What does an honest cop do when his bosses are on the side of the lawbreakers? Outwitting prosecutors, politicians, mobsters and run-of-the-mill kidnappers and killers, Detective Aurelio Zen brings justice to modern-day Italy, whether the authorities want it or not, on Zen, a trio of spellbinding cases based on the bestselling novels of by British crime writer Michael Dibdin, airing on Masterpiece July 17-31, 2011.

Rufus Sewell (Middlemarch) stars as Zen, a Roman police detective hailing from Venice, where “Zen” is a local shortening of the name Zeno. Separated from his wife and living with his mother, he is too frazzled by his job to think about romance. That is, until he meets Tania Moretti (Caterina Murino), his chief’s new secretary.

Having been quite intrigued with the promo footage for the detective mini-series, Zen, I decided to take up the offer to view the three episodes that will be airing later this month in advanced. As a viewer who only turns to PBS now for a documentary or holiday special every now and then and as a viewer who hasn’t regularly tuned in since my childhood days… I was a bit taken aback by the amount of murder in the series. There’s quite a bit of unnecessary murder (but, really, aren’t most to all unnecessary?) and quite a slow paced story here. Although I can’t figure out if the pace seems even slower because of the dull (delivery of the) dialogue, dull sky above in most scenes (not a dull location though, since it is Rome), or something else that I am missing but there is something about this series that is just too dull to keep my interest. In an attempt to be dark, it has resulted in being a bit sleepy.

This mystery and has lots of twists and corruption but very little action outside of the murders, so there’s not a whole lot of exhilaration here. This is one mediocre ride that has an ending worth watching, if you can make it to the end. Believe it or not, what kept me coming back was the music. I found myself emotionally connecting more to the music than anything else. It was also quite fun to see how Zen handled being handled. Zen is based on the bestselling thrillers by Michael Dibdin and as a reader who does not consider murder-mystery her genre of choice… I may have to pick up the first book to see what it is that I am missing so much from the television adaptation.

Alan Cumming hosts this “Masterpiece Mystery,” Zen Sundays, July 17-31, 2011 at 9pm on PBS.