Midsomer Murders Set 8

Midsomer Murders - Set 8 is the last three episodes of the series' seventh season. (The first four episodes are contained in Midsomer Murders - Set 7.) It seems to me that with the seventh season, the producers of Midsomer Murders began to cautiously attempt to appeal to a younger and more contemporary demographic. Nothing wrong with that, but at the same time the cleverness of the writing and the complexity (and to a degree, the integrity) of the mysteries have been weakened a bit. The strength of the series is still the performance of John Nettles as Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby, who finds plenty of murders to solve in the tidy, cozy towns and villages of Midsomer County. Barnaby remains the constant; he's unflappable, shrewd, fair-minded and experienced. Nettles brings a real feel for Barnaby's integrity, intelligence and dry humor to the role.

The three episodes in the set all come with high production values. The stately homes of the well-off never looked better and the smaller homes of the middle class never looked tidier. The countryside is green and beautiful, except when it's nighttime and killers are on the prowl.

The producers, in their effort to stay contemporary, are most likely well aware that their star is now beginning to age a bit. Nettles was 61 when the seventh season began. He probably has less appeal to the younger set than the young hunk (and good actor) John Hopkins, who was brought in to play Barnaby's new assistant, Sergeant Dan Scott. At the same time, the mysteries all too often carry the dreaded burden of the modern psychological backstory. The writers come up with complicated plots, but at times the characters' backstories or the still unformed skills of some of the young actors or the veering toward daytime television melodrama tend to be unsatisfying.

"The Maid in Splendor" starts out with a nice mixture of family tensions, unrequited love and a nasty wife, but the solution depends on an unlikely scenario in which the acting of some key players doesn't quite do the job and on the improbability of one important relationship. We're talking soap opera melodrama.

In "The Straw Woman," Barnaby finds himself in a completely humorless melodrama that features rigid Christian beliefs, earthly love among High Church priests, a roll-in-the-bed episode featuring Sergeant Scott and, again, acting among two key, young players that has little nuance.

"Ghosts of Christmas Past" is the best of the lot with all sorts of family secrets combined with retribution and murder. But here, the solution depends on something Barnaby is told in a report from another police district that he and we learn only after 90 minutes of the 100-minute episode have gone by. This deux ex machina approach to solving mysteries does not play fair with the audience.

Still, John Nettles and the production values are able to keep up our interest, and it was good to see such skilled actors as Freddie Jones, Mel Martin and Bruce Alexander. Let's hope that Inspector Barnaby can find himself dealing with future murders that have more of the dry humor and cleverness of the earlier episodes. We don't want to wind up with CSI: Midsomer County.

Actually consider this a rating of 3 1/2 stars. Not quite good enough for four, but still better than average.

As usual Midsomer Murders delivers charming bucolic English murder mysteries. The characters are quirky, John Nettles is wonderful and John Hopkins is starting to come into his own as DS Scott.

However there are a few negative. First this is actually the second half of the seventh season, which makes numbering the DVD sets annoying for those of us who are anal retentive. (It still somewhat bothers me that the Travelling Wilburys labelled their two albums, volume I and volume III)

Also this set is shorter than the previous sets having only three episodes. The series finally gets around to the "themed" shows having what can only be lablelled their Halloween and Christmas episodes. The Halloween episode was more than a bit contrived, but the Christmas episode made up for it.

All in all, this series is a predictable and enjoyable bit of English cosy and I do recommend you watch it with a nice pot of Darjeeling tea and some shortbread.

"Midsomer Murders Set Eight" is a boxed, 3-volume set of three contemporary, stand-alone British mysteries, each approximately 100 minutes long, from the popular British TV hit, which first aired in the United Kingdom in March, 1997. The series has been seen on "A & E" and "The Biography Channel," in the United States. The characters are based on those created by Caroline Graham, a modern mistress of the English village cozy mystery: the series was originally adapted by highly talented and acclaimed scriptwriter Anthony Horowitz (Foyle's War: Sets 1-5 Bundle (Amazon.com Exclusive); Robin of Sherwood: The Complete Collection).

Special features include a Graham biography, John Nettles interview, Midsomer map, and cast filmographies. But, unfortunately, no subtitles; as all the characters speak rather softly, and John Nettles, the series' star, tends to swallow his words. However, you should be able to follow the action well enough without the subtitles.

The series is set in the fictional, lovely, countryside village of Midsomer; and it certainly is green, quaint, and scenic. It's a classic "cozy" setting; lovely village, denizens upset by murder, villain found; everything back to normal again. It stars John Nettles (BERGERAC - SERIES 1 - COMPLETE ) as Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby, hard-working family man and astute detective; and John Hopkins (Love in a Cold Climate) as his brash young assistant Sergeant Dan Scott. Jane Wymark and Laura Howard costar as Joyce and Cully Barnaby, the detective's wife and daughter. The series also features many esteemed guest stars, including John Burgess, William Gaunt, Freddie Jones, Keith Barron, and Margery Mason: the supporting players bring a lot of spice to the screen. Nor have the makers stinted in the making of this series: they've supplied beautiful landscapes, plenty of extras, animal and human, lots of local color. The mysteries are:
1. The Maid in Splendour. Midsomer Worthy's favorite pub is suddenly awash in secret business deals, unrequited loves, passionate affairs, and murder.
2. The Straw Woman. In Midsomer Parva, a local schoolteacher tries to revive an ancient local festival, with disastrous results. A curate dies violently, to be followed by other violent deaths. The village suspects black magic: the detectives solve a centuries-old mystery. Viewers may be reminded of some of Stephen King's work; but that's not where the plot is ultimately going.
3. Ghosts of Christmas Past. The Villiers family gathers to celebrate Christmas exactly nine years after Ferdy Villiers committed suicide, a suicide that was soon followed by that of his attractive assistant/lover. Another member of the family dies mysteriously; the secrets of the past seem to reach out to the present.

These mysteries are greatly enriched by the fact that they are feature length, allowing screenwriters and cast sufficient time to develop them subtly and with wit and flavor. They are complex, intelligent and original; perhaps a little unlikely, but involving all the same.

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