It’s been a long three-year wait, but Lauren Lyle’s Karen Pirie – recently promoted to Detective Inspector – is back and better than ever in Karen Pirie season 2.
There are dozens of British detective dramas named after their leading investigators. Morse, Lewis, Endeavour, Bergerac, Lynley, Luther; I could go on. And yet, miraculously, even years after its relatively short first season premiered, Scottish production Karen Pirie manages to stand out from that well-loved crowd, especially with this strong second outing.
Season 2 of creator, writer, and star Emer Kenny’s adaptation of Val McDermid’s best-selling Inspector Karen Pirie novels is assured, well-paced, thrilling, and even wonderfully funny at times. It’s full of solid performances and an intriguing, complex family mystery that will have eager viewers racing through this season’s three feature-length episodes.
In Karen Pirie season 2, Detective Inspector Karen Pirie is called in to lead another historical case when a body is found that could finally provide answers for one of Scotland’s most high-profile kidnapping mysteries. In 1984, oil heiress Catriona Grant (Julia Brown) and her two-year-old son, Adam, were taken off the street at gunpoint, never to be seen again.
Not all is as it seems, though, and as DI Pirie unravels the truth with her team, she ruffles the feathers of one of Scotland’s most powerful families in the process.
Karen Pirie Season 2 Effortlessly Switches Between The Past & The Present
Karen Pirie season 2’s narrative strength undoubtedly lies in its two-timeline structure. Much like its cold case peer, Unforgotten, Karen Pirie forgoes the genre’s usual lengthy interrogation scenes, instead using them to lead into various flashback sequences. These flashbacks include the events leading up to Catriona’s disappearance and the issues faced by her kidnappers in the aftermath.
Like season 1, the production value of these 1980s flashbacks is phenomenal, but it’s the way they enhance Karen Pirie‘s storytelling that really makes them shine. The flashbacks allow the audience to learn more about Catriona than Karen ever will; we get to see her in action with our own eyes, learn the way she moved and lived through this tumultuous period of recent Scottish history.
We see how she treated her son, how she acted around her friends. The story feels more personal that way. Cat’s not just a case to be solved, she’s a person, and the audience wants to solve the mystery of her disappearance as much as Karen does.
The weight of the flashbacks thankfully doesn’t take away from the strength of the season’s present-day storyline. If anything, they bolster it. As we learn more about Catriona’s past, we start to see her family’s reactions in a different light, especially now, 40-odd years later. James Cosmo portrays Grant family patriarch, Brodie Sr., with genuine worry, yet there’s an underlying hint of menace in every interaction, especially with Karen. Does he see her as an ally or as a threat?
Karen Pirie is wonderfully, fallibly human, and Lauren Lyle’s performance is easy and uncomplicated yet riveting all the same.
Of course, Karen doesn’t do all the work on her own, and her crack team is there to help her solve one of the biggest cases of her career. This includes DC Jason “Mint” Murray (Chris Jenks), DS Phil Parhatka (Zach Wyatt), and newcomer DC Isla Ray (Saskia Ashdown).
Ashdown’s Ray is a welcome, smart, no-nonsense addition to the team, a perfect complement to DC Murray’s lovably odd yet efficient work ethic. Then, of course, there’s Wyatt’s DS Parhatka, whose easy-going romantic chemistry with Lyle’s Pirie remains one of the series’ highlights, even as he disagrees with her reckless methods.
The only “unofficial” team member I wasn’t sold on this season was the returning true crime podcaster Bel Richmond (Rakhee Thakrar), now a full-fledged journalist and streamer. Bel is an interesting foil for Pirie, certainly, and their at-odds dynamic in season 1 played a major role in how audiences viewed the investigation.
This season, though, it feels like she’s been inserted unnecessarily, a feeling which becomes even more pronounced when she becomes responsible for bringing in a key piece of historical background that no one else on Karen’s team was seemingly able to find.
Though Pirie‘s supporting players are an important part of the story, a detective drama is only as strong as its lead detective. Thankfully, season 2 proves once again that Lauren Lyle’s Karen Pirie is more than deserving of being the show’s titular character.
Lauren Lyle’s Karen Pirie Is One Of The Genre’s Most Watchable Detectives
DI Karen Pirie remains a breath of fresh air in the oversaturated landscape of British crime dramas. What you see is what you get. She’s not hiding some debilitating trauma. She’s not a loner, socially awkward, or overly, unbelievably brilliant. She’s not secretly conducting her own investigation into her mysterious past.
She’s just a woman who cares, who’s good at her job, who fights for what she believes in and wants to find justice for her victims, no matter how long ago they were killed or kidnapped. She’s snarky, she makes jokes, she defies her superiors, has hangovers, hates the heat, and can admit it when she’s been reckless. She’s even allowed to be in love without it being the source of her soul-crushing angst.
Karen Pirie is wonderfully, fallibly human, and Lauren Lyle’s performance is easy and uncomplicated yet riveting all the same. She’s a fantastic lead, and with the loss of Brenda Blethyn’s Inspector Vera Stanhope earlier this year, this genre could certainly use more female detectives like DI Pirie.
Historic cases aren’t new in the crime drama genre, and there’s nothing inherently unique about Karen Pirie or its storytelling. It’s unlikely to attract viewers who aren’t already familiar with or deeply invested in British TV detective dramas. For everyone else, however, Karen Pirie season 2 will prove to be a genuine treat, a well-crafted story of family betrayal, the power wielded by the billionaire class, and one woman’s sheer determination to uncover the truth.
Karen Pirie season 2 premieres October 2 on BritBox, with new episodes airing weekly on Thursdays until October 16.
- Release Date
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September 25, 2022
- Network
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ITV1
- Directors
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Gareth Bryn
- Writers
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Emer Kenny
