Miss Scarlet & the Duke, on PBS

There is a Remington Steele-like situation going on at the Henry Scarlet Detective Agency, but Scarlet was certainly a very real person. He taught his daughter Eliza everything she knows about detective work, but now he is dead and she must provide for herself. It is definitely not considered an appropriate job for a lady in Victorian London, but fortunately she can rely on the reluctant help of her father’s protégé, William “The Duke” Wellington in Rachael New’s six-episode Miss Scarlet & the Duke, which premieres this Sunday on PBS.

Respectable women of the era are expected to earn their keep by marrying and having children, but that is not Miss Scarlet’s style. Even a marriage of convenience with her closeted friend Rupert Parker would constrain her freedom too much. She is convinced she can continue her father’s agency, but she must convince prospective clients her father will be the one performing the investigations (sometimes it was convenient living in pre-internet times). She also hopes Wellington (nicknamed “The Duke,” because of reputation for sartorial style, despite his humble origins) will throw her some work, but he is more determined to protect her from herself. The sparks will fly.

There is a lot of character-establishing in the first episode, “Inheritance,” but eventually Scarlet manages to land and solve a case. Unfortunately, the results will be more complicated than she anticipated. The tone and constant arguments are very similar in “The Woman in Red,” but it is a more fully developed mystery that also incorporates the Oscar Wilde-like dilemmas of Parker and his friends.

In “Deeds Not Words,” Wellington tosses Scarlet some undercover work she is uniquely suited for, but it causes her great moral conflict when she finds herself infiltrating a suffrage society.  This episode really stands out most for how New explores the line between well-intentioned political commitment and violent extremism in a way that feels awkwardly timely.

Arguably, the last three episodes are significantly better than the first three. “Momento Mori” probably features the most entertaining mystery of the series, involving a death photographer, a phony medium, and threatening messages sent from beyond the grave. The final scenes also segues into a more complicated intrigue that require the final two episodes to resolve. Much to Wellington’s annoyance (and concern), Scarlet is reported missing, perhaps as a result of her investigation into her father’s real cause of death.

Scarlet is no Mrs. Bradley and Wellington is no Sergeant Cribb, but their series is serviceable enough. Still, the Tracy-and-Hepburn will-they-or-won’t-they bickering and bantering chemistry worked a lot better in moldy old Remington Steele. Frankly, their constant arguments really do not make much sense for two reasons: Scarlet is obviously not an idiot, but as a contractor, she has a duty to protect her client’s reputation at all costs.

Arthur & George: Conan Doyle Investigates

For Sherlock Holmes fans, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s embrace of spiritualism has always been an embarrassment. However, in the days following his first wife’s death, the great mystery writer also distinguished himself by exposing at least two grave miscarriages of justice, notably including the George Edalji case. The premise is completely true, but Julian Barnes fictionalized treatment cranked up the mystery and intrigue, as Doyle had done from time to time in his own historical fiction. Following in the tradition of two popular incarnations of Sherlock Holmes and the Murder Rooms series featuring Doyle and his mentor Dr. Joseph Bell, the television adaptation of Barnes’ Arthur & George premieres this coming Sunday as part of the current season of Masterpiece on PBS (promo here).

Doyle was always technically faithful to his first wife, even though appearances often suggested otherwise. He was indeed attracted to a Miss Jean Leckie, but still scrupulously respected his marriage vows. Nonetheless, when his wife succumbs to tuberculosis, guilt drags him into a deep funk. Somewhat ironically, the prospect of championing George Edalji’s cause rouses his spirits.

At one time Edalji was an aspiring solicitor, but his life was derailed when he was convicted of a rash of animal mutilations that shocked the provincial village of Great Wyrley. The crimes seemed to be related to a nasty spate of poison-pen letters, whose vitriol were primarily directed at the mixed-race Edalji family. Yet, the constabulary hastily concluded they were all the work of Edalji’s deranged, attention-seeking mind. Although Edalji has already served his sentence in full, he still seeks to clear his name, so he can once again pursue a legal career. Doyle is immediately convinced of the man’s innocence, but his Watsonish personal secretary Alfred Wood is not so sure. Unfortunately, Edalji’s squirrely behavior seems to justify his skepticism.

Martin Clunes is absolutely perfect as Doyle. He is blustery and larger than life, but in a way that suggests confidence and joie de vivre rather than the bumbling shtick of a Bertie Wooster. We can believe he created Holmes and is capable of conducting his own investigations. He also shares some rather earnest and engaging romantically-complicated chemistry with Hattie Morahan’s Leckie. In fact, their relationship subplot is not the empty dead weight you might expect. As Edalji, Arsher Ali is all kinds of awkward and standoffish, contrasting with his sociable benefactor quite effectively.

Veteran television director Stuart Orme realizes several impressively atmospheric sequences and maintains a healthy energy level, but it is a little embarrassing how long it takes Doyle to figure out who really did it, despite said villain’s compulsively suspicious behavior. Nonetheless, watching him apply his Sherlockian principles in practice is good clean fun. The three-part series is a reliably classy period piece with enough social conscience to give it some edge, but not so much that it gets preachy. Recommended for fans of all things Holmesian and Clunes (from Doc Watson), Masterpiece’s Arthur & George airs over the next three Sundays (9/6-9/20) on most PBS stations.

Grantchester: Getting Cozy with Murder, Scotch, and Jazz

His drink is scotch and his music is jazz. He is Rev. Sidney Chambers, the Vicar of a bucolic community just outside Cambridge. However, his flock have a habit of bumping each other off. As if the funerals did not keep him busy enough, the Anglican cleric also becomes something of an amateur sleuth in the six-part Grantchester (promo here), which premieres this Sunday on PBS, as part of the current season of Masterpiece Mystery.

It all starts when the heavily indebted Stephen Staunton commits suicide, except he didn’t. With some prodding a parishioner who happened to be the deceased’s mistress, Chambers is soon convinced it was in fact murder. Initially, this brings him into conflict with Detective Inspector Geordie Keating, who has no patience for a naïve vicar poking his nose in an open-and-shut case. However, Keating soon discovers he and Chambers are sort of birds of a feather. They have both seen the dark side of life and use distilled beverages to take the edge off.

Poor Chambers’ backstory will plague him throughout the first season of Grantchester. During the WWII, he fought with the Scots Guards, but something happened during his service that continues to haunt him. While he was picking up the pieces, Chambers reconnected with his ambiguous girlfriend Amanda Kendall, but she is about to announce her engagement to a man more to her aristocratic father’s liking.

When he isn’t brooding over Kendall or solving a murder, Chambers just might have something brewing with Staunton’s German widow, Hildegard. Unfortunately, Ms. Staunton temporarily returns to the continent for the second episode, leaving Chambers to face Kendall’s ghastly engagement party solo. How bad is it? Johnny Johnson, the jazz club manager boyfriend of Chambers’ sister is framed for murdering one guest and stealing a fistful of jewels, including Kendall’s engagement ring, so pretty darn bad.

