I have always loved, and have been comforted by, television, but I have found myself turning to it more and more, as I’m sure many of you have, during the past year. Nothing can make the stresses, exhaustions, or sadnesses of the pandemic go away for good, but television *can* make the days move faster, which is all that we can ask for. Escapism. That’s what I want. Well, actually, what I really want is for my brilliant mother and her amazing close friend (love you, Aunt Chris!) to write and star in a show about two super clever, beautiful, sixty-ish-year-old women who run a PI business together. But if that can’t happen, I want to watch something similar.
See, lately, I’ve found that my appetite for television has narrowed. Normally, in my downtime, when I’m trying to relax, I like genial, erudite sitcoms of any decade, lighthearted or comical mysteries with no traumatizing imagery, shows where smart con artists fleece the rich for the good of humankind, and anything involving Baby Yoda. Nothing upsetting. No serial killers. No sex crime. No violence against women. No true crime. No abductions or torture. You get the picture.
But recently, I’ve been craving something even more specific: I only want to watch clever mysteries with high production value and women-heavy casts. Maybe it’s just because everything else is demoralizing that I have no interest whatsoever in watching “genius” male detectives do their thing, since this is tedious enough during normal life and I have no patience left. But, by and large, even more than usual, I find myself wanting specifically to watch genius women detectives. To be clear, I don’t want to watch just anything in this genre just because it features women (there is plenty of crap out there pretending to be feminist for its prominent featuring of women… Ocean’s 8 cough cough). And I don’t want the show to use “feminism” to gloss over or excuse various atrocities perpetrated or problematic policies, either. Here, I should clarify that I don’t want to watch genius women “cops” (Sorry Cagney! Sorry Lacey!) I just want to watch someone who looks remotely like me waltz into a crime scene in a really nice coat, inspect a few items on the floor, and go on to solve a puzzle with alacrity and dexterity that surpasses everyone else in the vicinity, especially the police. I should add that corporate feminism makes me cringe, so I’m not trying to hit you over the head with the vibes from the “strong female lead” Netflix category from a few years back. This isn’t some “you go girl”-tinted scheme to get you to buy or click on stuff. I just want to watch cool women being cool, OKAY?
So, what are the parameters? First off, no men. Or, really few men. I really, really don’t want to watch a male detective have a female sidekick, even if she’s smart or the casting is vanguard (my apologies, Dr. Joan Watson). Now, the woman detective in the show I watch can have a male sidekick, but I’d prefer if the partner were a woman. I want to watch someone whose successes mean something extra-personal to me. Second, these are fun shows, not super-dark or terrifying shows. No Happy Valley or SVU. The goal here is to be able to sleep at night. (Ideally, in the gorgeous patterned pajamas Yûko Takeuchi wears in Miss Sherlock, but we can’t have it all. I checked. They’re sold out.)
I ranked them on a scale, not in terms of quality, but from HARDCORE to COZY, to help you pick a winning series. The list should feel increasingly soporific as you scroll down.
Veronica Mars
Am I actually putting Veronica Mars, a show everyone knows about, on this list? Yes, just in case. This gritty but fun neo-noir series (just renewed, many years later!) about a teenage outcast (Kristen Bell) solving the murder of her best friend (Amanda Seyfried), and helping out her PI father (Enrico Colantoni), is definitely one you should have under your belt.
(Available to stream on Hulu)
Riviera
You know what’s pretty enjoyable? Riviera. In which the universally-beloved Julia Stiles stars as Georgina a wealthy, newly-married art-curator who discovers after her billionaire husband is killed (his yacht explodes!) that his entire financial empire was built on really shady stuff. Our EIC Dwyer Murphy has been recommending it for months, and I decided to give it a whirl. As expected, Julia Stiles decides to figure out what this is all about, partly for her self, partly to protect their family. Sometimes it can get fairly rote, but the aesthetic is so compelling, I almost don’t care. (The setting is “glitzy European waterfronts,” if you haven’t guessed.) Normally, I really don’t love shows about crazy-rich people being crazy-rich, but I miss Europe. Plus, I do really like splashy, big budget shows full of intrigue and featuring competent, resourceful amateur sleuths.
