February is usually designated as the month for lovers or sports fans. Valentine’s Day and the Super Bowl dominate everything, and if you don’t like love or football, you’re usually out of luck. Well, nuts to that! The NFL bores me to tears, and love can go take a hike. It’s crime I want to watch, and crime shows set in the U.K. are just the ticket to chase away those winter blues.
In January, Digital Trends recommended three great crime shows currently streaming. If you’ve binged through them already, or just need new recommendations to fill up your queue, then the following three selections should do the trick. One show just premiered, another is a COVID-era modern classic starring David Tennant, and the other is an underrated series starring Being Human and The Hobbit actor Aidan Turner.
Need more recommendations? Check out the best British shows on Netflix and the best British shows on Hulu.
The Woman in the Wall (2023)
The first image you see in The Woman in the Wall is of a woman passed out in the middle of the road. She wakes up, bloodied and dazed, and wonders back home. Inside, she finds a knife impaled in a portrait of Jesus Christ, and a locked door she makes sure is secure. It seems this kind of thing has happened before, and it will probably happen again.
The woman in question, Lorna Brady (The Affair‘s Ruth Wilson), is obviously not well, but is she imbalanced enough to take another human life? That’s what Detective Colman Akande (Bad Sisters standout Daryl McCormack) has to find out as he investigates the brutal murder of an Irish priest who once helped him when he was a wayward youth. Colman’s personal connection to the victim, combined with Lorna’s past trauma as a victim of the real-life Magdalene Laundries, make this murder mystery more complex and unsettling than the usual cozy countryside murder yarns. The Woman in the Wall is disturbing in all the right ways, and you’ll be hard-pressed not to binge through all the available episodes in one night.
The Woman in the Wall is streaming on Paramount+.
Deadwater Fell (2020)
Doctor Who‘s David Tennant is one of the world’s most charismatic actors, but occasionally, he can play men who are so repulsive that you’ll wonder why you ever thought he was charming in the first place. That’s the mark of a great actor, and Tennant is never better than he is in Deadwater Fell, a four-episode limited series that premiered during COVID and may have gotten lost amid the streaming successes of such shows as Normal People with Paul Mescal (Aftersun) and The Queen’s Gambit with Anya Taylor-Joy (The Menu).
Tennant stars as Tom Kendrick, a Scottish doctor with a seemingly ideal life. He has a loving wife, three well-behaved young children, and a gorgeous home. That life is shattered one night when a fire kills everyone but Tom. Everyone is the family had been drugged, and the fire was caused intentionally. Who would do such a thing? And why do the police immediately suspect Tom? What’s most appealing about Deadwater Fell is that Tennant doesn’t make Tom all that likable. In fact, he’s a bit of a jerk, and the series continuously asks you to care for a main protagonist who frequently does awful things. But is one of those things murder? You’ll have to watch to find out.
Deadwater Fell is streaming on AMC+ and Acorn TV.
The Suspect (2022)
When The Suspect first begins, Joe O’Loughlin (Aidan Turner) looks like the perfect hero for a different kind of show. A clinical psychologist, he is first depicted saving the life of a suicidal jumper before going back to his immaculate home and his perfect family. He has a generous book deal in the works, the media believes he’s a hero for saving that suicidal man’s life, and he has a beard so impressive that barbers around the world probably would applaud him if they were ever lucky enough to meet him.
So when the body of a young woman turns up, and the police identify her as former patient of his, it’s a bit jarring to us and to Joe. It gets worse as circumstantial evidence and strange coincidences connect Joe to the young woman’s death. But surely Joe is innocent? Who would risk such a perfect life to end another’s? The Suspect is a bit preposterous, and it leans too heavily on outrageous plot devices, but it’s good fun and Turner makes for an engaging hero. You won’t believe how it ends, but that’s part of the fun.
All five episodes of The Suspect are streaming on AMC+.
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