The third and fourth episodes could be considered Grantchester’s issue-oriented mysteries, but it would be spoilery to explain the hot button topic in the first case. There seem to be indications a nasty old lady was dispatched because she was standing in the way of her grown daughter’s marriage, but there is rather more to it than that. Whereas it quickly becomes clear the latter installment involves the criminalized status of homosexuality in 1950s Great Britain, with Chambers serving as a lonely voice of tolerance.

Easily, the fifth episode is the highlight of the series. Somehow, Chambers convinces Keating, the light operetta listener, to take a getaway trip to London so they can hear jazz diva Gloria Dee at Johnson’s club. Of course, they pick the one night there is a murder in the house. Rather awkwardly, it is Johnson’s sister, but at least he is not a suspect this time around. Frankly, Chambers starts getting rather annoyingly moody at this point, but Camilla Marie Beeput’s Dee more than compensates with her sultry and swinging interpretations of standards like “Franky & Johnny,” “Baby, Won’t You Please Come Home,” and “I Ain’t Got Nobody.” You have to assume she will be back somehow in the next season.

It all nearly comes off the rails in the season finale. Keating is shot rather badly while investigating a lead with only Chambers for backup. Already wracked with guilt, Chambers really starts to lose his cool with Kendall. Yet, the nature of the mystery might help exorcise some of his ghosts.

Although James Runcie’s source stories are considered to be about as cozy as mysteries get, the television treatment is notably darker than you would expect. Chambers is no Don Matteo or Father Brown. He likes women, drink, and jazz, preferably Louis Armstrong and Sidney Bechet. Frankly, Grantchester clearly implies both he and Keating have a problem with their spirits (and their spirits), but their comradery is what really drives the show. As Chambers, James Norton is unflaggingly earnest and convincingly troubled. He also develops some nice easy-going chemistry with Robson Green’s Keating, whose attitude and bluster keeps things lively. (After Touching Evil and Wire in the Blood, Grantchester probably qualifies a light farce for Robson, the British mystery favorite.)

It is a strong cast all the way around, but Al Weaver is a particularly standout, helping facilitate Grantchester’s not inconsequential considerations of faith and service as Chambers’ assistant curate, Leonard Finch. Some of the episodic mysteries are stronger than others, but the characters wear well over time and the use of jazz is rather shrewd (seriously, who doesn’t dig Bechet?). The expository-heavy first episode might require a bit of faith, so to speak, but subsequent installments really set the hook. Recommended for fans of British village mysteries and hip soundtracks, Grantchester begins this Sunday (1/18) on most PBS outlets nationwide.

Death Comes to Pemberley: the Darcys, the Wickhams, and a Corpse

Just loosening up a little represented quite a character development arc for Mr. Darcy, whereas Wickham remained just a cad. Still, he would not seem to be the sort of chap to commit murder, but the circumstantial evidence says otherwise. Ironically, Wickham’s only hope to avoid the gallows lies with the Darcys who loathe him so well in Death Comes to Pemberley (promo here), P.D. James’ whodunit sequel to Pride and Prejudice, which airs the next two Sundays as part of the current season of PBS’s Masterpiece.

After six years, the Darcys are still reasonably happily married. Elizabeth Darcy (nee Bennett) is a kind and understanding mistress of Pemberley, counterbalancing her sometimes gruff husband. Her sister Lydia is not to be received at Pemberley, especially not with her mercenary husband, George Wickham. However, they are determined to crash the Darcys’ formal ball, in the company of Wickham’s former army buddy, Captain Martin Denny.

Unfortunately, there will be no dancing for anyone. During the coach ride to Pemberley, Wickham and Denny have a nasty row that spills over into the ominous woods. Shots are fired, with Wickham subsequently discovered with the body, babbling “it’s all my fault.” To avoid any appearance of impropriety, Darcy must hand over the investigation to Sir Selwyn Hardcastle, an old family rival. Hardcastle has no sympathy for uppity commoners like Wickham. Darcy does not suffer them gladly either, but he is tied to Wickham by marriage. Should Wickham’s sensational motives for murder be exposed, it would shame the family and possibly even jeopardize the continued health of Pemberley.

Frankly, there are equal parts Downton Abbey and Nick & Nora Charles in DCTP, which makes sense considering how much PBS viewers love drama based on estate management and scandal suppression. Penelope Keith even parachutes in for a scene as Lady Catherine de Bourgh, very much in the tradition of Dame Maggie Smith’s Dowager Countess.

Neither Darcy really sets out to crack the case either, they just respond as events develop. If not the most intricately plotted Brit mystery, DCTP is still quite winning thanks to the perfect casting and elegant chemistry of its Darcys. Matthew Rhys plays Mr. Darcy with a mercurial temper and sly wit that are great fun to watch, while Anna Maxwell Martin’s Elizabeth Darcy is sensitive but down to earth in a manner that should pass muster with Austen-philes. They are terrific together, elevating the romance and strained marriage melodrama well above our expectations.

Matthew Goode’s rakish shtick certainly suits Wickham and Jenna Colman is convincingly annoying as Lydia Wickham, but the X-factor in the large supporting cast is unquestionably Trevor Eve, who turns a few surprises and rather humanizes the curmudgeonly Hardcastle over the course of DCTP. In contrast, even by British standards, Eleanor Tomlinson and James Norton are tragically vanilla as Darcy’s slightly scandal-tinged sister Georgiana and her progressive would be suitor, respectively.

Veteran Brit TV director Daniel Percival frames some picturesque scenes and the period production values are all up to BBC/PBS Masterpiece code. It is also a veritable cavalcade of familiar British mystery veterans, such as Rhys (The Mystery of Edwin Drood, The Scapegoat), Martin (The Bletchley Circle), Goode (Dancing on the Edge), Eve (In the Heat of the Sun), and Rebecca Front (Chief Supt. Innocent in Lewis), which should further please fans. A pretty sturdy costume drama with a corpse, Death Comes to Pemberley should satisfy both the regular mystery viewers and the Austen cos-players when it airs tomorrow night (10/26) and next Sunday (11/2) on most PBS outlets nationwide.

The Escape Artist: David Tennant Never Rests

There are some subtle but important differences between the British and Scottish justice systems. In contrast, the practice of criminal laws in the US and the UK varies quite drastically. Viewers will get a good sense of how through the eyes of a high flying barrister about to crash down to earth in David Wolstencroft’s two-part Escape Artist, directed by Brian Welsh, which premieres this Sunday on PBS’s Masterpiece Mystery (promo here).

