A new trailer has dropped for the upcoming third Knives Out movie, Wake Up, Dead Man. The lovely thing about it is that it is heavy on imagery and light on spoilers, and it trumpets to the skies that it concerns what detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) calls “for a man of reason the Holy Grail” – an impossible crime. With the film not dropping onto Netflix until December 12 – and if it appears in theatres before that, it’ll probably play for a hot minute – I have to turn to other sources to get my video mystery fix. 

The good news is that several new mystery series have just appeared on various streaming services. Or . . . is it good news? Here are my thoughts on four new titles: a modern take on a classic mystery trope, another cozy crime comedy, a Harlan Coben wannabe thriller, and a dark prestige police procedural. Remember, I watch this stuff so that you don’t have to. But it’s not all bad news, as you will see . . . 

I, Jack Wright (Britbox)

At last Sunday’s farmers’ market, I found a stall where a British woman was selling genuine British treats, like pasties, sausage rolls, and various sweets. As I was purchasing some steak and ale pasties, the woman noticed my t-shirt emblazoned with the logo for my high school production of And Then There Were None from a few years back (I had Book Club coming up in a couple of hours. I always dress for Book Club!), and she told me that if I liked a good mystery, I should check out a new series on Britbox called I, Jack Wright. 

I sat down to watch this one with one question firmly planted in my brain: can a modern mystery series create a complex puzzle mystery by employing one of the most tired old tropes in the genre – the reading of the will – and turn it into something twisty and gripping and fine? 

The answer is – I’m not sure. First of all, this turned out not to be a limited series; the six episodes I watched are Season One of something longer. How much longer I can’t say – but I hope it’s not too much longer. At any rate, the jury is literally still out. 

But I have to say that, after a strong beginning, I’m having my doubts. What writer/creator Chris Lang, whose credits include the justly lauded series Unforgotten, has handed us is a brilliantly acted stew of TV cliches. And while the series begins with a death, that of the titular patriarch of a most dysfunctional family, it plays much more like a wannabe Succession than a full-fledged whodunnit. 

Sure, Jack Wright’s death is quickly identified as a murder, but the real mystery is the will that gets read at the end of the first episode. The family gathers to hear it, and they are a typically motley crew: his divorced first wife Rose (Gemma Jones, always powerful) and her kindly boyfriend Bobby (James Fleet), Rose’s two grown children, bad son Gray (John Simm) and good son John (Daniel Rigby), John’s bitchy wife Georgia (Zoe Tapper), and Gray’s estranged daughter Emily (Ruby Ashborne Serkis – yep, Andy’s daughter!!). There is also the dead man’s third wife Sally (Nikki Amuka-Bird) and her teenaged son and daughter, as well as members of Jack Wright’s staff: his housekeeper his groundsman, and his secretary at his highly successful brickmaking business. 

As will readings go, this one more than fulfills the requirements: some people have been left out, while others have been hugely, and perhaps questionably, rewarded. Immediately, the losers threaten to contest the will, and this is the crux of the drama that plays out over six episodes, juxtaposed against the investigations of DCI Harry Lloyd (Hector Morgan) and his team into Wright’s death. 

Of course, everyone has at least one dark secret that has to be exposed, some secrets introducing other characters who grow the list of viable suspects. Of course there are affairs and child abuse and various addictions and interactions with professional criminals and fights for the company and lawsuits galore and all the stuff you’d expect from a hundred programs like this. 

It smells a bit like another Harlan Coben mini-series, with the slight edge of having this magnificent cast performing this tripe to the hilt. I went in to the final episode thinking all would be revealed and slowly realizing as the revelations flew by a mile a minute that the writer had too much story to jam into six episodes. The question is, will it take another six to reveal all – and do I really want to go there?

Death Valley (Britbox)

The first two of six episodes of Death Valley have dropped on Britbox. Reviewers are already comparing it to the popular Ludwig. Frankly, I haven’t been impressed with what I’ve seen of Ludwig, primarily because the actual mysteries featured in the first two episodes have stunk. The show is more interested in the longer game, and it remains to be seen if that pays off.

There is definitely a “cozy crime” vibe surrounding Death Valley, but there is a lot to be thankful for as well. The series takes place in a village in the beautiful Welsh countryside and opens with DS Janie Mallowan (Gwyneth Keyworth) arriving at the home of a local real estate developer who seems to have committed suicide. As Janie investigates, a large TV hanging over the body is broadcasting the long popular detective show, Caesar, starring John Chapel (Timothy Spall) in the title role. For a number of reasons, this is Janie’s favorite TV show. Thus, her life changes when she canvases the neighborhood and discovers that one of the neighbors – the cranky recluse whom nobody likes – is Mr. Chapel himself. And as much as the retired actor wants to be left alone, he also wants to impress upon the Detective-Sergeant that his neighbor’s death was not suicide, but murder. 

