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Post by Nalkarj on Apr 18, 2017 17:47:13 GMT
Anyone here know this one? Like this one? It’s my favorite modern mystery series, with genuine, well-clued plots and likeable characters.
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Post by tarathian123 on Apr 22, 2017 14:19:38 GMT
Love it! One of my favourites too. Series 8 has just finished here in the UK. Have all the other series downloaded to computer.
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Post by Nalkarj on Apr 23, 2017 0:44:08 GMT
Love it! One of my favourites too. Series 8 has just finished here in the UK. Have all the other series downloaded to computer. Thanks, Al! I knew someone had to know it. Unfortunately, we in the States can only watch it either through PBS or Netflix--and both are several years behind! Are you sure that it's at 8, though? Wikipedia has it only up to 6. I have been unable to watch many of the episodes on PBS, so I've only just finished Season (or Series) 5 on Netflix, believe it or not, and have been trying to catch Season 6 when it's on PBS. (They schedule it for the most unusual time slots.) To some extent, I still miss the original Poole-Camille-Dwayne-Fidel dynamic--I certainly miss Poole, as much as Goodman is a fun hero. I just think the premise--uptight inspector goes to laid-back Caribbean island--worked better with Poole. (Oh, and by the way, the twist about Goodman's departure has, unfortunately, been spoiled for me!) If you're at all interested, I did a write-up of my favorite episodes (only up to Season 4 at that point) last year (right after Easter, actually) when I was trying and failing to write a detective-story blog.
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Post by tarathian123 on Apr 23, 2017 14:43:14 GMT
My mistake. Typo. Didn't notice. Yes Series 6 has just ended.
I prefer Goodman. I'm sorry to see he has left the show through family concerns, although the new Irish guy (and young daughter) seems to be fitting in quite well. The duo seems (imo) to be an attempt to combine the Poole reserve, and the Goodman bumbling.
I'll take a look at your write-up. :-)
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Post by Nalkarj on Apr 23, 2017 17:49:15 GMT
My mistake. Typo. Didn't notice. Yes Series 6 has just ended. I prefer Goodman. I'm sorry to see he has left the show through family concerns, although the new Irish guy (and young daughter) seems to be fitting in quite well. The duo seems (imo) to be an attempt to combine the Poole reserve, and the Goodman bumbling. I'll take a look at your write-up. :-) Nice to hear the new DI and his daughter are fitting in well--as I said, we haven't yet got those episodes here. Yeah, the majority of critics (at least, those who like the show and aren't steadfastly panning it all the time) seem to prefer Goodman--I don't know exactly what it is with me! I don't dislike Goodman, but I suppose my sympathies remain with Ben Miller's interesting and funny characterization, borrowing in part (I feel) from Albert Finney's Poirot in Murder on the Orient Express. Also, it may be that Robert Thorogood, the creator, wrote more episodes in the Poole seasons, and I find the Thorogood-penned episodes to be superior to nearly all of the others. (Out of the Top 10 that I assembled last year--again, I had only seen up to Season 4 at that point-- eight of the ten were written by Thorogood, a fact that I hadn't even intended!) Thanks for taking a look.
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Post by tarathian123 on Apr 23, 2017 18:49:02 GMT
Death in Paradise is a favourite, but a few more I could mention (actually there are many) which you may or may not have seen:
Hustle Foyle's War Cadfael Jonathon Creek Judge John Deed.
Enjoyed your write-ups. Two of the later regular stars of Hustle appeared in separate Paradise shows. I'll leave you to find out which and where. :-)
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Post by Nalkarj on Apr 23, 2017 19:18:00 GMT
Great choices, tarathian123 ! I'm a huge fan of Jonathan Creek--one of the best detective-programs of all time, brilliantly plotted ("The Black Canary" is almost too ingenious for its own good, not that I'm complaining). I think I might have seen one episode of Foyle's War but wasn't all that roped into it, unfortunately. I'll be on the lookout, though. I've been meaning to see Hustle for a long time, actually; I have seen a very similar American program, Leverage, which at least one online critic thought was a knock-off. I enjoy Leverage a great deal, though its quality dropped a little in its third season. Thanks for the recommendation--those kinds of con shows are some of my favorites! I haven't seen the other two, unfortunately.
