Mystery Summer

We continue this week with another American (Canadian) made mystery. The nearly-always insufferable Maury Chaykin takes an enjoyable turn as the grouchy, misanthropic, hermit private detective Nero Wolfe. Wolfe can't abide time-wasters or imbeciles. His dearest friends are his collection of rare orchids and his only passion is haute cuisine. His is an exceptionally sharp deductive mind, but leaves all the footwork to his capable assistant Archie (Timothy Hutton), a debonair ladies man who can talk himself into--and out of--any situation. 

Nero Wolfe is a light-hearted, humorous and colorful take on film-noir style (as contradictory as that may sound. All pinstripe suits and mysterious damsels in distress, the writing is clever and fun, the production low-budget but highly entertaining. But our favorite unique quality of the show is the rotating cast. The main characters remain the same, but the supporting cast of actors can be found playing new roles in each new mystery. The blond above must show up at least a dozen times throughout the series...always as a new character. Seeing familiar faces crop up again and again makes you feel like you're participating in local dinner theatre or something. 

Check your local library. I hope you'll be able to find some of these. If you get a chance to watch, let us know what you think of them!

Mystery Summer

Again going along with PBS's programming schedule, we bring you another of our favorites:

Inspector Lewis which is airing on Masterpiece Mystery this month.

It doesn't take a whole lot of viewing experience to get used to the key ingredients of classic British detective stories. One important element is setting, which for many mystery series is the only constant amid a flood of constantly changing characters. In this case, Oxford is a main character in itself, with both victims and perpetrators inhabiting a world where academic stardom is the first order of life. The ancient university, its hallowed halls and looming secrets provide more than enough material to keep the series varied and interesting.

Next, there's always the chief detective and his sergeant.  In virtually every inspector + sergeant partnership we've ever seen, there is some major incongruity between the two characters which provides enough personal tension between them to keep things interesting while at the same time fueling each individual's creative and deductive powers. Inspector Lewis is a working-class bloke with intelligence to spare but no patience for the head-in-the-clouds lifestyle of his academic neighbors. Sergeant Hathaway is his opposite in every way, educated at Cambridge, he studied theology until an existential crisis turned him away from the priesthood and toward a career with the police. But despite (more likely because of) their differences, Lewis and Hathaway make a formidable team. 

 As mysteries go, Inspector Lewis strikes that perfect balance between dark and light... the stories almost always have some gravity to them, but there's enough lightness and humor to keep you from getting depressed (Unlike Inspector Lynley, a similar series with many of the same standard elements which, by the way, didn't make the cut for our summer selections). Lewis is enjoyable and definitely worth the time. 

One tiny little side-note: some of you may remember Lewis as Sergeant Lewis, Inspector Morse's protege from the earlier TV Mystery Inspector Morse. We didn't include Morse in our summer series either mainly because, well, we've never watched it. But anyway, I figured if I didn't mention it that I'd hear about it from all you Morse fans out there.

Mystery Summer Week 4

This week we move back to our side of the pond with the American-made (though largely British-cast, what do you know!) Pushing Daisies. Part fantasy fairy-tale, part crime drama with characters that could have been written by Roald Dahl and sets and costumes that look so deliciously bright they could be made of candy. The show only aired for two seasons, but received (well-deserved, in our opinion) critical acclaim including 17 emmy nominations and 7 wins.

Ned is a lonely young piemaker who possesses the unique power of being able to bring the dead back to life--once. One touch brings life, but the next instantly kills whoever or whatever he just brought back. The story takes off when an enterprising private detective happens to see the phenomenon in action and immediately invites Ned to join him as a partner. After all, there's no easier way to solve a murder than to ask the victim what happened, right? But when one of their first cases involves Ned's childhood sweetheart Chuck--all grown up and beautiful--he can't bring himself to give her that second touch and so begins the sweet and frustratingly anti-physical relationship that binds the whole show together.

The characters are all larger-than life, the writing is witty and the stories are completely over-the-top. An especially bright spot in the show is Kristen Chenoweth, Ned's only pie-shop employee who is desperately, secretly but not very discreetly in love with him. And of course, she occasionally breaks into song about it.

All in all, Pushing Daisies is lovely, funny, enchanting and completely unique. You can find it on Hulu or at theWB.com. Hope you  enjoy it!  Whoops...just noticed that only Season 2 is available online. Maybe you can find Season 1 at your local library or rent it through Amazon or iTunes or something.

Mystery Summer: Week 3

We continue our mystery summer with our no. 1 favorite: Foyle's War. This is a British period mystery set during and immediately following the second World War. It is set in the coastal town of Hastings (as in the same Hastings that was the site of the famous Battle of Hastings when William the Conqueror came in and cleaned house with the Anglo-Saxon nobles, making Britain a Norman holding for the next...well, basically forever).

