Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Signora Volpe’ Season 2 On Acorn TV, Where A Former MI6 Agent Solves Crimes In A Quaint Italian Village

We think we’re sticklers when it comes to mystery shows, but what we’ve realized over the years is that we’re more of a stickler about the character solving the mysteries and the relationship that person has with people around them than the mysteries themselves. Case in point is an Acorn TV series that takes place in the Umbrian region of Italy, where a former MI6 agent has settled in and is solving murder mysteries.

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Opening Shot: The hillside village of Panicale, in the Italy’s Umbria region. We see a now-renovated villa. A woman exits and locks the door.

The Gist: Sylvia Fox (Emilia Fox) is back in Umbria after being away for a freelance assignment for MI6. She’s no longer a full-time spy, but as she mentions to her sister Isabel (Tara Fitzgerald), you still have bills to pay, even if you live in paradise.

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As the sisters catch up, there’s a funeral going on across the courtyard. When Franco Gori (Gabrielle Linari) and his wife Romana (Francesca Nerozzi) give their condolences to Vittoria Mazzone (Francesca De Martini), the widow of the man being memorialized, Vittoria slaps him, saying he’s the cause of her husband’s death.

Another person Sylvia wants to catch up with is Giovanna Riva (Giovanni Cirfiera), the captain of the local Carabinieri precinct. But as he arrives for their date, he gets called away. Franco Gori was found dead in the community kitchen where he volunteers; Padre Giuloano (Mauro Marino), the local parish priest, and Mara (Liliana Mele), a volunteer, found him. When Riva and his lieutenant, Roberta Barzini (Elena Di Cioccio) go to Vittoria’s flat to question her, they find a fitting mannequin with Gori’s name written in red. That seems to be enough to arrest him.

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Antonella (Imma Piro), Isabel’s mother-in-law, goes to Sylvia to help exonerate Vittoria. As she’s been doing, Sylvia presses people for answers, including Romana, Vittoria’s very religious brother, and Gabriel (Malich Cisse’), a young seminary student. Of course, she’s not the average busybody asking questions; she uses a number of her spy skills, and her contact Raffaella (Marianne Leoni), who uses her gelato shop as a front for her own info-gathering operation.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Created by Rachel Cuperman and Sally Griffiths, Signora Volpe is in the “Brit moves elsewhere in Europe and solves mysteries” vibe as The Madame Blanc Mysteries , though Signora Volpe is more serious and moves at a more relaxed pace.

Our Take: The first episode of Signora Volpe ‘s second season emphasizes more of Sylvia’s mystery-solving abilities than it does her abilities as a former spy. It really moves at a relaxed place, showing many shots of the hilly village that Sylvia now calls home, as well as scenes of her walking narrow, cobblestone streets and entering rustic-looking buildings.

Emilia Fox is definitely still compelling as Sylvia, who pads around in Chucks a lot of the time and just looks like a casually-fashionable woman in her forties that’s enjoying living in Umbria. Fox communicates Sylvia’s utter normcore soul who just happens to know how to kick butt and has contacts like Raffaella, who can get information on just about anyone.

But the show certainly feels like a bit more of a traditional mystery series than one about a spy settling into the “retired” life. The second season also emphasizes the relationships Sylvia has formed during her time in Umbria, including the reconnection she’s made with Isabel, played with wry earthiness by Fitzgerald. And Sylvia’s romance with Giovanni is always going to run afoul of her efforts to solve crimes that might not sit well with him in his role as a Carabinieri captain.

The visuals are stunning, of course, and the relaxed pace of the 90-minute episodes isn’t that disruptive. We just wish that the mysteries were more solid. The mystery at the center of this episode was stronger than the one at the center of last season’s premiere, but there were still moments where we didn’t quite get where each person who is suspected has a connection to the murder victim. There’s also a side story about Gabriel, who leads Giovanni and Barzini through an extended chase through the village, that only seems to be tangentially connected to the central whodunnit.

Given the luxury of time these episodes provide, we would hope that the mysteries at the center of each would be a bit more complex and airtight, but the trade-off for that is more scenery of cobblestone streets and quaint old buildings. In this case, it may be a trade-off we’re willing to take.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: With Vitella in the clear, Sylvia joins Isabel, her husband Matteo (Matteo Carlomagno), Antonella and Vitella for a celebratory dinner. Giovanni arrives, and Sylvia tells him to “not ask any questions” because the guests were asking about him.

Sleeper Star: As we mentioned, we like Tara Fitzgerald’s wry take on Isabel, who knows Sylvia very well; when Sylvia asks to go with her to the community kitchen, then slyly asks about Mara, Isabel knows exactly why her sister wants to tag along.

Most Pilot-y Line: Every time Sylvia goes to another village, the name of the village is shown at the bottom of the screen. It makes it look like she’s travelling far and wide, but we’d imagine that these villages are only a few miles from each other.

Our Call: STREAM IT. We wish the mysteries in Signora Volpe were stronger, but Emilia Fox is so charming and the scenery is so spectacular, we almost don’t mind.

Joel Keller ( @joelkeller ) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com , VanityFair.com , Fast Company and elsewhere.

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