Reviews

Ridley and Carol are reasonably decent detectives, but this whole show is ridiculous. So many inconsistencies.

This show seems very rural in almost all the settings of sheep farms, big country estates, small towns, villages and yet they have this big team of investigators that look like it was picked from the United Nations just like all PBS shows must be required to do. If this were a major city it plays but not in podunk England.

The whole jazz thing pretty much ruins this on it's on. In the same small village/town there is somehow demand for a jazz bar where the detective happens to be one of the attractions. The intro to the show is god forsakenly long enough and the jazz background music for this show on top of the subject matter makes it a commercial for antidepressants.

Also, everyone in this small town seems to have had some sort of tragedy but not very many people seem to know of all these things like it wouldn't have been big news when the tragedies happened. These things come out as revelations along the way but they should not be any surprise in a small place.

The flashbacks with Ridley are annoying. Tell the story in a linear fashion and fill in background with another method. Showing dead people as though they are alive is even worse than all the re-enactments everyone uses. They even ruin Poirot in the end with re-enactments instead of story telling.

I really like the characters Carol and Ridley and the actors are very good but somewhere the concept got carried away with some silly concept that this needed to play like an old Turner Classic Movie with soundtrack instead of a good detective story. I was sorely disappointed.

THIS WAS A GREAT SERIES THROUGH SEASON 3. I SHOULD HAVE STOPPED THERE.

GREAT CHARACTERS AND THE CAST IS EXCELLENT. THE CONCEPT AND WRITING WORK WELL AS A CONTEMPORARY VERSION OF HOLMES.

MARTIN FREEMAND AND CUMBERBATCH HAVE GOOD CHEMISTRY. UNA STUBBS IS PERFECT AS MRS HUDSON AND THE CONTEMPORARY STORY LINE GIVEN TO HER CHARACTER IS HILARIOUS EVERY TIME IT COMES UP.

THIS IS MY FAVORITE RUPERT GRAVES ROLE AS LESTRADE. LOUISE BREALEY IS WONDERFULLY QUIRKY AS A CORONER AND I COULD SEE A WHOLE SHOW BUILT AROUND HER CHARACTER. AMANDA ABBINGTON IS GOOD AS ALWAYS AS MARY BUT THE CHARACTER MARY IS WHERE I HAVE THE PROBLEM.

EVERYTHING WORKED WITH THE CHARACTER MARY THROUGH SEASON 3. FROM THE XMAS STORY ONWARD THROUGH SEASON 4 THE MARY STORYLINE BECAME THE WHOLE STORY AND WAS SO FANTASTICAL, HOLLYWOOD, MAINSTREAM OVER THE TOP THAT I WAS REALLY PUT OFF AND DISAPPOINTED.

I TRULY LIKED THIS SERIES WITH EMOTIONAL ATTACHMENT. I DESCRIBE IT AS AN ENSEMBLE CAST THAT BECOMES FAMILIAR OVER TIME AND YOU BECOME ATTACHED LIKE COMFORT FOOD. HOWEVER, AS GOOD AS MANY OF THE ACTORS ARE LIKE COLIN MORGAN, BRADLEY JAMES, RICHARD WILSON, SEVERAL OF THE KNIGHTS AND MANY OF THE GUEST STARS ARE, THESE ARE STILL PULLED DOWN BY THE NOT SO GOOD ACTING AND TOO MUCH SCREEN TIME OF KATIE MCGRATH. HER CHARACTER JUST MAKES THE LAST 3 SEASONS RIDICULOUSLY TIRESOME, ESPECIALLY WITH HER ONE DIMENSIONAL ACTING.

THERE ARE SO MANY REDUNDANT AND DRAGGED OUT STORY LINES I COULDN'T BELIEVE IT. I HAD READ REVIEWS THAT THE SHOW GETS BETTER AFTER THE FIRST COUPLE OF SEASONS BUT I FELT IT DID NOT. IN FACT, IT JUST SEEMED LIKE OVER AND OVER I SAID TO MYSELF I'VE SEEN THIS BIT BEFORE AND HAD.

I WATCHED ALL 65 EPISODES AND THIS COULD HAVE BEEN CONDENSED INTO 3 OR 4 SEASONS OR CUT DOWN THE SEASONS FROM 13 EPISODES TO 8 OR 10. THIS IS HOW MUCH REPETITION I FELT WAS IN THE SERIES.