Having never lost a case, Will Burton is currently ranked #1 amongst London’s barristers. Maggie Gardner is number #2. She has only lost to Burton. Unfortunately, she is about to do it again. For his defense of the palpably coldblooded Liam Foyle, Burton has some sneaky lawyer stuff tucked up his sleeve. It works, maybe too well. Thanks to Burton, Foyle is a free man, but he is put off by his barrister’s thinly concealed contempt. This leads to obsession and soon tragedy. Before long, Burton will be experiencing a criminal trial from a new perspective—as a witness.

During the first half of the first installment, Escape seems like it will be somewhat edgier variation on the themes of the middling Silk, but by the end of the first night, it is clear the principal characters are playing for vastly higher stakes. Arguably, it comes from an emotional place not so radically dissimilar from David Tennant’s massively brooding hit, Broadchurch.

Indeed, it is hard to match Tennant’s facility for playing highly intelligent characters prone to obsessive self-recriminations. He is definitely in his element throughout Artist. Recent Tony winner (as of just now) Sophie Okonedo is reasonably okay as Gardner, but her finest moments come playing off Tennant’s twitchy Burton. She certainly cannot match Toby Kebbell’s villainous intensity as Foyle, providing one of the real surprises of Escape. Longtime Mystery viewers will also be amused to see Roy Marsden, the former Adam Dalgliesh, turn up in a rather pedestrian role as Foyle’s solicitor, Peter Simkins.

Escape steadily builds to a dynamite conclusion, but you have to sit through a fair amount of angst to get there. It plays viewers so skillfully, we do not know we have been played until the rabbit jumps out of the hat. That means you really cannot fast forward through it, without potentially missing some carefully laid set-up business. Not quite as tortured as Broadchurch, but still dashed dark, The Escape Artist is worth sticking out. Recommended for fans of legal thrillers and British crimes dramas, The Escape Artist begins this Sunday (6/15) and concludes one week later (6/22) as part of the current season of Masterpiece Mystery on most PBS outlets nationwide.

Silk: It Goes Nicely with the Wigs

Rumpole never went for Queens Council.  He did not need the letters QC after his name to take on the clients that interested him.  However, for mere mortal barristers, it makes a world of difference for their careers.  The barristers of Shoe Lane Chambers are certainly human, at their best.  The pursuit of QC status and the silk robes that goes with it (hence the expression “taking silk”) will weigh heavily on Shoe Lane’s two leading barristers in Silk (promo here), which premieres on PBS’s Masterpiece Mystery this Sunday.

Even Martha Costello’s name sounds trustworthy.  She really believes in all that “innocent until proven guilty” and “everyone is entitled to the best defense possible” rhetoric.  Clive Reader is a different story.  He is the John Edwards of chambers.  A smarmy charmer, his sexual escapes are already the stuff of Shoe Lane legend.  Both are going for silk.  A glad-hander like Reader would seem to have the inside track, but at least Costello has the advantage of being good at her job.  Inconveniently, not everyone sees it that way in the opening episode.

A small shingle like Shoe Lane depends on referrals from big time solicitors, like the ones representing a nasty piece of work named Gary Rush.  The ex-con stands accused of robbing and beating an aging war veteran.  The trial does not seem to be going well for Costello, which may have adverse silk implications for her.  She is also having a hard time with the accused drug mule she is simultaneously representing.  It seems Reader may have pulled a fast one on behalf of his own client, the co-defendant.

Both trials end on a rather ironic note, but there will be lasting repercussions from the Rush case.  Unfortunately, she made a rather strong impression on the thug, to a degree that will eventually become quite ominous.  For the time being, Costello will concentrate on more pressing matters, like her unplanned pregnancy and defending an accused rapist.  It is not the sort of case she would like to take, but Shoe Lane’s senior clerk Billy Lamb convinces her.

Viewers will pick up quite a bit of British legal lingo, but might remain baffled by the ins and outs of a system where private barristers can represent both the accused and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).  Colleagues from the same firm can even find themselves facing each other or representing co-defendants with conflicting interests.  Somehow it seems to work, but maybe not spectacularly well.

The second episode (or the third and fourth cobbled together for American television) introduce two more continuing side-plots.  This will be the first time Costello represents Mark Draper, a troubled youth accused of “cottaging” in a public men’s room.  Kate Brockman, Shoe Lane’s prosecution specialist, also starts conspiring to oust Lamb.  Not simply an employee, Lamb and his senior clerk brethren clearly exert considerable power behind the scenes, sort of like Sir Humphrey in Yes Minister.

In the final episode[s], Costello and Reader will sit for their silk interviews, their pupils will compete in a moot trial, and Draper will be back in court—this time on a murder trial.  Costello will also face off against one of Shoe Lane’s dullest and dumbest in a rare CPS appearance.  Arguably, her conflicted prosecution of Tony Paddick, a cyber-stalked teacher who finally snapped, is probably the best storyline of the entire first season.  It certainly raises the most issues regarding the nature of law and justice.  Frankly, Silk feels rather out of place in Masterpiece Mystery’s line-up.  Like its barrister characters, the show never shows any real interest in who actually committed each crime, but only whether they get a sufficiently robust defense.

There is also way too much time devoted to Reader’s grossly inappropriate (but still sadly clichéd) relationship with his pupil, Niamh Cranitch.  Indeed, so much personal angst clutters Silk, it feels much more closely akin to L.A. Law than Perry Mason or Rumpole of the Bailey.  As a result, there is a real been-there-done-that vibe to the show.

It is worth noting Natalie Dormer of Game of Thrones and the already announced third Hunger Games movie co-stars as Cranitch, which may explain Masterpiece’s pick-up.  She has a screen presence, but her character acts far dumber than she sounds.  Maxine Peake is perfectly likable as Costello, but again her character could have been cribbed from Ally McBeel reruns.  Likewise, Rupert Penry-Jones more or less channels Corbin Bernsen’s Arnie Becker as Reader.  The only principle to really distinguish Silk is Neil Stuke as the intriguingly Machiavellian yet oddly paternalistic Lamb.

There is some decent courtroom drama in Silk as well as some passable backstabbing intrigue, but it never really sings or dances for viewers.  Despite some serviceable table-pounding, Silk does not make a compelling case for itself.  Just sort of whatever, it starts its three week run tomorrow night (8/25) as part of the current season of Masterpiece Mystery on most PBS outlets nationwide.

The Lady Vanishes: Miss Froy Disappears Again

Although not widely read today, Welsh mystery novelist Ethel Lina White’s work was adapted for the screen by the likes of Raymond Chandler and Alfred Hitchcock.  While the great American detective writer just did a punch-up job on the adaptation of Her Heart in Her Throat that would become The Unseen, Hitchcock inherited a troubled production and turned it into one of the defining films of his pre-Hollywood career.  For some reason, every forty years or so someone decides to remake The Lady Vanishes.  The latest premieres on PBS this Sunday night as part of the current season of Masterpiece Mystery (promo here).

