“Chelsea” arrives, bridging the mystery gap

For fans of British-style mysteries, this is the gap month.
PBS’ Sunday shows wrapped on Aug. 2: “Patience” ended a good second season; “Grantchester” ended a great, 11-year run.
Now we wait through a stretch of reruns or pledge drives. On Sept. 6, things bounce back with “Marlow Murder Club” and “Marble Hall Murders.”
But what do we do in the interim? Try the Britbox streamer or the Ovation channel? Maybe even read a book?
Possibly, but here’s an alternative: The Acorn streamer (www.acorn.tv) chooses this ideal time for its new season of “The Chelsea Detective” (shown here). Each of the first four Mondays in August adds a movie-length tale; most have clever plots, all have interesting characters.
Shows are often divided between “cozy mysteries” (often in quaint villages) and serious ones. And yes, Acorn sometimes leans too much to the cozy side; shows like “Madame Blanc Mysteries,” “Harry Wild” and “Recipes For Love and Murder” seem to pay scant attention to crafting a good story.
But Acorn is also capable of being dead serious; shows like “Dalgliesh,” “Detective Ellis” and “Midsomer Murders” are smartly crafted.
And some shows can do both; PBS’ “Grantchester” and Acorn’s “You’re Killing Me” mix cozy settings, interesting people and (often) good stories.
That’s what “Chelsea Detective” does. Each story is about 90 minutes, giving plenty of time for depth, detours amiable characters, led by Detective Inspector Max Arnold (left).
Like most crimesolvers, he has an iffy personal life; like many, he lives on a boat. But don’t think of this as a floating love nest. It’s a crowded little boat, where Max has his keyboard and a murder board he hides from company.
Max comes in a sort of Hercule Poirot package — Adrian Scarborough, who plays him, is 58 and s5-foot-4 — but with reddish hair. With none of the Poirot arrogance, he’s open to his colleagues’ ideas. During the rare chase scenes, Detective Sergeant Layla Walsh (Vanessa Emme) — younger, taller and faster — is the action hero.
When PBS has a movie-length story (including “Marlow Murder Club”), it breaks it into two weeks … which is no way to watch a mystery. Here, we get each one in a single chunk.
The season-opener (available Aug. 3 and beyond) involves a fashion mogul’s butler, who’s not what he appears to be. The Aug. 10 one pits two families, one gangster and one tarnished royalty. Aug. 17 has a salon owner with a past. Aug. 24 has a rich architect plummet from his gorgeous building.
The second one is a tad weak, but the others are first-rate. Each gives us people and places we like seeing. And when they’re done, it will almost be time for PBS to return; we’ll have bridged the gap.