Harry Wild stars Jane Seymour as a former professor of literature at an Irish university. She retires from teaching and quickly becomes an amateur sleuth solving cases that hearken back to famous works of literature.
The storyline in Harry Wild is very contrived and improbable, but I don’t think you’re meant to care. What you are meant to do is enjoy the charm, humor, and cleverness of Jane Seymour as Harry. She drinks far too much, she sleeps with inappropriate men, and she solves crimes faster than the police can blink.
I’m totally down with the notion that a woman of Jane Seymour’s age (#EldersRock) is the lead character in a lighthearted detective story.
Harry’s son Charlie (Kevin Ryan) is one of the cops she outthinks. No one is happy to have her amateur meddling into police business, especially Charlie. Except she keeps solving things.
Charlie’s boss, the chief Ray Tiernan (Stuart Graham), is one of those inappropriate men who shows an interest in Harry. He’s quite the complication.
Just before Harry retires she’s mugged by Fergus (Rohan Nedd). She finds him and confronts him. When she realizes he’s actually a good kid, she turns him into her sidekick and they solve mysteries together. She also helps him study for his literature exams.
Harry has a strained relationship with her daughter-in-law, Orla (Amy Huberman). Orla rightly considers Harry a bad influence on her daughter Lola (Rose O’Neill). Lola thinks her grandmother is the coolest, and she doesn’t take long to get interested in Fergus. She wants in on the crime solving!
Comic relief comes in the form of Glenn (Paul Tylak). He’s a brainless, pompous idiot, but Harry finds him useful in her adventures. It’s a feel good series with obscure trivia for the literature lovers.
By the end of the first season, Harry and Fergus are calling themselves detectives and taking cases. They even have a website. I haven’t heard that a second season is in the works, but the storylines are ready to grow if it is approved.
This charming and lighthearted mystery series is streaming on Acorn TV. Acorn TV is home to many series like this one. For comparison I’ll say that Harry Wild is not as good as My Life is Murder, but better than The Madame Blanc Mysteries.
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