Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Murder In Provence’ On BritBox, An Old-Fashioned Whodunit Series Where A Couple Investigates Murders In The French City

There are certain shows that are more attractive for their scenery than anything else. BritBox’s Murder In Provence is one of those shows. Who wouldn’t want to live in Provence, with its centuries-old buildings, winding cobblestone alleyways and mountain scenery? But, as the title indicates, it’s not a travelogue; there’s the business of some mysteries to solve.

MURDER IN PROVENCE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Scenes from the bucolic French city of Aix-en-Provence.

The Gist: Antoine Verlaque (Roger Allam), who works as an investigative judge for the city, is busy packing for a trip when his romantic partner, Marnie Bonnet (Nancy Carroll), a university professor, comes over. They’ve been together for a number of years, but the subject of marriage rarely comes up, mainly because Marnie’s ex-husband was an abusive jerk and Antoine’s wife was an alcoholic who drowned herself in the ocean. They also still have their own homes.

He’s packing a lot because Marnie wants to take him on a weekend trip but won’t tell him where. But just as he manages to drag out the destination, he’s called by Deputy Inspector Hélène Paulik (Keala Settle) to the university, where there’s been a murder.

The night before, the victim, a fine art professor, decided not to retire after promising a few of his proteges his tenured position as head of the department, which comes with a luxurious apartment. Other students were up for a scholarship but were rebuffed. When he’s found the next morning by his maid and secretary, a single blunt trauma wound to the head doing him in, she seems to be more concerned with accessing certain records than the fact that her boss was dead.

As Antoine and Hélène question the people who were at the professor’s non-retirement retirement party, Marnie finds out a few details on her own; for instance, her mother Florence (Patricia Hodge) was at the party because she did occasional work for the professor. A photographer friend of hers was having an affair with the professor after shooting portraits of him for a magazine.

Eventually, the secretary becomes the prime suspect, especially when Antoine and Hélène find her searching the apartment for bank statements for the department, which reveal that its sizeable endowment has been slowly shrinking for a number of months.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The laid-back vibe of Murder In Provence, based on the books by ML Longworth, brings to mind some of the classic whodunnit British series we’ve seen on Acorn and BritBox lately, like Agatha Raisin.

Our Take: To say that Murder In Provence goes at a leisurely pace is an understatement. It really is a classic whodunnit, where most of the action consists of suspects being questioned and rooms being searched. But since each self-contained mystery is housed in a 90-minute episode, writer Shelagh Stephenson has enough room to really lay on the idea that Antoine and Marnie are living a cosmopolitan, somewhat-luxe life in the gorgeous French city.

There’s lots of scenes of the couple making dinner and drinking wine, lots of shots of them and even Hélène meeting in cafes. Even though Antoine is trying to solve a murder, there never seems to be a lot of urgency surrounding how long it takes them to solve it; Antoine isn’t poring over evidence by the light of a desk lamp long after Marnie has gone to bed. Even the fact that their weekend was interrupted by this killing doesn’t seem to faze this couple all that much.

There is some service to deeper stories for the couple, like Marnie’s frosty relationship with her mother and the abuse she suffered via her ex, and how tragic the death of Antoine’s wife was. But there seem to be far more scenes of the two of them enjoying the good life in Provence than anything that registers as character development.

That might be acceptable if the mystery itself was entertaining, but it was more confusing than anything. When the person who actually did the deed was found, the logic that led Antoine and Marnie to that conclusion, as well as the murderer’s motive, was muddled at best. Because we’ve spent so little time with the suspects, there wasn’t really any incentive to try to solve the murder along with the couple, though we at least thought their enthusiastic banter about the killings were fun to watch.

To be sure, Allam is effectively laconic as Antoine, and Carroll brings a sexy intelligence as Marnie. They have great chemistry together, and it’s a surprise when you find out that they’re in a mature, European-style relationship that both are happy with (even if Marnie’s mom isn’t). But if you’re looking for a show that moves along at a faster pace, or has a mystery that is fun to follow, you’re out of luck.

Sex and Skin: None. It’s all family-friendly stuff, even when Antoine and Marnie are in bed together.

Parting Shot: Antoine is making dinner, and Marnie jokes with him that he has tomato sauce on his shirt. “Oh, sod off!” he jokes.

Sleeper Star: We’d watch Partricia Hodge as Marnie’s mother Florence; her character seemed to be the only one with any edge to her.

Most Pilot-y Line: Another old-fashioned thing about the show? Every actor is British, using British accents, even though they’re playing French people living in France. Yes, they may have British roots, but the characters are all supposed to be French nationals. However, the only other accent you hear is one of the suspects’ Italian accent. That feels like something you’d see in a BBC series straight out of the 1980s.

Our Call: SKIP IT. Don’t get us wrong: The scenery in Murder In Provence is beautiful and the performances by its leads are warm and laid-back. But the pacing of the episodes is slow and the mysteries are confusing, which prompts us to want to spend our time elsewhere.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.

Stream Murder In Provence On BritBox