What We Love on Britbox, Acorn, and More: Streaming International Murder

In a recent discussion of things we’re loving that are getting us through the Strange Quarantine Times (side question: how many ways in email, marketing pitches, and news articles have you seen the current situation described? I might have a complete bingo board’s worth at this point) Shana brought up…BritBox.

Oh, crumbs.

Shana: I splurged and got a Britbox subscription. It seems to have every BBC and ITV show ever made, and I’m watching all the British cozy mysteries.

We have watched an embarrassing number of hours during our free trial.

Sarah: BritBox is a subscription service full of British tv, as the name might imply. It’s $7US per month, or $70 for the year, and, yes, there’s a one-week trial.

I’m doomed. Or really, really happy. Or both? My guiding principle during the Weirdness Home Stay is, “Do what you feel like doing, and be gentle with yourself, and others, and especially with yourself again.”

So, I immediately replied.

Sarah: Any recs, Shana? I wish to join you, please?

Shana: For British mysteries? I love Rosemary and Thyme: it’s about two women who have a midlife job/life change and design gardens together while solving crimes—often with a plant-based hook.

Vera is one of my faves for excellent competence from the heroine, who is both prickly and kind. There is sometimes blood but it’s not gory.

Jonathan Creek is an older, more comedic show about a magician who solves difficult crimes. Caroline Quentin from Blue Murder costars (and that show’s pretty good as well).

Oh and Father Brown is on Britbox too. It’s hard to get cozier than that.

And Midsomer Murders!

Susan: Oh, man, I spent SO MANY YEARS staying up past my bedtime to watch Midsomer Murders.

Shana: I find Midsomer Murders sooo relaxingly cozy. The ethnic diversity improves around ten years back for long running shows, including that one, so I’d feel free to skip over the first few seasons.

Can we talk about our favorite wacky episodes of all time? Like when they investigate a free love cult. Or when they go undercover in a different New Age cult.

Or the episodes about a supposed famous local cheese, or wine, chamber music or whatever?

Maya: I loved the one about the competitive bell ringers!

Or the one at the Literary Festival where an author and then their editor both get murdered! And I feel like there was one that featured mushrooms (some poisonous!) heavily

Shana: OMG, the competitive bell ringers ep is one of my faves. I have seen it at least 3 times.

Oh, I didn’t mention the Bletchley Circle San Francisco spinoff.

It’s only thinly connected to the original, but I’m really liking it.

Sarah: SHANA JUST THE FLOWERS BLOOMING on the intro of Rosemary & Thyme.

Friend, I am already in near-coma bliss.

I’m doing a lot of cross stitching during the Why Are We Out of Milk Again Times, and this is a perfect accompaniment.

This show is adorable. I do note that they both appear onscreen as Women in Comfortable Shoes. Literally, I mean. Their footwear is the subject of much envy.

Aarya: Wait, are their names Rosemary and Thyme?

Shana: Of course, they are, because what could be cozier: Rosemary Boxer and Laura Thyme.

I’m glad you’re enjoying the show Sarah! Vera’s veering into darker territory, so I’m going back to the floral embrace of horticultural mysteries tomorrow.

Sarah: SHANA THE VICAR OF DIBLEY IS ON BRITBOX.

Omg, day is made.

Shana: Omg, thank you! I love that show and was so sad when it left Netflix.

Sarah: I am so happy. It’s under T which is really sad. I only thought to look there because I searched for it, thought it wasn’t part of the subscription, and then I got one of those weird cookied “I already bought this but I’m gonna see ads for it for the next year anyway” and there was a shot of Dawn French in a clerical collar.

Shana: T? Really, Britbox? You’re lucky I love you.

Sarah: For real. And it holds up, too! Episode one had me chortling.

Half an hour later: Well, no, I take that back.

It doesn’t entirely. Some gay jokes, A WHOLE episode of them dammit dammit.

Shana: It’s a hazard of watching vintage tv for sure. Gay jokes and evil lesbian killers. I’m lookin’ at you, Midsomer Murders.

Sarah: Some of the jokes poke at the “Oh Noes Gay Panic” but also plays directly into it in a way that makes my stomach hurt. Can’t I just have snarky, pompous parish council meetings and Dawn French telling bad jokes after the end credits?

Catherine: One of my church choirs periodically sings the version of ‘The Lord is my Shepherd’ from the opening credits, and it’s so much fun.

Sarah: I love that arrangement! It’s on my workout mix of all things.

Here’s a question we’ve been debating in-house amid The Adults Are Around One Another All The Time Times: are there any “cozy mystery” shows on US tv that aren’t some kind of procedural? We have sixty-eleven medical, police, legal, and investigative procedurals that are variations of dark and angsty, but cozy mystery dramas seem difficult to find. Murder, She Wrote was the last one we could think of that might qualify as “Cozy US Mystery TV.”

Aarya: Would you consider Pushing Daisies to be a variant of a cozy mystery? That’s what I’ve been rewatching in the past week.

Obviously it’s PNR and funny, but it’s also not a typical procedural imo.

Sarah: Oh, you’re totally right, Aarya. Pushing Daisies is a great example.

Shana: Eva and I are now debating this. She suggested The Finder, I’m wondering if Psych is too much of a comedy to count.

Sarah: Good question. That’s a hybrid for sure.

More streaming options, anyone?

I also learned about other imported shows available on Sundance Now without a paywall: the first seasons of Riviera, The Restaurant, Public Enemy and The Bureau, through April 14. You can also get a 30-day trial of Sundance Now with code SUNDANCENOW30.

Riviera stars Julia Stiles as an American widow whose billionaire husband dies under suitably mysterious circumstances. The Restaurant is a Swedish import, focusing on a restauranteur family in WWII and subsequent decades.

Romance fans might like Idiomatic, which is a Finnish comedy about a couple, one of whom is from Finnish Lapland, and the other is Swedish. They move into an apartment owned by and next door to his wealthy parents. There’s class, language, and family conflict, plus comedy.

Sundance Now also has A Discovery of Witches.

And Acorn, another source of British and other international imported television, has a 30 day free trial with code FREE30. Among the shows on Acorn, such as the ever-cozy Midsomer Murders, there’s also Deadwater Fell, which stars David Tennant.

Queens of Mystery is a “contemporary murder-mystery series follows the adventures of a perennially single detective and her three crime-writing aunts as they solve murders in the picturesque English region of Wildemarsh.”

OF COURSE IT IS PICTURESQUE IT IS A REQUIREMENT.

Lara: I love The Detectorists, a quiet series that ends in the most life-affirmingly wonderful way. Each episode is the equivalent of a warm bath followed by a comfy bed.

Sarah: The description I have access to says it’s a “BAFTA Award-winning comedy [that] follows the eccentric members of the Danebury Metal Detecting Club as they search for treasure in the English countryside.”

HI HELLO THERE YES. Here for that!

Shana: Murdoch Mysteries is on Acorn. It’s a historical mystery series set in early 1900s Toronto, with a science-loving detective, Murdoch, whose inventions help him solve crimes. It’s adorable, earnest, and super feminist. The coroner is a woman, and she’s also the love interest.

So that’s our streaming addiction so far during The Dogs Are Really Pleased Everyone is Home More Belly Rubs Meanwhile The Cat is Annoyed-er Times.

What about you? Any cozy imported shows you’re dying (HA HA HA) to recommend?