There was a time back around 2013 when I was regularly reviewing DVDs of non-American crime dramas. They were released by companies like Acorn and MHZ. I was reviewing them so often that I seriously considered making it my beat, so to speak. Like I thought I could just be a reviewer of non-American television.
If I’m being honest I don’t really remember East West. I have the vaguest of memories of reviewing it, but reading my actual review doesn’t stir anything up. That’s not to say it is a bad show, as I did give it a good review, but at the time I was watching a lot of crime dramas and they do tend to blend together.
Anyway, you can read that review here.
themidnightcafe.org 
Hey Mat…like your idea of focusing on a specific like “I’m spending the next month on….” I did a year of reading novels, opinion, short stories and other lit with the only restriction being that the writer’s work was by definition of a foreign experience and was NOT originally published in the US……from this I discovered Muramaki, Bolano, Hrabal, Neuman, Endo etc etc. All as segue to your East West collection and crime drama NOT of US origin….i scanned through your writings and said to self… “Mat…you’ve never watched Midsomer Murders”? I think it’s like 27 seasons now. With me, as usual, initially discovered on old PBS broadcasts…..but now on Acorn. You’ll never watch and review all 27 years of multiple episodes each but I think you might enjoy it. Especially in later years, where they started to have too much fun making fun of their own successful formula. A blend of macabre horrific multiple deaths, somehow resolved by DCI Barnaby. Think Cabot Cove and Jessica Fletcher by way of Stephen King……and how many people can die in one small town?
We have Britbox which has a lot of the same content that Acorn does (it also carries Classic Doctor Who which is why we subscribe to it rather than Acorn). Midsomer Murders is included. It is a show I’ve been meaning to watch forever, but I think the fact that it has so many seasons has made me feel a little daunted trying to dive in.
I do think my wife has a seen a few, she watches a lot more of those British Mysteries than I do. But based on your recommendation I may give it a shot soon.
I do love those murder mystery shows set in small towns. Like you say, how many murders can such a small place have?