Well, August was the last time I shared What I’ve Been Watching, and I know you’re always wondering what is getting my attention.

This week we’ve got three British crime shows, one American comedy cop show, and…an action movie.

RETURN TO PARADISE

I have written more than once about Death in Paradise This British cop show, set in a Caribbean island, is one of my favorites, through 117 episodes over 14 seasons. Click here to read about it.

There have been multiple cast changes, with several Detective Inspectors from Britain assigned. One, Humphrey Goodman (played by Kris Marshall), has his own spin-off, Beyond Paradise. Season three just began dropping on Britbox this week, and has been renewed for a fourth.

There’s another spin-off, set in Australia. It’s a bit different. There’s mild tie to Death in Paradise, but it’s not a sequel, like Beyond Paradise is. More on that below.

Anna Samson is DI Mackenzie Clark. She had been a police officer in her Australian hometown, when she dumped her fiance and went off to work in London. She’s under investigation there and returns home. She ends up working there again, where her ex-fiance is the ME, and his mother is her boss – before and again. So, you get the set-up.

She’s a good cop. All of the DIs in the Paradise series’ are good cops. But except for Jack Mooney, they’re all socially inept. REALLY inept. They’re all fishes out of water on top of that. Mooney is an Irishman who actually has social skills, and he fits in better than the other three. The first four DIs are likable. The current ‘new guy’ fits this pattern less, but he also had some major emotional baggage involving a close death, and they’re working on that.

Clarke is socially inept, but in a rather unlikable way. She’s not a very appealing character. She’s a good cop with terrible communication skills, no tact, and she’s not team-oriented. She’s not a bad person per se – leaving your fiance at the altar probably doesn’t get you sainthood – but I haven’t warmed up to her yet, in season two. I genuinely like the Death in Paradise DIs. Of course there is some character development, but even with DI Mervin Wilson on Death, this show doesn’t have the same vibe.

The appeal of the main character isn’t the same as in the Paradise ‘franchise.’ Good or bad? We’ll see. But I’m not really invested in Clarke, which is not a good thing for a cop show. Especially one with a built-in fan base.

It was the tie to Death made me want to watch this. Her boss, back in London, is….Jack Mooney!! Played by Ardal O’Hanlon, he was the DI for parts of four seasons. He has people skills and Irish charm. He’s still a fish out of water, but he’s the most ‘normal’ of the DIs. He returns to London to be near his now college-age daughter. I was sad to see him go.

I was so happy to see him on screen again. It’s only been two episodes, but I love the tie-in. It’s inherently a limited role, but he’s still good ol’ Jack, and it’s great!

If you’re a Paradise fan, or want something Aussie (though Doctor Blake Mysteries is untouchable in that regard), check this out. It’s good, I’m just having trouble getting behind the main character.

All of this has convinced me to write a deep dive into the Paradise franchise, covering the multiple series’, and inter-relations, in one post. I’m in!

I stream this on Britbox.

GOOD COP/BAD COP

This is a comedy cop show running on the CW. Clancy Brown (who will forever be the guy who voices Mr. Krabs) is Big Hank, police chief in a small town. His daughter, Lou, is his star officer. In an attempt to bring his estranged son Henry back into the family fold, he hires him and makes him Lou’s partner.

Luke is brilliant and lacking people skills (I seem to be drawn to these shows, eh? Monk is an all-time favorite). Lou is brilliant and romantically inept. Big Hank has a Russian (?) girlfriend who fills a strange mom role. It’s a strained setup.

Brown gives me a little of the vibe Tom Wopat had in the County Line TV movies, which I talked about here.

I literally have no idea what the ‘Bad Cop’ part of the title is. None.

There’s a ‘crime of the week,’ as well an over-arching mystery from the past, which builds up over the season, with a heck of a finale. It’s popular on Prime, but the CW had not renewed it, which is a bad sign.

