Customer Reviews

Inspector Lewis: Series 2

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The Inspector Morse mysteries were perhaps the finest television mysteries ever developed. I loved Morse and enjoyed every episode and ultimately purchased them all in the complete DVD edition. The Inspector Lewis mysteries are equally excellent television. They are a fine successor to the Morse series and deserving of five stars and my firm recommendation. I would like to buy a complete set of these, too, and I may, but from Amazon UK. Then I'll have to buy an all-region DVD player.

So why did I rate this DVD set only two stars? As the other reviewer discovered and wrote about, PBS is cutting about ten minutes from each episode to leave time for the extra introduction and to keep the entire length at 86 minutes, leaving time for PBS commercials. Each Inspector Lewis episode in the British DVD sets (Region 2) is 93 minutes. Each episode in the PBS version is 86 minutes which includes the extra introduction by PBS host Alan Cumming. The PBS Series 2 run time is listed as 602 minutes because this includes seven episodes, the four in British Series 2 and the first three in British Series 3. The last episode of Series 3, Counter Culture Blues, is omitted.

But that's not all. Again, as the reviewer said, these Inspector Lewis sets are one or more years behind schedule for U.S. patrons. The complete Inspector Lewis Series 1-3 DVD set has been available in the UK since April 2009. Here's a complete list of what's actually completed and available:

Pilot
Inspector Lewis

Series 1
Whom The Gods Would Destroy
Old School Ties
Expiation

Series 2
And The Moonbeams Kiss The Sea
Music To Die For
Life Born Of Fire
The Great And The Good

Series 3
Allegory Of Love
Quality Of Mercy
The Point Of Vanishing
Counter Culture Blues

The pilot episode is available by itself (in full length of 95 minutes) or as part of Series 1 with four DVDs in box. The other two series have four episodes/DVDs each. All three sets are available for less than $17 each on Amazon.co.uk, quite a bit less than the PBS price.

I strongly urge PBS to issue FULL-LENGTH episodes when they get around to selling the complete series box set.

Update (2009 October 8): I did purchase Series 1-3 of Inspector Lewis plus an all-region DVD player from Amazon UK. The process was painless, no different from ordering from the U.S. Amazon.com. I give these Lewis DVDs 5 stars. While the original Morse episodes were better due to the outstanding acting skills and persona of John Thaw, both Kevin Whately, who plays Inspector Lewis, and especially Laurence Fox, who plays Detective Sergeant James Hathaway, are excellent actors whose character relationship works well. There is no reason to rate these full-length episodes less than 5 stars.

Update (2010 April 28): Today I pre-ordered Series 4 from Amazon UK; it will ship in May. Needless to say, this DVD set is not available from PBS at all and the episodes haven't even been shown on PBS yet (but will be this summer as revealed by previews). A synopsis of each episode is available on the Amazon UK site. Here are the titles:

Series 4
The Dead Of Winter
Dark Matter
Your Sudden Death Question
Falling Darkness

1. Get a region-free upconverting DVD player from Amazon.com (USA). A 5-star-reviewed Pioneer DV610av is a bit more than $100. My discontinued Pioneer DV383 (not upconverting), also from Amazon.com, has been totally trouble-free. It has done well with UK, German, and US DVD's in both NTSC and PAL encoding. In fact, I plan to stay with it, because it delivers such superb image quality.

2. Buy ALL Lewis series released so far (1, 2, 3) UNCUT from Amazon.co.uk for about what ONE butchered series costs from the jerks in Bahstn. That's right, you get series 3 already. 6 - 10 day air shipment for about $5 is included in the price. The savings on the three series will almost pay for the region-free DVD player.
UPDATE: Shipment arrived just now, five business days after ordering.

3. Repeat for lots of other stuff butchered in Bahstn. Often it will be, as with the Lewis series, not only uncut and unaccompanied by gratuitous PBS twaddle, but MUCH cheaper. Your next order after the three Lewis series will complete paying for your region-free DVD player. All savings after that are gravy.

