TV REVIEW: MURDER MYSTERIES
Leave It to the Brits for Kicks & Sidekicks - Chief Inspectors Lynley, Barnaby & Foyle
You can forget Poirot and his moustache twirl and his “little grey cells” which, once set in motion, figure out the whole mystery so that the clever Belgian can gather the characters together and brilliantly disclose the plot. And enough of Miss Marple who drags her knitting along, and while the incompetent police miss all the clues, she can calmly walk in with solutions. Too patterned and repetitive for me. Yet I’m not quite ready for the new Sherlock Holmes (Watson writes a blog in which he exposes Sherlock’s every move. I understand the appeal of the new social network, but for a detective who is supposed to keep stuff under cover? Give me a break.) The stories are so quirky and full of holes that you get dizzy trying to figure out the plot, or the bad guy is so obvious that the whole hour wasn’t worth the snacks you had to schlep downstairs to your comfy bed in front of the TV for your hour of mystery.
Give me a good solid mystery, British style, where I feel confident in the Chief Inspector and enjoy the antics of his sidekick, because every good Chief Inspector must have a sidekick. And give me a really nice little British village with its leafy greenery and colorful characters who are really “characters.” Despite all the blood, the violence is toned down, the stories are solid so that you can settle in and watch the bodies fall, and the clever pairs begin to unravel the clues.
My three favorites seem to be written by the same writer, Anthony Horowitz -- he of the long-standing great British favorite, Midsomer Murders. But Chief Inspector Barnaby is a solid family man with a pretty wife and daughter, his sidekick the innocuous Troy, and there are so many murders in each episode, I can’t believe that his village isn’t depleted. And ho-hum heavy furniture sometimes gets unscrewed from the wall and falls on the unsuspecting, and the music is pretty obvious and a bit repetitive. But lacking anything else, Chief Inspector Barnaby and Troy are all right in to fill in.
But I’d step up to the Inspector Lynley Mysteries. This handsome Inspector is a well-educated, not only upper class but actually titled, Englishman. The sidekick, Havers, is from the wrong side of town. Note her lower-class accent and sloppy hair-do. To complicate matters even without the murders, Lyndley favors an upper-class lady (hair definitely done by a better salon) who will bed him but not marry him. And when he’s been hurt, he can fall back on the always loyal lower-class sidekick. This one has a bit of the sexual. The stories are taken from the novels of Elizabeth George so that the characters and the plot are solid.
Second is not exactly a murder mystery, but mystery indeed, set at the time of WWII, and the detective is Chief Inspector Foyle, the wonderful Michael Kitchen, in Foyle’s War. Remember Michael Kitchen from Enchanted April? He was the short-sighted owner of the Italian villa. He’s absolutely first-rate, and the characterization is solid. Foyle’s sidekick is Sam, short for Samantha -- a member of the army transportation corps given to him as a driver since all able-bodied guys are off fighting the Germans. What makes this series so strong is Foyle himself -- very serious, never betraying his emotions, even when his own son goes off to fight the war. A glance of affection but not even a hug. A man who is ethical to the core. When he has a decision to make, even if the decision is to his detriment, he goes for honesty and honor. In the case, for instance, of "The German Woman," he understands the humanity of the local Germans, and even after a bombing when Germans are interned “enemies,” he fights for the rights of the individual. First-rate series.
The third, Inspector George Gently, only made six episodes, but I found Chief Inspector George Gently very appealing, and his sidekick of interest, since he’s not as sterling a character as the others, John Bacchus has walked out on his wife (we do not know why), sleeps around, and is dying to get away from his boss and leave these sleepy (albeit murder-filled) villages and make it to big-town London. Yet he does solid work, and Gently rather tucks him under his wing. Only six, but six good ones.
Too bad real crimes aren’t TV murder mysteries with their clues always visible: a piece of thread from a jacket; a torn piece of paper which contains an important bit of info; the fact that, on that particular night, there was no moon and the culprit could not have seen who the woman was...
American murder mysteries are bloody, violent, and the criminals vicious. Enough of that in real life. At the end of a good British mystery, the culprit is happy to confess, and walks obligingly to his cell. Maybe not true to life, but if you’ve had a hard day and need a cool-down and a nice cup of tea and a biscuit, try the Brits and their murders.
'Inspector Lynley Mysteries,' 'Foyle's War,' and 'Inspector George Gently' are now available on DVD.
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