'Patience' Premieres with a Solid, if Familiar, Debut Episode

New drama series Patience is the latest in a line of English-language remakes of Walter Presents titles. Based on the popular French show Astrid, the new series centers on Patience Evans (Ella Maisy Purvis), a twenty-something autistic woman working in the criminal records department, and her incredible investigative insight that leads her to assist the well-meaning but sometimes clueless DI Beatrice Metcalf (Laura Fraser) in solving active crimes.

Like several other remakes penned by PBS heavy-hitter Matt Baker, Patience suffers from Season 1 syndrome: the plots of the original series’ first seasons are retreads, draped in an English setting. Were the producers worried that straying too far from the original would alienate fans? That said, Astrid’s first season contains some damn fine mysteries to model from, including the one that unfolds in Patience’s first episode, “Paper Mountain Girl, Part 1.”

The show works best when allowed to stretch beyond the source material and add something new. For instance, the opening scene shows Patience in her home environment, which Astrid rarely, if ever, did with its analogous character in the first season. Wearing headphones that are omnipresent, Patience times herself solving and then reassembling a complicated metal puzzle, almost like a soldier field-stripping a rifle. An animal lover, we meet her cat, followed by her bearded dragon, and her mice.