Dale Reynolds

IT’S CRIMINAL — IN FRENCH The American crime novelist, Mary Higgins Clark (b: 1927), has had extraordinary career-success with her series of crime books. And the French are especially pleased with her body of work, rewarding her with several major awards. The three French-language television films on this collection from MHz are professionally handled with…

SPRING TIDE FOR SWEDEN Now available on DVD, this sober-sided cop-show sparkles with invention about how patient detective grunt-work can pay off big time. Written by the famous Swedish husband/wife team of Rolf and Cillia Börglind (Beck, Arne Dahl, Wallender, among many other series), Spring Tide (Springfloden) taken from their novel, The Third Voice (Den…

YOU WON’T WANT ACQUITTED TO QUIT Norway’s Acquitted (Frikjent) Season One is now available on DVD and MHz with Season Two to follow. A strong contender for Best Teleplay Sounding Like a Soap Opera, it is — believe me — much, much better. Norwegian Aksel Borgen (Nicolai Cleve Broch) has returned home to his native…

YOU WON’T FORGET THIS All three seasons of this excellent British DVD/Blu-ray import, along the lines of the many Cold Case series, are first-rate and occasionally heart-stopping, here to be had and enjoyed on DVD. Starring the ubiquitous Nicola Walker (seen in her glory in MI5; Last Tango to Halifax; River) and veteran Sanjeev Bhaskar…

SCANDI-NOIR-VIA Based on the novels of Hí¥kan Nesser, this series concerns a retired northern European chief detective who opens up a used book shop for his leisure time; yet cops — whether friends from the force or not — keep coming in to test his skills on difficult cases. In Season One, now available on…

RUTH, THE TRUTH, AND A SLEUTH Actress Ruth Wilson is well known in her native UK, and is slowly gaining acclaim here in the U.S. (check out her work as the psychotic enemy of Idris Elba in the hard-hitting detective-drama, Luther). So when she approached BBC to produce a project close to her heart, they…

MINIATURIST BIG IN THRILLS & DETAIL It’s late 17th century just after the fourth Anglo-Dutch war, and since Britain and the Netherlands are no longer fighting at sea, an 18-year-old Englishwoman, Petronella “Nella” Oortman (Anya Taylor-Joy), is chosen to marry rich sugar-merchant, Johannes Brandt (Alex Hassell), and brought to his home. Also in the household…

WHAT WOULD WILKIE WANT WITH WOMAN IN WHITE? Wilkie Collins (1824-1889) was a well-recognized English novelist, one who specialized in “sensational” novels, including his first big hit, The Woman in White (1859), and who, with Charles Dickens, co-wrote a stage adaptation of it, which had a successful London run. This latest television version — written…

í€ BIENTí”T This brilliant series, set in a fictional south-eastern French village during and just after World War II, gives the patient viewer an extraordinary history from the Nazi invasion from 1940 to 1945: the day-to-day survival mechanisms the populace and police had to endure, and the effects of the Vichy government on turncoat French…

WORTH INSPECTING There is something strong to say in favor of MHz’s collection of European dramas and cop shows and Inspector Winter is a quality example. Based on the popular crime novels of í„ke Edwardson, his Swedish detective (Magnus Krepper) is a craggy-faced, 40+ pile of insecurities and power, as depressed as a Scandinavian mid-winter…

AN ACTOR YOU CAN’T REFUSE What would Italian cop shows be without some Mafia to give it juice? The Palermo Connection explores that subject when a hotshot cop, Angelo Caronia (Riccardo Scamarcio), is transferred from his current base in Rome to a small police station on the outskirts of Palermo, capitol of Sicily, his birth-city….

A WOLFE IN BLAND CLOTHING Crime shows do not always have to be violent, sexist or hyper-exciting to be loved. But if they’re not those, then they’d better have strong storytelling and visual acuity to make their mark. Rex Stout (1886-1975) created the character of Nero Wolfe, an overweight, misogynistic, gourmand and armchair detective in…

END OF THE TUNNEL What a send-off for a series! Watching the remarkable chemistry between Stephen Dillane as British cop Karl Roebuck and Clémence Poésy as French officer Elise Wasserman creates the kind of joy that only qualified actors are able to generate with viewers, making the thriller-series mindful of what art should be. The…

SHAKING UP SHAKESPEARE In the English language, no playwright has had as much influence on the arts as William Shakespeare (or the nobleman who many think wrote his plays and sonnets, Edward de Vere, 17th  Earl of Oxford). Thousands of performances of his works have been graced (and, if bad, debased) over four centuries, so there’re…

A SERIES YOU CAN’T REFUSE For certain, we in America are well-acquainted with the Sicilian-born gangster clans first labeled The Black Hand (in the late 19th century), then La Cosa Nostra, and finally simplified as the Mafia. We’ve seen them in films and novels and theater. But most of us are not acquainted with the…

NEXT TIME SOMEONE CALLS YOU NEANDERTHAL, TAKE IT AS A COMPLIMENT How fascinating to learn that just about anyone not directly descended from sub-Saharan Africa has anywhere from 1-4% Neanderthal in their DNA. (As luck would have it, I have three percent – who knew?!) And just who were these cousins to Homo Sapiens (us,…

RAISING CAíN Set in the port city of Marseilles, France, this captivating series, here in two seasons (2012 and 2014) — with four more seasons to come on DVD — uses an able-bodied actor, Bruno Debrandt, to play a homicide detective who was shot and crippled while chasing a suspect, and now lives — and…

THIS SERIES IS A KILLER This spy thriller/crazy-woman drama is full of sly wit and generous amounts of spooky drama in which a spy-catcher (Sandra Oh) has to find a pretty, psychotic damsel (Jodie Comer) before she wipes out most of Europe with her gleeful killing spree. In addition to some extraordinary writing, directing, and…