If you want to read a mystery, the sky’s the limit! At least, that’s what I hope you’ve figured out from this humble blog and the thoughts of others or from a quick trip to your local bookstore.  But if you want to watch a mystery, the pickings are relatively slim. 

Forget the movie theatres! Times have changed since the studios churned out whodunnits by the hundreds: all the Sherlock Holmeses, Thin Mans, and Charlie Chans are a thing of the past. For fun, I randomly selected the year 1936 and found 36 titles listed on Wikipedia that fall within the mystery genre. To top that, with its characteristic sloppiness, the wiki had failed to include After the Thin Man – certainly a title that must be included and one of the Top Ten box office hits of that year! At the moment, I can only think of one mystery title due out this year, and that’s Rian Johnson’s latest Knives Out sequel, Wake Up, Dead Man.

 The good news is that the genre fares much better on television. The bad news is that the good stuff is gonna cost you! Network TV, which used to have some terrific mystery series, is now basically loaded with procedurals, and as much as I still admire Olivia Benson and her SVU squad, these are crime procedurals, not mysteries. And the shows that do qualify as “mystery” series, like Matlock and Elspeth, are downright anemic, despite the charms of their leading ladies. Thank God for PBS and the imports we get from Britain that appear on Masterpiece Mystery. But that’s about it . . . unless you’re willing to pay extra with premium streaming services, most of which have at least one mystery series on their roster. 

While the four suggestions I’m going to make to you today don’t all fall squarely in the category of traditional mystery, they contain some fabulous elements you might find discussed in the halls of GAD and all over this blog! These programs revel in the tropes of detective fiction, and they’re full of twists and turns. Plus, they hold the promise of distracting us from the cares of life and are entertaining enough for me to say to you – why not? 

But it’s gonna cost you!

NETFLIX

 Rian Johnson has a deal with Netflix regarding the Knives Out movies, so you can watch the first two there and I’ll bet you that Wake Up, Dead Man shows up pretty quickly after its cinema debut. And there’s an upcoming film adaptation of Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club landing sometime this year with an all-star cast. 

Another producer with ties to Netflix is Shonda Rhimes, who made sure the twists flew fast and furiously in her shows Scandal and How to Get Away with Murder, but who is most famous for Bridgerton, starring my secret husband Jonathan Bailey and some other people, which eschews twists in favor of handsome men’s butts. Ms. Rhimes’ latest effort is The Residence, an eight-part mini-series about murder rearing its ugly head at, of all places, the White House. Judging from the two episodes I have watched, it is going to be great, twisty fun. 

The show’s creator, Paul William Davies, who has written and co-produced for Rhimes for many years is also an avid mystery fan. When he was shown the book, The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House, and asked if he could come up with an idea for a series based on this non-fiction tell-all about the inner workings of the White House staff, he plumped for the idea of a whodunnit! And Davies has aimed big here: one momentous night (October 11, to be exact), the Head Usher for the White House staff (Giancarlo Esposito) is murdered on the residence floor. Unfortunately, his death coincides with a huge State dinner being given below for the Prime Minister of Australia, so the White House is packed with over a hundred and fifty suspects. While the inner circle surrounding President Morgan would like to keep the investigation hush-hush, the Metropolitan Police has brought in a consulting detective, Cordelia Cupp (Uzo Aduba), whose brilliant mind and quirky style threaten to up-end this world full of secrets. 

While two episodes can’t tell me if this is going to end up being a clever mystery or not, Davies has the tropes of classic detective stories down pat! All the episodes are named after a famous mystery film, including classics like The Mystery of the Yellow Room and “The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb” (Sherlock Holmes is Davies’ favorite sleuth.) And Cordelia Cupp is the epitome of a classic eccentric detective: a little off socially, obsessed with birds, able to push past the BS that seemingly every suspect hands her, and prone to sounding off with interesting deductions that provide a new twist every few minutes. 

With so many people milling about the White House so inopportunely, and new threads unfolding with each episode, the plot risks caving in on itself. But everything is stylishly depicted: the house and grounds especially are presented in a myriad of fascinating and highly filmic ways, and the show is beautifully edited. 

It’s also quite funny, both in its storytelling and its performances. Singer Kylie Minogue shows up for real (she has been asked at the last minute to fill in for an ailing performer and has demanded a night in the Lincoln Bedroom as payment. Actor Hugh Jackman is not there, but an actor playing him is having the time of his life. There’s also the interesting aspect of the events of the evening being presented before a Senate Sub-Committee, headed by none other than formerly disgraced Congressman Al Franken. 

I recommend hopping along for the ride. Let’s just hope it all ends as well as it began.

BRITBOX

Britbox is loaded with mysteries and is often American’s only chance to view content from across the pond. This week, the streamer dropped the first two episodes of Ludwig, a new hit in the U.K.  starring David Mitchell, my favorite part of the game show Would I Lie to You?. Mitchell plays James Taylor, A DCI in the London police force who has suddenly disappeared, leaving behind a letter to his wife Lucy (Anna Maxwell Martin) explaining little but telling her to grab their son and run away. 

Instead, Lucy reaches out to John Taylor, James’ twin brother (also played, of course, by Mitchell) asking for his help. She wants John to go down to her husband’s office posing as James, snoop around, and locate a yellow notebook that Lucy feels might contain some information. But John is not a daring sort! He creates crossword puzzles under the sobriquet of “Ludwig” (he listens to Beethoven as he creates) and has always lived under the shadow of his favored brother, especially since their own father abandoned them when they were boys. But taking pity on Lucy, whom he has known (and possibly loved?) since they were childhood neighbors, John goes to work – and thereby hangs the gimmick of the series. 

