Down these European mean streets

The TV crime drama is one of the most popular genres for European audiences and arguably also the most culturally sensitive and nuanced. No doubt, this is an effect of the ways in which the genre feeds on social problems and cultural change. The crime drama series is therefore like the proverbial 'canary down the mine' when it comes to detecting significant social issues and concerns. It routinely serves as a lens through which to observe the local, national and even transnational issues that are prevalent in a society (Nickerson 1997; Broden 2011; Bondebjerg et al. 2017). Indeed, the vitality of the genre depends on the fact that it simultaneously points to local narratives of moral and legal problems that are not only cross-cultural but also universal. And it is a recognition the universality of the local that has underpinned the increasingly prevalent transnational exchange of televisual cultural products. As the essays in this volume reveal, the television crime drama series also engages deeply in questions about localities, regionality, Europeanness and the business of crosscultural exchange.