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Rosemary and Thyme

Brit-Stream: Rosemary & Thyme


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by Greg Bakun


This month AcornTV has some great shows streaming into your home. This time around I take a look at Rosemary & Thyme. This series from 2003-2007 is a fun & cozy series about two ladies who have a love for gardening and a taste for solving murders. I also have a list of new shows that have started as well as the current line up and some programs that will be airing soon. One of the great things about streaming video is you no longer have to watch a show when the network airs it, you can tune in whenever it's fits in with your schedule. One thing to remeber though, the AcornTV line up changes at midnight ET every Sunday. The add a few shows and take a few away so the line up is always fresh. Be sure to check in with Brit-streaming every couple of weeks and we'll let you what's coming up and what's scheduled to leave.


New Shows

Here are some shows that recently started on AcornTV:

Agatha Christie's Marple - Series 2 - (ends 11/25/12)
Special Branch - Set 1 - (ends 12/2/12)
Fingersmith - (ends 12/2/12)
Poldark - (ends 12/2/12)
Midsomer Murders - (ends 12/9/12)
Doctor Zhivago - (ends 12/9/12)
We'll Meet Again - (ends 12/9/12)
Pie in the Sky - (ends 11/25/12)


Brit-Streamimg Spotlight

Rosemary & Thyme

Title

Have you ever wondered what a show would be like if it was a murder mystery surrounded by gardening? No, me neither but I am glad I found out. Rosemary & Thyme is a very cozy and enjoyable British mystery series that I watched from Acorn TV. This series centers around two characters who are brought together by circumstance but share a very same passion which is gardening. Rosemary Boxer is a plant pathologist. She has spent her entire life working at the University of Malmesbury lecturing. We join her at a pivotal point in her life.  She has just been sacked from her job. Meanwhile, a total stranger to Rosemary, Laura Thyme is coming to the end of her marriage. Her husband had left her for some twenty-something year old woman and Laura is now left without anyone. Laura is a keen gardener. It's an extreme hobby for her. These two very separate women are about to be brought together in the name of gardening but also to solve a murder.

Rosemary & Thyme started out on ITV television in the UK in 2003. The first episode of the series is entitled And No Birds Sing. Rosemary is brought out to this nice manor house that has an incredible garden and grounds. The reason she is brought out to the place is because some of the trees on the premise are emitting a strange kind of sap. Rosemary really has no idea that in the house there is a man who is suffering from a very strange skin condition. Daniel Kellaway has received this skin condition a while ago and has been undergoing treatment at his home. The main treatment is to rub this sort of cream all over the infected areas. The problem is that the cream is not working at all. In fact, it looks like it is only getting worse.

Meanwhile, as I mentioned above, Laura Thyme just left her house for the last time as she no longer has a future with her husband. She goes out to the same village that Rosemary is at even staying at the same Inn as she is going to visit her friend Sam Trent. Coincidentally, Sam is working with Daniel and is a factor in some business decision that has to made about money going to the local University.   After Sam takes his leave of Laura at the Inn, he heads off for home. Before he leaves, he takes his heart medicine but the pills causes him to have a heart attack while in his car. He crashes and dies.
When Laura learns about Sam's death, of course she is concerned but more so she immediately suspects something is not quite right. It may not be a great deal for Sam but his death is what brings Rosemary & Thyme together. Sam was supposed to pick up Laura at the Inn the next morning but when he doesn't show up Rosemary takes Laura with her. Because Laura has nothing else to do especially with the death of Sam, she starts helping Rosemary with the trees and working in the garden at the manor house.

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There is a lot going on that Rosemary nor Thyme are privy too but they learn stuff by each of them having sort of a snoopy disposition. There is something wrong with the skin treatment to Daniel Kellaway. He is not getting any better and he decides to take desperate measures. There is also the creepy housekeeper Mrs. Potts who has a dark secret.

I enjoyed this episode and this series. The thing with Rosemary & Thyme is that it is pretty straightforward. The conclusion of the episode may have a slight surprise to it but the ending is pretty predictable. Is that a bad thing? Not necessarily. Not every mystery needs to be on the level of  Sherlock or even Poirot. This is pretty gentle stuff here. It features beautiful gardens and has a wonderful musical score. The theme music to the series is a very gentle version of Scarborough Fair. I know the song is gentle anyway but this is an even more gentle instrumental version. The music is composed by Christopher Gunning. If his name is familiar he has done the music for series such as Poirot, The Day of the Triffids, and Knights of God. The theme music is great and slightly reminds me of a classical feel that is present in series such as Lovejoy or All Creatures Great & Small. It adds a ton to the episode and it complements the scenery. As you can imagine, the series has a ton of greenery to it so  the classical-ish kind of music vibe just seems right for it.

