A Special: Loose Ends

Endeavour/Morse, Dalgliesh and Grantchester

Endeavour/Morse: A while ago I offered a review of Morse. Last evening I watched the final episode of the nine seasons of the prequel Endeavour on PBS. Meanwhile, I’ve been re-watching the original version and thinking about how the prequel might elucidate how Endeavour became Morse. I’m not sure it does. Endeavour is a great show – and I’ll do a full review at some point (as well as of Lewis) – and well acted. Shaun Evans as Morse, Anton Lesser (who you can find in Game of Thrones and Wolf Hall) as Chief Superintendent Bright and Roger Allam as DCI Thursday are outstanding. But Evans’ Morse – and the character must have been written this way – moves and thinks in straight lines. John Thaw’s Morse seems to sometimes be doing a random walk to the truth as he wrestles with his own complex inner life. Maybe in the 15 years separating the ending of Endeavour from the start of Morse, we can imagine him growing into that state as his life settles into a disappointing singularity. On the other hand, it may just be that John Thaw was much the better actor. It is a great treat to watch the currents run through him. In any case, Endeavour ended with me wishing there could have been more.

Dalgliesh: In my review of P.D. James and Commander Dalgliesh, I mentioned the new Acorn TV version – Dalgliesh – now in its second season. I suggested that the new show condenses, rearranges, adds unnecessary melodrama and flattens the characterizations with DCI Dalgliesh coming off too melancholy. It got only a lukewarm recommendation. After watching the second season, I like it better. Bertie Carvel’s Dalgliesh is a bit melancholy – having just recently lost his wife and newborn child – but quietly reserved and observant as P.D. James wrote him. The condensed versions bring more into focus the emotional side of the characters and crimes rather than the intellectual work used in unraveling them. I’d give it a rating of 4 now.

Grantchester: This excellent series starts its 8^th season on PBS Mystery in July. It’s a bit of a take on the priest who solves crimes à la Father Brown. What makes the show for me is the actual detective played by Robson Green. Worth catching and with PBS Passport you can watch all eight seasons at your summer leisure.

Note: I started (Mostly) British Detective Mysteries in April. I’ll review a classic later this month and then offer all my readers some time off until September.