4. Then email PBS and tell them [use your imagination].

If you are new to amazon.ca, amazon.co.uk, amazon.de, amazon.fr etc., the process is almost completely transparent, astonishingly easy, working just like amazon.com:

Links to them are at the bottom of most Amazon pages.

They already know all your shipping and billing addresses, have all your credit card info, and are set up to email order confirmations and notification of special deals.

Currency conversion is painless, automatic, and at a fair rate. Amazon bills your credit card in US$ so your card issuer can't rip you off.

Ordering Lewis 1, 2, & 3 from amazon.co.uk took far less than five minutes, just as with my first amazon.de (site is in German) order a few years ago.

You can use foreign Amazon sites to send gifts to loved ones and associates in other countries without worrying with customs declarations and postage from the USA. I have done it many times, often getting next-day delivery at no extra charge. European countries are, after all, about the size of US states and have more efficient transport networks than ours.

And PBS can [use your imagination].

UPDATE (30 Sep 09): Playback of the UK DVDs with the region-free Pioneer DV383 on a Sony Bravia LCD screen with 5.1 surround thru an Integra receiver with Infinity speakers and subwoofer, a 3.5 year-old system, was as close to flawless as my ancient eyes and ears can detect. The improvement in image quality from an upconverting region-free DVD player would probably be so minor that I will not replace the Pioneer DV383, which also automatically detected the UK recording mode without help. It was just as effortless as playing the best US DVDs on the same system.

Another bit of info that put PBS even nearer the top of my fetid list: The UK DVDs are a co-production with WGBH Bahstn, in the clutches of the ubiquitous Rebecca Eaton. This completes proof that PBS KNEW OF AND EVEN HELPED PLAN THE BUTCHERY, GROTESQUE OVERPRICING, AND TWO-YEAR DELAY IN AVAILABILITY FROM THE BEGINNING. The hundreds of dollars I used to contribute to PBS each year will now go toward buying better DVDs of their stuff at far lower prices on much better delivery schedules from the UK.

BTW, I do not plan to email PBS about this. Their reaction would probably not be to clean up their act, but to try to block sales of UK DVDs of their co-productions to US customers, possibly via protectionist legislation.

NOTE (added 15 Nov 09): UK set 3's final episode, "Counter Culture Blues," omitted from PBS Set 2, is superb. Joanna Lumley, 62ish but still captivating and screen-filling, especially in a more complex role than usual for the most mistakenly rejected of all RADA applicants, not so much steals the show as she enhances the usual fine performances of the regulars, as do other guest stars, such as Simon Callow (nude-swimming vicar in "Room With a View") and Perdita Weeks, 20ish sister of Honeysuckle Weeks from "Foyle's War." According to a Guardian article, this episode, originally broadcast on an Easter Sunday, garnered top UK TV ratings, doubling most of the competition, as usual for recent Lewis episodes.

HOWEVER . . .

This last, and perhaps best, Lewis episode is MISSING FROM PBS SERIES TWO! Much, much worse: According to Kevin Whately (source: "Oxford Mail"), ITV may end the series in spite of its popularity in the UK, US and elsewhere. PBS may someday release this episode -- long-delayed, crudely butchered, and grossly overpriced, as usual. Owners of region-free players who buy DVDs from foreign Amazon entities already watched it -- uncut, cheaper, and sooner.

UPDATE (2 April 2010): HOORAY!! Not cancelled yet!! I just pre-ordered Series 4 from amazon.uk for £16.64 ($25ish), including international air postage. Release date 24 May; anticipated arrival date 1 June. Meanwhile, has PBS ever supplied the final episode of Series 3?

We fans in North America have been duped by PBS video! It was bad enough that we endure a lazy DVD production that is 2 years behind what's available in the UK and simply applies the "Masterpiece Mystery" broadcast version of the show onto video. That is to say, one must endure annoying PBS ads; a superficial intro by host Alan Cumming; an unacceptable preview that spoils some surprises for anyone hoping to enjoy the episode freshly; and a cruel removal of Barrington Pheloung's end credit theme music for the show, which I've therefore never heard.

