Bookish (2025-)

I finally got around to watching Bookish (2025-), and while I don’t think it’s going to blow anyone’s mind as far as the costuming goes, it is an interesting cozy English murder mystery show. Starring Mark Gatiss as Gabriel Book, an eccentric book shop owner who solves crimes on the side, and Polly Walker as his wife, Trottie, who runs the wallpaper shop next door to his and assists with his investigations. Rounding out the core cast is Connor Finch as Jack, a petty criminal who finds himself released from jail and sponsored by Book to be his assistant, and Nora (played by Buket Kömür), an impish young woman who works in the restaurant across the street from Book’s and is fascinated by murder and other macabre topics. Elliot Levey finishes the main cast as Inspector Bliss, who is indebted to Book for mysterious reasons and relies on Book’s profound understanding of human nature to solve crimes.

Set immediately after the events of World War II, the action happens in a London that is still far from recovered from the horrors of the Blitz, with nearly every character affected by the trauma of war in one way or another. The city itself is scarred and destroyed, with characters always referring to where a certain street “used to be” before it was blown up, which makes for a bit of a departure from the usual CEMM, which are typically set in some quaint, idyllic area of England. The choice of setting in late-1940s London is by far the most interesting aspect of the otherwise routine assortment of stock characters and murder plots.

All in all, the writing is clever and the cast is top notch, which makes it one of those imminently bingeable shows if you’re a fan of the genre. That said, the costume content isn’t going to set hearts ablaze, but I think the overall watchability of the show more than compensates for that.

Have you been watching Bookish (2025-)? Tell us your thoughts in the comments!

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