Bookish Season 1 Episode 1 Review: Slightly Foxed, Part 1

On Bookish Season 1 Episode 1, “Slightly Foxed, Part 1,” bodies start piling up before we meet our first main character. To be fair, most of them have been there for hundreds of years.

In 1940s London, Jack is released from prison and given employment with bookshop owner Gabriel Book. He soon realizes he’s needed in part because much of Gabriel’s time is taken up offering (unsolicited) help to the local police.

A bomb site turns up a large number of bodies from the Black Plague. There’s a twist in the works somewhere, but a murder mystery needs an actual murder, and it comes in the form of a man whose gruesome death is disguised as a suicide

The death is reported by Ada Dredge, who speaks ill of the man’s estranged daughter, Merula, and the Micky, the man Merula ran off with. Yet the couple’s suspect behavior still isn’t as shady as what Ada herself is set to inherit in the man’s’ will.

Jack takes everything in, including the Books’ sweet but not particularly romantic (hint, hint) relationship, their sometimes-contentious relations with various officers, and Nora, a young woman around his age with a taste for the macabre.

He bonds with all of them before the end of the hour, particularly Nora. They’re both orphans, her having lost her parents in the war. Finally, a flashback to the Books as children suggests there’s something they’re not telling their new employee.

Like many PBS series, Bookish has all the elements of a cozy mystery, from quirky characters to a warm setting—at least inside Book’s shop. But outside these walls, this London is gritty enough to warrant a somewhat surprising TV-MA rating.

Mark Gatiss is instantly likeable as our title character. He has the brilliance and sharp tongue of many such leads, and yet treats everyone with kindness (a trait many shows seem to do away with to make their show have more “edge”)

I won’t reveal the secret he’s holding from Jack just yet but given that it’s both subtly hinted at through the writing and openly announced in some descriptive promotional materials for the series, I have a feeling it won’t stay secret for long.

Jack, Trottie, and Nora area also all the kind of people you’d love to have a drink with. Sure, Nora is a little too enthusiastic about the corpses around them and Trottie’s taste in wallpaper is questionable, but they’re the kind of quirks we love.

Jack is the closest thing to a “straight man” trope, but given that we don’t yet know what he was in prison for, he has his own background that I’m sure will be unpacked it due time. Like us, he’s bonding with everyone after only having brief reservations.

The actual crime is the least interesting aspect of this crime drama, and yet it too is very intriguing. I can only assume our plague bodies and poor current victim tie together somehow, and I’m eager to see what this additional twist could be.

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Bookish airs Sundays at 10/9c on PBS.

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