Better Late Than Never: 'Death Valley' Is a Perfect Mix of Grief & Humor

TV loves a maverick crime solver. You know the type. They aren’t officially a detective or on any police force. But somehow, they are experts on cracking the case. It’s not just a British trope either. Think ABC’s High Potential, where the cleaning woman with an extraordinarily high IQ outsmarts the police every time. USA’s Psych, where a faux psychic uses his powers of observation to catch the culprit. CBS’s Elsbeth, where Carrie Preston’s eccentric lawyer always knows when something is not quite right. Or, probably the best example of the “maverick crime solver,” Castle, where a famous novelist uses his wit and charm to figure out what’s going on.

Into this fun field comes Death Valley. Written and created by Paul Doolan, the six-episode dramedy follows Detective Sergeant Janie Mallowan (Gwyneth Keyworth), who has a habit of constantly inserting her foot in her mouth. (“I wish there were more murders by the sea,” she muses at one point. “I love fish and chips.”) In the pilot episode, she meets John Chapel (Timothy Spall), the neighbor of a man who committed suicide in his home office... or did he?

John is the former star of the hit detective TV show Caesar. Janie is a big fan, mainly because the series helped her through a tough time in her life. As a show within a show, Caesar is a spot-on spoof of the genre. “I’m not in the habit of letting people get away with murder... crime waits for no man!” is one of the many bon mots Caesar says melodramatically. The series has a lot of fun with John’s level of fame. During the first season, various characters don’t know who he is, assume he has died, or mistakenly think he was on Game of Thrones. “Oh, we like him. He was in that thing with the thing,” one character says.