Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Madame Blanc Mysteries’ On Acorn TV, Where An Antiques Dealer Solves Murders In The South Of France

There’s something about the good-old-fashioned mystery series that is enjoyable to watch, even during this period of “challenging” streaming series. It’s like putting together a puzzle; you’re using your brain, but not in a way that makes you too tired to watch. It’s probably why the series that Acorn has been putting on its service, whether they produce them or they’re imported, have been so popular; series like this are rare to find, even on the broadcast networks. The latest is The Madame Blanc Mysteries.

THE MADAME BLANC MYSTERIES: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A man gets into the front seat of a van with a very shiny ring; the ring is a massive ruby surrounded by diamonds.

The Gist: In the village of Sainte Victoire, in the south of France, Rory White (Peter Gaynor) thinks this find will be the biggest score for the antiques business he runs with his wife Jean (Sally Lindsay), who is back in Manchester. But not long after he gets in the van and sends Jean a video of the ring, he passes out while smoking a cigarette and crashes into a tree, killing him instantly.

Back in Manchester, a grieving Jean is told by her estate attorney that they were near-bankrupt, and when Jean sees that the ring wasn’t among his affects, she decides to go to Sainte Victoire to find out where it went. She’s the antiques expert between the two of them, and she knows that ring could be worth anywhere from 70,000 euros to millions, depending on its history.

When she flies in — she’s not a great traveler, which is why Rory was the one who stayed at their villa and showed her his finds via FaceTime so she can evaluate them — she’s met by Dom Hayes (Steve Edge), who not only has a taxi company but is a handyman, as well. Dom and Judith Lloyd James (Sue Holderness), who runs into Dom at the airport, assume “Mrs. White” is Rory’s mother, and are both surprised when Jean gets off the plane.

This is when Dom lets “Madame Blanc” know that Rory was often seen with another woman, who didn’t really socialize. She even sold antiques to people like the police chief; Jean gets annoyed when the signature on the sales receipt isn’t hers, and that the Rolex he supposedly bought is a very bad fake.

She’s convinced that Rory’s death wasn’t an accident. The first order of business, though, is tracking down that ring. That mystery takes Jean and Dom in a lot of directions, including to Xavier (Narayan David Hecter), the son Gloria (Sue Vincent), the village mechanic (and good friend of Dom’s).

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The Madame Blanc Mysteries is pretty similar to other mystery series Acorn has debuted over the past few years, from the various Miss Fisher series, to My Life Is Murder, to Agatha Raisin.

Our Take: If anything stands out about The Madame Blanc Mysteries, it’s the performance of Sally Lindsay, who also created and wrote the series. She’s front and center, and Jean White makes for an interesting TV sleuth. For one, she’s going to be spending the entire first season trying to figure out what happened to her husband. But all the while, she’ll be encountering murder after murder in what turns out to be the Cabot Cove of the south of France, with all the colorful characters in town harboring their own secrets.

What also makes her an interesting sleuth is her expertise in antiquities. Old and valuable antiques will likely be part of each episode’s mystery, so it almost feels like the shows will be a cross between the just-alluded-to Murder, She Wrote crossed with Antiques Roadshow.

The scenery in Sainte Victoire is also a highlight, from the seascapes to all of the old buildings that have that perfect rundown Old Country village look that Americans love to pieces.

There’s nothing revolutionary about the series, so it’ll rest on Lindsay’s charm and her chemistry with Edge, which is already pretty good in the first episode. The two of them will be partners in crime-solving, and if the episodic mysteries are halfway decent, and the continuing story of Rory’s murder — and his mysterious mistress — isn’t neglected, it should make for a fun-to-watch first season.

Sex and Skin: None. It’s not that kind of show. In fact, this is the type of show that kids who are mystery fans could watch with their parents.

Parting Shot: The same cigarette-smoking woman who watched Rory’s car crash — supposedly his mistress — watches Jean go into the villa, after she discovers that Rory’s lighter was laced with cyanide gas.

Sleeper Star: We already mentioned Holderness as Judith Lloyd James. Her husband Jeremy is played by Robin Askwith, and the two of them provide some gentle comic relief to the show, especially when they’re wildly inappropriate with each other in public.

Most Pilot-y Line: We need a little bit of history about Sainte Victoire, and why it seems like there are a lot of ex-pat Brits living there.

Our Call: STREAM IT. If you’re in the mood for one of those mystery shows that you can watch and try to solve along with the main character, The Madame Blanc Mysteries fills that bill very well.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.

Stream The Madame Blanc Mysteries On Acorn TV