Irish Crime Drama 'Blackshore' Coming to Acorn TV

Cozy crime series tend to fall under one of three primary tropes. There's the "Secretly a Romance" series, where the "will they or won't they" of the detectives is the key to liking it, think Silent Witness since Season 14; the "Found Family" series, which are ensemble shows like Grantchester; and the "Detective Goes Home, Solves Crimes," such as Lucy Lawless' My Life Is Murder. Acorn TV has several of each type: Madame Blanc and Miss Fisher, for the romantics; The Chelsea Detective and Inspector Ellis for found families. Whitstable Pearl has been the highest profile of the "Detective Goes Home" set, now Acorn adds another show where the investigator in question is protecting the streets they grew up on with Blackshore.

The series, which debuted in Ireland in early 2024 before being picked up in the U.K., has a couple of points of note that make it stand out from the pack. First, it's an Irish-set series, with an all-Irish cast, produced by Ireland's public TV station, RTE. Second, the cop in question is not going home due to a nervous breakdown or an ailing family member, or losing sleep over old relationships that moved on in the intervening years. Played by the ferocious Lisa Dwan, DI Fia Lucey is busted down from her position of a big city detective — bust down so hard she gets sent to her hometown — due to violently beating the crap out of an assailant. She's not sweet, friendly, or lovelorn.

Lucey's an old school grumpy cop, the kind who goes to the pub with a book and glares at anyone who tries to talk to her until they back all the way up. It's a refreshing take on the trope; check out the trailer.