South Africa’s ‘Recipes for Love and Murder’ Treats Small-Town Murder as a Piece of Cake: TV Review
Mike McCahill Guest Contributor The source of this week’s other televised literary adaptation can’t claim the same global reach as “The Lord of the Rings,” but Sally Andrew’s Tannie Maria novels have proven reliable bestsellers in the author’s native South Africa since their 2015 debut. They now provide the basis of “Recipes for Love and Murder,” a South African-Scottish co-production that represents the daffiest addition yet to Acorn TV’s burgeoning portfolio of genial timepassers. To some degree, this is formula fare with a capital F: mild comic, romantic and criminal misadventures in a picturesque setting. Watch enough of it, and you realize even individual scenes have their own formula. Find a cosy location, add light seasonings of plot and piano, and – lest anybody still feel too challenged – serve with a cutesy punchline, typically someone offering to put a kettle on somewhere. From its foundations up, it’s tea-break television.