The new BritBox series Death Valley is about as traditional as it can get when it comes to mystery series. It’s funny, and it pairs a quirky police detective with a civilian who seems to have a preternatural ability to see details others don’t. In this case, the civilian happens to have played a detective on TV.
Opening Shot: In a small town in Wales, a postman arrives at a big modern house right as the wife of the man inside drives up. The postman talks about not being able to do yoga. She finds her husband at his desk, having seemingly shot himself in the head. The postman still needs a signature on the package he has.
The Gist: DS Janie Mallowan (Gwyneth Keyworth) is the detective that arrives on the scene, and when the man’s business partner says they were supposed to meet up, she blurts out “that’s not going to happen now, unless you have a psychic with you.” She makes impertinent comments like that all the time, but she’s a darn good detective, who has been lobbying her boss, DCI Barry Clarke (Steffan Rhodri), for a promotion to inspector.
At first, it looks like the real estate developer killed himself, but a few clues make Janie wonder, including what came in the package: A travel book about Dubai. On the TV in his office is an episode of Caesar, a period detective series that is Janie’s absolute favorite show; she’s also a fan of its star, John Chapel (Timothy Spall).
As she and DC Evan Chaudhry (Rithvik Andugula) canvass the neighborhood, Janie goes to the house of a neighbor that is described by other neighbors as a “miserable old f–“. When Janie goes to the door, she’s shocked to find out that it’s John Chapel, who has grown a beard and become a recluse.
After she fangirls for a bit, she’s then taken aback at how he speculates that his neighbor didn’t really kill himself. But when it turns out that the angle of the bullet rules out suicide, Janie goes back to John for more insights, though they spar as much as they listen. Charged up with purpose after many years, he shaves the beard and starts looking into things on his own, touring a house in a new development the victim was involved in, taking in clues like a stray strip of painter’s tape to bring to Janie. One problem: Janie could loser her job if DCI Clarke finds out a civilian is helping her.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Death Valley is the latest in the grand tradition of civilian-police detective mystery pairings. The level of humor here reminds us of shows like High Potential, Elsbeth, Castle and others. It’s also got some traces of Only Murders In The Building in its DNA, especially since Steve Martin’s character on Only Murders is a former actor from a detective show.
Our Take: Like most shows in the comedic odd-couple mystery genre, the mysteries being solved in each episode aren’t quite as important as the main pairing of civilian and police detective, and Death Valley, created by Paul Doolan, has a solid pairing at its core.
Janie is a young go-getter of a detective, but one who doesn’t have much of a filter and a social life that’s, well, minimal. John has been in seclusion since his wife died, and he moved to Wales because they met in the area. But he’s also very confident of his powers of deduction, even though he only played a detective on TV. We’re not sure how or why John thinks he can solve crimes like his best-known character can; he just says that as an actor, he observes people all the time. But that super-confidence in his abilities plays well off of Janie’s lack of confidence when it comes to her personal life.
As we said, the mysteries will vary in each episode; we liked that John being a neighbor of the first victim was a clever way for John and Janie to cross paths. However, given how first episodes like this are always about the pair meeting and finding out that they work well together, the first mystery suffers because it doesn’t quite come together in a way that viewers could follow along and try to solve it themselves.
We suspect that as the series goes along and more murders are solved, Janie and John will have a bit of a father-daughter relationship going, with all the verbal sparring and mutual respect that it entails. But we hope we also find out more about each of their lives outside solving murders.
Sex and Skin: None.
Parting Shot: Janie and John sit in the garden of his house and she tells him about some strange robberies she and her colleagues are trying to solve.
Sleeper Star: Steffan Rhodri’s DCI Clarke isn’t your typical gruff police boss. He tells Janie “don’t ruin my safe space,” when he finds out that John is helping her with the investigation. Apparently, murders give him more peace than his home life.
Most Pilot-y Line: When John asks the victim’s assistant if her boss was an enigma, she replies, “No, he was a Scorpio.”
Our Call: STREAM IT. Death Valley is a funny mystery series with a good pairing at its center. Let’s hope the mysteries improve as the season goes along.
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.