The best procedurals on TV

BEST WRITING
House
No show takes bolder risks, from last season’s hallucinated affair between House (Hugh Laurie) and his boss, to his addiction, to his stint in a mental facility.

BEST ENSEMBLE
Castle
Rick Castle’s (Nathan Fillion) chemistry with his partner Beckett (Stana Katic) and daughter Alexis (Molly Quinn) gives the show its retro charm.

BEST CASES
CSI
CSI has inventive freaks, including a judge with a Mr. Hyde side, a devious moppet, and a killer who made miniatures of crime scenes — in advance.

BEST GORE
Bones
Brennan (Emily Deschanel) loves investigating gooey corpses in trees, swamps, luau pits, even outhouses, and then the camera gets in nice and close.

BEST SHERLOCK
The Mentalist
TV sleuths are all mind readers. Only The Mentalist‘s reformed fake psychic Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) knows what you’ll do before you do it.

Check out Beat Cop, Alynda Wheat’s biweekly dissections of the week’s procedurals, every Tuesday and Friday