I broke down and watched ENDGAMƎ. This is a Canadian mystery series available in the US on Hulu. The solution follows a Nero Wolfe method but uses a Gatiss/Moffat Sherlock conceit when the lead begins to seriously examine potential suspects and motives in his own head.
The "detective" is Arkady Balagan, Russian chess champion who refuses to leave his hotel after his fiancee is killed. Balagan uses a grad student with an interest in chess and the hotel staff to do the legwork for him. The only reason Balagan gets involved solving crimes is to pay his bill at the hotel so he won't have to leave, taking crimes that the police can't or won't solve.
ENDGAMƎ has witty characters, good acting, and a fun script. My only complaint is the central conceit, that a grandmaster chess champion can solve crimes no one else can, that the skills necessary for chess translate over. This is even addressed in the show. Creator and showrunner Avrum Jacobson hung a lampshade on it by having a few people note that the only reason they could see that a man would hire Balagan to find a missing child was to provide his own alibi.
Not bad. Very interesting. I'll definitely look into watching the rest of the series.
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