Sacred Games

A warning from a gangster draws Mumbai police officer Sartaj Singh into a threat larger than the case he initially understands. Sacred Games moves between the investigation and the criminal history surrounding it.

Saif Ali Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui give those strands distinct centres. The city is not simply a backdrop for pursuit: personal connections, institutions and competing interests affect what can be discovered and what happens to anyone asking.

The series is ambitious, but that breadth is also a demand on the viewer. Its expanding story did not hold me enough to continue, so it is not one of my first recommendations from the crime catalogue. The lead performances and setting are stronger reasons to sample it than an expectation of a straightforward thriller.

For another Mumbai-set drama, Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story is a more concentrated proposition. Narcos provides a related combination of criminal history and investigation, though the two programmes have very different local worlds.