Inspector Rex - If You Love Dogs and Crime Dramas, and want to avoid social media for a few hours...

I have no doubt that my binge watching comes from a deep need to stay away from 24-hour social media craziness, but I just want to put in a plug for Inspector Rex, set in Vienna, available through MHz on Prime. It's all subtitles, so unless you know German, you have to stay glued to the set, but that might not be a bad thing, given the state of the nation. You can't surf and watch it at the same time.

Inspector Rex is a German Shepherd who has become the police dog for Homicide inspector (easy on the eyes) Richard Moser. Rex can do AMAZING things. He's an excellent tracker, including bodies under water, he can chase down criminals, he is a kind gentle soul to victims, he can save Moser from bullets, he can jump through windows, he can steal ham rolls, he can bring Moser the cell phone in the morning when there's a case to be solved.

It ran for 10 years starting in 1994 - perfect for binging. I'm on Season 3. There are few heroic women. There's one woman cop who shows up for undercover work on occasion. Otherwise, it's all men plus occasional love interests. It's completely white. No surprises. The young overweight officer gets no love interest, but he's a good cop and it's interesting to see him in action. He does undercover work - he's very unassuming.

Seeing Vienna is beautiful. Seeing their architecture is beautiful. Seeing inside their houses is beautiful. It's soooooooo not British. Soooooooo not American. It's very interesting to see how other countries do crime drama. It's also interesting how many words are common in German and English. It would surprise you.

At any rate, if you love dogs, take a look.