The most exciting thing about “Miss Scarlet & The Duke” is its title

In some puzzles, the murder victim is the culprit, with her fatal injury being circumstances of her own making.

Blame “Miss Scarlet & The Duke” for this meditation, a six-part response to what was beforeSherlock-Yara whoMasterpiece” when Victorian puzzles It can handle etiquette, good tailoring, and eloquent conversations about laudanum. Those days are dead with opium dens and high collars on dresses.

I am fully aware that “Sherlock” is set in our time, not the late nineteenth century. The setting isn’t the reason the series changed the game; The key lies in the tapered crispness of the writing, a one-to-two punch Benedict CumberbatchAnd the Martin FreemanHis shows, and the bold edge to its villains. Enola Holmes A totally unrelated creativity lives on on Netflix that focuses on Sherlock’s teen sister, even takes some attitude cues from “Sherlock” and is great fun.

Although Enola and the Eliza Scarlet series (Kate Phillips, “Peaky Blinders”) are contemporaries, the motives of the former are adventure and the quest to find her radical and awesome mother while Eliza’s entry into the detective special is a matter of survival.

I will say this – “Miss Scarlet & The Duke” is a killer nickname, there are some of the best detective pairs, like “The Scarecrow & Mrs King” or “Cagney & Lacey” which is far fetched better than “Macmillan and his wife”. This also has the unfortunate effect of raising expectations to higher worlds of service that this series does not fulfill.

Like a Victorian Veronica Mars With no clever actor, Eliza Henry’s father (Kevin Doyle) instilled in her souls an affinity for solving crime from a young age but prevented her from acting on it as she matured after her childhood.

Eliza rebels by sneaking around and trying to collect the cases in secret, a mostly harmless hobby that makes her scold her or two of her housekeeper and boyfriend Ivy (Cathy Pelton). Sudden misfortune changes this way, and Soon Elisa takes clients to make ends meet, becoming the first female investigator in London.

However, she does not receive a welcome from the Queen; Thanks again, patriarchate. At every turn in her efforts to gather evidence and question suspects, Eliza encounters some repetition “This is not a lady’s place!” Or a “lady detective?” Snicker – Snicker – SnoreOr please move your lady parts down the block, because murder scenes are the prerogative of penis owners. “Oh, I wish someone had already said that the third but, no, no such luck.

Frustrated and besieged, Eliza turns to her friend, Detective Inspector William “The Duke” of Wellington (Stuart Martin), who apparently wants to get to what is under this corset but can’t get past his anger at Eliza’s interference to insist on the misogynist club. The man is the local police station. .

However, he’s also mired in the unresolved issues piling up on his desk and reluctantly admits that Eliza is excellent at what she does even though her feminine mind is constantly being squeezed by one of the very elegant hats in her collection. It’s their thing: It annoys him, he shakes his head, he wags his fingers, and he’s put down hard! She is almost harassed by fellow cops, he saves her from harm before the situation turns from proper PBS to crime-time CBS.

Are you a woman or an investigator? Wellington asks during his bout of frustration the million.

“Why should there be discrimination?” Eliza replies, and this response-free game continues to spin, with Eliza’s spirited guides dancing in front of him a few steps at every turn.

The existence of sexism in the Victorian era is not in dispute, and I fully understand what creative Rachel Neo and co-writer Ben Edwards aim to develop Elisa into her former feminist during the first six episodes. The show does a good job of anchoring Elisa’s greenery in terms of the gentle policies involved in this type of work; She always finds herself in the wrong place at the wrong time, eliminating scratches with the skin of her teeth or emergency efforts of last resort.

Lack of experience is not the offense of this symptom. The real killer is the total absence of spark, witty dialogue, and uninspiring performance on the show. While searching these watches for something memorable to check out about Philips’ performance, the only distinct quality I can come up with is the way director Declan O’Dwyer brightens her complexion. Seriously, you’ll want to order it. . . And guys, don’t think there’s nothing in this for you, because Martin does some really cool facial hair.

We had some fun, but let me close on an optimistic note and note that while Miss Scarlet & The Duke might be boring and uninspiring as well. . . Nice.

Too many people are starving for kindness and kindness right now, and this show has it in the cart. Phillips and Martin are cute banter, even when he’s trying to be mean. Elisa’s relationship with a neighbor by hitting him with a domineering mother is nice. Even her near-death experiences with criminals are well illustrated. You might find yourself rooting for bad guys only if you add some pepper to this pot, but that’s both sweet and cute Something That’s plus quite the opposite of what the title leads us to expect.

“Miss Scarlet & The Duke” premieres Sunday January 17th at 8 PM on PBS.