Four mystery stories capture essence of the posh London locality of Chelsea, from teenagers to high life to football.
He is a balding, middle-aged cop with a hint of paunch and gingery stubble, lives alone in a smelly houseboat and cycles to work. Police detective Max Arnold is a departure from your definition of a screen hero, and his staid lifestyle marks a contrast to the posh West London locality of Chelsea where he solves his high-profile cases.
The quirky contrast between protagonist and backdrop gives The Chelsea Detective a USP of sorts, and the screenplay keeps creating space to highlight the protagonist’s private woes amidst his heady crime-busting spree. Series creator Peter Fincham hasn’t come up with the most unforgettable cop show there was, but he manages to live up to the legacy of quality British police detective sagas established by the likes of Line Of Duty, Luther, Unforgotten, Broadchurch and Shetland among others.
Season one of the show features four unrelated stories, each having a runtime of around 90 minutes. In a way it feels you were watching four feature films one after the other as Detective Inspector Arnold, played by English stage and screen veteran Adrian Scarborough, and his partner, Detective Sergeant Priya Shamsie (Scottish-Nepalese origin actress Sonita Henry) go about cracking the cases. The Chelsea Detective, however, is as much about its detectives as it is about Chelsea. The affluent London neighbourhood is a silent protagonist all along. Across the four stories, the bustling South Kensington tube station, a representative upmarket restaurant, an international private school and, quite inevitably, the talismanic Chelsea Football Club become pivotal as the adventures unfold. The stories also capture the essence of Chelsea as a locality where people of varied ethnicity have lived and thrived.
Setting a generic mood, the series opens with a freak death in the first story titled The Wages Of Sin. A somewhat disoriented old man wakes up to a writing on his mirror that seems to terrify him. “The wages of sin is death,” goes the scribble on the glass, seeing which he becomes visibly scared. The man rushes out, heads for the South Kensington tube station, bumps into a stranger on the way to whom he utters the phrase from the mirror, and then, as he awaits on the platform, we see him fall in front of an approaching train. Assigned to probe the death, Arnold teams up with his partner Shamsie, who is back at work after maternity leave. The duo realises the case is complicated when CCTV footage reveals the man could have been pushed. Things take a darker turn when medical examination reveals burn spots on the body, suggesting the dead man might have engaged in ritualistic self-abuse.
The Wages Of Sin serves as a good opener, whetting your appetite for more engrossing suspense drama to come. Episode writer Glen Laker establishes the show’s slow burn narrative style in this story, almost in sync with Arnold’s persona — unflappable on the surface yet restlessly fighting the demons within.
The second story, Mrs Romano, has a more psychological edge in the way it unfolds suspense. The publicist of a high-end Italian restaurant goes missing, and blood on her ceiling leads to conjectures she might be dead. However, twist in the story comes when her wife, who is the owner of the restaurant, gets an email from the missing publicist. Fincham and co-writer Laker manage to cater understated sinister vibes in Mrs. Romano, which essentially derives its tension from relationship conflict.
Racism and football hooliganism form the core of the more exciting third story, The Gentle Giant. Do-gooder and nice guy Steve is found stabbed in an alley, but what’s more shocking is the discovery of a bag of drugs by his corpse. Steve’s wife, in the last stage of cancer, cannot believe the news. Called to investigate, Arnold and Shamsie realise the death could have deeper connotation, beyond being a drug-related killing.
The Gentle Giant is fascinating for the way it uses a slice of football history — the 2000 UEFA Cup — and tweaks it to set up fiction around racism and violence in the sport. Beyond engaging suspense drama, Fincham’s screenplay leaves a disturbing note about how hatred left in the wake of football violence often survives over decades.
The spotlight shifts to teenagers and the high school campus in the final story, A Chelsea Education. Scripted by Liz Lake, the drama unfolds with an expensive private school as backdrop after a revered educationist is found brutally murdered. The death baffles Arnold and Shamsie because the victim was known to be a family man and role model. The story probes the deeper recesses of teen psychology as well as sordid truths that often lie beneath the immaculate facades of high-profile education institutions.
Despite the varying themes and moods of the four stories, Fincham and his creative team manage to maintain a uniformity of style and tone all along. This isn’t a cutting-edge show highlighted by car chases or spectacular stunts, but an inherently British affair that insists on detailing characters and their conflicts. Although the killings in most cases can be imagined to be brutal, the camera avoids gory close-ups. The narrative is more focussed on police procedural drama to drive home the gravity of the crime in question. Technically as well as in terms of storytelling, there is an unhurried feel about show that lets us identify with police operations as everyday work for the investigating cops. The flip side is lack of pace could be a deterrent for many viewers, especially those who are fed on a diet of flamboyant Hollywood crime thrillers. While the detailed police procedure is executed ably, at times with a helpful dose of humour, the personal vignettes of Arnold and Shamsie’s lives tend to seem tiresome after a point. The effort is aimed to adding a sentimental value to their characters, we understand, but it often tends to disturb the flow of suspense.
Adrian Scarborough brings alive Max Arnold as a quirky blend of angst and quiet recklessness. Arnold is best described by his estranged wife as a “student” for his refusal to grow up and be his age. Scarborough acts out that trait well, yet balancing it with the obvious pangs of a loner. Sonita Henry’s Priya Shamsie is opposite in every way to Arnold, except that she too battles her own problems. Battling postpartum depression, Shamsie is shown to be struggling to foster a bond with her newborn child. Henry brings out the layers of her character well. Together, the two actors share an odd couple chemistry that makes them a pleasure to watch.
The Chelsea Detective streams on BookMyShow Stream, 16 September onwards
Vinayak Chakravorty is a critic, columnist and film journalist based in Delhi-NCR.
Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News, India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
It's the official selection for the Venice International Film Festival and a couple of portals and publications have given out their reviews for this drama.
The Grammy Museum announced Wednesday that Bruce Springsteen Live! will open at the Grammy Museum L.A. Live in downtown Los Angeles on Oct. 15.
The Lord of the Rings franchise fans simply cannot ignore some hints that the creators slipped in, despite the fact that the series depicts a version of Middle-earth that has never before been seen.
Sign up for a weekly curated briefing of the most important strategic affairs stories from across the world.
Copyright © 2022. Firstpost - All Rights Reserved.