AGAIN, THIS IS REALLY GOOD BUT THE WRITING IS LACKING. BRADLEY JAMES AND COLIN MORGAN ARE GOOD WITH THE REALLY BAD DIALOGUE AND REPETITIVE THEMES BUT THEY CAN ONLY DANCE AROUND THE SAME TOPICS OVER AND OVER AGAIN SO MUCH.

AROUND SEASON 3 THERE ARE SOME RATHER SILLY SCI FI CREATURE EFFECTS AND LATER ON IN THE SERIES IT STARTS TO SEEM LIKE A HORROR SHOW WITH THE EFFECTS. THE DRAGON AND OTHER CGI WERE FINE AS FAR AS I'M CONCERNED BUT THE SAME OLD CREATURES JUST GOT OVERUSED OTHER THAN THE DRAGONS.

THIS IS ENJOYABLE AND YOU KNOW IT IS FANTASY GOING INTO IT, BUT WHEN YOU SEE HOW THEY FEAR USING MAGIC AND THEN TURN AROUND AND USE IT FOR WHIMSICAL THINGS THAT MAKE NO SENSE AFTER BEING RELUCTANT TO DO SOMETHING GOOD, IT LOSES ALL BELIEVABLE PERSPECTIVE. SAME THING GOES FOR TALKING ABOUT MAGIC. GAIUS AND MERLIN DON'T WHISPER ABOUT MAGIC BUT TALK LOUDLY AND OPENLY IN THEIR CHAMBERS.

OTHER THINGS LIKE MERLIN WALKING THROUGH THE CASTLE ALL THE TIME INTO THE ROYALS CHAMBERS WITHOUT KNOCKING AND TAKING THINGS FREELY, ALWAYS HAVING A HORSE TO RIDE WHEN HE IS OFF ON HIS "OWN" TIME SAVING SOMEONE, HOW DESERTED THE CASTLE IS WHEN MERLIN AND THE ROYALS ARE WALKING AROUND, HOW NO ONE NOTICES ANY OF THESE THINGS IS REALLY VERY UNBELIEVABLE. IT'S NOT THE MAGIC AND FANTASY THAT ARE UNBELIEVABLE, JUST THE BAD PLOTS. SO MANY GOOD THINGS BUT SO MANY REDUNDANT BAD THINGS.

IT'S WORTH WATCHING BUT KNOW GOING INTO IT THAT IT IS LABORIOUS.

WITH SUCH GREAT USER REVIEWS I THOUGHT THIS WAS GOING TO BE SOMETHING REALLY DIFFERENT, BUT, IN REALITY, I FOUND SOMETHING VERY MUCH THE SAME AS A HOLLYWOOD ACTION SERIES, NOT VERY BRITISH.

THE SET SEEMED OK, BUT EXCEPT FOR MINOR CLEVER DETECTIVE WORK, BOTH CHARACTERS MAKE AMATEURISH MOVES AND CONSTANTLY GET CAUGHT TO SET UP YET ANOTHER HOLLYWOOD MAINSTREAM STYLE ESCAPE. IT HAS OVER THE TOP COINCIDENCE IN SUCH A LARGE CITY AS LONDON AND STEFAN IS NOT EVEN SMART ENOUGH TO WEAR TRUE DISGUISES AND IS ALWAYS MADE BY THE BAD GUYS.

RASH IT THE MORE SENSIBLE AND LIKEABLE CHARACTER. STEFAN IS RATHER ANNOYING AND COMMON IN HIS APPROACH WHICH MAKES IT VERY UNBELIEVABLE WHEN HE IS IN POSH CRIMINAL SETTINGS.

