'Endeavour' ITV 1

[antongould]

Of course. I was commenting on Antongould's post, where he makes the same point as I did. None of this alters the fact that there's dire continuity between Endeavour and Morse. I gave the example (post 202) of MacNutt, Morse's mentor as a young detective - an important figure since his murder in Masonic Mysteries is hardly a side-show. But there are many others. Surely, it wouldn't have taken too much to get this right.

I agree pabs and, for what it’s worth, I loved the books and the TV series ......

[Pabmusic]

...I loved the books and the TV series ......

Me too, AG.

[LMcD]

On the evidence of tonight's episode, 'Endeavour' seems to have lost its way. It seemed unable to decide whether it was to be issue- or character-led and ended up being an awkward mixture of the two. For me, another major problem was that it was stuffed to overflowing with story lines and issues, none of which had the chance or time to be satisfactorily developed:
- Loyalty among soldiers
- The treatment of war heroes
- Racism
- Fred Thursday's relationship with his son
- Fred Thursday's attitude to his job
- The reorganization of the police force
- Morse's relationship with the photojournalist
- The relationship between Fancy and Trewlove
- The relationship between the military and the police
That's a lot to pack into 96 minutes of television!
And I found the quotations from 'Vitae Lampada Tradamus' and the death of MacDuff unnecessarily melodramatic - almost to the point of parody.

[eighthobstruction]

....what happened about the egg and bacon ordered by murdered ex policeman- in cinema episode....but not in stomach during postmortem....

[subcontrabass]

On the evidence of tonight's episode, 'Endeavour' seems to have lost its way. It seemed unable to decide whether it was to be issue- or character-led and ended up being an awkward mixture of the two. For me, another major problem was that it was stuffed to overflowing with story lines and issues, none of which had the chance or time to be satisfactorily developed:
- Loyalty among soldiers
- The treatment of war heroes
- Racism
- Fred Thursday's relationship with his son
- Fred Thursday's attitude to his job
- The reorganization of the police force
- Morse's relationship with the photojournalist
- The relationship between Fancy and Trewlove
- The relationship between the military and the police
That's a lot to pack into 96 minutes of television!
And I found the quotations from 'Vitae Lampada Tradamus' and the death of MacDuff unnecessarily melodramatic - almost to the point of parody.

Also overdosing on "literary" and historical allusions: https://thekillingtimestv.wordpress....18/02/26/8925/

[LMcD]

Also overdosing on "literary" and historical allusions: https://thekillingtimestv.wordpress....18/02/26/8925/

A most insightful review I would say!

[Nick Armstrong]

On the evidence of tonight's episode, 'Endeavour' seems to have lost its way. It seemed unable to decide whether it was to be issue- or character-led and ended up being an awkward mixture of the two. For me, another major problem was that it was stuffed to overflowing with story lines and issues, none of which had the chance or time to be satisfactorily developed:
- Loyalty among soldiers
- The treatment of war heroes
- Racism
- Fred Thursday's relationship with his son
- Fred Thursday's attitude to his job
- The reorganization of the police force
- Morse's relationship with the photojournalist
- The relationship between Fancy and Trewlove
- The relationship between the military and the police
That's a lot to pack into 96 minutes of television!
And I found the quotations from 'Vitae Lampada Tradamus' and the death of MacDuff unnecessarily melodramatic - almost to the point of parody.

I know what you mean, it's trying very hard to be 'multi-layered' - and in this episode a couple of the more interesting layers were glanced at but basically neglected (the ongoing mafia 'Nero / Cromwell Ames' thread, the uncomfortable relationship between Thursday and his daughter). However, the interplay of a few of the things you mention didn't really trouble me, nor the literary references.

Actually, I thought this episode lacked some of the more basic failings of previous ones, e.g. characters stating the bleeding obvious to one another in order to keep the slower ITV viewers up to speed, and the ghastly and credibilty-stretching Morse explanation at the end of who did what and why. At least the dénouement evolved slightly more organically...

But it could still be done with more subtlety - the elusive, moody atmosphere of the best of the original Morse series (some of them were awful too) isn't much in evidence, it's all a bit too obvious.

I could still watch Roger Allam reading the phone book though, and be happy

[Cockney Sparrow]

............I could still watch Roger Allam reading the phone book though, and be happy...............

[LMcD]

I could even listen to Roger Allam talking about Br*x*t - yes, in my book he's that good!

[Richard Tarleton]

It's all gone a bit John Le Carré this week

We're in 1968, the Prague Spring......

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

It's all gone a bit John Le Carré this week
We're in 1968, the Prague Spring......

With a smidgen of Bond - the parfumier intent on world domination (and with a Barryesque rich-trombone-chords-under-soaring-violin-phrase underscoring, too!)

And Ellie Haddington reprising her Foyle's War role.

[LMcD]

This latest episode started with a bizarre sequence that looked as if it had been lifted, unedited, from 'Midsomer Murders', then turned into a clumsy mixture of 'Foyles' War' - an impression reinforced by Ellie Haddington reprising her role in the latter- 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy' and any number of other Cold War spy thrillers. Pretty poor fare IMHO.

[Bergonzi]

Yes, and I find all of Endeavour to have been rather disappointing.

[Richard Tarleton]

If only he didn't have to grow up to be Inspector Morse, he could have gone steady with that nice Joan Thursday a couple of series ago.....

[eighthobstruction]

If only he didn't have to grow up to be Inspector Morse, he could have gone steady with that nice Joan Thursday a couple of series ago.....

........Not Arf!!....deep....