I grew up watching every detective show on TV, and loved them. I have rewatched so many episodes of NCIS and CSI: Las Vegas that I can practically recite some of lines by memory. Despite my adoration for a good cop show, I find that the same clichés are often repeated with new faces and new locations. It was hard to find excitement in another detective show, but I think I have found the cure to my boredom. Welcome to the stage, Death in Paradise.

British detective Richard Poole is assigned to investigate the murder of a British police officer on the fictional Caribbean island of Saint Marie. After he successfully finds the murderer, he is reluctantly required by his supervisors to replace the victim and stay on as the detective inspector of the island, solving new cases as they appear and being the object of many fish-out-of-water jokes. He refuses to embrace Caribbean lifestyle and drives his comrades crazy with his disdain for the island. However, it never stopped him and his team from catching their criminals.

The friction between these two different lifestyles causes for some hilarious situations while developing relationships between the characters that contains different levels of connection. They also take on the clichés that people have surrounding island life. The unique festivals intrigue and disturb the foreign immigrants as there is nothing quite like it in the world. The most surprising thing that the show underlines is how islanders and foreigners that move to the island interact in almost old fashion ways. It is shocking to see as this is not the world I grew up in, but is a good reminder of what still persists in our world today. The old fashioned thinking and divisions between the human population, and the criminal aspects of humanity being the two biggest ones.

Now I curl up and be ready to dive into the mysteries of Saint Marie in Death in Paradise!

Photo credit to: https://blogs.weta.org/tellyvisions/2017/02/25/new-detective-death-paradise