Whilst much of the world and the UK is in World Cup Fever and also hot weather fever too, I am catching up on a bunch of television shows (and movies) that I hadnt got around to watching. Recently I completed Talamasca:The Secret Order which I really enjoyed. You can read my thoughts HERE on the Anne Rice Immortal Universe series. To keep things mixed up a bit I went for something which I thought would be different from a show set in a world of vampires and witches. I went for Season 1 of Australian crime drama ‘Darby & Joan) which first aired in 2022 with 8 joyful episodes. I missed its television broadcast but I do have the Season 1 & 2 DVD Box Set in my collection so all is great!
Darby & Joan drew me in initially because of its casting for the main leads of the show. Bryan Brown is someone I always enjoy seeing on screen having watched him in a lot over the years but not having seen him in anything recently (until now) From starring alongside Tom Cruise in bottle juggling, bar hopping Cocktail, to movie special effects genius caught up in crime stories FX:Murder by Illusion and FX2 with the great and much missed Brian Dennehy. Bryan Brown is always someone I look forward to seeing on screen. Bryan Brown plays ‘Darby’ Greta Scacchi is an actress who I first saw in Defence of the Realm back in 1985 and since then has appeared in a huge list of films and shows, such as Presumed Innocent with Harrison Ford, Shattered with Tom Berenger, to name a couple of great roles. Greta plays Joan. The casting is great for this show and once I pressed play on episode one, I knew that Darby and Joan was a show that would give me comfort and make me smile.
Im not a fan of the label ‘cosy crime’ but I do understand it and it does fit. There is nothing sinister about the viewing experience of watching this Australian set crime drama, there’s no real brutality on show and yes whilst in some episodes people do die, there is no gore, and nothing that will make you find yourself nightmare suffering once you go to sleep. It reminds me of some of the Miss Marple television shows where yes people die, but its still the sort of show you can sit down with your children or grandparents and watch without cringing at the thought that something visually graphic is going to pop on screen and scar them for years to come. Its great all around viewing and im now a fan, so thank you Bryan, Greta and of course Acorn TV for this series.
The premise of the show overall is quite simple and is set up in the first episode of the first season. Joan (played by Greta Scacchi) travels to Australia to find out why her recently deceased husband was in fact in Australia, and not in Spain where he said he was. In episode one Joan encounters (a.k.a. causes a car crash) Darby (played by Bryan Brown) an ex cop who is on his own road trip. With Darby’s vehicle wrecked, He ends up hitching a life with John and so their travel begins This ‘what happened to Joan”s husband’ plot thread runs through the series and over each episode we learn a bit more about this mystery. However the main ‘meat and potatoes’ of each episode is a standalone story and involves our double act (Darby and Joan) encountering new characters on their journey and finding themselves at the heart of some mystery or other. Whether its a murder, or a disappearance or just some form of accident. Darby and Joan always seem to wind up finding themselves as ‘problem solvers’ in this show and its fun to try work out the solution whilst these two crime solvers are also trying to get to the bottom of the mystery.
If I try to sum up the show with a single word (and thankfully I don’t have to do that) then I would choose CHARM. This show has tons of charm, from its well written characters, to the fun plots, to the mystery elements of each element, This show gives you that great feeling that you should really get from a television show. Yes we all like the gritty feelings of shows like The Walking Dead or House of the Dragon, there I think everyone should make room in their lives for a charming show like Darby & Joan. It wont leave you stressed out, it would make you cushion hide, Its just a great way to spend time with some wonderful characters played by great actors and actresses and escape into the world of a show like this. Also speaking of the world. As this show is a ‘road trip’ show, the locations that they film in are stunning and makes me want to rush off and do my own road trip across parts of Australia. It looks stunning. I am already about to start watching Season 2 of the show and will of course share my thoughts on that once Ive finished it but for now I do highly recommend checking out Darby and Joan Season 1.
