Miss Scarlet and the Duke: A Placidly Pleasant Victorian Crime Series

Perhaps it is damning with faint praise to say that Miss Scarlet and the Duke, a six-episode series airing in the U.S. on PBS’s Masterpiece Mystery, is mild television. But there are some benefits to such a distinction. For one, it’s a show that’s safe to watch before you go to sleep. There are murders, but it’s unlikely to give you nightmares. Most of the cases are resolved quickly and fairly easily. There’s the slightest hint at romance, but not enough to catch you in any kind of thrall.

There’s a difference between a series like Miss Scarlet and the Duke, though, and its Masterpiece companion series All Creatures Great and Small, which is mild television that is indeed gentle, but also warm, cozy, and full of heart. Miss Scarlet is not a particularly warm creation. But then again, it’s a murder show.

Taking its inspirations from Sherlock Holmes, the beautiful and shrewd Miss Eliza Scarlet (Kate Phillips) is a kind of hobbyist detective who goes full-time after the sudden death of her father leaves her penniless. A widowed retired inspector who had started his own private detecting business, Miss Scarlet’s father (Kevin Doyle) taught her everything he knew about solving crimes, which she uses to try and take over his business—a difficult prospect in a socially conservative London. Still, there is something refreshing about a female protagonist of this era who must work to survive, and is not just independently wealthy.

Miss Scarlet is both aided and thwarted in her fledging role as a detective by her childhood friend William Wellington (Stuart Martin), known as the Duke, who worked with her father at Scotland Yard. More of a Lestrade than a Watson, the Duke is the handsome, brooding sort who is very exasperated by Miss Scarlet’s risk-taking and bossy confidence. Sparks should fly, but they seem to mostly be on the Duke’s side. The two occasionally bicker and spar like siblings, but it doesn’t really go beyond that for reasons that aren’t very clear besides a desire to manufacture an unnecessary will-they-won’t-they scenario. Further, though much is said of the Duke’s alleged womanizing and his excellent detective work, we never see even a hint of it. He’s always pacing around in his office or chasing down Miss Scarlet (who easily outwits him), and it’s one of the show’s biggest general issues that too much is told and not shown to viewers.