Iris Carr is young, rich, hedonistic, and unencumbered by any family ties.  She and her vapid friends are partying their way through the Balkans, because that seems to be the place to be in the 1930’s.  After a jealous spat, she decides to return to London rather than continue to her pack’s next destination.  It will be a hectic journey.

Bribing her way onto the train after her reservation is suspiciously lost, Carr either succumbs to sunstroke or is knocked unconscious.  Coming to in time to make her express, the woozy Carr is less than thrilled by her compartment companions.  The sour-faced Baroness and her entourage are not exactly welcoming either.  However, the kindly Miss Froy, a governess employed by one of the Baroness’s relatives, takes Carr under her wing.  Of course, as viewers surely expect, when the drowsy Carr awakes, Miss Froy is nowhere to be found and nobody will admit to having seen her.

More faithful to the original source novel than the Hitchcock classic, Fiona Seres’ screen adaptation has no Caldicott, Chambers, or any talk of cricket whatsoever.  Max Hare, the earnest engineer-surrogate for Michael Redgrave will not be much help either.  Carr is more or less on her own, as the Baroness and her co-conspirators try to “gaslight” the “hysterical” woman into silence.  Unfortunately, Hare and his professor-mentor have the intuition of burnt toast, never picking up on the malevolent glares, pregnant pauses, and conspicuous lies coming from the villainous looking villains.

Tuppence Middleton is a bit bland, but she comes unhinged rather impressively.  Sadly, Tom Hughes is a weak, plodding presence as Hare, comparing poorly with not just Redgrave, but Elliott Gould in the questionably conceived 1979 remake.  However, the supporting cast is quite strong.  Former Bond villain Jesper Christensen is quite entertaining chewing the scenery as the sly doctor, while Pip Torrens brings humane depth to the tele-film as the Reverend Kenneth Barnes, one of television’s rare positive portrayals of a clergyman.  (The retro opening credits are also surprising cool.)

Director Diarmuid Lawrence makes the most of the claustrophobic setting, but rushes through the climatic turning point as if his cast were late for their connecting trains.  Obviously it is wildly unfair to compare this The Lady Vanishes to Hitchcock’s early masterwork, but it just does not have the same verve as Masterpiece’s first-class reboot of The 39 Steps.  Reasonably diverting for a Sunday evening unwind, The Lady Vanishes airs tomorrow night (8/18) on most PBS outlets nationwide.

Endeavour: the First Full Season

Detective Constable Morse is repeatedly told to pay more attention to traditional police work than his hunches.  However, the young policeman’s instincts often prove correct.  Such will not necessarily be the case later in his career.  Viewers will start to understand why Robbie Lewis often had to tidy up after his mentor in the first full season of Endeavour (promo here), which airs this Sunday as part of the current season of PBS’s Masterpiece Mystery.

Following last year’s successful one-off, the socially awkward Morse has impressed the dapper DI Fred Thursday with his aptitude, but he is not especially popular with the rest of the force.  This definitely includes their new by-the-book-seniority-over-merit Chief Superintendent.  Morse will not do his career many favors as he openly defies orders and protocol in the season opening, Girl. 

When a prominent nuclear researcher’s unstable daughter becomes the prime suspect for murder, Morse sets out to clear her name.  Obviously, this is not Superintendent Bright’s policy and even the only-so-indulgent Thursday is skeptical.  An okay procedural, Girl goes out of its way to portray the Edward Teller-ish character in a negative light. While it introduces the supercilious Bright and the stalwart Constable Jim Strange, it is the weakest the series, so far.

Quickly rebounding, Fugue represents Endeavour at its strongest.  Morse has been busted down to “general duties,” but when a murderer starts leaving opera-related clues, the inexperienced DC is pulled back into the thick of things.  Crisply helmed by Tom Vaughan (best known stateside for Harrison Ford’s middling Extraordinary Measures), Fugue incorporates several clever clues and nicely evokes the time when police forces were only just beginning to come to terms with the serial killer concept.

The current season maintains it momentum with Rocket, another strong crime story with particularly strong period details.  During the relatively new Queen Elizabeth’s state visit to a struggling munitions plant, a worker is murdered in the back office area.  It turns out Percy Malleson was the factory’s equivalent of Morse, a standoffish fellow suspected by his fellow workers of being a management snitch. 

However, he was not really Malleson, but Eustace Kendrick, the prime suspect in a local girl’s unsolved disappearance several years ago.  A well written case, Rocket’s ultimate murderer could never conceivably be the perp in a Hollywood produced show, which makes it jolly refreshing.

The season concluding Home is not a bad episode, but it emphasizes character development over the investigation.  Morse and Thursday largely chase their tails as they try to deduce the murderer of an Oxford professor.  However, fans will get a large helping of backstory when Thursday confronts the London gangster whom he blames for the death of his former Sergeant.

Shaun Evans settles in quite nicely as the title character, playing him with the right mix of prickliness and earnest guilelessness. Likewise, Roger Allam’s Thursday might be the smartest character currently on television.  Morse fans will also be happy to hear John Thaw’s daughter Abigail regularly appears as muckraking editor Dorothea Frazil (she rather grows on viewers, in fact).  Anton Lessor (recognizable from The Hour, The Scapegoat, and Spies of Warsaw) is a bit buffoonish as Bright, but humanizes him a bit in the series closer.

Endeavour is one of the better British mysteries going.  Evans and Allam play off each other well and vivid sense of time and place—Oxford in the early 1960’s—adds a distinctive flavor. Recommended for fans of Colin Dexter’s characters as well as those interested in the era, the first full season of Endeavour launches tomorrow night (7/7) on most PBS outlets nationwide.

Lewis Series VI: Everything Much Change, Even in Oxford

If this really is the final appearance of Detective Inspector Robert “Robbie” Lewis, Masterpiece: Mystery really ought to play it up more.  Kevin Whately’s character has been a PBS fixture for years, dating back to his stint as second fiddle to John Thaw’s Inspector Morse.  However, ITV seems to think he will be back in a format yet to be determined.  In any event, Lewis will most likely investigate his final case with Detective Sergeant James Hathaway in Lewis Series VI (promo here), which begins this Sunday on most PBS outlets.

Season opener Down Among the Faithful begins a rough patch for DS Hathaway, who will spend most of the episode in a neck brace thanks to a fender bender.  The former seminarian also finds aspects of their latest case distasteful.  The victim in question was a clinical psychology research fellow, whose experiment attempted to irreparably undermine his subjects’ religious faith.  Bafflingly, the late Reuben Beatty also moonlighted as a psychic, causing much resentment from his fortune telling colleagues.  Faithful is a pretty straight forward procedural, but it is a nice example of how the series addresses hot button topics (in this case euthanasia) in a manner that should not perturb ardent partisans for either side.

