Harry Wild

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.

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.

Acorn did it again! Casting Jane Seymour as lead character is the right decision. She clearly have fun as an amateur detective, and combining classic literature as a part of story is just great. Can't wait for season 2, Acorn! 💋

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.

My main issue with this series is that it's weak on the mystery part, which is what most will be expecting when watching it. It's borderline Columbo style in that you either know who did it in the beginning or "Harry" is certain she knows and spends the episode trying to prove to official investigators, that have the wrong person or don't believe her, who really did it. That's just not as fun as the traditional style where there are multiple suspects and you try to make the best guess based on what they share. Too much time is also unrelated drama between Harry and other characters.

Although this has characteristics common in cozy murder mysteries, it's sometimes more disturbing than those are known for. It's also not as light hearted as I expected. Likewise, even the idyllic village setting common with cozy mystery shows is barely shown. The vast majority of the scenes are indoors and when outdoors, often too close up. A lot of low light / dark scenes as well.

None of the characters are really appealing. Harry can be overly mean, her son even more so. Her sidekick is unlikable initially but is a lot different from episode 2 onward, just that situation is hard to believe.