ITV viewers are having trouble tearing themselves away from their TVs after three new episodes of an ‘intriguing’ police drama dropped on ITVX.
Karen Pirie, the thriller series written by (and starring) EastEnders actress Emer Kenny, follows the story of its young but strong-headed titular detective.
It first premiered in 2022 with a three-part first season, subtitled The Distant Echo, and returned for season two, A Darker Domain, on Sunday night.
The series, which stars Lauren Lyle as DS Karen and Emer as Karen’s friend River, is based on the crime novels written by Scottish author Val McDermid.
Where season one focused on the unsolved murder case of a barmaid, season two picks up as Karen begins investigating a kidnapping incident from many years before.
ITV viewers already can’t get enough, with all three episodes of A Darker Domain available on ITVX – fans are blitzing through the entire thing already.
On X, @MargaretKirkby5 said: ‘Just binge watched second series of a Karen Pirie with Lauren Lyle and Emer Kenny. Brilliant, as good if not better than series one.’
@Lanesracf concurred, mostly: ‘Just finished watching season two of Karen Pirie. Really enjoyed it. Season one was better, but this was still a good watch. Lauren Lyle is a really good actress.’
Meanwhile, @HaizEsque made sure to tell ITV the good news about their thoughts: ‘Karen Pirie is so good. I’m so glad it’s back on. It’s been far too long since the first series. @ITV.’
@IAmJamieTV had praise for Karen Pirie’s production and editing teams, after tweeting ‘some good stuff coming to ITV this autumn’ in reference to the police thriller.
Elsewhere, @ScottM commented, ‘No, *you’re* binge watching all of Karen Pirie season two and falling in love with Chris Jenks,’ while @AlexCL1690 said, ‘Enjoyable first episode of the new series, so intriguing I immediately binge-watched the other two.’
Writer Emer and lead star Lauren have previously spoken about the intense research that went into crafting Karen Pirie and building its characters.
‘It was really interesting when we were filming, we started at St Andrews Cathedral and one night we had police escorts with us,’ said Lauren.
‘One of them was a 20-something blonde woman, and it turns out she was a detective from Methil, the same tiny town Karen is from! To me, she was the real Karen Pirie.
‘So we exchanged numbers and we stayed in touch, it was like looking into a mirror for Karen.’
Fans of the books have no need to worry either, as the producers of the drama had Val’s full blessing to create a TV adaptation – the author herself was brought in to consult on the show’s direction.
And it seems Karen may be ITV’s favourite new detective for years to come, with more than a handful of novels to adapt from for any future seasons.
‘There are six books and Val is writing a seventh,’ Emer revealed when the show premiered in 2022. ‘So there are all the possibilities there.’
Watch Karen Pirie on ITVX.
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