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Jonathan Creek (1997)

1997 · Comedy,Crime,Drama · crime-detective-puzzle

Jonathan Creek poster

Jonathan Creek is a British comic mystery series built around a singular and witty formal conceit: a socially awkward, windmill-dwelling designer of magic illusions who applies his lateral, illusionist's logic to apparently impossible crimes. The tone blends dry wit, genuine puzzle-construction, and an odd-couple chemistry between its leads that reviewers describe as irreplaceable. At its peak (seasons 1–3), it delivers fair-play locked-room mysteries with real intellectual satisfaction and warm, eccentric characterisation. The show has a devoted fanbase who cite it as proof that British television can be both funny and genuinely clever, and who mourn its gradual decline as original leads departed and mysteries grew more outlandish.

From the reviewers

Maddy, played by the amazing Caroline Quentin, is the kind of role-model American women need: a tough-as-nails every-woman, who looks nothing like the malnourished actresses and models we see every day.
Alan Davies is the ultimate anti-hero. Davies is gorgeous as the shy, rather nerdy, Jonathan.
Davies and Quentin had a great comic chemistry together, and their lines were sometimes more awesomely funny because of how they reacted to each other.
What I liked about the first 3 seasons is that you could actually figure out the mysteries - you might not know the why, but you could sometimes figure out the how. Fair mysteries, where the viewer really was given most of the pertinent information.
He is like Columbo in reverse, with Columbo you know how the crime is committed and watch as he figures it out. Here Jonathan Creek often has it figured out well ahead of everyone else and you are the one trying to work out how it was done.

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