Death and Other Details – A Disappointing Addition To Cozy Crime

Last Updated on April 22, 2026

Nothing excites me more than seeing another great cozy crime mystery series on the horizon. Death and Other Details put itself out there as a show with a solid cast, a central whodunnit plot, looked like it was made on a sizeable budget, and I couldn’t wait.

And then I watched it. In fact, I turned over 10 hours of my life to that show, not a minute of which I will ever get back. And before you ask, no…it wasn’t worth it!

I should preface this by saying I genuinely love Mandy Patinkin as an actor. From his days as Inigo Montoya in The Princess Bride (all the way back in 1987) to his role as Jason Gideon in Criminal Minds, I’m a fan.

So when it looked like he would be channelling his inner Benoit Blanc in Death and Other Details, I had complete confidence that a solid murder mystery was in store.

To be fair, there is a central mystery. The problem is how convoluted the whole story is, not to mention how utterly annoying almost every single character is.

I’ll break down the plot first…

The Murder of Keith Trubitsky

The luxurious Mediterranean ocean liner, the SS Varuna, has been fully restored and refurbished and is about to set sail.

A number of incredibly wealthy guests are on board, and the hope is that if they love the cruise, word of mouth will lead to continued bookings.

Then Keith Trubitsky is murdered in his suite, and Imogene Scott (Violett Beane), who had a run-in with him, comes immediately under suspicion.

Scott’s mother, Kira Scott, was murdered when she was young. At the time, Kira was investigating the Collier family for their illegal activities in their overseas manufacturing business.

When she died, the family took Imogen in, and Rufus Cotesworth, played by Patinkin, was brought in to solve Kira’s case – except that he didn’t.

Twenty years have passed, and the two find themselves face-to-face once again, but this time, Scott needs Cotesworth to prove she is not a murderer.

With the investigation underway, family issues become apparent, as do old business rivalries, as Cotesworth, regarded as the best detective in the world, tries to get to grips with all of the players and their motives.

So far, so good. We have an enclosed setting, a murder, and a finite number of suspects. And then it all goes pear-shaped.

What Went Wrong

The focus of the show moves at a rapid pace away from the crimes on the ship and straight onto the sexual exploits of the characters. In vivid and unnecessary detail.

Anna Collier (Lauren Patten), Imogen’s sort of sister, is vying to take over the Collier business, but her wife is on the verge of a breakdown, and so, to make things better, they seem to randomly have sex whenever and wherever. As I said, in vivid and unnecessary detail.

Imogen Scott, despite being accused of murder, is more than happy to hop into bed with whoever takes her fancy, and before you know it, everybody is in bed with somebody, and the whole thing descends into a farce.

Throw in repeated flashbacks because the detective is still trying to solve Kira’s murder, mergers and takeovers, a fake hostage situation, a drunken wayward brother, too many characters with secrets, an onboard fugitive, and an unlikeable lead character, and you can see why it all gets to be too much.

By the time the ten episodes are up and Cotesworth is giving his Poirot-style summation of events, revealing the killer, you really don’t care anymore.

I certainly didn’t, and it turns out that many others felt the same, so much so that it was canceled after one season. Thank goodness!

Of course, that’s just my opinion, but given that I will do my absolute best to stick with a show and see it out to the end, even if only to try and guess the killer, I found my patience waning as the story just draaaaaggggggged on.

I get that the creators/writers were trying to give us a modern twist on an Agatha Christie-style story, but they failed in this attempt.

But why they decided to give Mandy Patinkin a truly awful British accent is the biggest mystery of all…