Death in Paradise (My Rating: 3+)
I preferred the earlier episodes but...
When Death in Paradise (a joint British-French production of BBC) first appeared on PBS in 2012, I liked it so much that I convinced my wife to take our Caribbean vacation to Guadeloupe (a wonderful overseas region of France) and then to drive from one end of the island to the other to visit Deshaies, where the fictional police station of Saint Marie is actually located (in a priest office next to a church). You can see the picture of me standing in front of the station on the masthead of this blog.
The first two seasons of Death starred Ben Miller as DI Richard Poole sent to the British Overseas Territory of Saint Marie to investigate the murder of a British police officer there. Poole is an uptight fellow, always insisting on his full suit and tie – in this tropical clime – and always carrying his briefcase. After successfully solving the crime, he is ordered to remain and take the place of the dead guy. Poole is not happy as he is assigned to a beach front home many people would die to have. (His only company there is a green lizard, apparently CGI generated.) The series then proceeds along its two chief lines, solving locked-room crimes in a beautiful tropical setting and bringing the suspects together for a big reveal at the end.
DI Poole becomes a murder victim himself at the beginning of the third season (it’s now in its 13th). A new DI arrives to solve his murder and thus begins the tradition of new DIs arriving on the scene (the fourth has now left with a new one reportedly coming along next year). The chief detectives are all assisted by attractive female sergeants and other local police, all under the command of local Police Commissioner Selwyn Patterson (played by the excellent Don Warrington). Élizabeth Bourgine adds the French touch as bar owner Catherine Bordey. Other regulars have left and sometimes returned (including the ghost of Poole at one point).
With 104 regular episodes plus three Xmas specials, it has become harder to come up with new actually locked-room crimes. So the show has shifted more to the type of seemingly impossible murders that Jonathan Creek did so well. There is now more back story, often focusing on the love lives – or lack thereof – of the inspectors (who seem to fall in love with their sergeants). I have increasingly found the lengths the writers go in order to set the puzzle to be solved in less than one hour (showtime) somewhat tedious. Death in Paradise can still be fun to watch, especially Danny John-Jules (who played Cat in Red Dwarf) as Officer Dwayne Myers and Tahj Miles as a young offender turned Officer Marlon Pryce. The show can now only be found on Britbox (along with the Beyond Paradise spinoff). I rate it 3+.
Please note: I’ll be out of pocket until mid-May when (Mostly) British Detective Mysteries returns.
Cheers for that! Death in Paradise has become a local favorite here, and is aired in primetime CET after the volley of British detective shows that start with Endeavor.
I can only imagine the difficulty of coming up with new plots after so many episodes. Sometimes when I hear the police-characters discussing leads or what they should do next, it almost sounds like a table full of screenwriters asking the same.
The main question here is who will be the next inspector? Poole was popular in his time.