The British crime drama from Acorn TV, The Chelsea Detective, recently premiered its fourth season (I watch it on Prime Video), and I could not be happier. This excellent series just keeps getting better and better.
BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE
London’s Chelsea neighborhood sits on the north bank of the Thames. According to the show’s promotional blurb, Chelsea is “…a beautiful borough for beautiful people, but it has a dark underside of deception, violence, greed, and murder.” Events such as these are investigated by DI (Detective Inspector) Max Arnold and his crack team.
Arnold (Adrian Scarborough) is a quirky character who, following a split from his wife, lives on a small houseboat, which serves as his second office. He has no car but manages to get around Chelsea on a bicycle, or as a passenger with his sergeant, DS Layla Walsh (Vanessa Emme). A short man, he is hardly an imposing figure, but he has no problem getting in the faces of suspects.
The team (l-r): DC Jess Lombard, DS Layla Walsh, DI Max Arnold, and DC Connor Pollock.
Photo: Acorn TV
Arnold and Walsh are supported by the rest of the team, DC Jess Lombard (Lucy Phelps), DC Connor Pollack (Peter Bankolé), and Chief Forensics Officer Ashley Wilton (Sophie Leigh Stone). All of the cases are complex, but the combined efforts of the team go a long way in bringing the murderers to justice.
Each of the four seasons of The Chelsea Detective consists of four episodes, their run time close to an hour-and-a-half. The stories are skillfully written, and quite challenging. Out of the sixteen episodes, I identified the killer in only one, and that was a sheer guess. (I suck at solving mysteries.) I’m hoping that a fifth series will be announced in the near future.