Ostensibly, Hathaway gets a break in Ramblin’ Boy.  He will spend most of the episode on holiday, volunteering for a do-gooder mission in Pristina.  It does not sound like much of a vacation to Lewis either, so when he uncovers a Croatian connection to his latest case, he does not hesitate to call on Hathaway.

When a body supposedly cremated is discovered in a dumping ground, Lewis follows the trail from the funeral parlor to its dodgy co-owner, Peter Falkner, who has a long history of stymieing the Thames Valley constabulary.  Presumably, he had another body incinerated in the place of the embalmed corpse, but the tricky part for Lewis will be figuring out who that might be.  DC Alex Gray will do his best to pinch hit for Hathaway, but Lewis has other things on his mind, including finally putting the moves on the ever patience Dr. Laura Hobson, his forensic colleague.

Obviously, this episode delivers some long awaited payoff for series loyalists.  There has always been nice chemistry between Whately and Clare Holman and they ease into their late middle aged romance in a mature, believable manner.  Likewise, Babou Ceesay is appealingly earnest as Gray, while former Doctor Who Peter Davison (also familiar to Masterpiece Mystery viewers as Campion) plays Falkner with snide relish.  Clearly setting the stage for character life changes, Ramblin’ is one of the strongest episodes of the entire series, in part because of the way it temporarily breaks format, only to bring it all back together at the end.

Whether or not Intelligent Design is the final episode of Lewis, it will be the end of an era.  Hathaway is back from the Balkans and he is moodier than ever.  In contrast, Lewis is pleased as pie with the way things are going with the good Dr. Hobson.  The latest vic was not so happy in his relationship.  Richard Seager, a chemist and advocate of the theory of intelligent design (in Oxford, really?), just served a prison sentence for a drunk driving fatality. On his first night of freedom, he was lured out to his driveway and run over with the same fateful Jaguar (in a nice hat-tip to Morse).  

While the family of his victim does not exactly mourn his passing, it seems the deceased was still planning to divorce his long suffering vicar wife.  Lewis and Hathaway will have plenty of suspects, some of whom will not survive to see the closing credits.  The Sergeant will be particularly troubled by this, leading him to question his career choice.

Fans should rest assured, nobody will leave Lewis in the manner Dan Stevens’ Cousin Matthew exited Downton Abbey.  Laurence Fox notably closes his run on the show by appearing with his uncle, Edward Fox, who plays the college master, Dr. Yardley, with his patented British upper-crustness.  Fittingly, the investigative narrative is a cut above average and the scenes between the retirement-planning mentor and his disillusioned protégé are endearing but suitably restrained.

Although Endeavour, the chronicles of the young Morse, is well positioned to inherit the Lewis-Morse viewership, it is not hard to envision how the Lewis franchise could continue in a less demanding fashion for Whately.  Holman is a well established character by now, who could easily become the focus, periodically consulting on cases with now just plain Robbie Lewis at home.  Rebecca Front’s Chief Superintendent Jean Innocent is still a perfectly good mum and DC Gray could easily be bumped up to DS.  This is all speculation, but that is what mystery fans do.

Lewis has been a rare warhorse in the Masterpiece Mystery stable that has improved with age.  Lewis, Hathaway, and Holman are likably human, but they also have more than a bit of attitude.  They all enjoy a pint or two as well, which hardly hurts, either.  The formula really works here, so it would be nice if ITV can reconfigure it.  Regardless, Lewis series VI is easily recommended for British mystery fans when it premieres on PBS this Sunday (6/16), concluding two weeks later (6/30).

Wallander III: The Brooding Continues

Inspector Kurt Wallander might have the most annoying ringtone ever.  He would not mind changing it, but he is not a gadget guy.  His specialty is the dark recesses of the human soul.  The Swedish detective will be put through the psychological wringer again in the third season of Wallander (promo here), which premieres tomorrow night as part of the current season of PBS’s Masterpiece Mystery.

As the season opening An Event in Autumn begins, Wallander is trying to pull his act together and start a new chapter in his life.  Together with his lover Vanja and her young son, he has moved into a comfily restored farmhouse.  Yet, then the dog goes and digs up a dead body in their front bushes.  Wallander reacts rather badly when the site of his hoped for domestic tranquility becomes a crime scene.  It also brings him into conflict with the seedy former tenant, whom Wallander suspects, but cannot pin anything on.  Things really get bad when a colleague is gravely injured, partly due to Wallander’s recklessness.  As you might expect, he takes this turn of events rather badly.  However, his other active investigation starts to overlap with the case of the corpse in his yard.

Autumn is absolutely vintage Wallander, filled to the brim with his angst and self-recriminations, with everything he says making matters worse.  Though grim even Wallander’s standards, it is a pretty solid crime story.  However, Sakia Reeves’ Vanja gets a bit tiresome.  After all, what does she expect from Kurt Wallander?

The clear high point of season three comes with the middle episode, The Dogs of Riga (airing 9/16).  Now shockingly living on his own, Wallander meets an even more miserable copper when Major Karlis Liepa of the Latvian police comes to inspect the bodies of some Russian gangsters that washed up on shore.  It turns out the victims were his confidential informers and members of his own force were probably responsible for their murders.  When the world weary Major also meets an untimely end, Wallander is sent to assist the Latvian police.  It is hard to tell the cops apart from the gangsters, but they are all hassling Liepa’s widow Kristina, looking for his case notes.

While the Baltics are still pretty Nordic, both in terms of climate and temperament, the change of scenery does Wallander the series and character good.  It gives director Esther Campbell an opportunity to stage some respectable cat-and-mouse games and Branagh quickly develops some nice chemistry with Rebekah Staton’s unmerry widow.  There is also an intriguing plot point involving the old archives of the Soviet-era secret police that adds some historical perspective.  It also features one of the overall series’ best guest-star performances from Søren Malling as the soon to be late Major.

Unfortunately, Riga is followed by Before the Frost, a series low point that thoroughly reflects Wallander author Henning Mankell’s strident leftism.  A childhood friend of Wallander’s semi-estranged daughter comes looking for help, but he inadvertently pushes her away with his clumsy interpersonal skills.  He will soon be desperate to find her, fearing the worst about the Christian doomsday cult she has fallen in with.  It is pretty clear Mankell considers Sweden’s biggest problem to be a surfeit of Christianity and anyone believing in Creationism is a potential terrorist waiting to snap.  Frankly, Frost is so didactic, it gets rather silly (and distracting).  For fans though, at least it reveals a bit more of Wallander’s backstory.

Despite ending on a comparatively flat note, season three of Wallander represents a rebound from the somewhat disappointing second season.  Branagh so thoroughly plums the depths of the detective’s depression, one fears for his own mental health when each season wraps.  The tense and cinematic Dogs of Riga gets the highest recommendation, but An Event in Autumn is also worth seeing, as a particularly representative day at the office for Wallander, when season three kicks off this Sunday (9/9) on most PBS outlets nationwide.

