Our Most Popular Drama and Mystery Recaps of 2023

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As the year ends and you look forward to 2024’s dramas and mysteries – January 7 brings new seasons of Miss Scarlet and the Duke and All Creatures Great and Small, as well as the premiere of Funny Woman – it’s the perfect time to look back on the shows we’ve enjoyed this year.

2023 saw the end of two popular series (Endeavour and Sanditon), some new shows (Marie Antoinette, D.I. Ray, and Ridley), miniseries (Tom Jones and Little Bird), and, of course, plenty of returning and continuing favorites. Most of those are available to stream via the PBS app or at wttw.com/video with a Passport membership.

Here are the ten most viewed recaps of our shows we published this year, in descending order. Spend the free time you have now revisiting them! You can find all of our recaps at wttw.com/recaps.

Endeavour Season 9 Episode 3

It's no surprise that the series finale of a spin-off mystery with nine seasons and a devoted audience was our most popular recap. Not only did people not want to miss the end, it brought together strands from numerous seasons and so benefitted from some friendly reminders in our recap.

Endeavour Season 9 Episode 2

Clearly our audiences were sad to see Endeavour go!

Endeavour Season 9 Episode 1

You get the point by now.

Annika Season 2 Episode 6

Was it the cliffhanger that ended this second season of Annika, a love of the title character's snark and relationship with her family, the mystery involving a burned houseboat, or all of the above that made this recap popular>

Hotel Portofino Season 2 Episode 6

This premiered the same day as the season finale of Annika, which is one slot higher on this list. November 19 offered a good night of TV (unless you were streaming, which you can do any time via the PBS app or wttw.com/video)!

Grantchester Season 8 Episode 6

The impending departure of Will Davenport as the crime-solving vicar of Grantchester might explain the popularity of this season finale recap. Don't worry, though: we already have a new vicar on hand to be introduced in season 9.

Unforgotten Season 5 Episode 5

Unforgotten bucks the trend: the penultimate episode of the newest season, rather than the finale, was the most viewed recap.

Hotel Portofino Season 2 Episode 1

The re-introduction of characters after a year, setting the scene for a new set of dramas: it makes sense that the first episode of Hotel Portofino would be a sought-out recap.

Sanditon Season 3 Episode 6

Was this the ending you expected for this beloved adaptation of an unfinished Jane Austen novel? Is it what she would have imagined? 

Marie Antoinette Episode 1

Hopefully we were able to ground you in the regal European environments of the 18th century in our first recap of this historical drama based on the life of the infamous last queen of France.