(Available to stream on YouTube TV)
The Flight Attendant
I had a LOT fun watching The Flight Attendant, HBO’s high-flying new series based on the novel by Chris Bohjalian). Cassie (Kaley Cuoco) is an alcoholic, carousing flight-attendant who, after one date with a handsome traveler, wakes up in a trendy Bangkock hotel room next to his (very) dead body. Terrified she’ll be blamed for the crime, she decides to wing her own amateur investigation into what really happened. Zosia Mamet plays her concerned lawyer best friend with the utmost realness. My favorite appearance is by Scottish character actress Michelle Gomez, whose face I have frequently called “a carnival of sarcasm.” She is a mysterious assassin hot on the trail as Cassie walks unknowingly into dangerous international intrigue.
(Available to stream on HBO Max)
Stumptown
Although Stumptown, the rainy adaptation of Greg Rucka and Matthew Southworth’s comic book series of the same name, is NEITHER cozy, NOR precisely lighthearted, I’m sticking it on here because it’s a focused, non-traumatizing story about a strong woman who chips away at local corruption and greed, using her PI license and some light body combat. Dex Perios (Cobie Smulders) is a wry ex-marine with a broken heart and a drinking problem who winds up becoming a PI in Portland. I like how this show emphasizes the actual process of acquiring one’s PI credentials, as well as Dex’s closet of VERY nice coats. Plus, as I’ve said before, it productively represents its disabled characters, and features Native actors in complex, weighty roles.
(Available to stream on Hulu)
Miss Sherlock
My favorite series as of late, HBO Asia’s sleek Miss Sherlock, is one of the best Holmesian adaptations I’ve ever seen. This modern, female, Japanese reboot borrows just enough from its source material to inspire a totally new story. And it’s great fun. Dr. Wato Tachibana (who, with her honorific title, is called “Wato-san,” which is amazing) returns to Tokyo from medical volunteer work in Syria to witness the strange murder of her mentor, a traumatic event which leads her to meet a strange consulting detective, a mysterious, elegant woman who goes by the name “Sherlock” and who has tremendous powers of observation (Yûko Takeuchi). They wind up collaborating on the case, and ultimately living together. But this isn’t the chummy partnership of Holmes-and-Watson you’ve come to know; more than simply being motivated to solve crimes by boredom, this Sherlock is motivated solely by her own pleasure. A bossy, self-directed, antisocial, cranky, often whiny genius, Takeuchi’s Sherlock loves dressing up in expensive, funky clothes to sit in her apartment all day, just as much as she loves cracking impossible puzzles (and grins with excitement whenever the plot thickens). She’s even a little mean to Wato (Shihori Kanjiya), who, on the other hand, is shy, sympathetic, and sensitive—dealing with her own demons, PTSD that has begun to rage since her return to Japan. Their friendship becomes more like a sisterhood—fraught, frustrated, turbulent, triumphant.
(Available to stream on HBO Max)
Year of the Rabbit
The boisterous series Year of the Rabbit has more men in its core crime-solving team than is ideal for this list, but Susan Wokoma’s Mabel is such a good detective, and the surrounding men are wholly daffy that it’s clear they’re not taking away her spotlight. Mabel is a Black female detective living in London during the Victorian era. She has the skills, and the connections (she’s the Police Chief’s adopted daughter), but she still has countless odds stacked against her, when it comes to getting the appropriate credit and compensation for what she’s capable of. Still, Mabel is undaunted.
(Watch on Amazon with Topic)
Vera
The phenomenally talented Brenda Blethyn shines in Vera, a detective show set in Northumberland, about a crotchety, sarcastic, messy, but brilliant female DCI named Vera Stanhope. We’ve seen the archetype plenty of times, but not enough in female characters. And Blethyn is so good, she makes the whole thing feel brand-new. This is the only show with a cop at its helm, and I’m making the exception because Vera is so condescending towards the police, it’s a wonder why she isn’t a PI.
(Available to stream on Acorn and Amazon Prime, with Acorn)
Teenage Bounty Hunters
I’ll never stop championing Teenage Bounty Hunters, which is both amazing and tragically cancelled. Created by Kathleen Jordan, this critically-beloved sleeper hit is the story of 16-year-old twin sisters Blair and Sterling (Anjelica Bette Fellini and Maddie Phillips) who begin an after-school side-hustle working for a middle-aged bounty hunter named Bowser (Kadeem Hardison) who maybe can’t run as fast as he used to. Blair is super fast and Sterling is an ace with a gun. But between chasing bad guys and high-school problems, they find a lot of difficult stuff to deal with. Set in the affluent Atlanta suburbs, this is a smart, sincere show that asks questions about who profits from arrests, and prison, in general. Which it is able to do *very* effectively for its setting in the deep South, real Trump territory. The show has a lot to say about race, class, and sexuality, particularly whiteness (and Southern white womanhood). But it’s also just an endearing romp. Maybe there’s too much high school-related self-discovery and drama than “mystery-solving,” PER SE, for it to be on this list, but you should overlook this. You’ll thank me later.
