In the market for some travel porn Italian countryside mysteries?

Acorn TV's Signora Volpe might fill that void--or not?

After a short-lived experience with it a couple of years ago, we signed up for Acorn TV again this summer because we couldn’t find another place to watch Dalgliesh Season 2 and Brokenwood Season 9 (more on those in later posts?). Having accomplished those objectives, Acorn TV subscription was once again being debated in our household: Should we try Agatha Raisin again? How about the latest season of Endeavour?

Then a new show caught our eye—mostly because we fantasize about living in the Italian countryside (and French too, of course)—and we duly tuned in to the inaugural season of Signora Volpe, which starts in London before quickly moving to Umbria.

Since I am married to someone who suggests with some regularity that we chuck everything and move to Dordogne or Provence, I worried that a show about a British spy (Emilia Fox) who chucks everything and moves to Umbria might prove too alluring. Indeed, there was quite a lot of sighing over sweeping views (of beautiful and expansive countryside, of course) from the other half of the couch which I attempted to ignore as we breezed through the 3 episodes—each running 83 to 88 minutes—comprising the first season. (Signora Volpe has been renewed for a second season.)

And the show itself? While there are a few neat gizmos (that isn’t really an electric toothbrush? and that’s more than a simple wine bottle cork?), Emilia Fox—though perfectly pleasant—doesn’t really make a very convincing badass super spy who can take down multiple armed mobsters while single-handedly bringing down a racketeering enterprise. In a way, while the premise was not unpromising, it seems unnecessary to keep pushing the espionage angle now that we’ve finished a full season. If anything, the second episode with less cloak-and-dagger felt less forced, more an organic and perhaps even affecting mystery. And though perhaps requisite for the target audience, the budding romance doesn’t exactly captivate.

My verdict about Signora Volpe: Perhaps not as compelling as the scenery but passable for light entertainment.