Must Watch reviews ‘The Turkish Detective’
Every week, the Must Watch podcasters review the biggest TV and streaming shows.
This week, Hayley Campbell and Scott Bryan join Gethin Jones to review ‘The Turkish Detective’.
It’s based on a long-running series of books by the English crime writer Barbara Nadel.
In the series, a Turkish born, British raised police officer transfers from London to Istanbul where he solves crimes with his eccentric boss.
Gethin: “Is it a Must Watch?”
Scott: “It’s the best thing we’re reviewing this week. It has many good qualities.”
“It’s about a detective who’s born in Turkey, raised in England but it never really felt like home, and he’s now returned back to Turkey.
“He was in the Metropolitan Police in the homicide department. He said that the work culture, he never really felt accepted so he’s now working for homicide in Istanbul.”
Scott: “He is very used to detective work being incredibly cold and calculating and not really caring for the victims family that much because you’ve just got to get on with your job.
“And now he’s being thrust into a homicide team with people who actually do care a little bit more and have a different way of doing things.
“Maybe they would have unconventional methods such as interviewing people in their cars or not necessarily in the police station in the normal taped interview, they would find their own ways to catch the perpetrator.”
Scott: “Now, the series is quite formulaic. There’s people saying “trust no one”, there’s doomed love interests and the usual detective show style of interviewing one suspect, then another, then another.
“The series is not game changing, it’s very much I think a polished and surprisingly quite comforting detective watch and I think it ticks all of the conventions of all of the types of detective shows that you’ve seen many times but it does it well so it’s not going to rock the boat or change the game, is it good for now? Yeah.”
Hayley: “This is the best thing on our show this week. It feels a little ‘Istanbul written by a tourist’ and that’s not necessarily a bad thing in a silly detective show, but I think if you’re expecting something more authentic, you might find it a bit annoying.
“The show was written by Ben Schiffer who worked on Skins and the writer of the novels grew up in the East End of London but now lives in Essex so the Istanbul we see is a kind of stylised ideal and it doesn’t really use the setting to tell the different kind of story.”
Hayley: “The first crime is another dead girl like in every other show but it’s a great excuse to have cats roaming around the police station and I will never complain about having loads of cats in a TV show.
“The main detective is eccentric enough that I found him very watchable, he carries the thing. He’s surrounded by characters who are either a bit bland or cliché but he’s always there.
“The writing is a bit obvious. Despite the fact that it looks grittier, it's actually kind of twee, it’s very much a cosy English crime series but just with a different setting. It’s like a murder happened in the village again but the village is Istanbul.”
Hayley: “And I agree with Scott, it’s actually quite soothing in how much it feels like it’s something you’ve seen before. He even says ‘just one more thing’, like it’s Columbo. I know this isn’t the kind of review that will ever get my quote on a poster but it does feel like the kind of show that you should put on when you know you’ve got about 7 minutes before you fall asleep in front of the TV. It is quite nice, even though it is about murders.”
All episodes of The Turkish Detective are available to watch on BBC iPlayer now.
Must Watch is released as a podcast every Monday evening on BBC Sounds and all other podcast providers.
This week the team also reviewed ‘Those About to Die’ and ‘Piglets’.