Michael Kitchen is Detective Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle and he is a man for whom right is right and there is no room for legal compromise, moral ambiguity or justifications of wrongdoing in a time of war. And for his perfect moral uprightness, sharp intelligence and ever-polite, courteous (but definitely not friendly) manner, he is probably our very favorite of all detectives. And really, that is saying a lot!

He is backed by Sergeant Milner, a war veteran sent home from the fight because of the loss of a leg in combat. Milner (Anthony Howell) is not your typical bumbling, ineffective sergeant. He is extremely intelligent and capable but lacks Foyle's black-and-white confidence about questions of morality, intent and the violent, war-torn world he lives in.

Rounding out the crew is Sam (Honeysuckle Weeks), a can-do girl who performed so poorly in the women's mechanized transport corps that she was transferred to the police as Foyle's driver--which suits her just fine. Her constant optimism and childlike humor brings some lightness to the series and even gives her boss something to smile about.

The series was meticulously produced with historically accurate details from the costumes and uniforms to the aircraft and cars, telephones, weaponry, etc. and provides a fascinating glimpse of everyday life in a terrible period of modern history. The whole series is just fantastic and is available on Netflix instant. Well worth anyone's time. 

Mystery Summer: Week 2

 Ideally, we would carefully select the order of our choices by careful analysis and theme. ;) In fact, we've already talked about how we would order the different mysteries by setting, theme, style etc. But we would really like some of you to watch with us, so we're going to let PBS and it's programming schedule have a little say. This month on most PBS stations, Masterpiece Mystery presents ZEN starring Rufus Sewell. If, like us, you don't have a TV, you can watch episodes the day after they air online at PBS. This was already on our list, so thanks to PBS, we're just featuring him a little earlier than planned.

Aurelio Zen is a detective with the famously corrupt Italian state police in Rome. He has a reputation for unflinching honesty--a trait difficult to maintain amidst the politicking and underhanded maneuvering of his colleagues and the government officials above him. But somehow, with the tools of a brilliant investigative mind, saavy diplomacy and talent for getting people exactly where he wants them, he always manages to get the right results and keep his integrity.

We've already said how much we love Rufus Sewell and he certainly doesn't disappoint here. He can communicate more in a little nod or an eye twitch than some big stars get across in an entire movie. So thanks to PBS for making Zen available again (some of you may have seen this when it aired last summer). Watch it this weekend and let us know what you think.

Mystery Summer

 We've been talking about how to spend a movie month on our favorite entertainment for a long time. The trouble is, our favorites aren't really movies at all, they're made-for-tv mysteries. And there are too many of them to fit into a single month-- even if we split them into a month for American and a month for British--we still wouldn't feel like we'd done justice to our favorite genre.  So (drumroll please) we're devoting the entire summer to mysteries! together on three: 1...2...3... "Hooray!!!" And since there is no better way to open than with the most iconic mystery hero of them all, we're beginning with SHERLOCK HOLMES.

 

I think just about everyone has heard of, if not already seen, the brilliant new adaptation Sherlock starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman as Holmes and Watson which airs in America on PBS Masterpiece Mystery. (and if you hurry up, you could watch all of season 1 in Netflix and then go to PBS online and watch season 2 which will be available until 6/20.) Set in the modern-era it is witty, fast-paced, beautifully written and shot and has, I think, the most perfectly cast characters. Benedict Cumberbatch does insecure, genius arrogance like he was just born with it. Martin Freeman (we love Martin Freeman. Aren't you so excited he's going to be playing Bilbo Baggins?! Who else? Perfect.) is the most likeable grouch as war-veteran Dr. Watson and their chemistry together is endlessly entertaining. And Moriarty...ah, I cannot say enough how happy the casting and characterization of Moriarty makes me. I won't give away too much because finding out who he is is kind of key to the end of season one, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE how they played him. 

So. If you have already seen and enjoyed Sherlock, feel free to tell us so. We always like to hear our opinions backed-up :) And if you haven't yet, go now before it's too late and you end up having to wait for Season 2 to show up on Netflix or at your local library.
We must however, give a nice nod to the old classic Sherlock Holmes series starring Jeremy Brett. Many of these episodes are also available on Netflix right now and I'd bet they're at your library too. It's fun to compare the old and new series as the new one often hides fun allusions to the older series in its sets and writing. And if you just can't seem to get enough of Sherlock, we can also recommend a movie version of The Hound of the Baskervilles made in 2002 starring Richard Roxburgh, Ian Hart and Richard E. Grant. It's a bit darker than the Brett version of the same story and has tv-worthy special effects but we really enjoyed it.