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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
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Rebecca Shaw

If you’re looking for a small break from the world, try abandoning highbrow television and delving into crime

Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu standing in front of a bridge at night
Jonny Lee Miller as Sherlock Holmes in Elementary and Lucy Liu, ‘a woman so beautiful that I could watch 500 episodes of her sitting completely still in a room’ Photograph: Landmark Media/Alamy

Like many people living through the current state of the world, I’ve been searching for ways to settle my brain. Something to offer even a brief (privileged) reprieve from the horrors, the headlines, the general sense of doom. My anxiety’s high, my brain’s short-circuiting and I’ve had to find new coping mechanisms to help soothe the agitated static inside my head. It needs to be something that gives my brain a short break, engaging enough that it distracts me but doesn’t get me spiralling or thinking (yuck).

Over the past few months, I’ve found something that works perfectly. I’ve fallen into the arms of procedural dramas. I am a known TV lover, so it’s not that surprising, but I have never really gotten deep into these kinds of shows. You know the ones, a crime or legal case or something occurs at the beginning of the episode and within 45 minutes it has been investigated and resolved.

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