Significantly better than its reputation - a victim of atrocious timing.

bombad_general

OK, first off with the negative stuff: The format was planted into a completely saturated market, and, with all the competition, the series is nothing terribly new. Had the creators maybe waited until "Castle" or "Rizzoli & Isles" had aired their last season, this series would have filled a great gap - the witty cop show that makes you feel better for watching it. Now the two aforementioned series have run their course, and "The Mysteries of Laura" has undeservedly tanked after two seasons (with nothing to replace it, really). Fantastic.

As to the positive aspects - well, the characters are entertainingly written (and the actors do a great job bringing that to the screen), the cases themselves provide a decent amount of suspension, and it doesn't have a fundamentally depressing undertone to it (which makes for great serial classics like "Breaking Bad" or "Narcos", but sometimes that's simply not what you're looking for). If you like the type of cop shows that you can watch from the sofa while maybe eating a taco, just to have a good time - and don't want a format where every second episode involves chasing some super secret McGuffin that jeopardizes the security of the US and whatnot - this is for you.

All in all, the series pretty much got panned. The tenor was "geez, another cop show".
My experience with this show has led me to the conclusion that these reviews all sensationally miss the point. Yes, it is a cop show, but with that sort of protagonist, you better believe the dynamics of the show are going to be different.

Take Detective Kate Beckett from "Castle" or Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson from "The Closer". They are career-driven, tough women, who really have to struggle with the idea of being a parent (None of them become one in the course of their series). Captain Sharon Raydor from "Major Crimes" masters parenthood with one terrifying glare and a couple of choice (though never vulgar) words. Megan Hunt from "Body of Proof" never gives the impression she as much as ruffled her perfectly styled hair while being a single parent. Temperance Brennan from "Bones" is, indeed, changed somewhat by parenthood - but she remains this very different person, very original, but always a little "off" in terms of humanity.
Those characters have one thing in common - they are not very relatable. They are, in their own ways, role models, brilliantly played and well constructed as characters, but few people can really see themselves as one of them.

Laura Diamond, on the other hand, is a person we all know on some level - the career woman / single mom who both excels at her job and somehow manages to keep her bratty kids from burning the house down (no thanks to her ex-husband/superior officer, whose contribution to the parenting workload can best be described as "symbolic") - and whose dedication requires a level of practicality which shows. No, her clothes are not the immaculate suits of Captain Raydor, but mostly practical and decidedly worn and/or a bit grubby. No, her hair is not the straight perfection of Detective Beckett; rather, she is fortunate when it does not look like she grabbed the wrong end of a Taser. No, her demeanor is not the polite restraint of Dr. Hunt - Laura Diamond is the type who slurps cup-a-soup in the morgue.
And she does not have the father-who-apparently-committed-suicide-but-really-was-murdered, nor the parents-who-were-runaway-criminals-and-nearly-got-her-killed, or the mother-brutally-murdered-by-a-shadowy-untouchable (I won't say to which other characters these apply as not to give any plot points away). No mysterious backstory, no deep emotional scar which gives her the pain that fires her zeal, or anything like that. She is simply the epitome of a sassy real-life single mom, and that level of relatability is something that most critics have singularly failed to appreciate.

I, for one, am still very disappointed the series was axed after a mere two seasons, and even more so there aren't even rumors of a DVD release. All in all, this series never got the appreciation it deserved, and more's the pity. Still, the series has quite a loyal small fan base in the German-speaking area. So fingers crossed we'll maybe get a DVD release.

score 10/10

bombad_general 27 June 2017

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3740362/