Clive Exton wrote this episode and if you follow British television his name shows up a lot in some great series. These series include Poirot, Jeeves and Wooster, Survivors, Doomwatch, and Armchair Theatre. As I mentioned, the episode was alright. It was enjoyable but nothing too complex. It didn't get me to really think about it. To me this a great viewing for a Sunday night or something when I just want to relax and watch some enjoyable television. Clive Exton wrote some other episodes from this series and it does get better.
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I ran into this glitch before with Acorn TV but wasn't sure what side the problem stemmed from. Was it them or me? Every time I would play the second episode, Arabica and the Early Spider, the picture would keep going back to the loading page. I figured I would try another episode and this worked just fine so I moved on to the third episode of the series The Language of the Flowers.
This episode is a little more complex than the first one. It is based on Rosemary & Laura trying to restore a grand water cascade owned by the Caldecott family. The family owns a mansion on the grounds which they have turned into quite a profitable health spa. Unfortunately tragedy strikes as the mother of the family is strangled. The immediate question is whether one of the kids did it or was it someone else with a motive. Perhaps the answer is in the language of the flowers itself?

Like I mentioned above, this episode is better than the first one. Not having seen all of the episodes to this series, I do wonder how we can keep finding murder centered around gardening. Now, I don't have an answer to that nor do I need one. The series ran for 3 years and included a few specials. When researching this series, I saw someone else who wrote a review mention that Felicity Kendall and Pam Ferris are just women who are near 60 and disgusted with men. I have to admit, I didn't see that at all. What I did see was Pam's character Laura who was unceremoniously dumped by her husband. I would think if she was disgusted by men, she would treat all of them with disdain which she doesn't. In fact, in The Language of the Flowers, Laura is visited by her son Matt. Matt showed up because his dad needs his mom's signature to sell the house. Later, she sits alone on the stairs of the water cascade crying and in pain because the life she had and loved were truly gone.  I found the scene poignant and sad. It's not cool to see people in pain like that especially when they don't deserve it. As for Rosemary, she had some relationships but I always got the impression that the love of plants and her job at the University were the reasons why she never got married.
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The resolutions in the episodes are pretty simple. In And No Bird Sings, they really do not solve the crime but more stumble into it. Granted the whole time Laura, who used to work on the police force many years ago, thinks something is not right, it is only through detective work not of their own do they figure out what is happening. In The Language of the Flowers, they do a lot more to actually figure out the mystery themselves and I find that a lot more satisfactory. There is a big red herring in the episode but I was able to figure that out right away. If I can do it, anyone can. The best part of the episode is that we are told what the language of the flowers really is and that alone is a neat part of the episode.

This is an enjoyable series that I plan to watch more of soon. Like I said, I can sit back to watch it yet as far as mentally it is certainly not heavy lifting. If you are looking for something fun with beautiful British locations, go onto to Acorn TV and check Rosemary & Thyme out.

Currently on AcornTV

Trial & Retribution - Set 3 Vol. 9 Part 1 (ends 11/4/12)
The Making of the President - (ends 11/4/12)
Upstairs Downstairs - The 1970s version! Series 2 (ends 11/4/12)
Rosemary & Thyme - Series 1(ends 11/11/12)
Cadfael - Series 1(ends 11/11/12)
The Last Detective - Series 1 (ends 11/18/12)
Island at War - 6 episodes (ends 11/18/12)
Agatha Christie's Poirot - Series 2 (ends 11/25/12)
The Making of the President - (ends 11/25/12)
First Among Equals - (ends 11/25/12)
Agatha Christie's Marple - Series 2(ends 11/25/12)
Special Branch - Set 1 - (ends 12/2/12)
Fingersmith - (ends 12/2/12)
Poldark - (ends 12/2/12)
Midsomer Murders - (ends 12/9/12)
Doctor Zhivago - (ends 12/9/12)
We'll Meet Again - (ends 12/9/12)
Pie in the Sky - (ends 11/25/12)

Coming Soon:
Trial & Retribution (Starts 11/5/12)
Sling & Arrows (Starts 11/5/12)
Fortysomething (Starts 11/5/12)
Prime Suspect (Starts 11/12/12)
Fresh Fields (Starts 11/12/12)


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This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on October 31, 2012 10:15 AM.

The previous post in this blog was Cadfael.

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