Case Histories: (My rating 4)

Definitely Not Lucius Malfoy

Jason Isaacs played Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter series. Here he is a good guy, Edinburgh private eye Jackson Brodie. The 2011-13 BBC series – six 90 minute episodes taken from novels by Kate Atkinson – ran in the U.S. on PBS. (Now available via Acorn TV.) Isaacs is one of my favorite British actors and captures the haunted Scottish knight in bruised armor to a tee.

Case Histories places in the same genre as Jack Taylor, a similarly built but Irish PI. Brodie has a lot going on in his head, remembrances of a early family tragedy, whatever led him to leave the police and unresolved love for D.I. Louise Munroe, his former partner in the force. He also cannot resist trying to help damsels in distress, even if he comes under the grip of such damsels reluctantly at first. Brodie gets beaten up fairly often. He subjects office manager Deborah to distress over his apparent lack of interest in collecting fees for work performed and paying the bills. He constantly prevails upon Munroe to provide help and information as she resists recognizing why she continues to give it. But the women almost always turn out to be the stronger and more determined ones. Sometimes they just need Brodie to pick up the pieces.

Brodie is a good detective, knows all the tricks for finding people and is good at picking up those pieces. But he also benefits from a bit of good luck. Often, he solves two or three cases at once, discovering tangential connections between them. A continuing theme of the series concerns his young daughter, taken at one point to New Zealand by his ex-wife.

Brodie doesn’t use guns but knows how to get rid of a body. He’s not police anymore and can lean into his inability to override his own sense of justice if it seems the right thing to do. He doesn’t mind letting someone get away with leaving him that body to dispose of. This kinda leads to a bittersweet ending to the series.

I enjoyed Case Studies and give it a solid 4.