Maigret 2025 review: PBS' modern subversive revival

SPOILER ALERT: The following contains spoilers for Maigret Season 1, Episode 1.

PBS Masterpiece’s Maigret is the latest British TV series to reimagine a classic detective. It’s in vogue now to take iconic sleuths and put a modern spin on them, but the question is always why? What do these shows have other than name recognition? In Maigret‘s case, it’s a knowing wink to the audience.

It’s been just shy of a decade since Jules Maigret was last on television, played by Blackadder star Rowan Atkinson from 2016–2017. (Nathalie Armin, who co-stars in this Maigret as prosecutor Mathilde Kernaval, guest-starred in the 2016 episode “Maigret’s Dead Man.”) That’s not a massive amount of time by revival standards. In contrast, it was roughly 17 years between The Inspector Lynley Mysteries and Lynley — which shares a production company with Maigret. So instead of taking the “everything old is new again” approach, this series finds its hook in being pleasantly subversive.

Of course, the cases are still very serious and there are still moments where Maigret broods over one thing or another. But “The Lazy Burglar, Part One” finds ways to go right when it should have turned left. This version of Maigret, played by Belgravia: The Next Chapter star Benjamin Wainwright, is serious but also boasts a…