Acorn TV Rides 'Harry Wild's Debut into "Murder Mystery May"

It's no secret that AMC Networks, the parent company that owns AMC+, BBC America, Shudder, Sundance Now, Acorn TV, and several others, is not performing well in the current phase of the streaming wars. The only owner of multiple streaming services not to roll up all its offerings into a single general interest subscription, the once-proud purveyor of prestige TV back when everything was all still on cable, tried to make a go of it by offering super niche offerings at low prices, hoping to be able to persuade enough fans to sign up, and cross promote programming when it could be filed under multiple services. On the one hand, this was probably the right move; had Paramount left itself in pieces-parts instead of rolling up into Paramount+, it might have lasted longer. However, it does mean AMCN has successful niche offerings (Acorn TV, Shudder, AMC+) and some that are not (everything else).

Of Acorn TV's offerings, Harry Wild is the most successful on every axis. Starring Jane Seymour, well known in America from Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, as the titular retired English teacher Harry, the series includes found family, amateur detectives, cases of the week, and a delightful ensemble of characters fans love spending time with. Harry Wild has become so popular that Acorn TV used the Season 3 premiere in 2024 to launch its new branding rollout; for Season 4, Harry Wild will be used as the tentpole debut to support Acorn TV's newest event: Murder Mystery May.

The idea of Murder Mystery May isn't a bad one; cozy crime shows are one of the U.K.'s biggest exports, and there's plenty of it on Acorn TV to support such an endeavor. However, "Murder Mystery May" sounds like it will be a whole month of debuts. While there will be new episodes of shows that launched in February, March, and April, as well as a few films imported from Shudder, only Harry Wild and the Irish dual-language drama Boglands/Cra are technically May 2025 arrivals.