Television series

Death in Paradise

Name: Death in Paradise
Genre: Drama, Crime, Mystery
Released: 2011
Cast: Don Warrington, Elisabeth Bourgine, Danny John-Jules, Tobi Bakare, Joséphine Jobert

Death in Paradise is the ultimate comfort-food murder mystery: a body drops on a sun-baked Caribbean island every week, solved by a rotating cast of detectives who never quite adjust to the heat. It's formulaic in the best way — gorgeous scenery, a locked-room puzzle, a tidy confession by the finale — pure, undemanding, holiday-brochure television for unwinding rather than gripping.

TVMaze rating

7.9

If you liked this

Midsomer Murders1998

If you love the ritual of a body turning up somewhere picturesque every week, this is the mother lode — decades of increasingly baroque killings in an English county where nobody trusts the vicar.

But Gentler tone, no exotic scenery, and its sheer volume can feel overwhelming to start.

Agatha Christie Poirot1989

Elegant, meticulously plotted whodunits with David Suchet's fastidious detective doing the genuine deducing that Death in Paradise's team only gestures at — the gold standard it's quietly imitating.

But Slower, more formal pacing; less quippy banter, more little grey cells doing the actual work.

Father Brown2013

A cassocked amateur sleuth solving village murders with warmth and moral curiosity rather than procedure — the same cosy, sunshine-free comfort and 'surely not the postman' energy.

But English drizzle instead of Caribbean heat, and a gentler, more parochial scale of crime.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The White Lotus2021

Both use a sun-drenched holiday paradise as the stage for a corpse and a rotating cast of visitors with secrets — but where Death in Paradise treats the setting as comfort wallpaper, White Lotus treats it as the crime scene of privilege itself, turning the same postcard into an indictment.

The most devastatingly funny, cruel dissection of tourists behaving badly ever filmed, with a real death to solve buried inside razor-sharp class satire and career-best performances.

But Bleaker, meaner, and far less interested in comforting you than in making you squirm.

Murder, She Wrote1984

Jessica Fletcher basically invented the 'small community, suspiciously high murder rate' joke Death in Paradise runs with — pure comfort mystery from the genre's American golden age.

But Dated production values and a very talky, static style by modern standards.

Monk2002

A detective whose personal quirks are the point, not a flaw to overcome — swap Saint Marie's rum for San Francisco fog and easy charm for germophobic genius.

But Leans harder into character comedy than plot puzzle; the mystery sometimes plays second fiddle to the neurosis.

Psych2006

Fizzy, jokey case-of-the-week mystery with will-they-won't-they energy and a hero who fakes psychic powers to solve crimes — same breezy, sunlit disposability, different coast.

But Broader, sillier comedy that occasionally undercuts the mystery entirely.

New Tricks2004no page yet

Cold cases cracked by three grumpy retired detectives and one exasperated boss — the ensemble bicker-and-solve chemistry Death in Paradise fans will recognise instantly.

But Grey London offices instead of beaches; more procedural grind, less holiday glow.

The Mentalist2008

A breezy, sun-drenched (California, not Caribbean) procedural built on a charismatic outsider who reads people better than forensics ever could — reliably satisfying puzzle-box TV.

But Longer serialised arcs creep in past the case-of-the-week format, which can frustrate purists.

Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries2012

Swap the rum punch for champagne and Saint Marie for 1920s Melbourne — a glamorous amateur detective solving lush, colourful whodunits with real wit and style.

But Period setting means fewer contemporary gadgets and a very different visual palette.

The Thin Man1934

Before any cosy procedural existed, Nick and Nora Charles were solving murders between martinis with exactly the same easy, bantering charm that powers Death in Paradise's detective partnerships — this is where that whole cocktail-and-corpse tradition begins.

Whip-smart, endlessly quotable, and startlingly modern in its double-act chemistry — the screwball comedy-mystery template nearly everything since, this show included, has quietly copied.

But Black-and-white 1930s pacing and a plot that's almost beside the point next to the flirting.

The Staircase2022

Same appetite for a locked-room puzzle and a colourful cast of suspects, but here the body is real, the trial drags on for years, and there's no tidy confession at the forty-five-minute mark — the itch it scratches is identical, the stakes are not.

A genuinely gripping, years-spanning true-crime documentary that shows what the actual, unresolved, agonising version of a Death in Paradise plot looks like when nobody scripts the ending.

But No cosy resolution, no jokes, and a real family's grief on screen throughout.