Better Late Than Never: 'Art Detectives' Season 1 Is Well Crafted

TV is overflowing with detective dramas. Since the 2025-2026 TV season started at the end of May 2025, there has been Dept. Q and Untamed on Netflix; Ballard and Countdown on Prime Video; Code of Silence on Britbox; Smoke on AppleTV+... and that’s just the ones I can remember off the top of my head. It’s so easy for the tried and true genre to become a hackneyed cliche. That’s why it’s such an utter delight when a new twist on the formula comes along, and Acorn TV’s Art Detectives is one of those glorious TV series that works on every level—as an episodic case of the week, as a buddy cop drama, as a simmering overarching mystery and as a compelling character study. 

(Also, if you love Stephen Moyer (True Blood) but prefer him when he’s not sucking the blood out of his loved ones, this is definitely the show for you.) 

Moyer plays Mick Palmer, a detective inspector with a particular set of skills. He has a vast knowledge and a keen eye for, as the title suggests, art. However, unlike many detectives on TV, Mick appears to be socially and emotionally well-adjusted (for the most part), serving as the lead detective at the Heritage Crime Unit, which, at the start of the series, is a department of one. Then he meets Shazia Malik (an utterly charming Nina Singh), a detective constable working in Yorkshire, where Palmer arrives to investigate the death of an art historian in the series premiere. 

He’s not a fan of Malik’s pompous boss, DI Hollis (Michael Condron). “I’m not having him and his ridiculous painting squad show up my force,” Hollis tells Malik when Palmer arrives.  Palmer sees something in Malik, Hollis does not, and, more importantly, he listens to and respects her ideas. He quickly offers her a job, doubling the size of his department, and settling the show into its winning formula. 

Mulder and Scully. Cagney and Lacey. Benson and Stabler. Starsky and Hutch. TV has a long history of crime-solving duos. Palmer and Malik might be TV’s next great one. Malik takes no prisoners with her comments with both the suspects, where she cuts right to the chase  (“So you weren’t at the hotel at 4 p.m. on Thursday,” she deadpans to one suspect. “Because the CCTV caught you,”) and with her boss (“If there’s time for questions at the end, you can ask her out?” she teases him when he goes to a lecture given by his crush). 

However, unlike the long-simmering sexual tension that was the undercurrent of Mulder and Scully’s relationship on The X-Files and Benson and Stabler’s on Law & Order: SVU, Palmer and Malik have a professional and friendly relationship, free from any hint of possible romance. Partly because of their age difference but mainly because that’s just how this show works. Although not equals (Palmer is very clearly Malik’s boss), they both have a lot to learn from each other. 

Their relationship is somewhat like that of a father and daughter. Palmer encourages her to be more forgiving and understanding of her overbearing parents. She knows immediately when something is amiss between Mick and his father and gently prods him until he opens up about what’s going on. Their rapport and rat-a-tat conversations are a delight.

Mick’s father, Ron (Larry Lamb), is a renowned (and not in a good way) forger who has suddenly, after a 15-year absence, resurfaced in Mick’s life. So here Mick is, a police detective investigating the very type of crimes his father commits. Ron is also a real jerk. He feels no remorse for all that he’s put his son through and constantly talks down to him. “If you’re here, you’re up to something,” Mick says to him. And Ron definitely is for reasons that are slowly revealed throughout the season.  

Also, for reasons that will be revealed over the course of the season, Ron is very interested in the artwork that Mick might have kept in his possession. Mick also has two daughters mentioned but never seen—Natasha and Ellie. Ellie still sends her dad postcards from school (“College boring. Skiing great.). But Mick hasn’t heard from Natasha in over four years.  “Well, at least she wasn’t your real daughter,” Ron says to him. 

There’s definitely a lot going on there. Plenty of fodder for Season 2! 

Each episode begins with the crime being committed, and the series kicks off with the mysterious death of an art historian and an even more mysterious painting. But just because the premiere sticks to the expected formula doesn't mean the rest of the series does. The remaining art crimes covered are vast and unexpected: Titanic relics, an antique Chinese vase, rare wines, an archeological discovery, and music memorabilia. 

Each episode delves deeply into a specific type of art, educating viewers while entertaining them. “If all the relatives Americans say we're on board really were, it’s probably why it sank,” Palmer quips about the Titanic. He refers to people’s obsession with the doomed voyage as “disaterabilia.”  The revealed culprit is always a surprise (sometimes more so than others). Their motives are never immediately predictable.  

Just because there’s no romance (thankfully!) between Palmer and Malik, it doesn’t mean the show is devoid of romance. Mick has a major crush on museum curator Rosa (Sarah Alexander). They low-key flirt over artifacts of a ninth-century Viking chieftain, but Mick cannot get out of his own way (and his father certainly doesn’t help matters). 

Although the show hasn’t yet been picked up for a second season, it is Acorn TV’s number one most-watched new series premiere of all time. That definitely bodes well for its future. So now is the perfect time to catch up on Art Detectives.

All six episodes of Art Detectives are currently streaming on Acorn TV.