Grantchester (2013)

     Grantchester (2013) Series 1, 6 episodes. [D: James Norton, Robson Green, Morven Christie] The Rev. Sidney Chambers (Norton), like Father Brown, stumbles into investigations of murder. His police partner and opponent, Detective Geordie Keating (Green), becomes his friend. His love interest, Amanda Kendall (Christie), marries another man for social (and economic) reasons. The cases are morally ambiguous, but both Chambers and Keating value truth and justice and realise that the law may hinder both.
     The scripts, based on a series of novels by James Runcie, are well written, high on ambiguity, irony, and psychological complexity, but with a clear narrative arc. The mood varies, the photography is excellent, the acting shows us people conflicted in ways they don’t fully understand. Good and evil are implicated in each other; no one is perfect. This is one of the very few narratives that understands sin. It’s the only series that I’ve kept on the PVR. ****