Diane and I started watching The Chelsea Detective on our local PBS station. Then, for no apparent reason, our local PBS station stopped showing it. What to do?
I checked the North Tonawanda Public Library and sure enough, they had The Chelsea Detective on DVD. Now we’re watching the episodes where we left off.
Detective Inspector Max Arnold (played by Adrian Scarborough) is a dyslexic police detective working with DS Priya Shamsie (played by Sonita Henry). Together, Arnold and Shamsie solve difficult murder cases.
Arnold lives in a houseboat (just like Travis McGee) on the river because he’s separated from his wife, Astrid (Anamaria Marinca).
If you are in the mood for some intelligent and challenging mysteries, I recommend The Chelsea Detective. If your PBS station isn’t offering it, it’s available on AMAZON PRIME video…or your local Library. GRADE: B+
By coincidence, we watched the first episode of series 4 last night. Henry left after the first series and was replaced by Vanessa Emme as DS Layla Walsh. Frankly, I like her much better. Jackie dislikes the abrasive Astrid, but I’ll let the plots come to you sx you get to them. Aldo, Frances Barber plays Max’s somewhat eccentric Aunt Olivia, not that different from the role she plays in Whitstable Pearl, which sadly seems to have ended after three series.
Another thing I like about this series is, no annoying or obnoxious boss breathing down his neck. There always seems to be a pretty relaxed pace.
Very good show.
Jeff, I agree with all of your comments about THE CHELSEA DETECTIVE. We have Season 2 on DVD and will be watching it next week. You’re right about the Higher Ups making life difficult for the detectives by pressuring them. But that happens…
Also, not Aldo as my mistyping has it.
Jeff, WORDPRESS strikes again!
Jackie says Chelsea Detective is on Acorn, which I thought you have. (They also have Harry Wild and My Life Is Murder and the new Brooke Shields show.)
Jeff, we used to have ACORN and the NFL Channel but Spectrum took them away and gave us HULU and DISNEY+ instead.
Yes, it’s on Amazon Prime, but only if you also subscribe to Acorn. I do, but don’t watch much of it. I don’t know the shows Jeff mentions — were they recommendations, Jeff?
We like The Chelsea Detective a lot (unlike Jackie, I look forward to whenever “the abrasive Astrid” shows up), and were pleased to see the 4th season appear in the “shows you’re watching” section of prime. We haven’t started it yet; last night we finished the second season of The Chestnut Man, an intense Nordic series on Netflix.
In other news, tomorrow I’ll be seeing The Odyssey again. My disabled brother was saying he’d just have to wait until it showed up on streaming so he could watch it on his tv, because his son who would take him to movies has moved away. I decided to take him, and I’m looking forward to my second viewing.
Jeff, no, definitely NOT recommended by me, though Jackie said Diane Kelley watched them.
My Life is Murder stars Lucy Lawless as a former detective turned PI, originally in Australia but then in Auckland, New Zealand. It’s not bad, but her assistant annoyed me more and more as it went on, though apparently that’s just me. It’s very watchable, as I remember it, though we watch mostly darker shows like Chestnut Man.
HARRY WILD is – again, in my view (though Jackie agrees)) – a truly terrible show ( based on the couple we got through) with Jane Seymour as a “retired literature professor with a knack for solving mysteries.” The mysteries are – to coin a phrase – weak as dh1t.
We haven’t (wouldn’t) watched the Brooke Shields vehicle YOU’RE KILLING ME, but apparently she’s a bestselling novelist who teams up with an aspiring writer to solve a friend’s murder, and become a team.
Jeff, I worry about ASTRID and PATIENCE and other TV shows featuring autistic characters.
Jeff, it looks like Astrid is gone for good and Max is ready to move on.
Jeff, I love ASTRID and its British knockoff, PATIENCE on PBS. You are very kind to take your brother to see THE ODYSSEY.
I’m way behind on my television viewing. This might be a good place to jump back in.
Jerry, THE CHELSEA DETECTIVE is an intelligent crime drama. Plus, a dash of humor!
“Detective Inspector Max Arnold […] is a dyslexic police detective”
Huh, that’s also the hook for the ‘Will Trent’ show on ABC.
Trent takes notes on his investigations into a recorder. And has some kind of a cell phone that turns text messages into audio.
The show is about to start its fifth season — which in these economical TV days means it has only reached 60 episodes.
I can’t compare it to ‘Chelsea Detective’, but will say that it has always surprised me with its humor, characters, and NOT being a generic police procedural.
Jee Jay, I’ll have to check out Will Trent. Max Arnold takes dozens of photos with his iPhone and studies the pictures since text is hard for him to understand.
When I get my smart tv, I’m going to get Brit box and others
Not sure when that will be.
Maggie, BEST BUY is offering a huge TV sale here right now. We’ve had good luck with SONYs and Samsungs.