I HAD HIGH HOPES FOR THIS SHOW AFTER READING SO MANY 7+ REVIEWS AND SAYING HOW IMAGINATIVE AND NEW THIS IS. BUT, ALAS, THIS IS JUST A SHOW THAT HAS SOME OK PLOT IDEAS BUT CAN'T REALLY SEE THEM THROUGHT WITH OUT TYPICAL VIOLENCE, GUNS, EXPLOSIONS, FIRES AND THE USUAL OVER THE TOP ACTION. THE CONCEPTS ARE GOOD, THE EXECUTION IS LACKING. THE DIRECTOR AND PRODUCERS HAVE TAKEN A MEDIOCRE SCRIPT AND TRIED TO FILL IN THE HOLES WITH EXCESSIVE ACTION. IT WOULD BE A FUN RIDE IF IT WERE MORE BELIEVABLE AND THE CHARACTERS WEREN'T SO BLATANTLY AMATEURISH THE WAY THE GO ABOUT THINGS. ONLY MILDLY ENTERTAINING.

REMEMBER WHEN THEY MADE SEASON 4 OF TORCHWOOD: MIRACLE DAY AND MOVED ANOTHER GREAT BRIT SHOW TO THE U. S.? EXACTLY, NO ONE DOES BECAUSE IT WAS TERRIBLE JUST THE SAME WAY THAT THEY MOVED TOAST TO TINSELTOWN.

THIS WAS THE WORST IDEA EVER. TOAST TRIED TO CARRY THE SHOW BUT THERE WERE TOO MANY INCREDIBLY WEAK UNFUNNY CHARACTERS IN TINSELTOWN. MOST WEREN'T ON SCREEN LONG IT WAS LIKE MANY MANY DIFFERENT STORIES STARTED AND NONE FINISHED.

WHY TAKE THE ACTORS FROM THE BRIT SERIES AND MOVE THEM TO THE HOLLYWOOD UNDER DIFFERENT CHARACTERS IN SOME CASES? DIDN'T WORK.

RUSS NIGHTLIFE IS THE WORST CHARACTER BY FAR AND SHOULD HAVE NEVER BEEN IN SO MANY SCENES. Fereydun Robert Armisen WAS THE SHOW KILLER. OF ALL THE DUMB SCENES IN THE LAST COUPLE OF EPISODES, THE SCENES WITH ARMISEN WERE THE MOST TRAGICALLY DULL AND UNFUNNY. WHAT DO PEOPLE SEE IN THIS ACTOR? HE'S THE ANTITHESIS OF A COMEDIAN. PLEASE BRING BACK TOAST OF LONDON.

I WATCH BRIT SHOWS AND BRIT ACTORS BECAUSE OUR HOLLYWOOD MAINSTREAM GARBAGE SUCKS SO BADLY SO WHY WOULD YOU TAKE A FUNNY SHOW AND AMERICANIZE IT TO JUST BLATANTLY KILL THE COMEDY AND THE CHARACTER!!!!

I started watching this and everything seems too obvious about the satanic stuff and abandoned baby and we have no reference as to what Hunter did up to this point. We have no way to frame her seemingly erratic course of action to find her origins.

So far there was no horror, just some vague noise and sensations. When I thought this looked like a dog of a horror movie I checked the other reviews and they saved me the wasted time of watching this nonsense.

Why does Shutter/AMC+ make so many garbage movies instead of putting the money from 3 or 5 bad films into one good script? I have seen some very good movies on Shutter but this is not one of them.

I made it through episode one and part of the second one. For some reason I thought this was going to be a movie not a series. It was slow and every time they wanted to be dramatic it went in the head of the person and they were seeing a beach or the ocean.

It was dragging on and again this is a horror movie with not that much horror beyond the obvious premise which everyone was trying to deny.

It was a lot like STHLM Requiem where people would talk and it was supposed to philosophical and revealing but just was a load of crap that wasn't believable and never clarified any of the things that were happening.

It just never really got going good and was sputtering along. Boring and directionless.

The best part of this movie is the ensemble of mental patients. The best scene was dancing to Danse Macabre which everyone associates with Jonathan Creek. I wasn't surprised by the plot twists. It's kind of a movie based on things that have been said about asylums over time, all the cliches. Who really are the crazy ones?

Kate Beckinsale is overrated in talent and beauty here. She doesn't even look like herself after all the cosmetic surgeries. Michael Caine is annoying in another role as usual. He always plays the same character type and never varies his voice/style. Ben Kingsley is good but David Thewlis probably gives the best performance as usual. I can't be objective about Kingsley here. I have never been his biggest fan but he looks so much like goofy Howie Mandell in this role that I can't get that image out of my head.

