Must-see bleak yet brilliant TV crime dramas

Must-see bleak yet brilliant TV crime dramas (listed in order of 'bleak'-ness)

Many of these brilliantly executed crime/mystery dramas are deliberately set in dreary locales, yet make for compelling entertainment:

Top of the Lake (Sundance Channel)

The missing, mysteriously pregnant 13-year-old girl

Pros: The mystery element--who can resist a whodunnit?

GJ (Holly Hunter, at right) at her women's shelter

Cons: Fugly naked bodies keep appearing. 

Investigator Robin (Elizabeth Moss) and her boyfriend

Annoying element: The nasty drug-lord father. 

Abusive drug-lord dad with his sons (Beauty and the Beast's Jay Ryan at right)

Bleakometer: 10. Set in a super remote part of New Zealand that's suffocating and eerie.

The Fall (BBC Two)

Detective Superintendent Stella Gibson (The X-Files' Gillian Anderson) with bereavement counsellor Paul Spector (Henry Cavill lookalike Jamie Dornan)

Pros: We know who the serial killer is right from the beginning. 

Cons: By the last episode of season 1, the serial killer still hasn't been caught.   
Annoying element: The killer's wife acts like a clingy loser.

Bleakometer: 9. Set in Belfast, made all the grayer in contrast with Stella's golden hair and silky shirts.

The Killing (Seasons 1, 2 & 3: AMC) 

Investigations are always dark and creepy for homicide detectives Sarah Linden (Mireille Enos) and Stephen Holder (Joel Kinnaman)

Pros: Catchy narrative based on the Danish series Forbrydelsen and accompanied by an equally catchy musical score.

Cons: The who-killed-Rosie-Larsen storyline took 2 seasons to complete.

Annoying element: Just when Sarah Linden starts smiling and wearing makeup (in the current season), you know things are about to screw up.

Bleakometer: 8. Set in rainy Seattle, Washington, which is somehow dingier than Forks (Twilight movies) and darker than Twin Peaks (Twin Peaks series).

Ripper Street (Season 1. Season 2 airs later this year: BBC One)

Inspector Reid (Matthew Macfayden) with his team of investigators and East End prostitutes

Pros: Matthew Macfayden's terrific take as Inspector Reid (more at ease than Johnny Depp's Inspector Abberline in From Hell).

Cons: Limited to the squalor of the East End.

Annoying element: Amanda Hale as Mrs. Reid. Seriously. http://reel-life-reviews.blogspot.com/2013/07/mt-tv-marathon-recommendations-for.html

Bleakometer: 7. Seemingly unlimited grime and poverty in Victorian-era East End.

Copper (Seasons 1 & 2; BBC America)

Kevin Corcone (Tom Weston-Jones at centre) and his fellas.

Pros: As fast paced as a period drama can be.

Cons: Too many parallels with Ripper Street.

Annoying element: Historical sterotypes, as in  virgin/whore female characterisations.

Bleakometer: 6. Grisly Five Points region circa 1860s NYC.

The Following (Fox)

The FBI's Ryan Hardy (Kevin Bacon) and serial killer/college professor Joe Carroll (James Purefoy)

Pros: Dishy James Purefoy as serial killer Joe Carroll.

Cons: The words of Edgar Allen Poe can be repetitive if you've already watched Jon Cusack in The Raven.

Annoying element: Carroll's freaky/geeky followers. 

Bleakometer: 4. Various East Coast locations including small towns and cookie-cutter suburbs.

Vexed (Seasons 1 & 2: BBC Two)

Detective Inspectors Jack Armstrong (the incomparable Toby Stephens) and Georgina Dixon (Miranda Raison) in Season 2

Kate Bishop (Lucy Punch) with Jack Armstrong (Toby Stephens) in Season 1

Pros: Brilliant comedy/drama cop show centering on the chemistry between Jack Armstrong (Toby Stephens) and his female cop partners: Kate Bishop (Lucy Punch) in Season 1 and the fantastic Georgina Dixon (Miranda Raison) in Season 2.

Cons: Hasn't been renewed.

Annoying element: Should've been renewed!

Bleakometer: 1. Looks like a low-budget, less electric version of London. Otherwise quite cheery.

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HONOURABLE MENTIONS: Must also watch these sumptuous, recently aired Agatha Christie adaptations (warning: they aren't bleak at all!)

Poirot (Season 13; ITV): Elephants Can Remember

The superb David Suchet as Hercule Poirot with his novelist BFF Ariadne Oliver (Zoe Wanamaker, left) and the tedious Mrs. Burton-Fox (Greta Scacchi, right)

To be followed in 2013/2014 by The Big Four, The Labours of Hercules, Dead Man's Folly and Curtain (finale episode).

Marple (ITV): A Caribbean Mystery and Greenshaw's Folly

 Julia McKenzie as the current Jane Marple with the cast of A Caribbean Mystery

Miss Marple with the cast of Greenshaw's Folly

To be followed in 2013/2014 by Endless Night and others.