(Available to stream on Netflix)
The Mrs. Bradley Mysteries
There are only five episodes of The Mrs. Bradley Mysteries, which is a SHAME, because they are eminently delightful. The legendary Diana Rigg plays the wealthy, meddlesome, brassy Mrs. Bradley, a passionate suffragette who suffers no fools, and loves to solve crimes. Again, there are too few episodes (WHY!?), but they will charm and entertain you. And few actors can spellbind an audience quite like Rigg.
(Available to stream on Amazon Prime and Britbox)
Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries (Netflix)
The grand-dame of all female-led murder mystery shows has to be the Roaring-20s-set Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, about a very game, cunning flapper named Phryne Fisher (Essie Davis) who has just inherited a vast fortune and lives in an enormous house in Melbourne. She lives with a crew of skilled factotums, and loves to solve mysteries, to the consternation (and eventual fascination) of the local police chief. There’s a mysterious amount of really fake-looking CGI, and sometimes the fabulous costumes look a biiiiiit too “costume-party” than totally believable, but it’s hard not to love watching a very confident woman do whatever she wants. Also, a high point is that Phryne‘s best friend is an out-lesbian doctor, who wears pants! I WISH 20s America could handle stuff like that. This show is delightful to the very last drop. (Be warned, the show tries to be all dark in Season 1 by weaving in a plot about Phryne‘s sister being kidnapped and murdered as a child. It is upsetting. But once this arc is over, the series settles into something vastly more relaxing.)
(Available to stream on Acorn and Amazon Prime, with Acorn)
Murder, She Wrote
Don’t forget the great-grand dame of all female-led murder mystery shows, which needs no introduction on this website.
(Stream on Philo, whatever that is)
Death Comes to Pemberly
Elizabeth Bennett is our detective protagonist in Death Comes to Pemberly, based on the adaptation of P.D. James’s late-career fanfiction of the same name. Elizabeth and Darcy have been married for a few years and all is blissful at Pemberly until the original novel’s entire cast shows up… and then there is a murder!
(Available to stream on Netflix)
Frankie Drake Mysteries
I haven’t watched much of the Frankie Drake Mysteries, but they seem very soothing, in a Miss Fisher kind of way. Frankie Drake (Lauren Lee Smith) is a pants-wearing Private Eye who opens an office in 1920s Toronto with an aim of helping the downtrodden. She and her glamorous partner Trudy Clarke (Chantel Riley) remain undaunted by even the most treacherous-seeming of circumstances. Plus they have help in their crime-solving from Flo at the morgue (Sharon Matthews), and Mary at the police station (Rebecca Liddard). I find myself being not-totally-convinced by the aesthetic (it looks a BUNCH more like a costume party than Miss Fisher does) but it’s a nice time if you want to flop on your couch and watch women supporting one another, especially at a historical moment crucial in the history of women’s social and political advancement.
(Available to stream on Amazon Prime and Thirteen Passport)
Agatha Raisin
Agatha Raisin is so quirky and cute and full of sneaking around and meddling. It’s fresh and perky without being cloying. Agatha Raisin (the brilliantly-talented Ashley Jensen) is a PR consultant-turned-amateur detective who solves murders in the Cotswolds. TELEVISION SUNSHINE, I TELL YOU.
(Available to stream on Acorn and Amazon Prime, with Acorn)
Marple
There are LOTS of adaptations of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple stories, and I recommend all of them. But right now, I’m going to recommend this recent adaptation, which stars both Geraldine McEwan and Julia McKenzie in the title role. (Nothing too formally funky… McEwan was cast from 2004 to 2007, and McKenzie from 2008 to 2013). If you like watching women-who-are-underestimated-for-their-gender-and-age turn out to get the better of everyone, LOOK NO FURTHER.
(Available to stream on Acorn and Amazon Prime, with Acorn)
Rosemary & Thyme
This show is especially soothing for its preponderance of beautiful foliage. Rosemary Boxer and Laura Thyme are two professional gardeners who wind up feeling a bit bereft and alone: Rosemary is newly single after her husband leaves her for another woman, while Laura is laid off from her job as a university lecturer specializing in horticulture. But it’s fine, because they have each other, and a burgeoning hobby for solving crimes. There’s nothing like investigating a murder to put the rose back in one’s cheeks.
(Available to stream on BritBox, or Amazon)
