I had just finished watching the Obsession/Resurrection episodes and began updating my reviews when I suddenly drifted into an examination of Mark Sloan, so I'd like to continue this here.

The programme that I hear most often being compared to Diagnosis Murder is Quincy, but I've never watched that so I'll use a programme I know and love as a reference - Columbo. Both shows are light-hearted crime series. Both have likeable leads. Columbo however has a strict formula - we see a rich/sophisticated person commit a murder. They underestimate Columbo, at first pretending to help, then getting annoyed, then afraid. The result is that the standard of Columbo shows remains fairly level, they are all very good, but none really stand out from the crowd.

By contrast Diagnosis Murder varies from episode to episode. In some shows we know who the murderer is right away, as in Columbo, others are whodunnits and there are even a few with no murder at all. Some shows convey a message on eating disorders, euthanasia etc, some are played just for laughs like Santa Claude, some are surreally silly like Dead In The Water, some are dark like Voices Carry and every now and then you get a genuine Murder Mystery like No Good Deed. The result is that the quality of Diagnosis Murder episodes not only vary greatly, but fans enjoy different shows from each other. I go to the Diagnosis Murder forum and see posts on shows like The Roast saying how good it was and I think it's absolute rubbish. There again shows like No Good Deed which I found breathtaking get hardly a mention. (Another good example is people's attitude to Susan who is widely seen as a pain but who I think is fantastic, except in An Education In Murder where she achieves the distinction of ruining an already poor show. There again I may be biased as I am a huge fan of Jane White Is Sick And Twisted).

The biggest difference this range of structure gives to Diagnosis Murder over Columbo is in the characterisation of its central figure Mark Sloan. Characters in shows like this will inevitably be a little one-dimensional, (this is prime time television, not Kurosawa), but Mark Sloan is a little different. Here's a basic description of him that everyone will recognise - he's kindly, talented, good-humoured, hard working, clever and is good at solving puzzles. In Murder Can Be Contagious Jesse says he'd like Mark as his Dad and we all know what he means - I got lucky and bagged the best Dad while he was still going, but Mark's easily my first choice as back-up.

But behind this there is a deeper, darker, more enigmatic side to Mark Sloan. Most murder mysteries end at the unveiling of the killer, Diagnosis Murder does not, we are constantly reminded that following that unveiling the killer will be punished and that in California that punishment may be death. We have then a man who is sworn to save lives whose hobby is sending men to death row! I find this scary. What's even darker is that the means of death - lethal injection - is so medical. Using equipment familiar to anyone working in a hospital and which is designed to maintain life, a healthy person is put down like a sick dog.

In the Obsession/Resurrection story Mark is quite haunting. First he is invited to, and attends, the execution of a man he put behind bars, having a final conversation with the condemned man who still pleads his innocence. The evidence against this man is not exactly flimsy, but it's not rock solid. There are no witnesses, no confession - it is feasible that Lewis Sweeney was framed. But Mark won't even consider the idea. When the bombings resume he is convinced - totally - that there is a copycat bomber. Because Mark Sloan is such a nice man it's hard to think of him as arrogant, but I can't think of another word to describe his attitude here. He becomes convinced that Carter Sweeney is behind the bombings from the start with, it has to be said, very little evidence and even when the evidence points at another suspect he remains unmoved. (To their credit the writers take this arrogance and use it to plunge mark into ridicule and disgrace). A great example is the blood on the nail. We learn that Carter Sweeney cut himself on the nail several months earlier. Mark does not for a moment consider that this is an innocent explanation for the blood. He assumes that Sweeney deliberately cut himself knowing that the blood would be found and Mark would end up looking silly.

We see another dark aspect of Mark Sloan in Today Is The Last Day Of The Rest Of My Life. (This episode is a great illustration of the point I made earlier of how 2 fans react differently to different episodes, I think this one is poor, my partner on this web site loves it to bits). Anyway in this episode Mark reveals to Steve that he performed euthanasia on Steve's Grandmother - what a secret to carry around! In Sins Of The Father he tells Steve, for the first time!, that he was deserted by his father. In Murder Can Be Contagious we learn of an estranged daughter. How many amateur detectives carry this much inside them?

But the really dark aspect to Mark Sloan is the grin. We see it when he uncovers a vital clue, we see it as he moves in on the killer and we see it when the killer is caught. It is the grin of the hunter and we slowly realise that this is what murder means to Mark Sloan, a chance to go after prey. There is a superb scene in Sins Of The Father as he plays chess at a tennis club. Watch this scene and see how sinister and threatening he is as he moves in for the kill. He likes catching killers, it has nothing to do with justice. In his brilliant essay The Simple Art Of Murder, Raymond Chandler explores the difference between blind obedience to the law and the search for justice. In one episode, (I won't name it because it would ruin the end for anyone who hasn't seen it), Mark has two choices - he can allow a dying woman to take the rap for her daughter's accidental killing of her lover, thus allowing her to die with a sense of fulfilment, or he can insist on the prosecution of the daughter knowing that as a result the mother's final months will be spent in anguish. He chooses the latter. A Chandler detective would not have done so.

Anyway, this dark side of Mark Sloan is for me one of the great qualities of Diagnosis Murder and is one of the things that makes it stand out from the crowd. But there again I was brought up on illustrated novels where all the good guys were psychotic and on a diet of film noir where the good guys were no better than the bad, so maybe it's just me.