My husband and I watch a variety of mystery shows together, some of which we would consider “cozy mystery” shows. Cozy mysteries are a little lighter in topics with some humor thrown in. Yes, they may feature murder mysteries but they don’t normally show too much of the death scene and don’t focus on the more macabre aspects of the crime.
Instead, they focus on the clues and red herrings (which are clues that the viewer thinks are clues, but really are just thrown out there to throw the viewer off the scent). They also focus on the relationships and private lives of the sleuths, who are many times amateur sleuths who work on their own and sort of against the professional law enforcement or who work with them.
There are sometimes silly and unbelievable or more unrealistic aspects to cozy mystery shows. Think Murder She Wrote, one of the original cozy mystery shows.
Today I am recommending to you three of the cozy mysteries we watch. Next week I’ll be sharing some more “serious” mystery shows we watch.
I shared a couple other suggestions previously in this post: https://lisahoweler.com/2022/05/04/five-fun-quirky-and-unique-mystery-shows-you-should-be-watching/
1. Shakespeare and Hathaway: Private Investigators is a cozy mystery show on the BBC. I actually mentioned this show in my previous post on this topic as well.
The show follows the story of PI Frank Hathaway (Mark Benton), a former detective inspector, and Luella Shakespeare (Jo Joyner) who hires Frank to investigate her fiance.
Hathway and his assistant Sebastian Brudenell (Patrick Walsh McBride) discover that Luella’s fiance is not a great guy and after the case is solved, Luella tells Frank she wants to work with him. He resists but she has money and he is in debt so has no real choice but to agree. Shakespeare and Hathaway: Private Investigators is born.
The episodes are often quirky, feature humor, and also have some serious moments. Sebastian, an out-of-work actor, brings a lot of the humor with his undercover work and various character creations when he goes undercover.
Throughout the first couple of seasons, viewers are given hints as to why Frank is no longer a DI. Critics, while faulting some of the aspects of the show, can’t deny that the characters are loveable and cozy fans love to follow them and find out what they are going to do next.
There are four seasons of the show and searches online show that while there has been no announcement of a fifth season, there also hasn’t been an official cancellation of the show.
2. Psych
Pysch first appeared on the USA network but I don’t think we saw it until it was streaming and I am not sure where it was streaming first. Right now it is streaming on Amazon and Peacock with a subscription and Apple TV if you want to purchase each episode.
The show follows Shawn Spencer (James Roday) and his best friend Burton “Gus” Guster (Dule Hill) as they start a psychic detective agency. Shawn has a photographic memory but pretends he is psychic to get jobs with the Santa Barbara Police Department. He drags Gus along to help, even though Gus’s normal job is in pharmaceuticals.
One reason Shawn’s photographic memory skills are so good is because his father Henry Spencer (Corbin Bernsen), now a former police officer, taught him those skills when Shawn was a child. Many of the early shows start with flashbacks of Henry teaching Shawn how to observe and gather information in a situation.
Pretending to be a psychic obviously creates a lot of humorous and ridiculous situations and viewers often have to suspend belief as mysteries are solved but it’s such a fun ride that the implausibility of it all isn’t a blip on the radar of most viewers. Shawn, Gus, and the supporting cast are the drivers and we’re just along for the ride, in other words.
Speaking of supporting cast members – they include police detective Juliet (Maggie Lawson), who Shawn, of course, falls in love with, the uptight and by-the-book police detective Carl Lassiter (Timothy Omundson), and police chief Karen Vick (Kirsten Nelson).
There were also some amazing guest stars on the show over the years including Tim Curry, John Cena, William Shatner, Cary Elwes, Kristy Swanson, Mira Sorvino, Anthony Michael Hall, and Jeffrey Tambor.
The show ran for eight seasons until 2014 and three made-for-tv movies followed in 2017, 2020, and 2021. This one is a favorite for my family.
3. Rosemary and Thyme
This is another British who, which I’ve mentioned before on the blog. The show features Felicity Kendal as Rosemary Boxer and Pam Ferris as Laura Thyme. They are landscapers who sort of fall into amateur sleuth roles when crimes continue to happen at the sites where they are landscaping.
I like this show because it features older women as the main characters. I liked the show even before I was “an older woman” by the way.
According to information online the show’s creator, Brian Eastman made it to entertain his wife, who is a gardener.
The show ran for three seasons before being unceremoniously canceled by ITV as part of ITVs plan to refresh its lineup. Two final episodes were aired more than a year later after the show ended and two more had been written but by the time production was ready, most of the actors were already committed to other projects.
I am rewatching this series through Britbox because there are a few I don’t remember from the first time I watched it.
Bonus: The Mallorca Files
This one showed up on our radar in 2019 and I’m adding it as a bonus because it isn’t strictly a “cozy mystery.”
The main characters are actually police and they topics can be a little heavier than strict cozy mystery shows and it is actually defined online as a “police procedural.”
The show starts with Elen Rhys as Detective Miranda Blake being sent to Mallorca to investigate a case that carries over from England and then getting transferred work with the Mallorca Police Force.
She is assigned Detective Max Winter, portrayed by Julian Looman, who is a German transplant to the island.
In case you are wondering, or don’t know (like I didn’t before I watched the show), Mallorca is a real island off the coast of Spain.
What I love about this show is the international flavor (for me at least) and the different cultures represented – British, German, and Spanish.
The police chief – Ines Villegas — is very Spanish.
The plot of the episodes are very engaging with a constant underlying sexual tension between Miranda and Max.
From what I read online yesterday, this show had filmed more episodes this past summer but a date for season three, which could include the remaining episodes filmed in 2020 but not aired.
According to Wikipedia: “The series is a co-production between Cosmopolitan Pictures, Clerkenwell Films, BritBox US and Canada, ZDFneo and France 2.
Cosmopolitan Pictures founder Ben Donald said the series came from “[a] desire to create a feel-good action-driven cop show like the ones I grew up with and, secondly, a desire to rebrand and refresh the Anglo-German relationship on television.”
Have you seen any of these shows and what were your impressions if you have?
