As I enjoy crime dramas and think Jason Isaacs is a pretty good actor I had to check this series out. Sadly it wasn't as good as I'd hoped; that isn't to say it was terrible; just rather average
although I think it improved as the series progressed. Jason Isaacs did a good job as ex-cop private investigator Jackson Brodie who, as well as solving cases, has to deal with the fact that his ex-wife is about to emigrate to New Zealand with their daughter Marlee. This was rather unfortunate as it provided an unnecessary distraction and the scenes with Jackson and Marlee in the opening story were some of the most entertaining; every time he took her out he ended up doing something to do with his case which Marlee enjoyed but her mother did not approve of. Each story started with him investigating fairly trivial crimes such as looking for a missing cat or trying to find out if a man's wife was unfaithful but ended up with him investigating murders. He was always at just the wrong place; nobody can be as unlucky as Jackson; he goes for a jog by the sea and finds a body in the water; he breaks down and while walking along the road in nearly hit by an old woman who then crashes onto a railway line only to by hit by a train which puts him in hospital!
The six episode series was made up of three two part stories with ongoing flashbacks concerning the death of his sister that occurred when he was a child, I thought that this would be the major mystery solved in the final episode but it turned out not to be the case. As well as the good performance from Jason Isaacs; Amanda Abbingdon was good as his friend and former colleague DCI Louise Monroe and Millie Innes was delightful as his daughter Marlee. While the stories had an almost old fashioned feel to them with lots of coincidence helping our hero there were quite a few shocking moments too; I won't go into details but the final episode was shocking and wince-inducing at the same time near the end! The stories weren't the best I've seen but I'd recommend it to fans of crime fiction and will continue watching if further episodes get commissioned; by the time it ended I was rather hooked.
The six episode series was made up of three two part stories with ongoing flashbacks concerning the death of his sister that occurred when he was a child, I thought that this would be the major mystery solved in the final episode but it turned out not to be the case. As well as the good performance from Jason Isaacs; Amanda Abbingdon was good as his friend and former colleague DCI Louise Monroe and Millie Innes was delightful as his daughter Marlee. While the stories had an almost old fashioned feel to them with lots of coincidence helping our hero there were quite a few shocking moments too; I won't go into details but the final episode was shocking and wince-inducing at the same time near the end! The stories weren't the best I've seen but I'd recommend it to fans of crime fiction and will continue watching if further episodes get commissioned; by the time it ended I was rather hooked.