Reading is often too tiring, which is where British television becomes useful, offering so many excellent literary adaptions that you can gaze at a television vacantly and feel vaguely not stupid at the same time. The third season of Ian Rankin’s “Rebus,” starring Ken Stott, was just released in America. Each episode stars Rankin’s beloved Edinburgh, with Stott a sturdy supporting player to the city’s charms and nightmares.

Prostitutes are buried alive in “Black Book,” and there’s a college shooting in “Question of Blood.” “Strip Jack” and “Let it Bleed” are equally grisly and entertaining.

Rebus is still prone to a lack of diplomatic niceties as such fine forebears as Robbie Coltrane’s “Cracker.” Only Rebus is based on books, which are now in their 20th year, and a series that shows no signs of slowing down, even as Rankin scoops up the honors in his native Scotland, and the difference shines through.