Grantchester: The Complete Second Season

The second season of this British crime drama—based on the novels by James Runcie about a young vicar who helps a veteran police detective solve murders in a rural town in the early 1950s—gets a little more personal. The first episode begins with Reverend Sidney Chambers (James Norton) being accused of seducing a teenage girl who has gone missing and is later found dead. That case reverberates throughout the season as Sidney defends the young man actually guilty of killing the girl (by accident, Sidney believes), which sets Sidney against both his parish and his friend Geordie Keating (Robson Green), an old school cop who isn't above knocking suspects around. As tensions build between them, Geordie is accused of killing a suspect and even Sidney questions whether he's guilty before uncovering the truth. On a lighter note, Geordie and his wife attempt to play matchmaker and Sidney ends up dating a flirtatious and funny receptionist at the station (Seline Hizli), but he's still in love with Amanda (Morven Christie), who remains in a miserable marriage to an abusive, neglectful husband. The series continues to explore mature themes with intelligence while developing a rich cast of characters whose own stories take on greater importance over the course of the season. Presenting all six episodes from 2016, extras include behind-the-scenes featurettes. Highly recommended. (S. Axmaker)