The Cozy Mystery List Blog

Cozy Mystery (and Other Favorite) Books, Movies, and TV

I Would Like to Know How I Missed Jesse Stone?!?

Well, I wondered why CBS showed two “Jesse Stone” movies in the wrong sequence. The episode that I thought was the first episode actually aired a week after the second episode. Luckily, I was way behind in watching my recorded shows, so I was able to watch them in the sequence I thought they should be in. When I went online to investigate I found that CBS has been airing these shows since ’05… and I can only wonder how I missed them!

Jesse Stone is an ex-Los Angeles Police Department officer who is transplanting himself to Massachusetts…. after being fired for what appears to be a life of very hard drinking. This is where I started the show, and I really enjoyed it. (But, I could be totally wrong, since I haven’t seen the actual first episode…. which aired in February of  ’05.)

There are four movies in the series… Tom Selleck (yes, Tom Selleck aka Magnum, P. I.) stars as Jesse Stone, and he is very convincing as a fiftyish ex-LAPD, with a penchant for Scotch. He takes on the job of chief of police, after interviewing for the job smelling “like a brewery”…. He corrects that…. It wasn’t beer, it was Scotch! The “feeling” of Jesse Stone is… Spenser for Hire. And, it is no small wonder since both Jesse and Spenser are written by Robert B. Parker. 

What I liked about the show is the promise of some great characters. Jesse and Boomer (his Bloodhound) are a wonderful example of true friendship… never judgemental, always loving. Also, something I really liked is that this was the first time I have seen a movie with the leading man questioning the age difference between himself, a fiftyish man, and a prospective girlfriend, a thirtyish woman. Bravo to them for actually being aware of the “problem.” (Although I am guessing that most men don’t see that as a problem!)

On the negative side, though, is why CBS showed these movies so spaced out in time….

Stone Cold… February ’05
Night Passage… January ’06
Death in Paradise… April ’06
Sea Change… May ’07

Since I watch very little actual television (relying on mostly old movies and BBC-type series), I can understand how I could have missed these movies. But, I have programmed “Jesse Stone” on my DVR, and will watch for the movies to be shown again. If I see that they are going to be airing them,  I will definitely post the times and dates in my blog!

(Please let me know if you happened to see any of the four Jesse Stone movies… Click on Comment below… I would love to know if anyone else saw them… and if so, I wonder if  they like them as much as I did…)

PS>>>> Thin Ice just aired in 2009!
              No Remorse will air in May of 2010.

The Pallisers… OR… When Plantagenet Met Glencora…

There once was a Victorian author by the name of Anthony Trollope…

The Pallisers, like the Barchester Chronicles, is based on the works of Anthony Trollope. The Pallisers is a BBC production from the 1970s, so don’t be surprised when you see and hear just that…. 1970s technology. But, you will  not be surprised to see absolutely beautiful costumes and sets.  And the acting is without fault (anyway, to me!)

Lady Glencora is played beautifully by Susan Hampshire (Monarch of the Glen, Barchester Chronicles). Philip Lathan plays her doting husband, Plantagenet Palliser (thus the name for the series). Don’t be surprised to see many other faces we have grown to love….. Derek Jacobi (I, Claudius and Brother Cadfael), Penelope Keith (To the Manor Born), Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews (both from Brideshead Revisited), just to name a few.

The saga follows the Palliser family as they work their way up the political ladder. It also answers the age old question…. what’s a girl with money to do!?!

I don’t want to reveal too much, but I must say that watching the series (which consists of 26 episodes) was almost like watching several different miniseries. The Pallisers is based on six of Anthony Trollope’s novels, which is why there are definite changes in the story line. It’s not that it is difficult to follow, but you will be aware of definite shifts that take place with the plots and characters.

Although it is not a mystery, it is a very enjoyable British series… which apparently was shown on Masterpiece Theatre many years ago… unbeknownst to me! 

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Buy British… television series, that is!

Hmmmm…. I don’t know if I should admit this… but my family doesn’t watch any mystery shows together  from the three major networks here in the States. (Three of us, however, do have a show or two that we follow individually…)  Instead, we "import" them… mostly from Great Britain. We do watch crime shows that are made right here in the States like…. Forensic Files, Masterminds, L.A. Confidential, North Mission Road, and we used to love City Confidential so much that we have seen all of them. (Please write me via the "comment button" below if City Confidential is still being made. I thought that both Paul Winfield and Keith David did great jobs as narrators, and I also thought that the writers showed a very good grasp of both the crimes and the cities in which the crimes occurred.)

Getting back to my initial thought…

We started watching The Last Detective (starring Peter Davison) a little while ago, and we are finding it quite enjoyable. (I’ll write about it in another blog…) After finishing our last episode, we started talking (I have to admit that I did most of the talking!) and we started kicking around the question: Why do we watch these British exports instead of our "home-grown" mystery shows? There are so many right here in the States that are available with just one click of our remote, yet we don’t watch them…. Why is that?…..

Hmmmm…. again!

Is it that the Brits have shorter seasons? Well, if that were true, then you would think that the longer seasons would give a series a longer time to develop characters and plot.

Is it that the Brits have fewer episodes per season? Again, if that were true, then you would think that the more the episodes, the better the chance to develop characters and plot.

Is it that the Brits have younger, more beautiful "stars" in their shows? Well, if that were true then wouldn’t we all be watching them on our major networks each and every week…. since our major networks seem fixated on youthful beauty.

Or is it that since we do have more episodes per season, we "dilute" the writers… They simply can’t spend the time needed on each of the (+/-) 26 episodes on which they feel compelled to present a mystery and wrap up the solution in the allotted 44 minutes… instead of taking a leisurely hour and a half, only five or six times per season to develop characters and plot…. thus not having the necessity of "cranking out"  shows each and every week.

Well, then what is it? Why is it that more and more people are buying the DVDs or joining online rentals like Netflix and Blockbusters?

I remember a time when we could count on A & E to air the high quality British mystery shows… Jeremy Brett in Sherlock Holmes, Helen Mirren in Prime Suspect, David Suchet in Poirot, David Jason in Frost, John Thaw and Kevin Whately in Morse, Warren Clarke and Colin Buchanan in Dalziel and Pascoe… (and I’m sure there are more…)

So, why is it that we keep (at least my two college-age children, my husband, and I) seeking out the exported mystery shows…. You only need to look above…. and see the highlighted words to know why we do…. How about you? 

Maigret Collection Television Series : Michael Gambon’s Maigret May Not Be French, but He’s Très Magnifique…

If you can get over the obviously British accents coming out of the French characters, then you will surely enjoy the Maigret Collection, a 1990s mystery series that (again) comes to us from the British (Granada Television). Michael Gambon is excellent as Chief Inspector Jules Maigret. He seems to never be in a hurry. He carefully thinks out his cases, and does not rush to judgement. Inspector Maigret has a very psychological approach when it comes to solving crimes, which his underlings (and superiors!) may not fully appreciate… until he solves his crimes.

I did not see this series when it aired on the PBS or A&E networks. Until I did a little research for this blog, I didn’t know that the series had ever aired outside of Great Britain. If you plan to watch all twelve episodes back to back, without the seasons’ division that television networks provide, here is one more thing you will have to overlook……….. It’s a little unfortunate that with only twelve episodes, they were not able to have just one actress to play the Inspector’s wife. At first I wondered if perhaps the second actress was playing a second wife…. not the case. But, if the great Rumpole of the Bailey could have two actresses playing the one and only wife, then so can Maigret!

The one disappointment for me is that Georges Simenon wrote many Maigret novels, so why are there only twelve episodes to this series?!? I sure would have enjoyed more!

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