Neon Adds CB Strike Mystery

The latest C.B. Strike season, The Ink Black Heart, has just landed on Neon.

Sky is rolling out the four-part series weekly (4.00 Fridays), which is a mystery in itself given it aired on the BBC more than a month ago.

Sky’s timing seems to be tied to S6’s release in the US, where it started this week on HBO.

But Sky subscribers will have to wait until February 9 for its linear debut here on HBO (9.30 Mondays).

The series centres on a war criminal turned private detective who is following the case of a popular cartoonist who is persecuted by a mysterious online figure – and ultimately found dead – after her cartoon was criticised for being racist, ableist and transphobic.

The Guardian, which is no friend of Strike creator J.K. Rowling, said “it’s hard to see why the TV version of this self-indulgent novel exists …

“Holliday Grainger and Tom Burke are excellent again as detectives on the trail of a killer. But given the impenetrable source material and workaday plot, it’s shrug-worthy TV at best.”

And The Telegraph agreed the “tiresome politics make this the worst series yet … The politics isn’t limited to gender: the villains are the Far Right, incels and misogynists, including a character who rages online against the MSM and woke values.”

The Daily Mail said “cramming J.K. Rowling’s book into four hours turned it into gibberish” and while the Independent was on the same page, “Rowling’s doorstopper proves challenging to adapt for screen,” it acknowledged the leads’ “‘will they, won’t they’ dynamic remains electric as ever“.

The New York Times was as withering as The Guardian — “cancellation with extreme prejudice” —  but Decider recommended streaming it: “While the mystery in C.B. Strike: The Ink Black Heart is a bit slowly-paced, we do appreciate the elbow room the writers have to explore the lives and relationships of Strike, Robin and the other series regulars.”