Case Histories Premise
Jackson Brodie (Jason Isaacs) is a former soldier-turned cop-turned private investigator in Edinburgh. He is extremely dedicated to his cases, especially if it involves finding missing people/children. He often sees and remembers what others do not, and this attention to detail and determination are probably what led him to leave (or to be fired from) the force in the first place.
Other than his assistant Deborah (Zawe Ashton) who would rather have him care more about the money and less about the people, his only other ally is his old friend from the force Louise (Amanda Abbington) who seems to love & dislike Brodie with equal measure and gets sick of the favors he asks all the time. But she knows that he is almost always right, and helping him ends up saving people.
Of course his clients love him for the dedication whereas it drives his ex-wife (Kirsty Mitchell) crazy as he often ends up dragging his little daughter (Millie Innes) with him to the most unlikely places. Even though he might not always be on time and gets scorned by his wife about his parenting skills, Brodie really loves his daughter.
Brodie is like House with two working legs, no painkiller addiction and better social skills. He sees things and connects the dots in a way that nobody else can. However in some ways he might even be more damaged as he has lost his sister in a tragic way when he was very young, and he has suffered another trauma that we are only slowly revealed.
Structure & Style
Some cases stretch to two episodes, but mostly he solves a case every episode which takes about an hour, about 15 minutes more than your typical American drama. Currently there is only one season, and it features 6 episodes.
Sometimes there are funny/fun moments, but comic relief isn’t provided as often as many crime dramas we are used to.
And while the show is certainly compelling, it is also gloomy and depressing. Yes, we still get to see some action- Brodie beating someone up or someone trying to beat Brodie up or kill him, but the show is a lot more about the drama, tension and the crime.
My few problems with the show are that:
– His flashbacks about his childhood are given too often, and they seem to take forever.
– And while these give us huge tips to why he is damaged and where he gets his drive from, but it also wants us to send Brodie to therapy. He sure as hell seems to need it as much as Michael Britten (Jason’s Awake character), if not more.
– The side/guest characters take too much time. They are not that interesting, and getting to know them doesn’t make me care about them more. If a woman has been missing for 20+ years, this is enough for me to care. I don’t need to spend more time with her sisters to see it is a big deal.
Jason Isaacs’s Wife Loves Jackson Brodie
I heard about Case Histories from a Jason Isaacs interview and being a big fan of Awake, I decided to give it a shot. In the interview, he said that his wife loved Brodie and joked why he couldn’t be more like him. He said that he answered there are no men like Brodie.
Now, from this comment, you’d think Brodie is the awesome hero of a romantic comedy. After watching Case Histories, I’m glad to hear that Jason Isaacs isn’t like Brodie. I don’t think he and his wife would have been together since the late 80s if he were.
Brodie has more baggage than a normal person can handle without therapy, he’s a caring but ultimately strange parent, he would make a horrible boyfriend (as he’d be too busy saving the world) and we’re guessing he did make a lousy husband since he is divorced.
Worth Seeing?
Yes. The acting, the setting, the atmosphere are really good- even though the cases are generally depressing. And this is not Person of Interest – meaning people often hire Brodie after the crime has been committed, and the cops have failed to do much. So even though we rarely get to save people, we are more interested in learning what happened and/or who did it.
Will I be inclined to fast-forward?
You might. Like when the two sisters are constantly bickering on about stuff (episode 1), or the writer having that long chat with his obnoxious friend (episode 3). I didn’t-but that’s because I didn’t want to miss any scenes with Jackson. He is just cool (I guess that was Jason’s wife’s point.)
Not so much for the entertainment but for the intrigue and the emotional intensity
The show aims to engross and intrigue rather than entertain. Some episodes are less dark than the others (I loved the heart attack guy’s wife and how she and Brodie interacted) and have funnier moments, but there is a chance the show might get you sad more often than it makes you smile. And I’m pretty sure that was the creators’ the intention.
Jason Isaacs Had to Go the Gym A Lot
Well, I’m guessing this is more relevant to his female fans, but he has stated in an interview that he was amused that the screenwriters had his character take his shirt off a lot, and he decided to work out to not to be embarrassed. Well, I think he did a good job of not being embarrassed. Hell, I wish he took it off more often.
