Art Detectives

Something a ChatGPT or Claude would come up after consuming the entire contents of the Acorn, Britbox, possibly with some White Collar thrown in. Wooden acting by a cast of mostly C-listers - if you see someone you recognize, they'll be the victim, because the show didn't get the budget to keep them for the whole episode. Bloody awful writing, predictable, tedious, with plot twists you see a mile away, with cringey and corny jokes. Basically a Velveeta of crime shows, particularly disappointing because it's trying to climb into the art heist genre, where sophistication isn't just appreciated, it's expected.

Finally a mystery without a lot of side drama dragging it down. This series has intelligence, good plots and pacing. The two leads, Stephen Moyer (DI Palmer) and Nina Singh (DC Malik) balance each other nicely. As others have pointed out leaving out the tired subplots of troubled/maverick/sex with as many coworkers as possible detectives is very refreshing. Using a backdrop of crimes that connect to the art and collectible worlds adds a layer of interest to the stories. In each of the episodes the supporting cast of local police & suspects have been solid. Well done Acorn! May Art Detectives have a long run.

I've watched all kinds of mysteries on Acorn which run the gamut of light to heavier. For most evenings I prefer lighter types, and maybe with some humor involved. Real human type detectives, and not the steely -jawed, give no quarter types who have to solve one or more grisly murders per episode. Art Detectives is perfect for my tastes. I like both leads and their interactions; the scenery and locations are wonderful and the scripts achieve the right balance between murder mystery and humanness, without being silly.

My only complaint is that these are 45 minutes in length and they only made 6 episodes! What????? 10 should be the minimum. And having to wait weekly for a new episode, then Bam! It's over till next year???!!!! No! Unacceptable!

It starts a bit slow, but in these crazy times, I'm enjoying this. Liking the fact that there is none of the annoying infighting and yelling with a superior and/or inferior officer(s), it's just the two detectives working and getting along. Except for an extreme asshole of a father, there are no annoying teenage kids, alcoholism, divorces, just a weekly murder related to art.

There is a sweet ongoing romance between the main detective and a colleague which is refreshing given their maturity. And cute that the younger partner can tease him about it.

I was worried that this might be a rip off of the French show, The Art of Murder, a show where a police detective and art historian team up to solve crimes in Paris. The on and off relationship between the two of them and the fact that the detective, from Paris, knows nothing about art and hates it is annoying.

So, Just pour yourself a cup of tea, relax and enjoy this show.

I've watched 4 episodes and it's disappointing. I'm a big fan of British crime dramas, but the stories so far haven't grabbed me. It's a light crime drama led by a serious actor Stephen Moyer, so I expected more. This definitely isn't a "Grace" or even a "Chelsea Detective and not quite a "Shakespeare and Hathaway". Set someplace outside of London, but actually filmed in Ireland, the locations are great.

The character of DC Malik doesn't really work, she acts like she's an equal with DI Palmer when she doesn't have his rank, police experience or art education. That's down to the poor writing. A crime unit of two people really doesn't work, like this series really doesn't work.

The concept of art detectives has so many possibilities, but the plots and dialog just don't match the concept. There are so many great directions this series could go in terms of art and fraud besides murder. If there is a second series I hope the writing improves.