Harry Wild

Just funny enough to watch for a while, and just annoying enough to make me stop. I'm a Jane Seymour fan, but Harry Wild is so obnoxious and irritating! As is the police commissioner (or whatever her rank/position is). I'm married to a strong, confident, successful woman, so I know how wonderful they are. Do the Harry Wild writers really have to make these characters so hard to like? I watch shows to be entertained, not to be irritated, and this show irritates me.

It's good to see Seymour in a series again. And while I enjoy a good British cozy mystery, I can't recall ever reading or watching one based in Ireland. I'm enjoying the characters of Fergus and Harry and the emerging friendship and partnership between them.

If you liked Miss Fisher, or Jane Seymour, you will like this show. It's fun Agatha Christie style mysteries solved by an older woman and a young man, that she meets by random. Interesting characters, great cast, and good stories. I really like it.

/Refers to Season 1/

A distinct Irish approach with lots of black humour and political incorrectness - but crimes are never fun, but characters or situations can be. Singular performances (well, Jane Seymour was 70 when filming, can you believe this?) and versatile cases (true, not all are equally interesting and meaty, but still...).

In spite of evident exaggerations, the Series captivated me in the very beginning and I really do hope that Season 2 will follow as the last episode ended in a promising manner and several storylines remained infinite. As for similarities, I would juxtapose Harry Wild with Shakespeare & Hathaway: Private Investigators from UK. If you liked-enjoyed one of them, you would definitely like-enjoy the other as well.

PS Season 2 has somewhat lost its "sheen" and vigour, with some cases where one could easily surmise the wrongdoer, but 7.5=8, so - no change in my opinion here.

PPS Season 3 is pleasantly frisky again, although in some cases the solution comes a bit abruptly and the role of Garda is undermined.

My main issue with this series is that it's weak on the mystery part, which is what most will be expecting when watching it. It's borderline Columbo style in that you either know who did it in the beginning or "Harry" is certain she knows and spends the episode trying to prove to official investigators, that have the wrong person or don't believe her, who really did it. That's just not as fun as the traditional style where there are multiple suspects and you try to make the best guess based on what they share. Too much time is also unrelated drama between Harry and other characters.

Although this has characteristics common in cozy murder mysteries, it's sometimes more disturbing than those are known for. It's also not as light hearted as I expected. Likewise, even the idyllic village setting common with cozy mystery shows is barely shown. The vast majority of the scenes are indoors and when outdoors, often too close up. A lot of low light / dark scenes as well.

None of the characters are really appealing. Harry can be overly mean, her son even more so. Her sidekick is unlikable initially but is a lot different from episode 2 onward, just that situation is hard to believe.