The quirky town, the family dynamics, the cases to solve, the brother’s technique: it all makes for a fun show. It’s the opposite of a police procedural like Murder in a Small Town (which I’ve praised here). But if you want some humor in your cop show, this is not a bad choice.

I’d like a season two, please.

I stream this with Hulu plus live TV.

THE CLEANER

This is a British crime show with 19 episodes over three seasons. Greg Davies is 6’-8” Paul ‘Wicky’ Wickman. He works for a company as a state-certified crime cleaner. He’s constantly assigned to murder sites and gets involved in strange (odd, ridiculous, other) situations.

He’s a different kind of socially inept, and he’s not exactly a paragon of virtue. He can be petty, or selfish. But he also has a good heart somewhere inside.

This is a funny show, and I watch the mishaps progress, wondering what Wicky is going to do next.

Wicky is his own worst enemy, though he does seem to have a knack for finding himself in improbably situations with strange people.

An unusual characteristic of an ongoing, episodic crime show, is the lack of recurring characters. There’s only one other one. PS Ruth Edwards (played by Zita Sattar) is it. Only three other people appeared in two episodes. It’s Wicky, and about half the time, Ruth. No company manager, no neighbor, no pub buddy, no nemesis. You don’t see that very often.

Davies, who has a Welsh accent, is a stand-up comedian, and went on a Summer tour after the most recent season finished airing. The BBC has not renewed it for a season four yet.

This is a rather unique crime show, with a lot of humor. I think you should at least check out the pilot, which features the wonderfully talented Helena Bonham Carter as the main guest star.

I stream this on Britbox.

LYNLEY

I’ve read none of the twenty Inspector Lynley novels written by Elizabeth George. Nor have I seen any of the 23 episodes of the TV show which ran from 2001 to 2007. So, no preconceptions for this brand new version, which has dropped four episodes so far.

Leo Suter is a relatively young DI Lynley, he’s assigned somewhere (I’m actually not sure what part of rural England this takes place), and is paired up with DS Barbra Havers (played by Sofia Barclay).

The premise seems kinda Jane Austenish. Lynley comes from old money. Big old money. Reminds me of Will Smith in the first Bad Boys (GREAT movie!!). Havers is a working-class cop. They are entirely the mismatched pair. Their backgrounds definitely impact how they investigate cases, and don’t mirror each other’s.

They aren’t exactly buddies from day one, and Lynley isn’t great at collaborating, either. He has a bad history with his new boss, which plays into the dynamics of the team.

There is some humor in this, but it’s far more The Bay, or Morse, than The Cleaner, with Death in Paradise somewhere in the middle.

Not a lot to evaluate so far, but I think this is a pretty good drama. Filmed in Ireland, there’s some harsh beauty in nature, and it’s a good-looking show. As with Murder in a Small Town, I find myself waiting for a new episode to drop weekly.

I’m streaming this on Hulu plus live TV.

EXPEND4BLES

I enjoy the Expendables movies, which are throwbacks to the big-budget action movies of the eighties and nineties. Sylvester Stallone leads a team of mercenaries who do the dirty – and dangerous – jobs which the US government won’t. Jason Statham is his right-hand man. There’s a biker culture around the group.

There are various villains and guest stars, and some team members come and go. But the homage approach results in lots of familiar faces: many action movie stars.

In just the first one, we see Mickey Rourke, Jet Li, Eric Roberts, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture, Steve Austin, and Terry Crews. Two years later in the sequel, it’s Chuck Norris, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Liam Helmsworth, and Yu Nan. Two years later, we got a third, and the explosions and the action continued, with Harrison Ford, Mel Gibson, Wesley Snipes, Kelsey Grammar, Rhonda Rousey, and Antonio Banderas (if you’re a fan of his, you REALLY should see him in this. He’s so much fun).

COVID threw things off kilter, and it was nine years before Expend4bles came out in 2023. 50 Cent, Megan Fox, Tony Jaa, Lucy Newman-Williams, and Andy Garcia joined the party. It’s really cool they got so many ‘genre-related’ (sorta) to appear in the series – some ongoing.

