Karen Pirie fans praise 'refreshing' second series but all have same complaint

Karen Pirie returned to ITV for its second series, three years after the first debuted on our screens to great reviews. The crime series is based on the Inspector Karen Pirie novels by Val McDermid, and stars Lauren Lyle as the lead - who was recently promoted to detective inspector in the new series.

Getting straight into it, the police officer finds herself in immediate drama as she gets to work cracking a cold case involving an unsolved case from over three decades before. The mysterious case saw the kidnapping of heiress Catriona Grant (played by Julia Brown) and her young son.

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A man's body is soon found with links to the original kidnapping, leaving Karen scrambling to find out the truth.

Fans were obsessed with the return of the series and rushed to social media to praise the 'refreshing' change in cop shows as they complimented how 'normal' the main character is.

One user said on X/Twitter: "Great to have #KarenPirie back. Refreshing to have a normal screen detective, fun and clever but not traumatised and grumpy."

Another impressed viewer added: "I love #KarenPirie she’s so normal… no cop on the edge or cop that can’t play by the rules.. just a normal cop solving crime! Thank you!"

One said: "35 minutes in and I’m hooked. This is brilliant #KarenPirie," and another fan added: "Karen Pirie is so well produced and edited."

However, a few had the same complaints as they hit out at ITV for adding too many ad breaks in the episode. One annoyed user said: "These ad breaks through Karen pirie is absolutely ridiculous @ITV #KarenPirie."

"I’d enjoy #KarenPirie even more if there wasn’t an advert every 5 mins ! Getting as bad as American TV," another irritated viewer commented.

Karen Pirie stars the likes of Chris Jenks as DC Jason Murray, Zach Wyatt as DS Phil Parhatka, Steve John Shepherd as DI Simon Lees and Emer Kenny as River Wilde.

Lauren, who plays Karen, spoke about the return of the series and explained: "I'm thrilled that we will continue the life of our fearless young detective Karen Pirie, and of course, her bumbag.

“I've known for a while how well the show has gone down behind the scenes so it's been a joy to see audiences want more. It's a creative honour to work alongside Emer Kenny with the backbone of Val McDermid's story.

"Season 1 was incredibly exciting building an original character we hadn't seen before. I look forward to getting the gang back together and finally being able to answer the question: 'Please say there will be a season 2?' with an 'Oh yes.'"

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