MHz: The Art of Crime

You may at some point, like me, need to convalesce from surgery or an injury and be unable to get out easily to galleries, concerts, and shows. At such a time the streaming channel MHz can be a godsend.

MHZ offers streaming TV shows with English subtitles from 31 countries for $8.99month. Propped up in bed, you can watch on your mobile device, TV, or computer.

I especially enjoyed The Art of Crime, from France, with eight seasons available. Each episode involves a bloodless art-related crime with the odd couple of rough-edged Captain Antoine Verlay and brilliant rather neurotic art expert Florence Chassagne charged with tracking down the perpetrator, The duo work in a fictional special unit dedicated to solving art crimes.

The viewer is treated to scenes outside and inside the Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay, Château d’Amboise, Fontainebleau, Versailles, and the Musée Jacquemart-André, among others as well as houses, cathedrals, hotels, and restaurants connected to the case Florence often has imaginary conversations with long-gone artists such as Leonardo Da Vinci, Edgar Degas, and Gustav Courbet, who provide helpful hints to the investigations as well as a mini-tutorial on their work. In the last two episodes of season four, we see the well-costumed stage show at the Moulin Rouge (now a touristy night club with a cancan show). Florence has several imaginary chats with Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, who portrayed the Moulin Rouge at the turn of the century in his famous paintings.

The series stars the excellent Nicolas Gob and Eléonore Bernheim, whose interaction drives the show.  Mismatched though they are, the appealing Antoine and Florence evolve into an effective working team and even develop feelings for each other, which they suppress in the interests of a professional relationship.

MHz carries TV series from Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Croatia, Finland, France, Greece, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Scotland, Senegal, South Africa, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, US, and the UK. Mysteries are popular around the world, but there are dramas, comedies, and documentaries as well.

In addition to being fun, MHz provides a travelogue and painless way to improve your language skills in any of the countries above. If you miss a word, it is in the subtitles.