HOWEVER, each of these episodes is missing about 10 minutes of story that has been edited out so that PBS can air the show in its 90 minute time slot. I found this out when I realized that my "Inspector Morse" DVDs released by Carleton Video always ran about 1 hour and 34 minutes, and asked PBS if "Lewis" should really be longer than the DVDs' 1 hour and 24 minutes. They had the courtesy to admit the truth. Why it's necessary for PBS (which has long publicized itself as commercial free) to edit out 10 instead of 3 minutes is beyond me, but we're missing out on details and texture in the story telling that is available to UK viewers and DVD buyers.

It is one thing if PBS decided to do this for its on-air version, but Shop PBS hasn't had the decency to restore the original footage back into the DVD release; even more supposedly commercial studios like Fox Home Video treat fans better than this! Yet, what's especially unacceptable about all this is that PBS has made it impossible for a more considerate and honest company like Carleton Video to do the program justice by releasing the full versions of the episodes. This is because, according to ITV America, PBS has acquired exclusive rights to manufacture and distribute the DVDs in North America. So, PBS hasn't just released a bad product for fans of the show, but has prevented other companies from doing a better job. What disgusting and monopolistic behavior for an entity officially dedicated to serving the public. When it comes to Inspector Lewis, it has carried out a willful public disservice!

[...]

In regard to the previous reviewer, I cheated a bought the set from the UK version of Amazon. Therefore I do not have the same problem with the PBS version. I have even obtained a region free player. I love Lewis. I loved Morse. The location is the same as in Morse, the production value is high, and Lewis and his sergeant are just as enjoyable to watch as when Lewis was in that role with his chief inspector.













pbs

First things first. The other reviews on this pages are completely erroneous. I watch this set (yes the American PBS version) and it DOES NOT, I repeat DOES NOT cut out 10 minutes off each episode. Each episode runs around 1 hour and 32-34 minutes long. It may be that they removed the 10 minutes for broadcast on television but in any case they were re-added to the DVD because the episodes are present in their entirety in this set. Again there is NO time missing from these DVDs. I don't know if the other reviewers just don't know how to read time on a DVD player but there is NO time missing here.
But back to the actual series, this is quite a nice series. A very clever way of keeping the Morse series alive, the characters are charming and the backdrops lovely. The mysteries are not always the most suspenseful of ones but the show does a nice job of developing characters, a refreshing change from the fast past action we are used to here in the US. I look forward to watching more of this show and I hope they keep up the good work.

I originally saw Series 2 in London 2 years ago and, given some of the pithy reviews regarding the editing of the US version, felt compelled to put my two cents in.

First of all, Lewis isn't Morse and I suspect much of the criticism is centered in this undeniable fact. I also own all the Morse episodes and periodically replay them for pleasure and to see how they age in light of the twenty plus years since the series started. Truth be told, there's more than a couple clunkers in the lot that get by, not on the story line but, on the intense character study that John Thaw brought to the role. There's never going to be another Morse.

Lewis is a much different character, schooled by Morse but certainly not a protege. His forte is more dogged than sheer brilliance. His sergeant (Laurence Fox) likewise is no Lewis; much more complex and less conventional. In fact the roles of the two series are somewhat reversed in many respects. His Sergeant Hathaway seems to be the brilliant, but troubled police detective while Lewis remains somewhat more centered in convention. It's almost like Hathaway is a younger less experienced Morse, though his Cambridge education will never get him invited to "high table" the way Morse often was. The main difference between the two series, aside from the absence of John Thaw, is the Lewis episodes are much tighter written and clearly scripted for the screen rather than being adapted from books (not too many of these actually, most of the Morse episodes were credited to "ideas" of Colin Dexter).

Series 2 is superior to Series 1 in character development and story line and includes 7 full (minus the 10 minutes) episodes to the screen. They're all good to excellent and the editing is generally tasteful and not germain to the story line. Though I could do without the obsequious PBS host sneering his way through the intos.

Give Lewis a try. Though still not at the exalted level of the Morse series, Lewis show promise while providing good entertainment and some nice Morse recollections to boot.

