Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Inspector Ellis’ On Acorn TV, About A Police Detective Who Assists Local Cops In Murder Investigations

British mystery series that appear here in the states on Acorn TV and BritBox tend to follow similar patterns to each other, with a little wrinkle that sets them apart. In the case of the new Acorn series Inspector Ellis, the wrinkle is that the police detective at the center of the series goes to different towns to bail out investigations that are struggling to come up with viable people of interest.

INSPECTOR ELLIS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A marshy lake. A diver sees a car sticking out of the water and goes to it; inside, there’s a body.

The Gist: The body was found in Hanmore, and the victim is the son of a former Member of Parliament. Also, a teenage girl who was reported to be in the car at the time has gone missing. Because of that, ACC Alison Leighton (Allison Harding) is tasked with sending someone to get the investigation kickstarted. She calls her best detective, DCI Ellis (Sharon D Clarke) to go. For her part, Ellis is lamenting the lack of contact with her daughter, who has seemed to cut off communications in recent days.

Ellis goes to the scene where the car was found, and immediately sees the detective in charge, DCI Jim Belmont (Chris Reilly) charge into a group of people searching for the girl and arrest her stepfather.

When Ellis gets to the station, she’s greeted by DS Chet Harper (Andrew Gower), who at first goes over to a white woman sitting in the lobby. Ellis, used to being underestimated as a Black female detective in the Met Police, still makes sure Harper knows how many bad assumptions he made. Harper introduces her to the team, and DCI Belmont immediately chafes at the idea that an outsider is being brought in to take over for him with the investigation.

Belmont immediately starts looking into Ellis, and he also insists that the stepfather is good for the murder. But Ellis just doesn’t think the evidence they have against him adds up; there certainly isn’t enough there to hold him.

Harper starts to buy into Ellis’ investigative methods, which involves immersing herself in a case and trying to think like the victim and his friends. Her motivation is to find the missing girl above all else, because she’s convinced the girl is alive, even if Belmont doesn’t. One thing Harper can’t get from Ellis, though, is any personal information, and that’s exactly how Ellis wants it.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Inspector Ellis (simply called Ellis across the pond) is similar to any number of Acorn or BritBox mystery procedurals, like Signora Volpe, The Chelsea Detective, and others.

Our Take: The dramatic push of Inspector Ellis is twofold. For one, Ellis, partnered with Harper, are dropped into flailing investigations in different parts of England in order to get them on the right track. Ellis and Harper are always going to find resistance from the local cops, especially the detective in charge whose authority is being usurped by Ellis.

But the more intriguing dramatic push of the series is Ellis always being underestimated because she’s a Black female detective, something that seems to still be rare within the ranks of the U.K.’s law enforcement agencies. Will the microaggressions against her be as overt as when Harper mistook a white lady for Ellis? Probably not. But they will be there, and she has to wearily make her way through that doubt with her innate ability to look at a case from the perspectives of those involved.

There is the matter of Ellis’ backstory, which is hinted at, but seems difficult to access. There’s the issue she’s having with her daughter, and there is the info about her that Belmont dug up. How much that will come into play during the first seasons three, 90-minute mysteries is anyone’s guess. It feels underbaked in the first episode, as a nod towards giving the show’s central crime solver a personality other than just one that solves crimes.

The mystery in the first episode is also a bit confusing, given how many characters both Ellis and Belmont seem to go through trying to find who the actual killer is. Things only get murkier when the status of the missing girl is addressed. The answer to who killed the victim doesn’t exactly come in clean fashion, and there are characters that we had to scratch our heads to remember who they were.

Given the episodes are 90 minutes, there is no excuse for making confusing mysteries; there should be enough time to explore all leads as well as give backstory to the main character. Perhaps the next two episodes are clearer, but without the aforementioned push of a backstory for Ellis, we started disengaging from the first episode’s main mystery about halfway through the episode.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: ACC Leighton puts Ellis on roaming detective detail permanently, and she meets her new partner — DS Harper.

Sleeper Star: We’ll give this to Gower as Harper, because his character actually admits he’s a “yacht rock” listener.

Most Pilot-y Line: When Harper knocks on Belmont’s door while Belmont and Ellis are talking, Harper goes, “Sorry, Boss… and Boss.”

Our Call: STREAM IT. We like Clarke’s strong, stoic presence as DCI Ellis in Inspector Ellis, which is why we’re recommending the show. But we hope the series has less-confusing and more-engaging mysteries in the other two episodes.

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.