Inspector Lewis, Back for Season V

Five seasons already—time sure flies when you’re sending snotty intellectuals up the river.  Detective Inspector Robbie Lewis is just the man to do it.  Never a member of the Oxford establishment, the Geordie transplant has an old fashioned bourgeoisie sense of decency that will bring him into conflict with the smart set from time to time during the fifth season of Inspector Lewis (promo here), which airs as part of the current season of Masterpiece Mystery, beginning this coming Sunday on most PBS outlets.

The circumstances surrounding the murder in The Soul of Genius, the first case of the new season for Lewis and his Sergeant, DS Hathaway, does not inspire any special outrage, but it is something of a head-scratcher to the level headed detective.  An eccentric scholar obsessed with Lewis Carroll’s Hunting of the Snark has been killed, perhaps due to an academic rivalry.  An amateur detective complicates their investigation, annoying Lewis no end.  However, when he learns she is trying to make sense of her own son’s untimely death, it brings out his natural sympathy.

In Generation of Vipers, Lewis feels similar compassion for Miranda Thornton, an Oxford lecturer who was perhaps hounded into committing suicide by internet trolls when her confidential online dating video was leaked to a gawker-esque website.  He has no patience for the moral dissembling of the proprietor, or for the brusque indifference of her former lover.  Unfortunately, the detectives find themselves in a spot of bother, thanks to a hostile press.  Generation might be the season’s least complicated mystery, but it has some of Kevin Whately’s finest moments as the outraged Lewis this time around.

Lewis also gets a tad bit annoyed with some of his suspects in Fearful Symmetry.  He rather likes Marion Hammond, the S&M photographer.  It is the swinging Garlands’ non-cooperative attitude that chaffs him.  Unfortunately, Tom Garland’s ambitious employee, Nick Addams and his reluctant wife took up the boss’s invitation for a night of whatever.  When they came back, they discovered the babysitter brutally murdered in their bed.  It turns out she had posed in a way to resemble her photo-shoot with Hammond, whom the Garland’s coincidentally patronize.  Featuring Spandau Ballet’s Gary Kemp as Garland, Symmetry is probably the darkest installment of season five.

Arguably, the fifth season ends with its strongest offering, featuring its biggest name guest star, David Soul (from Starsky & Hutch) appearing as an American academic not long for the world.  Dr. Paul Yelland advocates genetic screening to identify those prone to “dangerousness” before they actually commit crimes.  This line of academic inquiry is controversial and evidently deadly.  Naturally, the local leftist professional protestors disrupt his speech and they do not sound particularly rational when questioned after Yelland’s murder.  However, Lewis and Hathaway’s investigation suggest campus love affairs and professional resentments might have played a greater role in his demise.

It is the chemistry between Whately and Laurence Fox’s Hathaway that makes Lewis click so well as a series.  While last season gave them several particularly nice bonding moments, this year’s batch somewhat neglects the development of their personal-professional relationship.  It is still pleasant to watch them work together, nonetheless.

In the British press, Morse author Colin Dexter speculates the future of Inspector Lewis might be limited to one more go-round.  The good detective is at retirement age it seems and both leads are reportedly ready to move on.  However, Fox has established a strong enough character to merit a Hathaway spin-off, thereby continuing the Morse apostolic tradition, should he decide to pick up the torch.  Though not quite as strong as series four (as aired by PBS rather than ITV), this year’s season is still considerably more enjoyable than most workaday crime television.  Cordially recommended for British mystery fans, Inspector Lewis returns to Masterpiece Mystery this Sunday (7/8) continuing through July 29^th.

Endeavour: the Young Inspector Morse

Consider it a portrait of the curmudgeon as a young man.  Inspector Morse would make a name for himself as the prickly but refined Chief Inspector with a taste for opera and poetry.  However, in 1965, Endeavour Morse was an Oxford drop-out just hoping to catch on with the Thames Valley force after a stint in the military.  His first case will be difficult, bringing him back to his former college in Endeavour (promo here), the one-off Inspector Morse prequel, premiering this coming Sunday on PBS’s Masterpiece Mystery.

Mary Tremlett, a local school girl, has been murdered and her former lover, an Oxford student, has committed suicide.  It is supposed to look like an open-and-shut affair, but the details do not quite fit.  Constable Morse’s inquiry leads him to the faculty member tutoring Tremlett (under questionable circumstances), who happens to be married to Morse’s favorite opera diva.

Though preoccupied on several fronts, Morse doggedly follows the clues leading to sleazy car dealer with half the force in his pocket.  To proceed, he will need the career-risking assistance of his prospective mentor, the somewhat Morse-like Detective Inspector Fred Thursday, who drives a Jaguar and has little patience for his colleagues’ corruption.

For a television mystery, Endeavour is fairly successful misdirecting viewers, despite dropping some fairly obvious clues.  It also comes fully approved and vouched for, featuring a cameo appearance from Morse author Colin Dexter, as well as Abigail Thaw, the daughter of the late John Thaw (the star of the original Morse series), appearing briefly as the editor of the Oxford newspaper.  Frankly, it seems strange that Endeavour was initially produced as a one-shot, much like the Morse spin-off, Inspector Lewis, but in each case, the viewers have clearly spoken.  A full four episode season of Endeavour is reportedly already in the works.

In his eponymous first outing, Shaun Evans looks appropriately awkward and earnest as Constable Morse, but it will be interesting to see how the character and his performance evolve over time.  Indeed, it is easy to understand how this early case would appreciably contribute to his disillusionment.  Fortunately, Roger Allam (who once played a suspect on the flagship Inspector Morse) provides plenty of color as the flamboyant but principled DI Friday.  The only real weaknesses on Constable Morse’s maiden voyage are his suspects, who are a rather bland lot, in an English upper crust sort of way.

Sure to please the preexisting base, Endeavour should also appeal to viewers of PBS period dramas.  There is definitely a sense of nostalgia here that should help the prequel series establish its own discrete identity.  An entertaining feature length murder mystery that has plenty of potential for growth (again, much like Lewis before it), Endeavour is easily recommended for Brit TV fans when it airs this Sunday (7/1) on most PBS stations nationwide.

The Contemporary Sherlock Returns

At the end of the first season of Masterpiece’s Sherlock Holmes reboot, the consulting detective came face-to-face with his arch-nemesis, consulting criminal Jim Moriarty.  Now it is time to introduce the femme fatale.  After getting a reprieve from the cliffhanger ending season one, Holmes meets the incomparable Irene Adler in A Scandal in Belgravia, the first of three new episodes making up Sherlock season two, which premieres this Sunday on PBS’s Masterpiece Mystery (promo here).