John’s mission is to find out all he can about his brother’s disappearance, but he can’t help getting drawn into the murder investigations that invariably get dropped in the department’s lap. What’s more, he discovers a knack for solving these murders, even the ones that his colleagues dismiss as accidents or suicides. And to double down on a cute premise, at least in the two episodes I’ve watched, John solves these cases by applying the rules to various popular puzzle forms (i.e., logic puzzles, fill-in-the-blanks). 

The first episode spent most of its time setting up this rather complex premise, which may explain why the case to be solved was utter rubbish. The case within the second episode was slightly better, but even that seemed secondary to the overarching story of a police department that seems to be tainted and a variety of interesting, well-played cops who may or may not be on the up-and-up. One of my British friends who has watched the whole series (I think there are six episodes, and I assume that Britbox will drop them in stages) said that the quality of the cases is mixed but that some are quite entertaining. Spending time with Mitchell and Maxwell is a pleasure, but I hope the big mystery is worth it and that the cases John gets to solve improve. There are six episodes in total, and the BBC has renewed the show for a second series.

PEACOCK

 Still more Rian Johnson news: I’m counting the days until his clever series Poker Face premieres its second season. For my money, this inverted mystery, clearly inspired by the legendary Columbo (even the typeface of the titles is the same), is even more fun and more consistent than its predecessor. Much of the credit should go to Natasha Lyonne, who stars as Charlie Cain, a woman with the gift/curse of “reading” people’s honesty. Forced on the run at the start of the series, Charlie travels across the country hiding out and exposing murderers. The formula works and it is done with a really clever touch here. Season Two comes out in May. 

I actually re-subscribed to Peacock not even knowing that Poker Face was on its way back. No, I wanted to watch The Traitors. I’m not going to pretend that there’s any actual GAD cleverness connected with this. About the closest we get to Agatha Christie is the occasional flash to her name when someone is in the library. But there’s something so engaging about the premise of this reality game show, which premiered in the Netherlands in 2021 and has spread out to over thirty countries around the world. I mean, if the United States and Russia could come together over their shared passion for The Traitors, I believe this Hot/Cold War of ours might end tomorrow!

Peacock carries all three seasons of both the U.S. and British versions, the two seasons from Australia and one season from New Zealand. Both America and England utilize the same setting, a magnificent old Scottish castle and the gorgeous countryside around it, to play the game of two dozen people who come together for the chance to win a big pot of money. Each day they take on a different challenge combining physical and mental skills for the chance to add to the money pot. But here’s the first twist: at the start of the game, several players are secretly selected to be the Traitors, whose job it is to murder a different player each night. The rest of the group are the Faithful, who must identify and banish the Traitors before it’s too late. Because at the end of the game, if a Traitor still resides in the castle, they will take all the money. 

That’s it in a nutshell, but there are so many permutations and twists – and they change every season so it never gets routine. I’m equally partial to the American and British versions. Alan Cumming is the most fabulous host in the U.S. series. His wit, his glamor, his outfits! – he just eats up the screen. But I also like Claudie Winkleman on the U.K. show. She is, of course, much more subtle, but she’s very funny. I understand that she leaves notes inside the castle for Mr. Cumming when it’s America’s turn to film the show. I’m far less enamored of the Australian host, actor Rodger Corser, who seems way too impressed with his own clearly scripted cleverness. And the Aussies go about the game in a slightly different, less exciting way.

For those of you turned off by reality shows, I’m not going to try and persuade you. But reality inverted mysteries are a rare breed, and what’s really exciting is how the concept seems to be catching fire all over the world!

APPLE*

My final suggestion is not a whodunnit or even a crime series – although many crimes against humanity seem to be occuring; rather, its mysteries are of the more . . . I don’t know – cosmic (?) variety. Head on over to Apple+ and watch Severance.  Created by Dan Erickson and produced by Ben Stiller, who directs some of it, I suppose the show fits best into the science fiction genre, but after two seasons (the second just released its finale this week), I am so uncertain about what is going on – and so eager to find out more. 

Adam Scott plays Mark Scout, a teacher whose life fell apart when his beloved wife died in a car crash. Unable to cope with the grief, Mark agrees to go to work for a large corporation called Lumon and to undergo a procedure known as “severing.” A device is implanted in his brain, causing Mark to separate into two “selves”: his regular self (his “outie”) still resides at home and can’t get over losing his beloved Gemma, but his working self, Mark S., (his “innie”) who goes to Lumen every morning and is allowed to forget all his troubles and focus on his work. Except that the work is very very . . . . odd. 

Of course, the situation is much more complicated and much darker than I can manage in a short synopsis without spelling things. It can often be disturbing and incredibly funny at the same time. I could go on for pages and pages telling you what happens, what I think it all means, what I thought it meant last week, and what I can only imagine will happen during Season 3. In a sense, the series might remind you of Lost, which for seven years gave us the experience of watching something intent on blowing our minds every ten minutes. (And like Lost, there are animals here!! I mean . . . what’s with the goats?!?) 

Adam Scott is magnificent in the show, as are John Turturro, Christopher Walken, Rosanna Arquette and the entire cast. Each episode gives you information that seems to generate more and more questions. Yes, it’s infuriating, but I urge you to watch it. And yes, it might seem ridiculous to imagine a world where people would accept brain surgery as a means of forgetting. I scoffed at the concept of “severing” myself. And then I thought, “Hey! My ‘innie’ could read the Agatha Christie canon all over again . . . !!!” 

I want to hear what you think about these shows if you’re also watching – and any other recommendations you might have for a corking good mystery to watch!