BOOKISH Apple TV Series is Pretentious, Precious and Soporific zzzzzzzzz

Being both a bibliophile and anglophile, I anticipated a cunning and inviting series blending a few of my favorite things. But, in the end, the show was pretentious, convoluted and worst off all, boring. The look of the show and the cast was promising beginning within a bookstore with floor to ceiling books and the omnipresent ladder, overstuffed leather chair and customary elbow-patched blazer.  The comely all-British cast has some faces people across the pond; Polly Walker ("Patriot Games") as Trottie Book, wife of Gabriel Book (Mark Gatiss "Mission Impossible). Gabriel Book is the proprietor of the titular bookstore with a proclivity for investigating local crimes.  Connor Finch (TV series "Everything I Know About Love") plays Jack just back from prison and seeking employment.  His impromptu interview was quaint as Gabriel offered tea and homemade ginger snap biscuits.  Jack was hired at hello by Gabriel even though he doesn't know why Gabriel and Trottie are being so incredibly kind to him. Jack begins his new job in in the bookshop by following along with Gabriel to a murder site just down the street where Gabriel is beknownst to Inspector Bliss. Unfortunately, the show is a big miss with a pastiche of construed British charm, and genteel nurturing to affable but troubled individuals. The murder cases prove inane and the antiquarian bookshop as a backdrop for a cozy mystery series proves arcane.  While the series doesn't take itself too seriously it never elevates above a second rate show.