The Chelsea Detective‘s first season was one of the more popular shows for Acorn TV, mainly because it presented detectives with personalities that were different than the hard-drinking, work-driven cops that usually populate British police procedurals. The second season continues that pattern, though with a new partner for the series’ main detective, Max Arnold.
THE CHELSEA DETECTIVE SEASON 2: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: In the exclusive Chelsea neighborhood of London, a Rolls-Royce limo drives through the streets.
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The Gist: After a well-regarded opening-night party, Chris Milton-Elwes (Samuel Holmes), the manager of a gallery owned by Rebekah Chaban (Rachel Stirling) and her husband Benoit (Felicien Juttner) is killed during a robbery. Three paintings are missing, and Benoit is a suspect because he found Chris’ body.
During the opening night party, DI Max Arnold (Adrian Scarborough), who lives on a nearby houseboat, gets an incredulous text with an ad for the show from his art dealer ex-wife Astrid Fischer (Anamaria Marinca). The next day, he’s at the gallery investigating the crime scene with his new partner, DS Layla Walsh (Vanessa Emme) and the medical examiner, Ashley Wilton (Sophie Stone).
The case soon starts revolving around Chris’ husband, Greg Milton-Elwes (Tomiwa Edun), mainly because of two train tickets found in Chris’ jacket. But the team, including DC Jess Lombard (Lucy Phelps) and DC Connor Pollock (Peter Bankolé), all try to figure out who would benefit the most from the paintings being sold on the black market.
The Chabans had put out an insurance policy on the works, two of which they owned, that far exceeded their last appraised value, and there were signs that Benoit was looking to get out of the marriage. There is also a somewhat unscrupulous dealer that was at the opening, as well as Rebekah’s personal trainer, Toby Hansard (Jack Ashton), who was also at the opening, and seems to have an ironclad alibi for the night.
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As Max and Layla look into the case, Max has to figure out just what his emotions are when he gets Astrid involved as an expert. Layla comes in conflict with the Chabans’ driver, Roy Colin (Kevin Eldon), who used to be her boss when she was a young DC in Exeter; the reason why he left was that she was the only one in his squad not to back him up when the higher-ups investigated him for skimming from a money-laundering investigation.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? When we reviewed the first season, we compared the easygoing, gentle manner of The Chelsea Detective to fellow BritBox series Murder In Provence. We also compared it to Elementary, which was often more about the lives Holmes and Watson than it was about the cases they took on.
Our Take: Our assessment of the second season of The Chelsea Detective, created by Peter Fincham, is more or less the same as it was for Season 1: We love the fact that Max Arnold isn’t the typical hard-bitten British detective, and we love the stories that are built around Max and whoever his partner is. But the mysteries themselves are somewhat confusing and are hard for mystery buffs like us to “play along” with, mainly because there is too much information that is hidden from the viewer until the last moments of the episode.
The show takes a moment to explain that Max’s old partner, DS Priya Shamsie (Sonita Henry) and her family have moved to Brighton, and Layla Walsh gives Max a different dynamic to play against. Layla is fiercely independent and has a personal life she would rather keep to herself. She regrets her actions that led her old boss Colin to resign. She has a significant other but doesn’t seem to be particularly tied down. And she tries to communicate with Ashley via sign language but isn’t particularly proficient.
Max’s character becomes a bit deeper during the first episode, as we see him still holding a candle for Astrid, and not even hiding it much. There still isn’t a ton of info about what led the two of them to split, but the way Max gets tunnel vision on a case must not help. We also liked how Max puts on Echo & The Bunnymen to help him sort out his pegboard.
It’s all of those little character details that make The Chelsea Detective a pleasure to watch. We just wish the mystery at the center of each episode were a bit more tightly-plotted. Given the 90-minute runtimes of each episode, there seems to be plenty of time to give the audience the connections they need to try to solve the case along with Max and Layla. But there still seem to be too many red herrings, which take time away from filling in blanks that now seem to only be revealed by Max or someone else staring at a picture or something and seeing something we can’t.
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Sex and Skin: None.
Parting Shot: Astrid calls Max to congratulate him on catching the killer in the case. There is also an awkward interaction where Astrid ends up inviting Max to go out to dinner. Max accepts, walks over to the plate of food he made for himself, and sighs. He’d rather be out with Astrid.
Sleeper Star: We’ll give this once again to Sophie Stone as Ashley, because her character listens to the Beastie Boys and decided to mess with Layla, who assumed that Ashley could help her read someone’s lips on a video.
Most Pilot-y Line: After chasing a suspect through a parking garage, but ultimately losing the person, Max blithely says “That was a rush” as he gasps for air. Looks like he doesn’t run after suspects much.
Our Call: STREAM IT. If you’re more interested in the personalities of the detectives and less interested in the mechanics of the mysteries, then you’ll enjoy The Chelsea Detective. The mysteries can be frustrating to follow, however.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
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