A TV series in which a crime (always the same crime, with the same clues) is solved (or not) by a succession of different detectives, each in their own idiom.

For simplicity, assume it's the classic "Locked room" murder-mystery.

Some details of the setting may have to change, but the motive and suspects are always the same, and portrayed by the same performers.

To make it interesting, the killer may be a different suspect each week (although in the Sherlock Holmes case, the deus-ex-machina will be the victim's long-lost identical twin brother, secretly returned from Borneo).

One after the other, Sam Spade, van der Valk, Kojak, Lord Peter Wimsey, Columbo, Maigret, Jim Rockford, Hercule Poirot, Inspector Morse and Fox Mulder solve the same crime in their own unique way.

Hilarity ensues, apart from the Quentin Tarantino episode which ends in a bloodbath with everyone dead, including the detective - think the last scene of "Hamlet", but "El Mariachi" gunplay-style.
-- 8th of 7, Feb 06 2021

This week, we're in togas. https://en.m.wikipe...Marcus_Didius_Falco
And another week, William of Baskerville should definitely get a look-in [pertinax, Feb 06 2021]

Would Dirk Gently break the format?
-- pertinax, Feb 06 2021


Perhaps there is only a single crime, investigated simultaneously by different detectives, with each episode showing one detective's perspective.
-- sninctown, Feb 06 2021


If the time from setup before the murder, to the triumphant announcement of the result, took, say, a couple of weeks, it could be broadcast as a simultaneous non-stop real-time live stream on a number of different channels, each one following one of the detectives. That way part of the challenge for the viewer would be to try and "find" the significant sequences - they may be busy watching Sherlock Holmes try to fix a recalcitrent hat buckle, unaware that over on the next channel Hercule Poirot is busy fighting a duel with the main suspect.
-- pocmloc, Feb 06 2021


I like this - it should also be extended to crimes being solved by different police forces, so the Line of Duty cops would get side-tracked onto police corruption in the case, for Sarah Lund or Saga Noren the crime scene would be weird but aesthetically pleasing, the Engrenages/Spiral cops would mess things up but come through in the end while shouting "Putain!" at everyone, etc.
-- hippo, Feb 06 2021


Brilliant idea - it could be the case that a given crime, with enough moving parts could reveal a multi-dimensional crime-nexus, each episode peeling back another layer of intrigue and depth. Kind of like "Dark"" - which somehow this idea is reminding me of a little but.
-- zen_tom, Feb 06 2021


Same Clown, different play. Same idea only featuring an annoying clown that ruins everything.
-- xenzag, Feb 06 2021


You'll have to wait until he's finished being president of france before you can start filming...
-- 8th of 7, Feb 06 2021


What? Where's Inspectors Clouseau and Gadget, and Maxwell Smart?
-- RayfordSteele, Feb 07 2021


^ Also Miss Marple, Jessica Fletcher (from "Murder, She Wrote") and Phryne Fisher (from "Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteriies").
-- neutrinos_shadow, Feb 09 2021


They're all there, in turn, although how Brother Cadfael can be worked into the scheme will take some ingenuity.
-- 8th of 7, Feb 09 2021


Why, with a holodeck, of course.
-- RayfordSteele, Feb 09 2021


That will be for the "Elementary, Dear Data" spinoff episode, where Data and "Moriarty" team up to solve the crime.

// Would Dirk Gently break the format? //

No, but Professor Urban Chronotis just might.
-- 8th of 7, Feb 09 2021


This leads to an idea about an escape room restaurant where the family or friends are all suspects of a crime (preferably a murder, or a murder attempt, and the murdered person has to find out who did it and why).

Now's probably not the best time to bring this up. My country is up in arms now about the murder of a woman who was a coacher and marriage consultant treating women in danger, She had a seemingly good relationship which she presented online, and three kids. She was murdered by her husband who was a policeman nicknamed "the nerd" at his station. Just a year before she had put out a video about the preliminary signs preceding extreme violence by a husband or boyfriend...
-- pashute, Feb 09 2021


You might have a hard time explaining the appearance of a couch stuck in a staircase and a horse in the bathroom in some of the other episode versions.
-- RayfordSteele, Feb 09 2021



random, halfbakery