If you love throwback neo-noirs, chances are you loved or will love Edward Norton’s 1940s-set detective story, Motherless Brooklyn. The film revolves around the eccentric detective Lionel Essrog (Norton), a man who suffers from Tourette’s Syndrome. As Lionel sets out to find his missing boss, Frank Mina (Bruce Willis), he comes across a series of oddball characters en route to discovering a major historical coverup regarding New York City.
If that sounds like your jam, then you’re in luck, as we’ve got a double fistful of small-screen neo-noirs for you to check out. Here are 10 TV Shows to Watch if you Loved Motherless Brooklyn!
I Am The Night
We begin with the most recent televisual neo-noir, I Am the Night, a 1960s-set detective drama starring Chris Pine as an investigator hot on the heels of the Black Dahlia murder.
The six-episode series, unfortunately, canceled after just one season, follows Jay Singletary (Pine), a disgraced journalist looking for redemption. When Jay crosses paths with Fauna Hodel (India Eisley), a young woman who was abandoned as a baby, the two uncover a sordid plot involving one of the most infamous real-life L.A, homicide cases.
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency
Created by Max Landis, the BBC American series Dirk Gently’s Holistic Agency offers 18-episodes of absurdly humorous detective shenanigans. What’s not to love?!
Starring Samuel Barnett as the titular dick, the series revolves around Dirk Gently and his time investigating the paranormal. His right-hand man, Todd Brotzman (Elijah Wood), adds comedic hijinks to a program intent on conjuring as many laughs as genuine scares. The show is based on Douglas Adams’ novel series of the same name, published in 1987.
Bored To Death
From the brilliant mind of Jonathan Ames came Bored to Death, HBO’s quirky and offbeat detective comedy that ran for three seasons from 2009 to 2011.
Starring Jason Schwartzman as Ames himself, the series finds a wayward writer looking for inspiration by moonlighting as an amateur sleuth. Using methods he learned from old movies and classic detective novels, Ames enlists the help of bumbling sidekicks Ray (Zach Galifianakis) and George (Ted Dansen) to solve a series of mysteries.
Mob City
After departing The Walking Dead among sour circumstances, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Frank Darabont immediately went to work on the slick neo-noir series, Mob City. And he wisely took Jon Bernthal with him!
Set in 1947 Los Angeles, the series centered on Joe Teague (Bernthal), a compromised cop toeing the line between his police force and the organized mob. The deeper Joe gets, the more he threatens to alienate his police captain, William Parker (Neal McDonough), and mob boss, Bugsy Siegel (Edward Burns).
The Killing
A recent trend in TV detective shows seems to focus on one murder for the entire season, sometimes longer. One could argue this trend began in earnest with the 2011 series The Killing!
Created by Veena Sud, the series chronicles the tragic aftermath of a 17-year-old named Rosie Larsen, who is found dead in the trunk of a sunken vehicle in Seattle. Detective Sarah Linden (Mireille Enos) is assigned to the case but struggles to find the truth when a political subplot muddies the facts. Classic contemporary film noir!
Mosaic
Steven Soderbergh’s wild and wicked spin on the whodunit subgenre in HBO’s Mosaic is one of the best new shows to watch if you love mysterious film noirs.
The nine-episode first season tracks the mysterious murder of famed children’s author, Olivia Lake (Sharon Stone). Set in snowy Park City, Utah, the show was originally conceived as an interactive app, a la Black Mirror’s Bandersnatch. The show presents the key crime from various perspectives, allowing the viewer to reach their own conclusions.
Veronica Mars
Albeit for the slightly younger crowd, few detective TV shows have remained as popular as Veronica Mars over the past 15 years!
Set in Neptune Florida, the show follows the precocious teenage sleuth, Veronica Mars (Kristen Bell), and her detective father, Keith (Enrico Colantoni). If you love the pithy dialogue featured in Motherless Brooklyn, then you’re bound to get a kick out of the droll interplay between Veronica and her high-school friends, enemies, love interests, and suspicious clients.
Twin Peaks
Much like Veronica Mars, Twin Peaks started out as a beloved cult-TV show that, due to rabid fan demand, was brought back to the tube more than a decade after the show was canceled. Hey, the more David Lynch, the better!
Twenty-seven years to be exact. That’s how much time elapsed between season one of the series (1990) and the long-awaited reboot (2017). In the updated version, the same offbeat and oddball Pacific Northwesterners of the original series are once again thrown into a life-altering mystery when the town’s homecoming queen is suddenly murdered.
Boardwalk Empire
HBO’s period mob-drama fuses film noir tropes and old-fashioned crime movie techniques to tell a long-form narrative. For fans of Motherless Brooklyn, this should be the definitive TV show for you to watch!
Boardwalk Empire, which ran for five seasons and 57 episodes from 2010-2014, tracks the illegal exploits of an Atlantic City political figure who becomes embroiled in illegal rum-running during the prohibition. The Emmy and Golden Globe-winning drama boasts an A-list cast and producorial backing of the great Martin Scorsese (who also directed the pilot episode).
True Detective
Whether you’re a fan or Motherless Brooklyn or not, no detective show in the last six years has come close to being as great as the first season of True Detective. None!
The anthology show from creator Nick Pizzolatto focuses on a new crime and cast of characters each season. The first season centered on the ritualistic murders of a killer known as the Yellow King, which detectives Cohle (Matthew McConaughey) and Hart (Woody Harrelson) hunt for in rural Lousiana. After an underwhelming second season, True Detective got back on track with the third season starring Mahershala Ali.
