Karen Pirie

A cold case TV show, where a podcast focuses attention on an unsolved mystery from 20 years previously. The investigation at the time seemed a bit slapped and was never reviewed since and things don’t look good for police Scotland Karen Perry is drafted in as the token woman to make it look like some action is being taken but she goes well beyond her remit, and the expectations of her superiors to investigate the crime.

Now this is how you do detective fiction. It is well cast and well acted, but more importantly everything in the story makes sense. There’s a very good use of flashbacks that tell the story as it needs to be revealed. There is a great bit of casting for the lead role, the actress really makes it her own, and “Murray” Mint is a useful foil for her. The motivations for all the characters are clear and everybody does things for valid reasons even if they are not necessarily in their best interests. There are some great emotional scenes and a very satisfying ending. Perhaps my only complaint is that detective Parhatka’s hairstyle seemed to be from the 1980s and it appeared he should’ve been in the flashback scenes, not the modern day ones!

According to my notes, I had watched this before, possibly when it first came out but to be honest, beyond the origin of the Mint’s nickname, I don’t remember anything about it so I probably just had it on in the background and wasn’t really paying much attention. I enjoyed it much more this time when I was actually watching what was going on.