Crimesolving is fun again, beyond paradise

Every now and then, TV returns to something it’s quite good at – light tales that solve a mystery at the end of each hour.
That isn’t its first choice. It prefers deep, dark tales that go for weeks – good ones like “Parish” (9 p.m. Sundays, AMC) or “Veil” (starting April 30, Hulu).
But a few shows have the right, light touch. There’s the delightful “Elsbeth” (10 p.m. Thursdays, CBS) and occasional British shows on PBS and streaming on Acorn or Britbox. Right now, I’d point to Britbox’s “Beyond Paradise” (shown here).
The original “Death in Paradse” keeps solving murders in the French Caribbean. It’s working on its 14th season and has had four stars, starting with Ben Miller (now of PBS’ “Professor T”). One of those was Kris Marshall as Humphrey … who moved to seaside Cornwall to be with his girlfriend Martha, while solving more caes.
You might recognize Marshall from “Sanditon,” where he was Tom Parker, the well-meaning chap trying to create a resort. He doesn’t fit any TV-cop mold.
Humphrey is 6-foot-2, with a bright, open face and a manner that seems to be both wise and bumbling, in a Hugh Grant kind of way. We find him instantly likable – which is true of others in the cast.
There’s Martha (Sally Bretton, shown here with Marshall) and her mother. And there are colleagues at the tiny police station – Esther (smart and cynical, with a teen daughter Zoe), Kelby (a young guy with a puppy-dog desire to please) and Margo, a sort of secretary.
We tend to quickly like these people, this place … and even some of the suspects. That was the trouble with the season-opener: We felt no joy in seeing them arrested.
But the other five shows this season give us solid mysteries and culprits who need to be caught. Theiside stories – centering on Martha’s mom, Esther’s daughter and the Humphrey-Martha romance are OK. The main ones tend to be fairly sharp, smart and – as murder tales go – reasonably pleasant. TV is good at that.