Karen Pirie

The character Karen Pirie is a real woman. Not a woman written by a man. Not a woman written by a woman just to make a point. This character feels real. She is soft and strong, awkward and assertive all at the same time. Is it the greatest crime story ever? No, probably not. But it is a good story with an outstanding lead character. The rest of the cast is great and noticably diverse. Story lines were created, that managed to circumvent clichés and steered clear of stereotypes. This is what I want to see more of and I am hoping for a second season to see Karen Pirie step up even more as a successful detective, while nurturing genuine relationships.

I was concerned, as other reviewers say, that the sound production was poor but had assumed it was my TV. But after the first episode I then settled down to watch the following two. The plot may appear a bit obvious (in hindsight). Unlike others I really liked Lauren Lyle in the lead role - in fact a welcome change from middle aged obese men. The characters were all believable and I liked the switching from current time to mid 1990s. One puzzle -- Loch Leven ? It was not the one in Fife and looked more like Loch Lomond, but could have been Loch Leven, close to Glencoe? I hope ITV will film and broadcast more of Karen Pirie stories.

D. S. Karen Pirie is brought into The Serious Crimes unit, and tasked with investigating a cold case, involving the death of a young barmaid.

Firstly, it's nice that after Ridley, that we're given another new mystery series, ITV really are going for the Sunday evening slot, I'm a fan of the two hour dramas, question is, does Karen Pirie cut the mustard?

For the most part, yes, well written, well acted and well produced, there's nothing particularly unique or original, but what was done, was done well. A little different, in that it's not a series of mysteries, it's a continuation of the same story.

As a big fan of Emer Kenny, it was interesting to see how her writing skills compared to her acting ones, she's clearly talented at both.

It's visually very good, though some of the dialogue is a little tough to follow, I had to have the subtitles on for the first ten minutes, as I just couldn't make it out.

Lauren Lyle did a good job in the title role, well acted, I'm hoping we learn a little more about Pirie.

A good watch, 7/10.

I'm generally highly critical in my reviews and often can not understand why people score obvious rubbish highly. For a change, it's nice to be able to aware a series a 10.

When so many series have more holes in the pot than a golf course, it's nice to come across a gem like this which is as near perfect as one could hope for and with an excellent cast featuring a rising star in Lauren Lyle.

Yes, the point is regularly made by experts in the real police that too many roles are cast where the investigating officer is far younger than would be the case in the real life. Lauren Lyle is only 29 and hence that criticism would be entirely valid (and which has been made here by other reviewers who have completely missed the point) except for one rather key fact: she was chosen to lead the cold case investigation because she was thought a dead certainty to fail. Of course, someone that young would never be assigned to this sort of case in real life but if you don't understand why she was appointed to this case in this tv series, then you really have missed the point of the story.

Anyway, this is as close to perfect as I've seen in a while and let's hope more of Val's Karen Pirie novels can be made into television series in future years.

It's nice to see a slow paced police drama that doesn't feel slow or boring. Thoroughly enjoyed it and hope there will be more.

All the cast were excellent and there was good character development between the leads.

It definitely feels like this could go further, and make a nice change from the tired shows like Vera.

I know there had been complaints about the sound quality on episode one, but we watched it on the ITV Hub and had no issues at all.

Not sure about this extended review format that IMDB are now insisting on. It's rather unnecessary and just means people who want to praise a show end up going on like this.