There’s nothing cozier on a Sunday night than to settle in for an episode of a cosy (British spelling) mystery in a quaint English village. Grantchester keeps getting better, especially in Season 9, with the advent of the third vicar, Alphy Kottaram (a dashing Rishi Nair).
It takes a couple of episodes to establish the leaving of Vicar No. 2, Will (Tom Brittney), who I liked but who got a bit tediously moody at the end of his run. Though the characters will miss Will, they are an openhearted bunch who take to Alphy quickly. That is, except the force that is Mrs. C, the housekeeper/mother hen of the vicarage. She speaks before she thinks, and in the case of Alphy, who is Indian, her biases leak out. Referring to him as “swarthy” and “not from these climes,” Mrs. C eventually becomes protective of the young vicar, whose ethnicity makes him suspect in white Cambridgeshire. “You must be a convert of missionaries,” one of Alphy’s new congregants assumes, incorrectly. “No, Christian born and bred,” he says, gently but with the weary air of one who is often othered.
Leonard (the riveting Al Weaver), a former curate, has always had more pastoral finesse than any of the vicars, even though he was exiled from ministry due to his sexual orientation. He readily accepts Alphy, knowing what it is to be excluded and held in judgment.
(Leonard’s relationship with Daniel is a subplot this season and is depicted in a PG manner.)
Not quite as accepting of Alphy is Detective Inspector Geordie Keating (Robson Green), who has bonded with two vicars already and is wary of opening himself to more heartbreak. Geordie is the heart of the show, and viewers know he will eventually accept the witty, perceptive Alphy and that the two will begin to solve murders together. In fact, Alphy might be the best-ever vicar-detective-sidekick.
Besides, Geordie has big fish to fry at home. His wife is acting in a way that causes great concern, and his eldest daughter is likewise contentious. As he tries to gingerly navigate the volatile homefront, he continues to deal with PTSD from World War II and solve the many murders that crop up in the village. His evolution from hardened DI to a kinder, gentler version of himself has been satisfying to watch.
Alphy’s evolution remains to be seen, but he, like his predecessors, is flawed and vulnerable to failure. Overall, the show sticks to the moral values of 1961, when it is set, with the exception of once this season when one main character succumbs to temptation. This too is portrayed in a non-graphic manner.
With themes of aging, racial discrimination, and equity, fledging young adult children, and even the susceptibility of spiritual people to fall prey to false religion, Grantchester remains a charming but often weighty option for streaming, especially on a Sunday night. (PBS Masterpiece Theater, Amazon Prime)