The new secret/crime sequence “Whitstable Pearl” reminds me of a darker variation of “Murder, She Wrote” — with the English seaside town of Whitstable subbing for Cabot Cove and a young version of no-nonsense sleuth Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) as its protagonist.
The 6-episode Acorn Tv set sequence is based on Julie Wassmer’s novels and was shot on site in Whitstable, positioned on the north coast of Kent. That is a major enhance, given that you can practically really feel the cold spray mist coming off the North Sea as you get to know every of the big people. It actually sets the environment.
The collection revolves around Pearl Nolan (Kerry Godliman). She’s the one mom of a teenage son, Charlie (Rohan Nedd), and owns the Whitstable Pearl, a local restaurant identified for its oysters and homey environment. She operates the eatery with her brash, opinionated mom, Dolly (Frances Barber).
Pearl is also an ex-cop who still left the drive soon after acquiring expecting with Charlie, and now operates her personal private investigation business from the cafe. In the premiere, she finds her previous close friend Vinnie — a fisherman who supplied the Whitstable Pearl with oysters — (virtually) dead-in-the-water.
The situation is assigned to DCI Mike McGuire (Howard Charles), a brooding, bearded investigator who not too long ago transferred to Whitstable from London and detests smaller-city everyday living (“because you have to talk to people,” he states).
He’s hiding some insider secrets of his personal, such as his anguish in excess of the death of his spouse. Pearl (by natural means) receives included in the investigation, which impacts her young employee, waitress Ruby (Isobelle Molloy) — and, as she is effective the scenario with McGuire and his difficult-male facade commences to crack, you can see that their romantic relationship is heading into a nearer (intimate?) route.
Every episode of “Whitstable Pearl” is close-finished, in the feeling that a scenario is solved, but Vinnie’s loss of life proceeds to reverberate in the proceeding installments, so there’s a bit of continuity. (Episode 2 consists of the attempted murder of a real estate agent and a Robin Hood-type doling out wads of hard cash to locals — we’ll depart it at that.)
Godliman, who co-stars reverse Ricky Gervais in his Netflix collection “After Life” (in flashbacks as Lisa, his deceased spouse), fits properly into the planet of “Whitstable Pearl” as do her co-stars, who have awesome onscreen chemistry. The sequence arrives with an A-checklist pedigree (“Lilyhammer” creator Oystein Karlsen) and moves alongside at a brisk tempo towards a picturesque backdrop reminiscent of other British crime shows (most notably “Broadchurch”).
Why these quaint coastal cities appear to be to just about every have an evil underbelly remains a thriller — but I’m happy that, at the very least in Whitstable, Pearl Nolan is seeking to fix those dilemmas, 1 situation at a time.
