11/21/2023 0 Comments Whats on acorn tv(Gerald Smith / NBCUniversal via Getty Images)ĭelayed sexual tension and unconventional compatible marriage were the backbone of several entertaining late 20th century American series, most out of official circulation, including “McMillan and Wife,” “Remington Steele,” “Moonlighting” and “Hart to Hart” (Roku), starring Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers as rich people with a penchant for running into murder. Once a staple of American broadcast television, they’ve given way there to franchised procedurals and remakes of 20th century cop shows, but some of those old favorites may still be found stuffed into various streaming platforms or in reruns on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries (HMM), which also produces original cozy content like “The Aurora Teagarden Mysteries,” with Candace Cameron Bure as Charlaine Harris’ crime-solving librarian (18 films since 2014). (My own method is to accuse every character of being the killer, and so I am never wrong.) Naming the killer before the detective(s) often has more to do with one’s familiarity with the genre than with any clues that might have been offered. As with any mystery, there’s an interactive, play-along aspect, as one seeks to solve the murder before the murderer is announced. That one may find oneself talking back to the screen, pointing out whatever the characters are slow to understand, is just part of the game. The company may be more important than the plot some of these shows can get pretty obvious or ridiculous, which may not be inseparable from their charm. (Or they are period pieces, satisfying the urge to time travel.) Even when not outright comedies, they will have a comic streak, and though they involve people killing people, sometimes for the saddest reasons, they will not leave you in a funk, despairing over the human condition. The stories often are set in small towns, in rural or far-flung settings, satisfying as a bonus the urge to travel. Cozy mysteries give you the benefits of more uncomfortable mysteries - the suspense, the puzzles - without the gore, the sensationalism, the foregrounded perversity. The heroes are typically amateur or private detectives, possibly quirky, often women, sometimes a couple they aren’t likely to suffer the afflictions common to the hard-boiled shamus - depression, rage, alcoholism, untreated trauma. We tend to avoid anything described as “dark” or “gritty” in favor of what are often called “cozy mysteries.” Among the shows we’re most likely to watch are mysteries, but not just anything with a murder. The first is a solitary occupation, the second mostly shared with the person I live with, which makes it a matter of shared taste and promoting domestic harmony. Watching television is my job, but it is also sometimes a recreation.
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