Year Released: 2020-2022
Starring: Jason Watkins, Tala Gouveia
(TV-PG , 3 seasons, 8 movie length episodes approx. 90 min. each)
Genre: Drama, Mystery and Suspense, Comedy

“I never go anywhere without my latex gloves.” DS Dodds

Light and bubbly like dry vintage champagne, Amazon’s McDonalds and Dodds is one of the best mysteries to hit the screen. The opening says it all: A score as crisp and delightful as the vintage wine with the medieval city of Bath represented like a modern D.C. Escher graphic print. This mystery lover, classically trained violinist, and one time medieval scholar finds it irresistible.

And that’s just the opening. What else complements our champagne? A series of piquant mysteries, enough literary allusions to lure in scholars and snobs alike: a paper pusher who proves himself just as he is being eased out into retirement, and a stereotypical ambitious partner whose real humanity breaks that image.

And did I mention the wit and humor, and a script that is delightfully free of political posturing. More please, sir.

Like The Brokenwood Mysteries, Midsomer Murders, My life is Murder, Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, and Death in Paradise McDonalds and Dodds cases are sometimes comically absurd. Five friends embark on a hot air balloon ride but only four return alive; an up and coming F-1 racer meets his death during a 3.5 second pit stop, a girls’ weekend ends with a body in a railway tunnel, or a dead body shows up in a shallow grave instead of the fake one a faux psychic had planted there.

But my favorite episode evokes this English teacher’s memories of the infamous “Wife of Bath,” who had “five husbands at church door” and in her older age welcomes the sixth. One main character in “Belvedere” (series 3, episode 1) resembles her – Agnes, (Sian Phillips), the soon to be 100 year-old mother of a linguistic anthropologist (Alan Davies). Both are connected to a suspicious death.

Agnes is not fruitful like the Wife of Bath – the professor is her only child – but she does have a record of trysts to rival her medieval counterpart, talking about a past rendezvous with Pablo Picasso, and if I remember correctly, also one with Franco on the eve of the Spanish Civil War. And like the Wife of Bath, she is able to deceive adroitly. When summoned to the police station, the sharp as a tack and flamboyantly dressed diva shows up as frowzy and semi senile to avert their suspicions.

This episode is also a fascinating revisit of dialects of My Fair Lady fame, which Agnes’ son can detect expertly. “You are from the northwest region of Wales, but have spent time in London when you were a teenager, and a least several months in the American Southwest” is something that he can rattle off after only a few minutes of conversation. Unfortunately for him, Dodds (Jason Watkins) is a quick study himself, and after several hours at the library, he also becomes conversant in dipthongs and such.

And don’t discount his partner McDonalds (Tala Gouveia), who becomes more human and likeable with each episode. Yes, she is ravenously ambitious, but she is fair minded and astute enough to recognize Dodds’ unique abilities hidden beneath his drab exterior. Under her prodding and encouragement, he, too, begins to shine forth his light, and with the two of them together, that light ultimately illuminates the truth and the culprits – with only the occasional completely bogus arrest along the way.

Another rare find in a desert of sadly mediocre new film fare. In fact, McDonalds and Dodds is a veritable oasis. Go there immediately to quench your thirst for excellence.

–Kathy Borich
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Trailers

Film-Loving Foodie

If Different Drummer were to be completely authentic, she would feature Dodds’ favorite – soggy chips (French fries to us Yanks) dipped in butter. Or maybe the sensible salads McDonalds nibbles away on during their short lunch breaks. But who wants a sensible salad and even McDonalds cannot bear the smell of Dodds’ mushy mess, so why should we?

It’s time for a cocktail, I say, a recipe you might save up for Halloween, too. Our Blood Bath Cocktails are easy and delicious, with a hat tip to the medieval city where our chalk and cheese detective duo solve their crimes.

Bottoms up.