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Post by tarathian123 on Apr 23, 2017 19:51:15 GMT
Hustle is on Netflix. You won't be disappointed except for perhaps two episodes which were blatantly stolen from the movie 'The Sting'. I didn't like Leverage at all. I tried through one episode and that was it. John Deed is a maverick within the British legal system. It may be a tad difficult (legalistically-wise) for the average American to stick with, but I don't see you having much trouble with it. Cadfael (Derek Jocobi) is a mediaeval sleuth created by the late Elllis Peters. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_PargeterIt's set in and around the monastery at Shrewsbury in the time of 'The Anarchy'. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_AnarchyFoyle's War is about DCS Foyle (Michael Kitchen) who solves wartime crime in around Hastings during WWII. What's good about it besides having the mystery elements is that it's virtually a chronology of life on the UK Home Front during the progress of the war through to the end of it, and to the beginnings of the Cold War. There it ends. A series that really couldn't be copied by anyone else in any other country. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foyle%27s_War
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Post by Nalkarj on May 2, 2018 19:20:00 GMT
OK, some not-so-good news for Death in Paradise fans, myself included… www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2018-04-26/how-when-and-why-is-danny-john-jules-leaving-death-in-paradise/To be honest, though (and this is going to sound rather brutal), I’m not sure how much is left that’s worth salvaging in the show at this point; the whole premise was been mixed-up ever since Ben Miller left, and the dialogue has just gotten worse and worse (to a point that no one’s acting is convincing and not a single line sounds real). I love the show, but its decline is…well, precipitous. And Danny John-Jules was the glue holding it together, as the only one of the gang left from the very beginning… Oh, well. I’m still going to be watching, but this is a definite disappointment. Maybe I’m just going to have to look into creator Robert Thorogood’s novels: they apparently use all the original characters and have cleverer mysteries than most of the modern episodes. (There was a point when DiP was one of the few great puzzle-plot TV shows; I think the episodes I listed above are fairly brilliant.)
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Post by Nalkarj on Aug 14, 2018 1:55:20 GMT
Watching a Season 7 episode, “The Healer.” Not that great so far, but there’s this double-whopper of a twist that rather amused me: the faith-healer/most-likely suspect is not actually married to his wife—he’s actually gay, and trying to hide it from his congregation. Not only that, but neither he nor the “wife” is a believer; they’re both atheists using this faith healing scheme to con believers. Maybe neither of these would be a shocking twist in any other show, but they’re so unusual in such a formulaic, unserious show as Death in Paradise. They kind of surprised me, in a good way.
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Post by Nalkarj on Aug 14, 2018 2:01:14 GMT
And unfortunately the solution borrows nearly completely from Season 1’s “Predicting Murder,” only not as good. Oh well. That mid-episode twist was good, though.
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Post by Nalkarj on Aug 15, 2018 1:06:16 GMT
“Murder on the Day of the Dead” (should have been “Death on the Day of the Dead”) isn’t that great—it’s kinda slow, and the dialogue is tinny—but the solution is good. The butterfly clue is a lovely one—a bit like Anthony Berkeley’s “White Butterfly,” in fact.
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Post by Xeliou66 on Feb 25, 2019 6:02:24 GMT
I love this show, it’s a fun mystery series with clever murder plots. I am about to get around to watching season 8 of it online.
I have to admit, I didn’t like Poole, his stuffy, uptight attitude and constant bitching about being in the Caribbean was tiresome. I much prefer the episodes with Goodman and now Mooney, they are much more likable.
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Post by Nalkarj on Feb 26, 2019 5:31:12 GMT
I love this show, it’s a fun mystery series with clever murder plots. I am about to get around to watching season 8 of it online. I have to admit, I didn’t like Poole, his stuffy, uptight attitude and constant bitching about being in the Caribbean was tiresome. I much prefer the episodes with Goodman and now Mooney, they are much more likable. Excellent! Yeah, it’s a lot of fun; if only it didn’t take so long to air here in the States! It’s weird to think it’s been running for eight years now. My fondness for Poole over the other DIs is a minority viewpoint, I know, and I do understand why. It’s just that I think the entire premise was kind of ruined when we don’t have Richard’s “stuffy, upright attitude and constant bitching”; the point of the show, for me (other than the clever plots), is how he comes out of that shell and learns to loosen up, and he was just loosening up when Ben Miller decided to leave the show (and, inexplicably, they killed the character off! That had to be Miller’s doing; it doesn’t make any scriptwriting sense to kill the character). Do you have any favorite episodes? On the whole, mine are the ones written by series creator Robert Thorogood.
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Post by Sarge on Jul 29, 2019 5:24:27 GMT
Watched a few episodes when it came out and found it charming, likable characters but a bit bland and cliche, didn't pull me in.
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Post by OldSamVimes on Oct 3, 2019 7:20:48 GMT
I enjoyed it.
I watched a bunch of episodes not being able to place one actor... the dude that was the cat in Red Dwarf.
I liked the first detective more than the second.
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