The plot seems to go quickly here with predictable actions by all characters. I'm only giving it a 6 because of the reasonable plot and the director's handling of the ensemble scenes where very good. Otherwise, the motivations of the doctor and Beckensale are not impressive. This is just an OK Hollywood film, but no great horror movie by any stretch of the imagination..

I really like the premise and the main characters. The scenery is beautiful due to the subject of art and heists that take place in hotels and homes of spectacular interiors and architecture.

Allmen is played very well as is Carlos. The plots are good and each one builds on the previous episode and even though their business becomes recovering stolen art it kind of becomes redundant by Episode 3. Allmen and Carlos are very philosophical and the dialogue is well done and amusing but it kind of seems repetitive as it goes. The pace could be a tad quicker sometimes but it is slow mostly due to the nature of long conversations while dining.

Worth watching but I could only make it through 3 episodes because it seemed just more of the same.

This was very well done. Jack Davenport and Susanna Harker were excellent. Idris Elba was good also but was given a kind of stereotypical role. Philip Quast as Father Pearce was terrible. It was a boring character along with uninspired acting that dragged the show down. I was never sure how this priest got involved in the program anyway. Also, he, Dr. Paul Hoyle and one of the DCI's at the beginning have very generic faces and started to run together in my mind. Monotone characters with not much distinction.

The plot was very good but was so detailed that it left a lot of holes in the plot. Example, how did they take bodies after death and why did the families and public not ask where they were. There were also some inconsistencies in the handling of nitrogen cold handling, sometimes gloves, sometimes not.

I was happy to find this but i can't rate it better than it is.

This has good basic detective work and the cold case angle works but the characters are too emotionally involved to the ridiculous point. Thank you for replacing Cassie! I always like Nikola Walker's work but here the character and the way she played it was just too damned depressing. Now Sunny is exactly the same and drags down the show.

Sinead Keenan is awesome! I've loved her work since I saw here in London Irish and an episode of Poirot. She is very believable as a DCI. Cassie, Sunny and the team always feel like they are social workers instead of cops. The cases they work are inherently depressing enough without making it so unbelievably personal and emotional. Sinead Keenan really brightens this series and is so much more believable. She is an impressive actress as well as charismatic in the role of DCI but could the writers not let the cliche of naming her Jess James just be a passing thought? This belittles the work with this overdone cliche.

Sunny Khan REALLY drags this series down, especially in Season 5. Sanjeev Bhaskar should stick to comedy. He's terrible in this role and always has been but it is especially apparent opposite Sinead. I truly now see just how bad he is. The series needs to move on beyond Cassie and they can't with his character moping about to the ridiculous. Sunny is not the great detective he imagines himself to be. I'm seriously not sure where his redeeming characteristics are to be found or what good he brings to the show.

The rest of the detectives in the cast are good but their characters are too smug in Season 5. Get rid of Sunny and this is at least an 8 STAR show. Bring in someone funny like the DS Norman Potting character from Grace. The tone of this show is just too down.

I'm not sure why so many people hate this show. I accept that it may not be very Dutch in language or true to the city, but compared to the utter garbage that is out there this is still pretty good. After the end of Season 3, due to the sappy Episode 3 I had to lower my rating from 7 to 5 stars. How sad that this show deteriorated so damned quickly. It was already suffering from being an ensemble show that keeps changing the cast but now it has officially become a soap opera. Sad.

Piet is not perfect but the fact that his character is understated and relies on banter is OK. Maybe people missed out on why he is this way. However, after finishing Season 3 I may have to agree more.

I liked the cast but they had to go and change out some good characters in Season 3. Character Brad de vries was good and Job Cloovers was a great character and well played by Elliott Barnes-Worrell. They had developed these characters and suddenly they had to replace a Brit and a Black with an Asian and a Muslim. British TV is bad about having to fill slots with a perfect UN of nationalities but here you had a great well developed character in Job Cloovers and suddenly he's replaced with a much less interesting character who is almost infantile at times and is so dumbed down. Worst change in the show. As we all know there are tons of quirky coroners but Hendrik Davie played excellently by Darrell D'Silva is one of the best. It does get a little tiresome that he knows every bar in town but it seems believable.

