BBC's River on Netflix

Eddie Marsan as Thomas Cream
Our bit of historical educatin' for the morning.

River is a short, 6 episode, murder mystery serial TV show. River is the name of the detective investigating his partner's murder. River has a problem: he sees dead people, and if that isn't enough, he has conversations with them, and sometimes even physical altercations, or at least he thinks he does. No one else sees these 'manifestations'. Thomas (above) is a recurring visitor and he seems hell bent on making River's life miserable. Fortunately his appearances are infrequent, usually at times of high stress. Unlike most of the dead people you see on TV, these are all free from gore, except for his partner. She's appears so often you might start to think she's alive, but then they show you the back of her head and your remember, oh yeah, she's not really there.
    River is an unpleasant character, taciturn, quiet and occasionally quite rude, but the people he work's with seem to have developed some affection for him. Perhaps because he sticks to his work.
    Most of the women in the show fall in the unattractive category. It's a nice change of pace compared to the fantasy world you see on American Prime Time TV. The only attractive women are the psychiatrist who is saddled with trying to get River to say more than two words, and a young murder victim who only shows up a couple of times.
    River's partner's family is a criminal gang all on their own. The mother goes by the name of 'Bridie', which I had never heard before. I keep wanting to say 'Birdie', because I know that name, but 'Bridie'? What kind of name is that?
    The story goes round and round, some medium high level corruption gets uncovered, some sordid family history gets an airing, and eventually River finds out who dun it, but the ending is just not quite believable. But hey, we've closed the case and the guilty are all locked up.