In its first four seasons, Harry Wild settled into a nice “cozy mystery” vibe, where we got to know the regular characters while they solved somewhat shaky murder mysteries. But for the fifth season, a new pathologist is starting in Dublin, and he’s played by someone that star Jane Seymour is very familiar with.
HARRY WILD SEASON 5: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: Three people are shown interacting with their loved ones before being shown their accidental deaths: One died on the operating table, another died in a swimming accident, and a third died after being hit by a car.
The Gist: The new state pathologist in Dublin, Pierce Kennedy (Joe Lando), checks the latest victim, a man who took care of his mother, who had dementia, and sees a tattoo of musical notes on his back. When he sees that the tattoo is similar to the drowning victim, and that they’re two bars to Debussy’s “Clair de Lune,” he approaches former history professor Harry Wild (Jayne Seymour) and her protege Fergus Reid (Rohan Nedd), on recommendation of Garda DS Jordan McDonald (Anthony Delaney).
Both Harry and Fergus are processing their recent romantic woes: Harry’s boyfriend moved to Australia, and Fergus’ squeeze, Harry’s granddaughter Lola (Rose O’Neill) has connected with someone at Georgetown University in the states. But when Harry opens her door to greet Pierce, thinking he’s a chubby weirdo who smells like formaldehyde, the handsome and well-dressed man at the door gives her pause.
There definitely is chemistry between Harry and Pierce, as there’s longing stares every time they brief each other about the case, and Harry finds out that Pierce’s interests go well beyond pathology. For his part, Fergus is trying to move on from Lola and goes on the apps; a first date at the Hairy Goose pub goes poorly when the woman lays out her five-year plan.
As far as the case is concerned, after Pierce ties the botched surgury victim from 18 months prior to the other two deaths, Harry finds the woman’s husband. Meanwhile, Fergus tries to find the person who tattooed the first victim. All three try to find out what linked all three victims together. Given that the first movement of “Clair de Lune” hasn’t been found yet, they are rushing to prevent another “accidental” death from occurring.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Harry Wild is in the “cozy mystery” category of other Acorn shows like Agatha Raisin. Of course, all of those shows are likely inspired by (and measured against) older mystery series like Murder, She Wrote.
Our Take: The mysteries in the fifth season of Harry Wild might be more complex on the surface — three accidental deaths linked in a way that might not make them accidental, for instance — but, for the most part they still have to be resolved in 42 minutes. So Harry and Fergus will find their killer through a lot of leaps of faith and coincidences. It helps that Harry’s son Charlie (Kevin Ryan) is an inspector for the Garda and can act on his mother’s guesses, right?
As we’ve said all along, though, the mysteries aren’t what keep people hitting “Play” on Harry Wild. Seymour’s vivaciousness gives Harry a sense of daring, and it’s fun to watch the relationship that she and Fergus have fostered over the past few years. Now, fans of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman get to see Seymour and Lando interact and bring back the old chemistry that they had in the ’90s frontier drama.
And, boy, is that chemistry apparent from the first seconds they share the screen. Pierce Kennedy — how American is that name? — seems to be a renaissance man whose interests hit Harry right in the feels. It helps that they are both single when they meet. How long it will take for the two of them to connect romantically just depends on how long David Logan, the show’s creator, and his co-writer Jo Spain decide to draw things out.
But the other dynamic is that Pierce, and not Charlie, will be the one feeding Harry and Fergus cases to solve. That certainly lends itself to a different dynamic, where he’ll be trying to link mysterious deaths together, that could lead to some more interesting investigations. But given the new romantic situation Harry is in, and the show’s penchant to concentrate on the characters’ lives over the “murder of the week,” it might be hard for Logan and Spain to give those more complex cases the time they need to really be interesting.
Performance Worth Watching: We certainly want to see Seymour and Lando in as many scenes together as possible, as it seems like the two of them picked up where they left off when Dr. Quinn ended 28 years ago.
Sex And Skin: None in the first episode.
Parting Shot: After the case is solved and more sparks fly between Harry and Pierce, Harry tells Fergus, “You know what they say: Never wait for a bus or a man. There’ll be a new one along in five minutes.”
Sleeper Star: It’s pretty safe to say that Rohan Nedd’s Fergus is firmly in the show’s comic relief role, even while he goads a bartender — an ex of the drowning victim into revealing more than he’s letting on.
Most Pilot-y Line: Fergus tells a mercurial tattooist, who was in love with one of the victims, “Love isn’t about stopping people from doing what they want. It’s about allowing them to,” to which the tattooist responds, “Nonsense!”
Our Call: STREAM IT. The addition of Joe Lando has given Harry Wild a new dynamic, and we’re looking forward to seeing him and Jane Seymour working together in the show’s fifth season.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