Lucienne is a mysterious and likable character but toward the end so Season 3 when they have her riding everywhere on a motorcycle instead of with Piet as usual seems just silly. At times her character seems to try a little to hard to be tough. Some subtlety here would help. You don't have to beat us over the head with how strong a character she is.

As noted, Piet is not so difficult to understand but the dragged out romance where he finally has a second chance and he shows no interest is just another standard plot line I've seen a zillion times in the last couple of years. Here you have someone you are interested in, lose them, and when you get them back have no interest. Makes no sense at all for characters over the age of 21, completely unmotivated plot line and just plain annoying.

Overall, still this is a good show. Everything seems to have gotten much worse in comparison.

What kind of meds are people on giving this show a 10? I had high hopes for this show due to the lead and Craig Parkinson. Parkinson's character would actually make a great show but Acorn would rather waste their funding on another silly nan show that is doomed from the beginning.

The concept is completely unbelievable. Mrs. Sidhu pops up in every scene like you are playing Whac-A-Mole. Then she has to espouse some philosophy every time she opens her mouth and is already tiresome in the first 5 minutes. In all of Buddha's teachings he didn't have as much to say as she does on every subject. The cliche here is everything has to relate back to food. So overdone here. This show lacks any subtlety.

The writers try to make jokes but they are so weak they actually detract from the show.

Craig Parkinson is the only thing keeping this dog on life support. He is wonderful on Grace and here also and is the main reason I gave this show a try. Sadly, he can't save this barker.

Acorn keeps making each show dumber and dumber. I know their target audience is older but they write like their audience is in a coma. The Chelsea Detective is awful but Mrs Sidhu is so much worse that Chelsea Detective seems like Poirot (not truly) in comparison. This is right down at the bottom of Acorn shows right along with Harry Wild.

The Peloton like company in this show is totally unbelievable. Why they even have a one woman caterer makes no sense. A caterer wouldn't have time to meddle in everything and of course it just so happens that her friend's daughter works there. So unbelievable.

THE 3 SEASONS OF THOSE WHO KILL 2019 THRU 2023 ARE EXCELLENT. HOWEVER, THIS 2011 THOSE WHO KILL IS JUST A SILLY OVERDRAMATIC BUNCH OF NONSENSE.

AFTER BEING TRIGGER HAPPY AND SHOOTING SOMEONE, THE MAIN CHARACTER IS RELIEVED OF DUTY PENDING A HEARING. SHE IS ALSO OBSESSED WITH A SKELETON FOUND WITH ITS ARMS FOLDED LIKE A PERSON MIGHT SLEEP OR DEAD IN A COFFIN. HOWEVER, JUST BECAUSE THE ARMS ARE FOLDED THIS WAY SHE INSISTS THIS IS THE WORK OF A SERIAL KILLER. THIS IS THE SILLIEST PREMISE YET IN A CRIME SHOW.

ALSO, THIS SHOW IS VERY SEXIST. HER BOSS TELLS HER SHE'S GOOD BUT APPARENTLY BECAUSE SHE IS A WOMAN HE HAS TO HOLD HER BACK. NOTHING IN THIS SHOW MAKES ANY LOGICAL SENSE. MOVE ON. WATCH THE 2019 TO 2023 3 SEASONS OF THOSE WHO KILL AND YOU WILL ENJOY THOSE.

UNTIL RECENTLY I THOUGHT ALL NORDIC NOIR EQUALS HIGH QUALITY STORIES AND PLOTS AND THEN YOU WATCH SHOWS LIKE STHLM REQUIEM AND MARIA WERN.

I HAD ORIGINALLY STARTED WATCHING SEASON 5 BECAUSE THAT WAS THE OLDEST AVAILABLE ON VIAPLAY. THREE EPISODES IN I THOUGHT THIS MUST HAVE BEEN BETTER IN THE ORIGINAL SEASON OR TWO OR THEY WOULDN'T HAVE MADE SOME MANY SEASONS.

WRONG. I SUBSCRIBED TO MHZ AND STARTED WATCHING SEASON 1. IT IS JUST AS BAD OR WORSE AS THE SHOW IS IN SEASON 5. IT HAS TOTALLY UNBELIEVABLE WRITING AND ANOTHER AWFUL FEMALE COP. MARIA VERN COMES OFF AS A NOT ONLY AN INEPT DETECTIVE AND NO GREAT MOTHER, BUT ALL SHE DOES IS FLIRT WITH AND HAVE RELATIONSHIPS WITH HER COLLEAGUES.

