Harry Wild

There have been a number of similar shows on UK TV recently; odd-couple detective teams e.g. The Chelsea Detective, Murder in Provence, McDonald & Dodds. Fabulous for me as they are right in my wheelhouse and this one delivers.

Harry (Jane Seymour) is self-confident, mouthy with few social filters and, as a recently retired English Professor, offers unwelcome grammatical corrections during conversations. She has a detective son Charlie (Kevin Ryan) whose life she generally makes a misery by interfering with his cases - usually by solving them! Her partner-in-crime is Fergus (Rohan Nedd) who is an articulate, street-wise teenager from a poor background. Indeed they first meet during a mugging perpetrated by Fergus on Harry! Their relationship works well and they develop a growing mutual admiration as their complementary skills help them solve cases.

Easily-digestible, enjoyable viewing - believable core characters - interesting stories flying above the mere procedural.

It's good to see Seymour in a series again. And while I enjoy a good British cozy mystery, I can't recall ever reading or watching one based in Ireland. I'm enjoying the characters of Fergus and Harry and the emerging friendship and partnership between them.

/Refers to Season 1/

A distinct Irish approach with lots of black humour and political incorrectness - but crimes are never fun, but characters or situations can be. Singular performances (well, Jane Seymour was 70 when filming, can you believe this?) and versatile cases (true, not all are equally interesting and meaty, but still...).

In spite of evident exaggerations, the Series captivated me in the very beginning and I really do hope that Season 2 will follow as the last episode ended in a promising manner and several storylines remained infinite. As for similarities, I would juxtapose Harry Wild with Shakespeare & Hathaway: Private Investigators from UK. If you liked-enjoyed one of them, you would definitely like-enjoy the other as well.

PS Season 2 has somewhat lost its "sheen" and vigour, with some cases where one could easily surmise the wrongdoer, but 7.5=8, so - no change in my opinion here.

PPS Season 3 is pleasantly frisky again, although in some cases the solution comes a bit abruptly and the role of Garda is undermined.

Time sure flies. As early as 1973, Jane Seymour had her big break as a Bond girl in "Live and Let Die". After leaving her native England, she then made herself known as the "Queen of the Mini-Series" on American TV. Among other things, by playing the lead in "Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman" for more than five years.

But now Jane Seymour is back in Europe again. In "Harry Wild", she portrays a retired English professor who discovers that she has a penchant for solving criminal cases that the police have failed at. Especially such assignments where her own son, Detective Inspector Charlie Wild, leads the investigation. That this is not always so popular in the police force doesn't come as a surprise to anyone (except for Harry Wild of course).

The result: a TV series that combines police procedures and comedy in a very entertaining mix.

It makes me want to learn Shakespeare and other books- or read them again. I'd say that is a great outcome for a show these days. Jane of course is wonderful. The supporting cast are fine too. I'd like to see more series- I hope they continue for a while.