Back when I was writing for TV Series Hub, this show was always floating around my radar, but I never actually hit play. About a year ago, I finally binged the first season on HBO Max, and it totally hooked me.
Based on J.K. Rowling’s mystery novel The Cuckoo’s Calling (under the pen name Robert Galbraith), this three-episode first season does a fantastic job of launching a new crime-solving duo you instantly care about. The London setting is moody and atmospheric, but the real draw is the slow-burn partnership between private investigator Cormoran Strike and temp-turned-partner Robin Ellacott.
Tom Burke plays Strike as a gruff, broke, and physically injured ex-military cop living out of his cluttered office, still reeling from a brutal breakup and the baggage of being a rock star’s illegitimate son. Holliday Grainger’s Robin arrives as a seemingly ordinary temp from Yorkshire, newly engaged and just looking for office experience. What she discovers instead is that she has a real gift for detective work—and Strike badly needs her.
Their big case comes when John Bristow hires Strike to investigate the death of his adopted sister, supermodel Lula Landry. The police call it a suicide after she falls from her Mayfair balcony, but John is convinced it was murder. As Strike and Robin dig into Lula’s world of fame, fashion, and family secrets, they discover she was quietly searching for her biological roots and had written a new will that would upend a massive inheritance.
When a key witness and friend of Lula’s turns up dead, it becomes clear someone is desperate to keep that will hidden. The investigation eventually circles right back to John himself, and Strike pieces together a brutal motive rooted in debt, jealousy, and greed.
By the time the case is wrapped up and Strike offers Robin a permanent position, complete with a heartfelt gift to go along with it, the show has truly solidified its place as a top-tier, character-driven detective drama. Overall, I gladly give the first season a 9/10.
Have you seen Strike? What are your thoughts on the first and the series? Leave a comment.
Season 1 of Strike is streaming now on Max.
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