INSTEAD OF SOLVING CRIMES, SHE JUST SITS AROUND TALKING, LOOKING AT PICS, BATTING HER EYES UNTIL A COINCIDENCE OF UNREAL PROPORTIONS FALLS IN HER LAP AND THEY SOLVE THE CRIME. EVERYONE ELSE CAN BE AT A CRIME SCENE AND MISS THE MOST OBVIOUS THING BUT THE WRITERS HAVE HER "DISCOVER" IT LIKE SHE'S SOME GENIUS. IT IS PATHETIC.

THEY TOUCH CRIME SCENE OBJECSTS WITH NO GLOVES. WHEN THEY CALL OUT THE REST OF THE COPS THEY LOOK LIKE A SWAT TEAM ON THIS SMALL ISLAND. SHE SPENDS MORE TIME TALKING ABOUT MEN THAN SHE DOES SOLVING CRIMES.

DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME.

I was so grossed out in the first 10 minutes that I was just astounded at how bad this show is. I read a review that asked why all the bathroom scenes and that's the first thing you see but that's dead clever brilliant compared to the rest.

In one of the first couple of scenes she is trying to have sex with her husband in the morning before the kids wake up. That was all tolerable although a bit more explicit than needed to convey the message.

The kids of course pop in right as the finish and they hardly have time to cover up. In trying to put on a charade for the kids that Mommy and Daddy werent doing anything, she stands up and the director thought we needed to see a closeup of male fluid RUNNING DOWN HER INNER LEG. This was one of the most disgusting things I have seen in a mainstream show and absolutely unnecessary. I'm glad this happened early on so I didnt waste time watching more. This is even inappropriate in TV comedy. Actually, nothing seemed funny, just pitiful.

If you like GROSS and think GROSS is funny, then you will love this garbage.

GROSS AND DISGUSTING, ALL THE GROSS OF PORN.

Season 1 was mediocre at best but they managed to drag it down a couple more stars in Season 2. I can't understand the high ratings, possibly because I no longer drink.

With all the diversity in the characters they found a generic formula to make them ALL BORING. There's really not one great character in the lot and the central character Max is the worst, character and cast.

Take an uninteresting detective, let him reside on a boat even though he doesn't seem to sail or fish or have any connection to the water (Van Der Valk sails) and give him a bike that he parks just anywhere willy nilly except the bike rack 8 feet away or makes a policeman watch it at a crime scene since they have nothing better to do. Then give him a phone with which he does nothing but take pics nonstop instead of looking around the scene while there and make sure he doesn't do background checks on anyone involved in a crime until something completely random and coincidental happens which is about a billion to one odds and THEN check into the suspects histories. He deduces almost nothing that doesn't land in his lap.

The only thing worse on Acorn is Whitstable Pearl Season 2. Why did Acorn make a second season of this dog The Cheesey Detective instead of something great like THE GULF? I'm sure there was no budget and definitely no imagination required for Chelsea Detective. When Max is not taking pics with his phone he's video calling the coroner on his phone or laptop. Even when he is cornered once all he can do is use his phone and the only time he defends himself is when the police arrive. Oh, and this clown goes on a stakeout and doesn't have backup ready to move in when they would need them.

If the plot weren't bad enough, the dialogue sounds like it was taken from Memes and Social Media, shallow and unoriginal. To call this cliched would be a great understatement. The oldies music sprinkled through is trying to evoke some sad relatable coolness but just comes off lame as F***.

If the crime plots aren't bad enough we have to endure what might possibly be the most aggravating pseudo relationship ever in a cop show. Astrid is the only character more confusing and as equally dull as Max. They couldn't make this relationship more tiresome. It's like they are trying to do random again but there is no underlying anything to make it work. Dull and colorless unlimited.

If there were BLAND AWARDS this would be the sleeper hit. Acorn, I know times are tough for streaming but please try to spend your budgets more wisely than on dribble like this made for your Nan. This whole show is a terrible concept from the start. Please rethink and move on.