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Ian McShane’s first famous series role finds him once again making deals with swarthy men, wooing exotic women, living by his own rules…and really, not swearing much at all. Otherwise, it’s pretty much business as usual - for an antiques dealer.

There exists a certain strand of British programming known as “Sunday evening television”: light, easygoing fare, usually broadcast on Sunday, which doesn’t take a lot of heavy concentration or involve much continuity from week to week. Tension tends to be at a minimum to drive the stories along, and the end result is generally inoffensive to all but the most thin-skinned viewer. These are shows that often hard to truly love but almost impossible to hate. The long-running Midsomer Murders is one, and the recent The Last Detective another; in fact, a number of those character-driven mysteries from ITV fit the bill precisely. BBC examples tend to be harder to describe, more laidback dramas with touches of comedy, not quite soaps but not quite not soaps, either - a sort of non-genre, if you will. And that’s basically where something like Lovejoy fits in.

Ian McShane stars as Lovejoy (first name unknown), a “divvy,” or diviner of antiques - someone who has a sixth sense about the veracity of heirlooms and collectibles. He travels around England, and sometimes outside of it, sniffing for rare treasure and always willing to offer a helping hand to a buyer or seller who’s being conned, especially if they happen to be a lovely lady. This latter-day Robin Hood is kept grounded by his business partner, Lady Jane Felsham (Phyllis Logan), resident expert Tinker Dill (Dudley Sutton), and hapless friend Eric Catchpole (Chris Jury), as he goes from faked paintings to undiscovered antique furniture, from London to Scotland to the Lake District. There are a few gentle laughs, a little con artistry, sometimes even a bit of romance.

And mullets. Lots of mullets.

Bad early ‘90s hairstyles aside, it’s amazing how rarely Lovejoy is actually…well…about anything. Each episode ostensibly revolves around some antique Lovejoy has to procure, or sell, or verify, but honestly, after two or three episodes they all start to run together in a cheerfully samey way. McShane is suitably charismatic as the lead - even managing the occasional narrative aside to the audience - with able support from the rest of the cast, including familiar guests like Joanna Lumley, Edward Hardwicke, Michael Kitchen, Irish rock group the Hothouse Flowers, and even a cameo from Minnie Driver. At the end of the day, though, you could well be using those guest stars to tell the episodes apart.

By the time I was done watching a handful of episodes myself, I can’t say I was an active fan of Lovejoy, but it certainly didn’t annoy me, either. In fact, it rolled almost imperceptibly off my back - which was exactly my response when I first saw the series on A&E over a decade ago. I could happily, sleepily, shuffle my way through another season of this if it were given to me, though I doubt I’d ever go to the effort to actually track another set down. This is absolute, 100 proof, rainy-day TV - no more and no less - and it would probably do me no good to try and divine further into what makes it tick. Either it will appeal to you or it won’t…and that’s all there is to it.

Lovejoy: The Complete Season Three is presented on DVD by 2entertain and BBC Video (through Warner). The four-disc set contains all 12 episodes from season three, although the feature-length season finale, “Highland Fling,” has been separated into two separate parts (as it would have been for any repeats). The video quality is comparable to most unrestored British series from the ‘80s and early ‘90s: slightly dark, grainy 16mm film prints with a noticeable shift toward green hues. They’re serviceable but hardly special. Audio is the original mono, and English subtitles for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired have been included across the board.

The set does include a couple of special features. “Ian McShane Talks About Lovejoy, Part 3” (9 mins.) is, apparently, a continuation of the interview featurette from the previous two releases - and one would expect it to go on for the remaining three seasons, as well. This looks to have been fairly recently recorded in a casual setting in California, and maintains a 4:3 aspect ratio so as to fade in and out of a few appropriate episode clips. McShane veers briefly around a variety of subjects, including co-stars, guest stars Joanna Lumley, Minnie Driver and the Hothouse Flowers, as well as giving a definition of a “divvy” and talking about his own interest in antiques. The interview is really very anecdotal and slight, but nice for McShane fans. One warning: there is a slight spoiler for character development in later seasons.

“BBC Pebble Mill Cast Interviews” (12 mins.) is actually rather different from the “Alan Titchmarsh interview with Ian McShane” listed on the back of the DVD case. In point of fact, Titchmarsh interviews McShane’s co-stars Dudley Sutton and Chris Jury, while the man himself - along with his wife, Gwen Humble - comes under some fairly bizarre scrutiny from Judi Spiers. Both archive interviews are taken from 1992 editions of the Pebble Mill daytime show, and quite handily, a small caption card precedes the interviews to explain their context to Region 1 viewers. Both are nice, shiny, clean 4:3 video…but man, that second segment is weird.

Disc 1 opens with a trailer for the Shakespeare Retold mini-series (which looks quite interesting), as well as the standard 30-second spot for BBC America. Disc 2 opens with a Robin Hood: Season One trailer, disc 3 with an overall “BBC Mystery” trailer incorporating The Dorothy L. Sayers Mysteries, Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple, and Campion, and disc 4 rounds it all off with a spot for Planet Earth on DVD, HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. It really looks like the BBC is trying to catch all audiences with this one; either they consider Lovejoy a good “all-rounder,” or they’re not actually sure which demographic purchases these sets.

I wasn’t entirely sure what to make of Lovejoy: The Complete Season Three when I started, and I’m still not sure what to make of it now. It’s not a great series by any stretch of the imagination, but it is a pleasantly endearing way to pass a few hours on a slow afternoon. It belongs to the same general category as the Columbo mysteries - cheerfully formulaic with a very watchable lead, and you always know exactly how it’ll end up, but that’s half the charm. If you’ve come to Ian McShane through his recent success in Deadwood, you’ll probably be disappointed in this show, but fans of Lovejoy know what they’re going to get. Like most BBC sets, the price is a little steep; wait for a good online sale, or at least until the next season comes out and the price drops. Wait, what am I saying? If you’ve been following Lovejoy up to this point, then you know all about bartering for the best price!

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