Elementary is a contemporary update of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's character Sherlock Holmes, starring Jonny Lee Miller as Sherlock Holmes and Lucy Liu as Dr. Joan Watson, a female version of Holmes' companion. Here, Holmes is a former consultant to Scotland Yard and a recovering drug addict. He travels to New York City to check into a rehabilitation center and then lives with Watson, who becomes his sober companion and eventually his apprentice.
The coppers, rozzers, bobbies, feds, peelers, pigs, the 5-0, the old bill, the fuzz and PC Plod are on the investigation. Expect results in 45-60 minutes.
These shows focus around real and fictional, or fictionalized but once real, thinkers, inventors, etc. Some are crime procedurals, others are exploring history (real or imagined). But all have in common very clever characters center stage.