Today, we spotlight a great guest performance by CCH Pounder that netted her an Emmy nom in a compelling episode of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency
This is “All the Best Things,” a spotlight on the best TV episodes, movies, albums, etc.
This is a Year of Great TV Episodes, where every day this year, we’ll take a look at great TV episodes. Note that I’m not talking about “Very Special Episodes” or episodes built around gimmicks, but just “normal” episodes of TV shows that are notable only because of how good they are.
All this month, I’ll be spotlighting great Black-centric TV episodes.
The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency was a fascinating series, being one of the first major international film productions that was filmed on location in Botswana, the HBO series had its pilot co-written and directed by Academy Award-winning director Anthony Minghella, in the last project before his tragic passing at the age of 54.
Just to keep things relatively simple for me, I’m going to confine my choices for a Year of Great TV Episodes to U.S. productions, or at least JOINT U.S. productions (there are so many possible picks for this feature, I figure limiting is typically smarter, and frankly, I know more about American productions in general), and this show counts because it was a joint production done with the BBC.
Jill Scott stars as Precious Ramotswe, a woman who decides to move to the city and start up a detective agency after her father dies (she sells his goats to fund her new endeavor). She hires Mma Grace Makutsi (Anika Noni Rose) as her secretary, but Matsuki is such a talented assistant that she soon finds herself doing a lot of detective work herself.
The central “joke” (quotes because the show isn’t really a comedy, per se) is that Precious doesn’t really know what she is doing. She has a book called The Principles of Private Detection and that’s basically her entire guide to being a detective, but she is such a clever person that she still manages to get by, and do some good along the way.
In this 2008 episode from the show’s only season, “The Boy With an African Heart,” CCH Pounder guest stars as Angela Curtin, an American whose son had come to Botswana to do some agricultural charity work, but disappeared ten years ago, and is now presumed dead. Curtin and her husband decided to just rededicate themselves to each other following the loss of their son, but now that her husband has passed away, as well, Curtin wants to find answers.
In a cute bit early in the episode, when Precious introduces Grace as her secretary, Andrea notes that she rarely hears that word nowadays, as “assistant” or “associate executive” are more common terms. This gets Grace to decide to ask for a promotion, which Precious eventually grants her, making her an “Assistant detective” by the end of the episode, as Grace’s detective work gets Precious into contact with a man who was at the agricultural project with Andrea’s missing son, Michael, years earlier.
Scott as Precious is so charming, and Rose as Grace is delightfully offbeat, that the show is just a total delight. CCH Pounder is great (she received an Emmy nomination for Best Guest Actress in a Drama Series), especially late in the episode, when the detectives confirm that Michael is dead, but he has a widow and a son. Andrea meeting her grandson is a BEAUTIFUL scene, and CCH makes a five-course meal with how much she devours the scene. She’s such a brilliant actor.
Of course, as with every episode of the series, filming on location gets to capture the fascinating scenery of Botswana, where you can be driving to a hotel and see two giraffes walking nearby. There’s a great scene where Precious and Andrea pull their car over to watch two giraffes fighting. Andrea asks why they are fighting. Precious explains that they’re both males, and that’s enough for Andrea, she gets it.
The highlight of the episode for me is when Precious bluffs her way to get a confession from a professor who is sexually harassing his students. His secretary sends Precious to see the man, but she is packing, as she is quitting over being disgusted by his behavior. Precious blackmails him into telling her how Michael died, and what happened to Michael’s girlfriend (this is when she finds out that Michael was MARRIED and had a child), and when he asks for the statement she said she had, she reveals that she was lying. On the way out, she sees that the secretary is plastering the walls with posters accusing the professor of sexual harassment. Excellent stuff.
Okay, if I’m going to have 319 more of these (and 11 more this month), I could use suggestions, so feel free to email me at brian@poprefs.com!
