Wire in the Blood

BBC America began airing episodes (actually, 2-hour TV movies) of the mystery series Wire in the Blood this month. I caught the first one and I found myself thinking "Wow, they created a British version of Medium, and they made it a whole lot better than the Americans did."

The series stars Robson Green as Tony Hill, a soft-spoken but brilliant forensic psychologist who helps the London police catch murderers. I've only seen one installment ("Legacy"), but from what I can tell they refrain from stating explicitly that Hill has extrasensory perception. The hints are subtle, and depending on how you interpret them, Hill is either a little bit psychic or an adept student of human nature with amazing powers of intuition. It's unimportant which, really, and it's more fun to be kept guessing -- if NBC's Medium (starring a strangely muted version of Patricia Arquette) is to be believed, certainty of one's psychic gifts merely leads to sleepless nights, familial angst, and low-level alcoholism.

I'm going to keep watching both series for now, but since I got more enjoyment out of two hours of Wire in the Blood than I did a half-season of Medium, it's not difficult to say which will win out if I ever have to choose between them.