4 was a step-down from the prior installments. The CGI was glaringly obvious, and an extended action scene involving Stratham and bad guys riding gun-shooting motorcycles all over a ship, was beyond cheesy. The banter, and the explosions, lived up to standards. But I’m okay if they wrapped up the franchise with his one (Stallone is still spry as heck for a 79 year old!).

But I highly recommend the first couple and then continue on if you liked them. I love the concept, and I enjoyed reliving those big action blockbuster days.

I watched it on Roku.

Some previous entries on things to watch:

What I’ve Been Watching – August 2025 (Ballard, Resident Alien, Twisted Metal, and more)
What I’ve Been Watching – May 2025 (County Line, The Bondsman, Bosch: Legacy)
What I’ve Been Watching – October 2024 (What We Do in the Shadows, The Bay, Murder in a Small Town)
What I’m Watching – November 2023 (Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Caine Mutiny Court Martial, A Haunting in Venice)
What I’m Watching – April 2023 (Florida Man, Picard – season three, The Mandalorian)
The Pale Blue Eye, and The Glass Onion: Knives Out
Tony Hillerman’s Dark Winds
The Rings of Power (Series I wrote on this show – all links at this one post)
What I’m Watching – December 2022 (Frontier, Leverage: Redemption)
What I’m Watching – November 2022 (Tulsa King, Andor, Fire Country, and more)
What I’m Watching – September 2022 (Galavant, Firefly, She-Hulk, and more)
What I’m Watching- April 2022 (Outer Range, Halo, Why Didn’t They Ask Evans, and more)
When USA Network was Kicking Major Butt (Monk, Psych, Burn Notice)
You Should be Streaming These Shows (Corba Kai, The Expanse, Bosch, and more)
What I’m BritBoxing – December 2021 (Death in Paradise, Shakespeare & Hathaway, The Blake Mysteries, and more)
To Boldly Go – Star Treking – (Various Star Trek incarnations)
What I’ve Been Watching – August 2021 (Monk, The Tomorrow War, In Plain Sight, and more)
What I’m Watching – June 2021 (Get Shorty, Con Man, Thunder in Paradise, and more)
Tucker and Dale vs. Evil
What I’ve Been Watching – June 2021 (Relic Hunter, Burn Notice, Space Force, and more)
Appaloosa
Psych of the Dead
The Mandalorian
What I’m Watching: 2020 – Part Two (My Name is Bruce, Sword of Sherwood Forest, Isle of Fury, and more)
What I’m Watching 2020: Part One (The Adventures of Brisco County Jr, Poirot, Burn Notice, and more)
Philip Marlowe: Private Eye
Leverage
Nero Wolfe – The Lost Pilot
David Suchet’s ‘Poirot’
Sherlock Holmes (over two dozen TV shows and movies)

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Bob Byrne’s ‘A (Black) Gat in the Hand’ made its Black Gate debut in 2018 and has returned every summer since.

His ‘The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes’ column ran every Monday morning at Black Gate from March, 2014 through March, 2017. And he irregularly posts on Rex Stout’s gargantuan detective in ‘Nero Wolfe’s Brownstone.’ He is a member of the Praed Street Irregulars, and founded www.SolarPons.com (the only website dedicated to the ‘Sherlock Holmes of Praed Street’).

He organized Black Gate’s award-nominated ‘Discovering Robert E. Howard’ series, as well as the award-winning ‘Hither Came Conan’ series. Which is now part of THE Definitive guide to Conan. He also organized 2023’s ‘Talking Tolkien.’

He has contributed stories to The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories — Parts III, IV, V, VI, XXI, and XXXIII.

He has written introductions for Steeger Books, and appeared in several magazines, including Black Mask, Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, The Strand Magazine, and Sherlock Magazine.

You can definitely ‘experience the Bobness’ at Jason Waltz’s ’24? in 42′ podcast.

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