barrysfavorite
I really enjoyed The Cosby Mysteries. The cast was outstanding and the mysteries were fun. The characters were all slightly eccentric but the relationships were very real. Each episode was a mystery but the relationships were equally as important to the stories as the who did its. I think that this show may have been way before its time. To me, it had a very similar vibe as "Bored to Death" another great mystery series that was on HBO more than twenty years after The Cosby Mysteries. I am sorry that more people didn't find The Cosby Mysteries as enjoyable as I did. Perhaps Mr. Cosby will revisit this one day and it will reach a wider audience and be as popular as I think that it deserved to be.
elshikh4
After many successful, or accurately classic, works such as the groundbreaking "I Spy" (1965), and the long-lived "The Cosby Show" (1984), Bill Cosby at the age of 57 wanted to change over. It was a good move to do a Mystery show, portraying Guy Hanks the criminologist who works for the New York Police Department, solving crimes with the power of scientific logic and the sharp brilliance. Here, Cosby is a bit serious, walking sullen, looking sedate with dark suits, dark briefcase and a long coat on his arm.However, the atmosphere wasn't that thrilling, the directing handled the job so moderately without being attractively elegant or even harshly realistic, and it bothered me the most to see such a forced laughing scene at the end of every episode as totally out of the mood and unnecessary reminder that we're watching "Mr. Bill Cosby Ladies and Gentlemen"… That was silly ! Though, the supporting cast was fantastic and funny enough. I recall the young (Mos Def), and the beautifully crazy (Rita Moreno) who nearly has been cursed by the Oscar after winning it for her performance in West Side Story back in 1961 !. This truly talented woman was a dazzling reason to set and watch the show, I was craving to her moments as a noisy yet kind gleeful Spanish woman (watch how she expresses herself sometimes in singing!).It was about time to watch the criminologist, the coroner, or rather the forensic doctor as the lead of the TV shows, especially after the mass success of The X Files one year ago with a character of a medical doctor who works as FBI investigator. Sorrowfully, in no time this kind of shows will swell, become wild, and eat up all the other shows with the ruthless onslaught of CSI (2000), Law & Order Criminal Intent (2001), Crossing Jordan (2001), CSI Miami (2002), NCIS (2003), CSI NY (2004), Medical Investigation (2004), Bones (2005), and Dexter (2006) - may god burn them all in hell – being the 2000s marked fashion to a frightful extent left nearly nothing different to be watched ! Still (The Cosby Mysteries) is a sort of lovely innocent memory amongst this. Away from being nasty or violent as most of them. But something was wrong. Whether that the audience didn't accept this staid persona for their comic star, or that the episodes didn't present what could exceed or stand alone, or maybe the personality of the whole series was little prevaricator since it's not a comedy, and not wholly crime as well.It pushes me to recall when (Raymond Burr) achieved a marvelous success with 2 TV hits on a row ("Perry Mason" and "Ironside") then made "Kingston Confidential" to meet his first 13 episode series ! This time his fellow Cosby made 19 episodes of his Mysteries. To return again, right in the next year, to be the good old Bill Cosby in the new "Cosby" show, which lasted for 4 seasons, 93 episodes.Overall, this (Mysteries) was between all right and so-so. Plus it's surely better than today's ugly shows of the same subject. Yet, while I really see it as better than C.S.I, I had to apologize to its makers since, naturally, anything is better than C.S.I !
mad_hair60
I can assure you I went into this show not expecting much, but what I was left with was so brilliantly devious that I could not stop smiling or talking about it until it aired again the next week, when my smile would only grow wider until it became injuriously wide. I needed jaw surgery shortly thereafter.The mysteries on this show (The Cosby Mysteries) feature Cosby. Obviously. However, in a shockingly post-modern turn of non-customary non-post-modernity, Cosby doesn't actually play himself, but Guy Fawkes, a detective who looks remarkably like Bill Cosby. He is joined by Most Deaf, a popular Rapper (apparently) who is an unpopular actor.In every show, Fawkes solves a mystery which is usually so complex, so brilliant and so shocking that I shake my head and cry out at the top of my voice, "That Bill Cosby should be president!" I implore you all to watch this series. It is rarely on.
kevinhorton
This was an enjoyable mystery show. Cosby's always great, and as I remember, so was the rest of the cast. He and Mos Def had good chemistry. Some funny generational clash there. The show had a Law and Order feel to it, and I enjoyed every episode I saw. A good mix of comedy and intrigue.Bill Cosby never fails to amaze me. It's seems he can do everything. Too bad we're not seeing more from him. He's got so much to offer.
