Profiling contemporary TV crime drama's special agents : the Byronic detective in NCIS and Criminal Minds

This essay examines the main special agents of two contemporary TV crime dramas, NCIS (2003–ongoing) and Criminal Minds (2005–ongoing), claiming that they can be considered re-elaborations of the Byronic hero. In these TV series, the traditional literary figure combines traits of the classic Holmes-style detective and the hard-boiled private eye; thus, the resulting character is defined by using the neologism 'Byronic detective'. To contextualize Byronic detectives, the essay provides a discussion on the main characteristics of the Byronic hero and his enduring remodeling as well as an outline of the inherent mobility of crime fiction as a genre, which well matches the ongoing vitality of the Byronic icon. Special attention is given to the return of emotions in recent crime fiction because these are a core feature of Byronic detectives, given that they tend to sacrifice family relationships to do their job at their best.