16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The murders continue in spite of good cops...., December 28, 2004
Is there such a thing as a perfect English village? Just ask the average Anglophile and you are sure to find out the answer. Undoubtedly, the village is a Midsomer entity, where coppers Barnaby and Troy help maintain the status quo. What makes this series so delicious is that you can feel so cozy even while evil villagers creep about killing their neighbors. Barnaby's demeanor and Troy's earnestness put me in mind of Morse and Robbie at times, although Barnaby is much cozier than Morse ever was.
The `Midsomer' mysteries are a real treat for Anglophiles and provides hours of escapist viewing into a world that never was although we might believe it exists if we wish hard enough -- only you should never get to England and read a British newspaper, or view BBC-America's grittier dramas and newscasts.
I have purchased all four sets of the `Midsomer Murders' dramas and enjoy watching them fairly often. We will watch them many times in the future as they provide a reliable form of escapism - we don't play computer games or use other kinds of diversion - we rely on the English to entertain us.
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20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
In Set Two, more interesting murders, more cosy villages and more of the unflappable DCI Tom Barnaby, July 21, 2006
In this part cosy, part procedural mystery series, Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby's territory takes in the English county of Midsomer. All the little picture-perfect villages and small towns have a wide and varied assortment of English citizens, ranging from wealthy magistrates and high Church of England prelates to milkmen and shopkeepers, wives and lovers, thieves and...a lot of murderers. Barnaby (John Nettles), with his police sergeant, Gavin Troy (Daniel Casey), must apply all his experience, skepticism, persistence and unflappability to solve them.
For the record, Set Two's mysteries are: Dead Man's Eleven (beating to death, among other methods), set in the village of Fletcher's Cross; Death of a Strangler (man trap), set in Upper Marshwood; Blue Herrings (asphyxiation), set in Lawnside Retirement Home near Badger's Drift; and Judgement Day (stabbing and poison), set in Midsomer Mallow.
The charm of this series lies partly in its setting. Midsomer County is a very pretty place, green and cared for. The towns are tidy, filled with competent and knowledgeable tradesmen; the villages tend to have a few eccentrics and a lot of thatched roofs. This could be much too cosy except for three things. First, the performance by John Nettles. He's a fine actor who is completely at home in the role. Watching his Barnaby think his way through clever mysteries, unfailingly polite and unfailingly unintimidated, is a pleasure. Second, the mysteries themselves. This series has been going on through eight seasons. DVD sets are out for six of them so far. The mysteries are almost always real puzzlers; not flashy, but well disguised. They are consistently interesting and well written. They play fair with the viewer. The clues Barnaby discovers all have been there for us to find as well as for him. Third, the quality of the production and the actors. I suspect a substantial budget has been allocated for each episode. The series looks first-rate. The actors are first-rate, too, which is typical of British productions which find their way over here. Daniel Casey does a fine job as Barnaby's assistant. He respects his boss and is smart enough to learn from him. But he also can be exasperated at Barnaby's penchant for not sharing everything. And he occasionally gets put out when an apparently important car trip (Troy always drives them) turns out to be a trip for a bacon sandwich Barnaby's been thinking about. Barnaby's wife is played by Jane Wymark, and it's a pleasure to observe how much at ease the two actors are with each other. They play a long-married couple, still in love and with a comfortable kind of middle-aged affection for each other. All the actors do outstanding jobs, and there usually is a sprinkling of well-known names. In Set Two, which consists of four programs of about an hour and forty minutes each, there are Imelda Staunton, Hannah Gordon, Diane Fletcher, Phyllis Calvert (who was 85 when she starred here, and in the Forties was one of Britain's most popular actresses, Robert Hardy, Nigel Davenport and, at the start of his career, Orlando Bloom.
If you're in the mood for civilized British television mysteries, where the mean streets have more cobblestones than crushed beer cans, where the occasional drug user is not a grubby loser, where the chief copper has a happy home life and no angst to share with the viewers, Midsomer Murders might be just the thing. The mysteries are consistently well developed and puzzling, and the acting is solid.
The programs in each set do not reflect very accurately the order in which the programs appear in each season's series. It doesn't make any difference since each mystery is self-contained. The DVD picture is excellent. There are a few extras such as a map of Midsomer County showing the towns and villages, cast filmographies of the major players and a biography of Carolyn Graham, the author of the books the series is based on.
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