The series creator Paul Doolan has definitely landed us in the mystery-comedy sector, and it seems that Death Valley is loads funnier than Sister Boniface or Death in Paradise and others of that ilk. This is largely due to the fantastic chemistry between the two stars, whose characters quickly come to depend upon each other even as they continually get on each other’s nerves. There’s a hint of tragedy in both their pasts: Chapel lost his wife, and Janie’s best friend committed suicide. But for the most part, the banter between this pair is sharp and funny. 

The mystery in Episode One was fair, but the next case, involving a hiker who disappears and ends up a murder victim, is much better. We’re not talking Poirot or even Holmes-level mysteries, but the cases are clued, and the deductive powers of our heroes is evident. And everyone, from the supporting cast to the guest stars, is having a good time. And Wales is beautiful. So, yes, another cozy series, but it seems more promising than some of the others I’ve tried and given up on. 

The Better Sister (Amazon Prime)

Over on Prime, the Harlan Coben vibe continues with The Better Sister, an eight-part limited series based on a 2019 novel by Alafair Burke (daughter of crime writer James Lee Burke). Jessica Biel stars as Chloe Taylor, a woman who seems to have it all. She is the editor-in-chief of a magazine for enlightened women, her lawyer husband, Adam MacIntosh (Corey Stoll) is hot and attentive, and her son Ethan is a gentle slacker who seems to get along with his mom. But then Chloe comes home from a party to find Adam has been brutally killed in their home. 

The murder investigation is led by Detective Nan Guidry (Kim Dickens), and she soon sets her sights on young Ethan. And it’s possible that the kid is guilty. It’s also possible that Chloe herself is hiding some secrets about Adam’s death. And in true Coben-like fashion, mother and son are surrounded by good friends and associates who only want to help – including Adam’s boss (Matthew Modine), his law partner, and Chloe’s publisher and mentor (Lorraine Toussaint). All these folks are sooooo solicitous of Chloe and Ethan, but their eyes flicker suspiciously when nobody is looking. 

Frankly, it feels like something I’ve already seen too many times. Chloe even has a troubled past concerning her sister Nicky, who was married to Adam and is actually Ethan’s biological mother – but whose drug use destroyed the marriage. And, of course, Chloe picked up the slack and married her ex-brother-in-law, which estranged the sisters even further. It’s been done to literal death.

However, Nicky is played by Elizabeth Banks, who is always terrific and is especially good here. So I’m going to keep a’going till the end, enjoying the performances and feeling 99% sure that, whatever the final twist is, I’ll forget it half an hour after I’ve done watching.

Dept. Q (Netflix)

I have a confession to make: I could cheerfully spend hours watching Matthew Goode clean toilets and be thoroughly entertained. And here he is, headlining a procedural crime series based on the Department Q book series by Danish author Jussi Adler-Olsen. The series has transferred the action to Edinburgh and deals with the establishment of a new police department investigating cold cases. Not a new idea, I know, but after watching the first of the nine episodes that comprise Season One, creator Scott Frank is doing a lovely job setting up the situation and introducing a large ensemble of characters. 

Goode stars as Carl Morck, a misanthropic police detective who is much disliked – until the day he and his partner barge into a crime scene and instigate a tragedy. Now Morck is as down on himself as he is on others. He has been forced to attend therapy sessions (his therapist is played by Kelly MacDonald) and struggles to deal with a hostile teenaged son at home. All he wants to do is go back to work – since every other person in the force, in his opinion, is an idiot. 

His commanding officer, Moira Jacobson (Kate Dickie) is so busy handling an unwieldy case load with little success and no funding that the last thing she wants to do is deal with Carl. But then Moira’s higher-ups dump a whole bunch of money in her lap to start a cold case division (another county has garnered great publicity doing the same thing). Moira sees an easy fix here: she pockets the money to spend on her regular squad, assigns Carl as head of the new division. and then dumps him literally in the basement with no money or resources. 

Along the way, we meet the other major players in Carl’s life: his partner James Hardy (Jamie Sives) who lies paralyzed in a hospital after the raid that went wrong; a cadet named Rose (Leah Byrne) who is eager to prove herself; and a Syrian refugee named Akram Salim (Alexej Manvelov) who wants to share his past police experience with these strangers in a strange land. Everyone seems up against it at the start, and if this feels like a bit of a cliché, well . . . it is. But it’s extremely well written, directed and acted. 

The first hour alternates between Carl’s slow return to work and the story of Merritt Lingard (Chloe Pirrie), a young prosecutor whose professional and personal life is equally disastrous. She’s about to lose a high-profile case, which is causing her to neglect her special needs brother, and she is receiving disturbing texts from an unknown but clearly hostile enemy. 

How Merritt’s life ultimately connects to Carl’s makes for the first big twist of the show. My concern is that the twists keep coming over the last five minutes, and I can’t figure out yet if this is going to be gripping drama or a silly letdown. Of course, I could have watched the whole thing and then let you know how I feel. But, really – don’t you all love a bit of mystery just as much as I do?