state coroner

Having run out of Division 4s for the moment, I was naturally attracted to the volume of State Coroner I had on the shelf beckoning to me for some time now. I have always thought, like everyone with sense, that Wendy Hughes was one of the absolute greats so I knew I would enjoy it, on some level, though perhaps not the early-70s-Crawfords level to which I had become used. But I also knew it would be interesting in contrast with that material and that there would then be other things that would fascinate. 

I've only watched two eps so far. The first (a feature-length pilot) was a bit clumsy, but set everything up well enough, then this second one, which dealt largely with the death of a 4-year-old boy, had David Reyne in it which is only interesting I guess because Laura and I were for no strongly identifiable reason talking about him yesterday.* 

One early observation: the Crawfords attitude to death in (loosely-defined) police procedurals. Generally, they have to walk a fine line and this was as true in 1996 as 1966, of death being significant, the most significant thing you can imagine (so the law can't be flippant), but also everyone has to get levelheaded really fast** so you can find out your child has died and you are having tea with the detective (or whoever) in the next scene and you're solemn, but you're not acting like your world has changed immeasurably, aside from one less setting for dinner. 

No doubt I'll have some more fascinating insights or if I don't, you can deduce that I lost interest. 

*Probably related to the fact that I just finished reading Bill McDonough's memoir of Australian Crawl. ** Exceptions - when a death sends someone crazily bent on revenge. Doesn't happen often.