Every HBO Comedy Ranked From Worst To Best
46. The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency
This is a lightweight, easy watching show of moderate entertainment, capable of producing smiles and the odd laugh. If that sounds like damning with the faintest of praise, well, it sort of is. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency is pleasant TV, but for the most part entirely unexceptional.
The impressive parts: it’s one of the first major pieces of entertainment to be filmed in Botswana (where the books and the series are set), and the cast are fantastic, particularly Anika Noni Rose and the multi-talented Jill Scott. As the titular detectives, they’re immensely charming and charismatic, everything you could want in a procedural detective show.
Because ultimately this is what The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency becomes. The Africa of this show doesn’t seem to reflect reality, using the continent’s lush scenery as a backdrop rather than attempting to say anything interesting (possibly a result of the all-English creative team).
Perhaps this series could have taken its unique perspective and terrific cast and made something incisive or at least memorable; instead, it’s pleasant fluff.