dangerous and corrupt enemy in the police force. Brock’s daughter continues to work in that police force. That corruption and its many murders must eventually (we hope) see justice.

In “Yearning” Brock is recuperating both physically and mentally in his apartment. He spends his time with a pair of binoculars spying on his neighbors across the street. In a story reminiscent of “Rear Window” he witnesses a murder and needs all the help he can get to bring the killer to justice.

“Yearning” concludes with a situation that cries for another season.

What an amazing discovery this series is, even if it possibly means a harrowing viewing.

 

2000, Abortion, Acorn TV, Adultery, British Mystery Series, Computer geeks, Detective, Extramarital Affair, Murder Investigation, Murder Trial, Personal Betrayal, Plot Twist, Psychiatrists, Sex Scenes, Suspense

Trust (2000)

Leave a comment

From IMDB:

Caroline Goodall (Disclosure, Schindler’s List) stars as Anne, a successful young lawyer married to a psychiatrist (Mark Strong, Our Friends in the North). While they seemingly lead a charmed life, their marriage is rocked by infidelity, and later, murder.

From Acorn TV you can stream this  TV film consisting of two episodes,  each episode lasting about one hour and 15 minutes.

Someone has murdered a young woman named Tara Reeves and left her body in a trash dumpster.  You get to spend 2.5 rather tense hours trying to figure out who did it. Only at the very end did I guess “who done it”.

Three worthwhile actors enact the story:

  • Caroline Goodall (who was in “Schindler’s List”) plays Anne Travers, a lawyer married to
  • Mark Strong (who who played Jim Prideaux in the 2011 remake of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy ) who plays her psychiatrist husband Michael Mitcham.
  •  Nathaniel Parker (who plays Thomas Lynley in “The Inspector Lynley Mysteries”) plays Mark’s lifelong friend Andrew Pearce who is having an affair with Anne.

After watching the police investigation and subsequent murder trial, did you guess who the real villain was?

2005, 2008, 2010, 2012, Bloody scenes, Bullying, Car Chase, Corruption, Could Be Hard To Watch, Crime, Crude Talk, Detective, Drug Dealers, Forensics, French Detective Series, Gangs, Gay theme, Grisly, Homophobia, Lawyers, Murder Investigation, Netflix Streaming, Occasional gore, Police Culture, Police Politics, Pornographic Scenes, Prison, Prostitutes, Psychiatrists, Rape, Revenge, Sadism, Sociopath, Spousal Abuse, Suicide, Suspense, Thriller, Torture, Unscrupulous drive to power, Various Romances, Violent, Vulgar, Wife Beating

Spiral (2005)

Leave a comment

From IMDB:

Follows criminal investigations in Paris from all the different points of view of a criminal investigation.

Netflix streaming brings you 4 seasons of this French TV series:

  • Season 1: 2005    8 episodes
  • Season 2: 2008    8 episodes
  • Season 3: 2010 12 episodes
  • Season 4: 2012  12 episodes
  • Season 5: 2015  12 episodes
  • Season 6: 2016  12 episodes

Season 7 is currently being produced in France. Spoken French with optional English subtitles.

“Engrenages” is the French title which means “gears”, the theme being how intertwined are the lives of criminals, police personnel, lawyers (honorable or prostituted by greed), ambitious (and seemingly entirely corrupt) politicians and innocent civilians. Various crimes (murder, spousal abuse, drugs, prostitution, gun running) are investigated.  Actors are matched flawlessly to their characters.

Such a long-running series will, of course, require many actors. But several stand out:

  • Grégory Fitoussi is the honest lawyer Pierre Clément.
  • Audrey Fleurot  is the greedy, amoral, beautiful lawyer Joséphine Karlsson who specializes in defending the scum of the earth for large sums of money.
  • Caroline Proust is the extremely competent, tough, but constantly embattled police detective Laure Berthaud.
  • Philippe Duclos is Juge Roban, an honest judge who has to constantly fight to stay honest.

Because of its variety of characters and their interactions, the many tense situations, the constant battle between corruption and honesty, this series has been immensely popular. Sometimes the many car chases border on boring. But this is NOT your average detective show. Call it a soap opera if you wish, nonetheless it remains compelling.

FIRST WARNING: Each season will end with a cliff hanger enticing you to watch the next season.

SECOND WARNING: You must have a strong stomach to watch these often brutal, violent, sadistic, and bloody episodes.  Tension runs as constantly high in this series as in any I have seen.