I was not a big fan of John Thaw and the Inspector Morse stuff, not because it wasn't good, but because I never got around to it. Too busy with Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Cadfael and a host of other Mystery series on PBS. I did see a few episodes and managed to catch the new series pilot with Kevin Whately as Inspector Lewis and am very glad I did. He and Laurence Fox as Hathaway have a nice chemistry, the episodes are quality writing and filmed in an interesting location. The supporting cast and guest actors are excellent. Tonight's episode Music To Die For had Tom Goodman-Hill as Richard Helm a man from East Germany teaching at Oxford now after leaving when he was 18. I thought his performance was exceptional and brought much color to the story line. His acting was subtle, well paced and very enjoyable. I think if this is the continuing standard for this series, it should have a very long and well deserved run. I look forward to many more stories . . .

I ordered the Lewis pilot & all 3 series for $45.35 (this includes shipping)!!!!!!!!! Also, you can choose to see the prices in US dollars. I had a huge shock when I saw how much money I could have saved if I had ordered Morse, Sherlock Holmes, Jane Eyre etc. from the UK - with more footage on top of it. Now I can afford to get Dr. Who, New Tricks etc etc.
PBS is going to hear from me - I am soooo disgusted.
Be careful though if you see region 1 items on amazon uk - they come from the US and I assume probably are the shorter PBS versions. Does anybody know about this for sure?

The Inspector Lewis series is magnificent! And I have watched and enjoyed all the others - Inspector Morse, Midsomer Murders, Miss Marple, etc. If it's a British mystery series, then I'm there. I was so disappointed to see an average rating of 3 stars for the wonderful Inspector Lewis. After reading the reviews, I see that if they were based on the quality of the series, it would be five stars, but people are justifiably outraged by PBS's act of butchery in deleting 10 min. from every episode. I think people should convey their protests in the strongest terms to PBS, but it hurts me to see the anger taken out on Inspector Lewis.
This series is an absolute treasure. I own Series 1 and have watched every episode of Series 2. Lewis and Hathaway are a fantastic team and the acting by everyone is incredible. I was so inspired by the Shelley references in "And the Moonbeams Kiss the Sea" that I bought an audio CD from Amazon of famous British actors reading the Romantic poets. Since Lewis is a "regular guy," it is great to have Hathaway explain many of the literary and musical references encountered in Oxford, and it serves as a great refresher course for those of us who left college behind a long time ago. The Inspector Lewis series has murder, mayhem, outstanding acting, and an Oxford setting that is irresistible to this former English major.

Review Part I:

After watching the last of PBS' current series of Lewis last night, I am so glad I stopped by these reviews today, because it has explained to me something that I was puzzled and unhappy about, regarding the entire Lewis series (which I have only watched in the US on PBS, not in the UK on ITV).

About 75% of the way through each episode of Lewis, there always seems to be a huge jump in the story, where the viewer cannot put 2 and 2 together to make 4, but the lead characters always seem to understand it perfectly. One minute it's a murder fest and the next minute they are having a pint after the dastardly villain has been taken in for questioning. I have had to watch almost all of the Lewis episodes that were shown in the US a second time, for the plot to even make sense. This was really bothering me, and I was blaming the Lewis writers for it, because the Inspector Morse series, as far as I can remember, did not have this kind of weird, incomprehensible rush to the ending.

However, after reading the 1-star and 2-star reviews here, I know what has been happening -- PBS has been cutting 10 minutes off of each episode (for absolutely no good reason), therefore showing a cut version in the US, and that's why the dramas seem so choppy in places (especially towards the end, in my view).

It's one thing to cut 10 minutes off of a musical program or a travelogue, but it's quite another to cut 10 minutes, towards the end, off of a mystery drama the very point of which is how interrelated every element of the story is in reaching a final conclusion in a natural manner and at a reasonable pace. Ridiculous. This is a crazy decision by PBS. It is insulting to the audience and it's unfair to the creators (writers, actors, producers, etc.) of the series.

