User reviews

After many successful, or accurately classic, TV shows such as the groundbreaking I Spy (1965), and the long-lived The Cosby Show (1984), Bill Cosby at the age of 57 wanted to change over. It was a good move to do a mystery show, portraying Guy Hanks the criminologist who works for the New York Police Department, solving crimes with the power of scientific logic, and his sharp brilliance. Here, Cosby is a bit serious, walking sullen, looking sedate, with dark suits, dark briefcase and a long coat on his arm.

However, the atmosphere wasn't that thrilling, the directing handled the job so moderately without being attractively elegant or even harshly realistic, and it bothered me the most to see such a forced laughing scene at the end of every episode as totally out of the mood and unnecessary reminder that we're watching "Mr. Bill Cosby Ladies and Gentlemen".. That was silly!

Though, the supporting cast was fantastic and funny enough. I recall the young Mos Def, and the beautifully crazy Rita Moreno who nearly has been cursed by the Oscar after winning it for her performance in West Side Story back in 1961! This truly talented woman was a dazzling reason to set and watch the show, I was craving to her moments as a noisy yet kind and gleeful Spanish woman (watch how she expresses herself sometimes in singing!).

It was about time to watch the criminologist, the coroner, or rather the forensic doctor as the lead of the TV shows, especially after the mass success of The X Files, one year earlier, with a character of a medical doctor who works as FBI investigator. Sorrowfully, in no time, this kind of shows would swell, become wild, and eat up all the other shows with the ruthless onslaught of CSI (2000), Law & Order Criminal Intent (2001), Crossing Jordan (2001), CSI Miami (2002), NCIS (2003), CSI NY (2004), Medical Investigation (2004), Bones (2005), and Dexter (2006), being the 2000s marked fashion to a frightful extent, that left nearly nothing different to be watched!

Still (The Cosby Mysteries) is a sort of lovely innocent memory amongst these freak shows, away from being nasty or violent as most of them. But something was wrong. Whether that the audience didn't accept this staid persona for their comic star, or that the episodes didn't present what could exceed or stand alone, or maybe the personality of the whole series was little evasive since it's not a comedy, and not wholly crime as well.

It pushes me to recall when Raymond Burr achieved a marvelous success with 2 TV hits on a row Perry Mason (1957) and Ironside (1967) then made Kingston Confidential (1976) to meet his first 13 episode series! This time, his fellow Cosby made 19 episodes of his mysteries. To return again, right in the next year, to be the good old Bill Cosby in the new Cosby show, which lasted for 4 seasons, 93 episodes.

Overall, The Cosby Mysteries was between all right and so-so. And it's surely better than today's ugly shows of the same subject. However, while I really see it as better than CSI, I had to apologize to its makers since, naturally, anything is better than CSI!

Whatever you think of Cosby at least his performances were always entertaining fun and hilarious. This series was actually really good though I think it only ran one season. A no-brainer that's enjoyable the cast is excellent Rita Moreno's awesome so is Moz Def. It's just a shame that Cosby's real life ruined everything. But if you can get past that watch this series. You can usually find it on YouTube or other places like that it's hard to find the DVD but it's out there somewhere. Nuff said.

This was an enjoyable mystery show. Cosby's always great, and as I remember, so was the rest of the cast. He and Mos Def had good chemistry. Some funny generational clash there. The show had a Law and Order feel to it, and I enjoyed every episode I saw. A good mix of comedy and intrigue.

Bill Cosby never fails to amaze me. It's seems he can do everything. Too bad we're not seeing more from him. He's got so much to offer.

I can assure you I went into this show not expecting much, but what I was left with was so brilliantly devious that I could not stop smiling or talking about it until it aired again the next week, when my smile would only grow wider until it became injuriously wide. I needed jaw surgery shortly thereafter.

The mysteries on this show (The Cosby Mysteries) feature Cosby. Obviously. However, in a shockingly post-modern turn of non-customary non-post-modernity, Cosby doesn't actually play himself, but Guy Fawkes, a detective who looks remarkably like Bill Cosby. He is joined by Most Deaf, a popular Rapper (apparently) who is an unpopular actor.

In every show, Fawkes solves a mystery which is usually so complex, so brilliant and so shocking that I shake my head and cry out at the top of my voice, "That Bill Cosby should be president!" I implore you all to watch this series. It is rarely on.

The chemistry between Bill Cosby and James Naughton in this series is reminiscent of Cosby and Robert Culp in "I Spy." Their banter and fun rapport is the highlight of every episode of "The Cosby Mysteries." These are very watchable shows and a surprise they got canceled so soon. Maybe people weren't willing to give Cosby a chance in this somewhat serious role. He had a bigger hit in 1996-2000 with the sitcom "Cosby." Obviously Bill Cosby wanted to try something different with "The Cosby Mysteries." A solid cast makes these shows interesting- including Rita Moreno and Dante Beze (aka the rapper "Mos Def").

I really enjoyed The Cosby Mysteries. The cast was outstanding and the mysteries were fun. The characters were all slightly eccentric but the relationships were very real. Each episode was a mystery but the relationships were equally as important to the stories as the who did its. I think that this show may have been way before its time. To me, it had a very similar vibe as "Bored to Death" another great mystery series that was on HBO more than twenty years after The Cosby Mysteries. I am sorry that more people didn't find The Cosby Mysteries as enjoyable as I did. Perhaps Mr. Cosby will revisit this one day and it will reach a wider audience and be as popular as I think that it deserved to be.