Chattanooga Times Free Press

‘Panhandle’ reheats ‘Monk’ formula

BY KEVIN MCDONOUGH Contact Kevin McDonough at kevin .tvguy@gmail.com.

Fans of the old-fashioned “Blue Sky” programming from the USA network are in luck. But they won’t find it on USA. Spectrum subscribers can stream “Panhandle” on demand. Set in the lush, quirky and exotic fever dream of the Florida Panhandle, it stars Luke Kirby as Bellweather “Bell” Prescott, an eccentric amateur sleuth with bottomless resources.

Prescott lives with his quirky mother (Lesley Ann Warren) in their moss-covered mansion, the outer buildings of which he’s turned into his own personal CSI lab. He has a lot of time to solve local crimes because he hasn’t left the grounds of his estate since the (unsolved) murder of his wife, a beauty who appears to him on a regular basis.

Local law enforcement arrives when he finds a corpse on the property. As an amateur medical examiner, he has a theory about the toxins that turned the victim “blue as a Smurf.” When he calls for someone to take away the body, he’s informed by traffic cop Cammie (Tiana Okoye) that there is no morgue. In fact, there is no police force, only herself and her radar gun to ticket speeders and provide revenue for the beleaguered municipality.

It doesn’t take a sleuth to determine that Cammie and Prescott will become partners in crime-solving, an arrangement that allows him to maintain his agoraphobic lifestyle, a condition that appears emotionally linked to his inability to find his wife’s killer.

If this all sounds a lot like “Monk” transferred from San Francisco to the Gulf Coast by way of the COVID quarantine, you’d be right. And what’s so wrong with that?

› Another hybrid blending familiar ingredients, “Chefs vs. Wild” streams on Hulu. What does a chef do when he or she reaches the top, receives a Michelin star and great reviews? Why, go to a desert island or someplace similarly remote.

In each of the eight episodes of this series (two stream today), two chefs will be transported

to an off-the-grid location, where they will be forced to scrounge for local mushrooms and herbs to prepare a fourstar meal. “Wild” takes “MasterChef” to Bear Grylls territory. You may never look at pinecones and ferns quite the same way again. Expect this show to popularize the word “forage,” placing it in the pantheon of culinary cliches right next to “farm to table.”

› Acorn offers a prequel to a popular and acclaimed series. The six-episode “Mystery Road: Origin” provides a

backstory to the Outback noir series. The first two episodes stream today, and more arrive on subsequent Mondays.

› World Channel, the digital platform associated with the Boston PBS affiliate WGBH, rolls out the sixth season of “Stories From the Stage,” highlighting three women who overcame adversity.

› Netflix streams a new chapter in the children’s animation favorite, “My Little Pony: Make Your Mark.”

OPINION

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2022-09-26T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-09-26T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://edition.timesfreepress.com/article/282024741132749

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