Private Eyes West Coast, on CW

They started out flirting while sleuthing, like Remington Steele or Bones. Now they are married detectives, like Hart to Hart or McMillan & Wife, except they retired from their detective business and moved to British Columbia to raise their little rugrat, Declan. Yet, murders keep happening around them, like on Murder She Wrote. Naturally, old detective habits die hard in the pilot episode of co-creators Jennifer Kassabian & Sarah Dodd’s Private Eyes West Coast, which premieres tonight on CW.

As some Canadians might remember, Matt Shade was a former hockey player, who started working for the detective agency Angie Everett inherited from her father. After five seasons of cases on Private Eyes, they finally settled down and started a family together. It turns out to be a bigger family than they expected when Everett’s prodigal half-brother Will Federgreen latches unto them, to provide comic relief. At least he is readily available for babysitting.

In fact, Federgreen sits from Declan, so Shade and Everett can enjoy their first post-baby date-night, but what do think happens at the restaurant? Unfortunately, Everett’s friend is discovered holding the knife. Of course, Everett wants to clear her name and Shade agrees to help, because what choice does he have, really?

Basically, the West Coast sequel-spinoff is Hart to Hart without the Rolls Royce and designer gowns. It is sleuthing in between diaper changes and feedings, which certainly has a place on network TV. By now, Jason Priestley and Cindy Sampson have an appealing comfortable rapport as the married sleuths. However, the supporting cast is a work in progress. David Kaye gets a few laughs for Federgreen’s freeloading, but his character needs a lot of fleshing out. Similarly, Olivia Cheng’s Det. Violet Xiao is a rather stereotypical uptight by-the-book cop.

Admittedly, viewers only have the first episode to judge by. Having Priestley and Sampson together again should be more than enough for fans of their previous series. For those who didn’t watch just plain Private Eyes, the new West Coast edition is nice enough, but nothing really special. However, it offers the kind of low-stress romantic chemistry that sometimes serves as a refreshing change from the hyper-edgy fare Prime, Netflix, and HBO keep pushing. Recommended for fans of family-friendly procedurals, Private Eyes West Coast starts airing tonight (10/5) on CW.