Critic Reviews

Art Detectives is one of the best British mysteries on Acorn TV in recent years, and its only shortcoming is the fact that it is only six episodes long.

While Art Detectives isn’t really doing anything revolutionary format-wise, Moyer’s charm and the art-centric themes to the crimes Palmer and Malik investigate does make this show stand out from the sea of British mystery series that are streaming these days.

Another strong cozy-nerdy procedural. .... The fun here is in the episodic aspects, and “Art Detectives” has a good time in the worlds of, for example, wine fraud and Titanic collectibles.

Palmer and Malik are just smart, if fairly average, people who are good at figuring out what happened. That’s a straightforward but wonderfully satisfying template. .... The mysteries in “Art Detectives” are well-constructed and intricate without veering into anything either too silly or serious.

Nothing about Art Detectives is reinventing the wheel, and it feels largely of a piece with the rest of Acorn TV’s slate of cozy crime dramas and mystery series featuring stars better known for roles outside the procedural realm. If you like Harry Wild, My Life is Murder, or The Chelsea Detective, the odds are good that you’ll enjoy this too.

Mick does it all; he’s Columbo and Elsbeth. “Art Detectives” may need to have another season, just so he can sort out his technique.