RIOTUS

BritBox recently sent me a preview of their new series Lynley. Based on the Elizabeth George Book Series. The story, A crime-solving duo team-up – Thomas Lynley an aristocratic police detective and maverick sergeant Barbara Havers from a working class background. Both of whom have issues with authority and police bureaucracy, in their own special way. Despite these hurdles, the mismatched duo become a formidable team, bonded by their desire to see justice done. 

This series is a reboot of the successful 2001–2007 Inspector Lynley Mysteries series that starred Nathaniel Parker and Sharon Small. 

For the updated version, BBC returned to the World of DI Thomas ‘Tommy’ Lynley played by Leo Suter and his working class DS Barbra Havers played by Sofia Barclay. 

The tv series does its best to tackle issues around personality, gender and class. DI Tommy Lynley is an Earl they mention in passing while DS Barbara Haver’s family is in iron and steel. As she puts it, “her mother irons and her father steals”. Immediately we get some measure of both characters with this initial interaction. 

This series starts off with of course a dead body in the moors. Truth be told, I don’t know if it’s actually in the moors but it’s a UK murder mystery so odds are it probably was. I blame Author Conan Doyle‘s books for this assumption. 

Sadly, even with a great cast, I found the lack of chemistry between DI Lynley and DS Havers at best lacking any depth, aside from the occasional chiding and sniping the show does not truly get into who these characters are beyond a lot of surface moments. The quiet scenes inserted to elicit emotions for both characters really felt trite and underwhelming. Even to the point where they force a sense connection between the two as they both mourn the loss of a similar loved one. 

Overall it does a good job of displaying the world of DI Lynley and DS Havers but you have to be patient. The stories are slow to develop at times feeling aimless and leans into being a slice-of-life drama…WITH MURDER. 

The upside: you get a good look at the world of the two characters, their obstacles, in this case, their boss DCI Brian Nies (Daniel Mays) and allies, one especially swaggy young detective Tony Bekele (Michael Workeye). 

The updated reimagined series doesn’t capture the charm of its predecessor or the book and spends more time on being sleek and pithy moments and dialogue than character growth for my taste.