Rest assured, Moriarty is not done with Holmes.  For the time being though, Holmes is free to solve some very high profile cases, including the recovery of a painting stolen from the American ambassador, titled the Reichenbach Falls.  This will be significant later in season two.  For now, it raises Holmes stature to such a point, the British government requests the detective’s help recovering some sensitive photos of a Royal from the cell phone of dominatrix Adler.  As Homes fans know, this is no ordinary scandalous woman.  Holmes himself has no idea what to make of her, partly because she receives the sleuth in the nude, thereby robbing his keen powers of observation of any details to form deductions from.

Right, where were we? Something about Public Broadcasting?  While always shot from discrete angles, Belgravia is pretty HBO for PBS.  Each previous episode has modernized the Doyle stories in clever ways, but the season two opener takes it to a new level.  As Adler, Lara Pulver is the guest star to beat all guest stars.  Her chemistry with the new Holmes, Benedict Cumberbatch, is appropriately weird but hot.  Frankly, the re-conception of The Hound of the Baskervilles (as The Hounds of Baskerville), which many fans have probably been eagerly anticipating, is something of a let-down by comparison.

In S2E2, there indeed appears to be a hound haunting the moors, but it seems to involve a shadowy government research lab.  Compounding the disappointing clichés, the CIA factors somewhat vaguely in the skullduggery.  On the plus side, a vegan restaurant also seems to be up to no good.  Mostly importantly, it gives Rupert Graves a bit of an opportunity to develop his Inspector Lestrade.  Not a bumbling plodder in the Dennis Hoey-Eddie Marsan tradition, he is a reasonably smart and charismatic fellow.  In fact, Holmes might actually sort of-kind of like the Scotland Yard man, at least as much as he can like anyone who is not Watson or Adler.

As it began, season two ends with one of the series’ best episodes overall.  Making good on his promises, Moriarty returns to wreck havoc on Holmes.  Not content to simply kill his rival, the super-villain sets in motion an elaborate plan to thoroughly discredit the detective first.  The resulting affair takes Holmes to some very dark places—like Luther levels of psychological angst.

Season two is about as cinematic as episodic television gets, particularly Belgravia and Reichenbach, helmed by Paul McGuigan and Toby Haynes, respectively.  Smartly written, the series not only performs a shrewd alchemy on the original Doyle stories, it also plays off the themes of the Billy Wilder’s non-canonical The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes.  Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman’s Watson have plenty of amusing bickering banter, but the way they portray the deepening of the 221B residents friendship is one of the most appealing developments of the show.  Surpassing the first outing, the second season of Sherlock is quite highly recommended, even for casual mystery fans, when it starts this Sunday (5/6) and continuing over the following two weeks (5/13, and 5/20) on most PBS outlets.

Case Histories: Jackson Brodie, One Detective, Two Last Names

Jackson Brodie jogs, listens to sad music, mismanages his personal life, and agonizes over his tragic family history. Occasionally, he does a spot of detective work. Fortunately, DC Louise Munroe just swoons over him, because the former Edinburgh cop has burned a lot of bridges, both on the force and with his ex. Indeed, there will be a lot of brooding in store for viewers with the premiere of Case Histories this Sunday on PBS’s Masterpiece Mystery.

Based on the novels by Kate Atkinson, each nearly two hour episode introduces several ostensibly separate cases, which usually turn out to be interrelated in various ways. However, the first eponymously titled installment rather forces the strands together. Yet, it is Brodie’s backstory that really takes center stage. The divorced gumshoe tries to be a good father to ten year-old-ish Marlie, but he is always distracted by work.

Initially, he is hired to solve the decades old disappearance of a young girl by her two ragingly neurotic grown sisters. Shortly thereafter, a grieving father engages Brodie to find his daughter’s murderer, whom he assumes acted on a random violent impulse. A bit later, a nurse convinces Brodie to find the sister she turned her back on years ago. At least she is considerate enough to seduce him first.

One Good Turn, the middle episode, is somewhat stronger as a crime drama, but it indulges in far too many flashbacks to a fateful series of events in Brodie’s childhood. On one of his many long distance runs along the picturesque Scottish coast, Brodie spies a corpse caught sinking in the surf. Unable to pull her from the undertow, Brodie follows a handful of sketchy leads to a dodgy cleaning service using women trafficked from Russia. Reluctantly, he also babysits Martin Canning, a mystery novelist spooked by his involvement in an apparently simple road rage incident. Of course, somehow everything ties back to Russia. Even Canning has some dark history there, which Adam Godley reveals in Case’s best guest-starring turn.

With Marlie and her Mum temporarily living in New Zealand and Christmas fast approaching, the concluding When Will There Be Good News promises to reach Wallander levels of angst. To make matters worse, Brodie is considerably banged up in freak train accident. It would have been far more severe had teenaged nanny Reggie not come along at the right time. In return, she wants Brodie to find her missing friend and employer. Meanwhile, a messy adultery case just will not go away. Easily the most cohesive narrative of the series, Good News is also far more deft and disciplined in its use of flashbacks from the past.

Soon to be seen on NBC’s upcoming Awake, Isaacs is evidently catnip for women in their late 40’s to early 50’s. To give him due credit, he also looks credible taking a beating like a man. Frankly, he has a suitably intense screen presence. We just get a little too much of his guilt-ridden moping. Dude, you’re a pretty big guy. Go hit someone.

While Case Histories picks up momentum as the series advances, the drama with Brodie’s family and DC Munroe remain constant speed bumps. Frankly, Brodie private should have been more private. A mostly okay British mystery series, but nowhere near as cool as Zen, as cinematic as Sherlock, or as endearing as a warhorse like Lewis, Case Histories begins this Sunday (10/16) as part of the current season of Masterpiece Mystery.

Lewis Series IV: Death at the University

Inspector Lewis has a healthy disdain for intellectual prattle. As a member constabulary in Oxford, England, from time to time DI Lewis must deal with the University’s arrogant elite. His sergeant, DS Hathaway is a former divinity student who should feel at home amidst ivy covered walls, but he was a Cambridge man. In contrast to last season, the Oxford setting factors directly in the four episodes comprising season IV of Lewis, premiering next Sunday night on PBS’s Masterpiece Mystery.

Detective Inspector “Robbie” Lewis was the working class sergeant under the Oxford educated Inspector Morse, long a staple of Masterpiece Mystery. In recent years, the sidekick has become the curmudgeonly lead, succeeding Morse and the late John Thaw as a warhorse of the PBS showcase stable. The fourth season, as collected for American audiences, kicks off with one of Lewis’s more intriguing cases, Old Unhappy Far Off Things (promo here).