Review Part II:

There is another reason I have given this series a low grade. I cannot stand Alan Cumming's introductions.

The late Alastair Cook who introduced various UK miniseries on the PBS of old was a great host, and I later learned that he was quite well-known in the UK for all sorts of journalistic reasons that had nothing to do with his PBS hosting bit, although it was the main thing he was known for in the US. Of course, he can't be replaced.

But Alan Cumming is kind of an odd choice. He always seems a little dodgy -- in behavior, countenance, and fashion choices! His voice isn't pleasant, and his attempts to be "dramatic" and clever fall flat. He's worn the same outfit to introduce every episode of the current PBS Lewis season (obviously the intros were all filmed on the same day, but that's no reason not to make it look a little more polished by having a different outfit on when introducing each week's program) and his shiny trousers this time are way too tight and caught my attention for all the wrong reasons (and not in a pleasant way either).

Now, it might seem petty to give PBS' box set of Lewis a low mark due to shiny too-tight trousers on a too-actory fellow who comes off as a bit of a tosser, but the entire series would be much better off if these silly introductions were axed and we could just have the deleted 10 minutes of the actual productions back on the screen each week.

Review Part III:

Even if we had the full-length episodes and no Alan Cumming introductions, I would still give the Inspector Lewis episodes a 3 out of 5. Respectable, worth it at times, but no instant classic. I thought the Inspector Morse series was better generally, although the quality across episodes varied, of course. I think the Lewis writers are really stretching to think of the most outlandish things they can to bring something new into the stories, and they often go too far into the ridiculous.

I find the Lewis shows comforting, like a familiar blanket and cup of cocoa, when you don't want to think too much (in fact, you cannot think too much while watching, since PBS America has deleted 10 minutes of crucial plot build-up), and when you just want to see some pretty scenery and to hear some British accents. I have never really warmed up to Lewis as a character (or even to Whately as an actor); I enjoyed Morse's personality more. I actually like the Hathaway character since I think the actor himself is kind of attractive (in a gangly, geeky way; miles more handsome than Chris Evans in my book, but that's another thing altogether!) and he does lend some oldish-youthfulness to the situations they find themselves in.

However, I am sure that if I lived in the UK at the moment I wouldn't watch these shows very often, because of all the other choices on UK tv. It's only because I live in the US right now and there are very few UK dramas available to watch (although I get BBC World in the US, it's a sorry excuse for a channel -- there is no relation between its schedule and the real schedules of the real BBC channels) that the Lewis shows are of interest to me.

The first Morse episode I ever watched was when I was living in Woodstock (Oxfordshire) and flipping around the channels - it was the "Last Bus to Woodstock" episode, so it caught my attention. Ever since, I've seen about 1/3rd of the Morse series, and I have a soft spot in my heart for Morse, even though I'm seemingly about 25 years younger than the program's current fanbase.

Review Part IV:

My PBS station shows almost no UK content, except for the current Masterpiece series coming from the national level (anyway, you can have Wallander - ugh, and Cranfield - not great, etc.) In the last couple of years I have travelled around a fair bit in the US for work (having to stay in hotels) and I've noticed that many PBS stations have more UK series (old ones, ancient ones, new ones) in their lineups. I guess it's partially a good thing that each PBS affiliate has a huge choice about what to air, but the monetarily-poorer ones and the less-well-managed ones are kind of letting the team down (in many ways: not just about UK content, obviously -- my local station shows the same boring content repetitively and it's often quite old -- there are surely many more recent and wonderful PBS programs from the US and all over the rest of the world that they could be showing). The Kenny Everett show, Monty Python, Love for Lydia, Brideshead Revisited, the Dave Allen show, the Young Ones, etc. etc. on PBS, late at night, on a 16-inch black-and-white tv when there were only 5 channels to be received, made a big impression on me when I was a little kid (I stayed up really late even then!), and started my interest in the UK. Seeing some international television, even if it's just from another English-speaking country, can broaden the mind, and give us a little more understanding about the rest of the world. I think there should be more international programs available in the US to watch in English or dubbed into English (without having to have an expensive satellite connection).