Review | What to stream this weekend: upper-class crime investigations in The Chelsea Detective season 2 on BBC First
- London’s upmarket Chelsea area is the scene of high-end crimes in BBC First’s The Chelsea Detective, starring Adrian Scarborough and Vanessa Emme
- Meanwhile, on Disney+, Nam Joo-hyuk stars as Kim Ji-yong, a modern-day superhero in Korean drama Vigilante
You can be assured of a better class of criminal offence in Chelsea than in just any old London borough.
So Detective Inspector Max Arnold (Adrian Scarborough) is reminded in series two of The Chelsea Detective (BBC First) – a police procedural short on shoot-’em-up action but long on the cerebral, subtle aspects of crime busting.
This season’s four, feature-length cases take in an art-heist murder at a swanky gallery, the dangers of living in high-end retirement homes, money-grabbing on the water in the world of rowing clubs, psychotherapy, dating and stitch-ups in the tailoring game.
Not that DI Arnold, still contending with love-life problems outside the station, runs with the flamboyant or flashy himself.
He rides a bicycle to work, doesn’t dress like a peacock and lives on the literal fringes of his “patch” – on a River Thames houseboat, perhaps inviting comparisons with the similarly reserved, drily humorous fictional Dutch detective Piet Van der Valk.
Bringing more attitude to the party is his new detective sergeant, Layla Walsh (Irish-Filipino-Spanish actress Vanessa Emme), outspoken, impatient, guardedly suspicious about her private life and unimpressed by the toys and trinkets of London’s wealthy.
As in most detective series, in which opposites attract when it comes to professional partners, their team is sure to be a winner.
All of which amounts to evidence that a qualification as a strung-out alcoholic or a gung-ho copper with a fast car is no longer essential for the job of British television detective. Nor is the ability to handle a notebook and pencil.
Arnold is dyslexic, which might explain his use of an iPhone to record crime-scene details. Either that, or British policing has arrived in the 21st century.
Dark hero
The contemporary superhero needs no exoskeleton flying suit, tailor-made armoured costume with pointy ears or sticky thread to facilitate swinging between skyscrapers.
In Seoul, at least, all he needs is a plain grey hoodie – plus a fervent desire to administer proper justice to violent criminals previously treated far too leniently by the judicial system.
In Vigilante (Disney+), Nam Joo-hyuk stars as Kim Ji-yong, the avenging hero who deals ruthlessly with gloating ex-convicts released, unrepentant, from prison after serving too little time.
On that point the public agree; they support the vigilante’s endeavours, unlike the police, who are left looking ineffectual by his direct action and treat him as a murderer.
The twist is that Ji-yong, whose mother was killed in horrific fashion when he was a child, is a trainee police officer with inside information about offenders and their victims – a clue that must eventually betray his identity as detectives and journalists try to unmask him.
If it doesn’t, as the series progresses it will count as one of the more unlikely elements of this bloody, sometimes brutal eight-part thriller.
Another concerns the role of the television news hound Choi Mi-ryeo (Kim So-jin), who becomes an expert far too soon, narratively, on the psyche of the hooded crusader.
Mi-ryeo even believes she can guarantee stellar ratings by manipulating the mystery avenger’s choice of victim – feeding him, through her show, names of previous offenders now at large.
Which begs the question: does she also want to see justice done, or simply raise her viewing figures? And could the media be partly responsible for the vigilante’s continuing crusade against criminals and its consequent killings?
But such shortcomings we’re supposed to overlook, because, as Mi-ryeo explains (cue another Batman overtone), “people want a dark hero like this”.
