Box sets and crime series should come with a warning

Warning – you could neglect your real friends with all their messy problems because your new screen friends attempt to take over your life. You will get to know and love all the characters and start living vicariously through them. Give in, in the end it’s much easier than hanging out with real people. In the last review I mentioned two violent fast-paced thrillers, today I’d like to point out two crime series with a gentler approach, but just as engaging.

Private Eyes (in the UK shown on Universal Channel) is a Canadian series about Angie Everett, a feisty and delectable PI (played by Cindy Sampson) and charming ex professional ice hockey player Matt Shade (Jason Priestley), who becomes her new partner in the PI business. Set in Toronto this series makes me homesick in the nicest possible way. A second series has been commissioned and I’m already looking forward to it.

The other series, the police procedural ‘Rosewood’, is set in a warmer place, Miami. The crime drama centres on Dr Beaumont Rosewood aka Rosie, who is a hugely successful private pathologist (played by Morris Chestnut) and his side kick, Detective Annalise Villa (Jaina Lee Ortiz). Shown in the UK on Alibi, ‘Rosewood’ is now in its second season. Whereas in the Canadian ‘Private Eyes’, the main characters are endearingly ‘normal’ - you can see yourself meeting up in the bar with them for a drink, in ‘Rosewood’ we have Florida style ‘larger than life’. I have to admit I don’t know many pathologists, nevertheless there can’t be many like Rosie. Designer suits, flash cars, glamorous girlfriends, … If you can suspend your disbelief and like a bit of glamour, then you are in for a  thoroughly enjoyable watch.

(Indiana Brown)