Diana Ellerby is an Oxford feminist scholar who has attracted a number of fiercely loyal protégés over the years. Unfortunately, one of them turns up dead at her going away party. As Lewis and Hathaway investigate, it becomes clear that all was not well between Ellerby’s special alumni. Of course, her contempt and lack of cooperation do not make their job any easier. Neither do the case’s painful echoes. Several years ago, the tragic death of his wife forced Lewis to remove himself from another murder inquiry at the same college. Guest-starring Juliet Stevenson (who never really became famous on these shores despite some high profile roles) as Ellerby, Far Off portrays leftist academia in a manner that would never fly on American television.

On the other hand, Wild Justice, set in an affiliate school clearly based on the now defunct Greyfriars, would seem to present an opportunity to even the score by bashing the friars (they are not monks, Hathaway constantly explains to Lewis). A high profile participant of an academic conference is murdered in a manner inspired by a lecture on revenge and justice in Jacobean drama. Having a lot of material to work with, the killer starts to rack up quite a literary body count. Though there is a fair amount of backbiting between the friars, it is the progressive secular candidate in the college’s impending governance election that really takes a PR pounding. A decent mystery that does not overplay the exoticism of the friars, Wild also features Christopher Timothy (best known for playing beloved veterinarian James Herriot) as an ex-copper who knows too much.

Perhaps the weakest installment of season IV, The Mind has Mountains involves a pharmaceutical company testing a new anti-depressant on wildly dysfunctional Oxford students. Easily Lewis’s most Hollywood outing this year, the Geordie detective constantly grouses about drug companies giving college kids horse tranquilizers, which really does not sound like a bad idea. To be fair, he is a bit out of sorts, confused by the cold shoulder given to him by Dr. Laura Hobson, his crime scene investigator and potential romantic interest. However, it might be the season’s most visually stylish episode, helmed by director Charles Palmer (son of veteran British television star Geoffrey Palmer), whose early investigation scenes are quite cinematic.

Rebounding with the finale, Gift of Promise delivers the most intricate plot of season IV. Young gifted and talented student Zoe Suskin is going through a rough patch. The director of the foundation that granted her scholarship is murdered, followed shortly by her book publisher father. Perhaps most distressingly, her favorite Oxford tutor is in questionable condition after an arsenic poisoning attempt. Somehow though, it all seems to involve a nasty bit of IRA infighting conspicuously missing from a former MI-5 director’s memoirs.

Throughout season IV, Kevin Whately and Laurence Fox further refine their odd couple chemistry. Watching them bicker, banter, and brainstorm has become rather pleasant television comfort food. For the most part, the actual mysteries are reasonably mysterious and well written. The frequent Oxford backdrops this season only add to the series’ atmosphere and Anglophile appeal. With this season, Lewis continues to grow as a series, while holding fast to its fundamental strengths. More than solidly respectable, Lewis is definitely worth revisiting again when Far Off premieres next night (9/4) on most PBS outlets throughout the country.

(Photos: Robert Day)

Zen and the Art of Police Corruption

Aurelio Zen has a reputation for integrity. As a result, his career has stalled. Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, the higher-ups sometimes need a police detective of his intelligence and talent to handle especially sensitive cases. To survive, he will reluctantly learn how to play the political game in Zen, Masterpiece Mystery’s newest series based on the novels by Michael Dibdin, which premieres this coming Sunday on PBS.

Zen might just have the coolest opening credits ever. They certainly establish the Rome setting. However, Zen is Venetian—another reason the detective is such an outsider in the Roman force. In the series opening Vendetta, Zen is to vet the handling of a high profile murder case. His captain makes it clear Zen is supposed to sign off on the half-bungled investigation quickly and quietly. It will not be that easy. Amedeo Colonna, a powerful ministry official unofficially “requests” Zen sabotage the case against the politically connected suspect. Further complicating matters, Zen starts to think the accused might actually be innocent. Yet, whatever course of action Zen chooses, his career will likely suffer. This predicament will repeat for Zen.

Though Zen spends most of season one on thin ice professionally, his personal life heats with the arrival of the captain’s new civilian secretary, Tania Moretti, a beautiful woman going through an ugly divorce. In this gossipy backbiting environment, they try to keep their relationship on the down low. It is not clear how long this will be sustainable though now that Zen is increasingly assigned high profile cases. The second installment, Cabal, starts with an apparently open and shut suicide that Zen’s captain would like him to hurry up and close. This time the Ministry agrees, but prosecutor (and potential lover) Nadia Pirlo encourages Zen to keep digging.

Arguably the weakest link of season one, Cabal posits a shadowy uber-conspiracy in the tired Da Vinci Code tradition, right down to the furtive cell phones calls exchanged by limousine riding government officials and ominous Vatican Cardinals. Frankly, raising the intrigue to the macro level undercuts the series’ gritty portrayal of petty precinct politics and the grasping corruption of the officialdom above them.

The series concluding Ratking returns to its strengths, placing Zen in yet another Catch-22. Evidently, it is illegal to pay ransom to kidnappers in Italy. Nonetheless, Colonna wants Zen to facilitate such an exchange to ensure the safe return of a major party contributor. Unfortunately, Zen’s by-the-book interim captain is itching to bust him for any infraction. It would be business as usual for Zen, if he were not so aware a man’s life hangs in the balance.

Ratking might have the best twisty-turny crime store of the series. Not exactly whodunits or procedurals, Zen the series is more about watching the protagonist try to carry out his duties honorably, while negotiating the malevolent bureaucracy and petty departmental in-fighting.

Perfectly cast in the lead, ethnically ambiguous Rufus Sewell certainly passes for Italian. He also conveys the appropriate combination of righteous intensity and everyman resignation. Furthermore, the chemistry forged between his Zen and Caterina Murino’s Moretti is nothing short of electric. Frankly, even though it is always safely PG, Zen is still pretty darn hot by PBS standards.

Seen by a handful in the unfairly dismissed Garden of Eden and by the entire world in Casino Royale, Murino projects a smart and sophisticated sexuality, not unlike some of her legendary predecessors of Italian cinema. The supporting cast (partly Italian, but mostly British) provides plenty of color and verve, particularly Ben Miles as the stone cold Mephistophelean Colonna.

At one point Colonna tells Zen: “I didn’t know you had it in you.” Some might echo the sentiment after watching Zen on PBS. Sleek and stylish like an Italian sports car, but decidedly grubby in its depiction of police corruption, Zen is feature quality television. While Cabal need not be appointment TV, Vendetta and Ratking absolutely should not be missed. Unfortunately, Zen the series' future is somewhat up in the air in the UK right now, but viewers should not let that dissuade them. Even though most Zen’s personal life remains unsolved at the end of series one, it allows him to enjoy some temporarily last laughs that are well worth sticking around for. Definitely recommended, Zen debuts on PBS’s Masterpiece Mystery with Vendetta this Sunday (7/17).

(Photos: WGBH)