Brief Story Line
A former military officer named Cormoran B. Strike (Tom Burke - The Musketeers TV series, Mank etc) decided to operate a private investigation firm in London after he was honorary discharged due to losing one of his leg while stationed in Afghanistan. He believed that as former officer in Special Investigation Branch (SIB), he would be suited to solve various cases because of his wide experience. Strike also just came out of a toxic relationship with Charlotte (Natasha O'Keeffe - Peaky Blinders TV series etc).
However, the firm was not doing really well. So when Robin Ellacott (Holliday Grainger - The Finest Hours, Cinderella Live version etc) came to start work as temp staff, Strike was hesitant but decided to give her a try. Ultimately though, Robin proved that she was more than capable to be just an admin staff and later did provide much needed help, especially during their first major case involving the suicide of famous supermodel. Unfortunately, the time spent by Robin would strain her relationship with her fiancé Matthew Cunliffe (Kerr Logan).
Upon solving that mystery, Strike did get more publicity and worked on multiple different cases, including the missing novel writer, the case which seemed to involve Strike's past in SIB and even helping an England minister to fend off blackmails he received. And so how would Strike and Robin dealt with the investigations while at the same time juggle with their personal lives? Find them all in this pretty entertaining British detective series.
End of Brief Story Line
I have to be honest that when I started watching this, I did not know it was based on a series of novels. When I saw the opening credits, I only saw the name J. K Rowlings as one of the executive producers and I still did not realize the relations. Until I read more about this series and found out they were based on the Cormoran Strike novels written by Robert Galbraith which apparently was pseudonym for Rowlings. This made me admire her even more, because usually there would be a specific genre writers were comfortable with and Rowlings managed to write fantasy Harry Potter novels and totally different ones in the form of detective novels.
Anyway, the series itself was pretty good. The two lead characters were definitely the ones who made this truly interesting to watch. It was combination of a rather non-typical English man who did not hesitate to express his thoughts & his unique personal background as the illegitimate son of famous rocker (funnily enough he was never shown in this series) with a common woman about to get married to her fiancé but apparently having a past that drove her to take her job seriously at Strike's firm.
Aside from the characters, I also like the cases involved. This was not the type of one case per episode with 10-20 cases per seasons. Instead it was like a mini series with 2 or 3 and even 4 episodes to solve one case. Which was why I was able to complete whole 4 seasons in 1 weekend, as it only consisted of 11 episodes overall. The 1st-3rd seasons were broadcast through BBC-one in 2017-2018 while the 4th season was released in 2020. It was my luck as HBO acquired the rights to show them, so I got the chance to watch this critically praised series.
All the 4 cases had their own characteristics. I loved the first one (from the novel: The Cuckoo's Calling) as it was the first time Strike and Robin worked together. The second from the novel The Silkworm had some humanitarian aspect, while the third from the novel Career of Evil was great because it involved a lot of Strike's history & we got a lot more background on Robin's past. Now the 4th case from the novel Lethal White was surprisingly complex (which explained why it has 4 episodes to close). It was also the one where I thought the characters would develop into something standardly used by other story tellers. Although it was done very subtle but I think ultimately it would grow as the story continues. Btw, there was already a 5th novel published with Rowlings saying she would write some more. So we would be seeing more of them in the future (providing the cast are still available later).
Overall this was a detective series which did not disappoint me. It has some unique dark cases that must be solved and were told quite meticulously with story developing in a slow but steady pace. The characters were interesting to see with their own personal struggles. It was also quite a breath of fresh air for me personally looking at detectives working on cases on the streets of London and the lovely country side sceneries. So if you are interested in watching this type of detective series where it focused more on the investigation but with very little action, then you should be able to enjoy it. But if more actions are your preferred option, then this would not suit you. The choice is yours.
Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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