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Original poster

Jonathan Creek

63 replies

Merlincat07 · 28/12/2016 21:49

Is anyone else watching?

I ADORED this when it was first shown.

I am really disappointed with the last few Christmas specials. Is it just me or this one just as bad as the others?

OP posts:

themorus · 28/12/2016 23:26

I must've missed the taxi bit, thanks.

OccasionalNachos · 28/12/2016 23:30

It was right at the beginning themorus

Am also a bit confused as to how the murderer (Scottish guy) didn't recognise the bogus handyman.

I was convinced the housemaid/care worker knew more than she was letting on...

cakesandphotos · 28/12/2016 23:42

The guy trying to pop Jonathan off was the guy who killed the old man by poinsoning the envelope flap in the episode called the house of monkeys. The gorilla licked the flap and died too.
I thought that was better than previous specials but I've enjoyed all of them

lottiegarbanzo · 28/12/2016 23:44

We did know why the bloke was tracking down and seeking to murder Jonathon. Warwick Davis explained that the perpetrator in a previous case had responded really will to his visits while in prison, found God, become a new person and had 'unfinished business' with Jonathon (Warwick naively thought he wanted to thank J for his role in turning his life around, clearly not). I did think the burning bit was quite horrible.

The BIL could easily never have met Stephen Belkin. He and his family lived abroad. Perhaps he didn't come to their wedding.

What I didn't understand was this: Alison went to look through boxes of notes labelled 'Stephen's Research notes' in an attempt to discover what had happened to him. She found the missing pages of the letter to her, he had hidden. Then her step-father's wife appeared behind her. So, which house was she in? Why would boxes of Stephen's notes be in a house they were just visiting? But, why would the SF's wife be in Alison's home?

lottiegarbanzo · 28/12/2016 23:45

Or housekeeper rather than wife? Wasn't clear. Anyway.

cakesandphotos · 28/12/2016 23:53

I wondered that. They only turned up to the house with a couple of suitcases, where did the box come from? And why wouldn't he have chucked the pages out rather than keeping them? Still a good mystery though I thought

ineedamoreadultieradult · 28/12/2016 23:53

I was disappointed I didn't have Jonathan down as a murderer. I know it was portrayed as self defense but I don't think that would stand up in court especially when he shut the lid on him. Surely dowsing him in gas and threatening to throw the match in would have been enough.

lottiegarbanzo · 28/12/2016 23:54

Agree JC isn't what it was in the Caroline Quentin days, or in the episodes with Rik Mayall as a policeman. It used to be do charming, sweet and funny. Now it's just macabre (more consistently so than with some past cases, I'm sure that 'spooky house' has featured before) with a vaguely likeable Jonathon and a comic turn or two.

It also irks me a little how the age of the partner has stayed the same, and their conventional attractiveness increased, as Jonathon ages. There's no way they'd cast Caroline Q as 'will they won't they, maybe they have and settled down by now, romantic interest' now.

TrustySnail · 29/12/2016 02:39

I think the quality of the writing has recently and rapidly gone downhill. I had no problem with the series up to the end of the Sheridan Smith episodes, but everything since then has been mediocre to dire.

Jonathan Creek was the only thing I made a point of watching over the 'festive' period (I say this as someone with a basic Freeview TV and nothing else) - I'm disappointed .

gettingtherequickly · 29/12/2016 03:12

Totally agree about zero chemistry with the wife and the murder was very dark.

Yoksha · 29/12/2016 11:34

I fell asleep. Yaaawnfest alert.

lottiegarbanzo · 29/12/2016 11:48

Another big plot problem was that I cannot believe no-one explained to child-Alison that her mother and sisters had died of an illness. I can't envisage a scenario in which their deaths were left completely unexplained.

Of course she might not have understood and may well have muddled up her memories of the house with their loss. But she'd have the basic information in mind, or accessible from her adoptive parents, that it was an illness.

The letter was clearly the SF explaining for the first time about any illness at all, not just the specifics. This was crucial to the plot - her belief something sinister had occurred and Belkin's intention to exploit that. But so silly really.

CoffeeWithMyOxygen · 29/12/2016 11:49

I'm so glad I'm not the only one completely thrown by the burning. I watched it with DH and that point we just looked at each other and said 'Er, did Jonathan just murder a dude..?" No way would the police have just let them leave after that. The rest of the episode was a bit silly but that just ruined it - Jonathan always used to have the moral high ground, now he's a killer too. Happy Christmas!

(Also not really buying that Allison has never had to have a blood test or something which would have shown up her rare genetic disorder. What a ridiculous thing to hide from someone)

Muppetslikecoco · 29/12/2016 11:53

Me and DP also questioned the murdering of the bloke by fire. It was done pretty coldly too. I know it was shown late but I really didn't expect that level of horror.

NoelHeadbands · 29/12/2016 11:57

We were the same about the burning

It was just odd... the scene was vaguely comedic, with the ankle grabbing, and JC yelling, and wife dancing around and then....WHOOMPF, burn him with fire and close him in just to be on the safe side

lottiegarbanzo · 29/12/2016 12:39

They could just have closed the lid on him couldn't they. Left him with the skeletons for the police to collect later. Doused with fuel and threatened with a match if needed for a moment's shock to allow Jonathan to get free.

I think we'd seen that he was utterly relentless and impulsive - stabbing the Jonathan scarecrow - and the 'fight' scene was meant to be more desperate, with Jonathan more clearly imperilled, so fire was the only way to keep him from killing J. It didn't look like that though.

Thing is, they could have closed the lid straight away and not given him the chance to grab J's ankle.

maybeshesawomble · 29/12/2016 14:01

Really odd...

Also thought the who burning random bloke thing was strange. I'm guessing they needed a 'real' old case to give the one about the poisoning some kind of credibility.

I didn't understand why the handyman wantee to revenge his SIL's murder.

lottiegarbanzo · 29/12/2016 14:45

I think he felt motivated to save the next wife, as well as avenging his SIL - perhaps he felt bad that he and his wife hadn't 'been there' for his SIL, as they were abroad (for his work / family perhaps?), so felt motivated by guilt to do the 'right thing' next time.

Given he couldn't be certain Stephen had murdered his SIL (he hadn't solved the case differently, had he), he was basically adopting a, quite possibly misguided, vigilante position - but doing so in a responsibly precautionary way with all the cameras.

The antimony thing was ridiculous wasn't it. Anyone with GCSE chemistry (e.g. me) would get the reference straight away - enough to check details about the element. But, Sb could just as well have been part of an effort to frame SB as an admission. I thought it might mean antimony was the poison used (don't know if it could be), as with the previous case with the shattered pocket watch.

Blondeshavemorefun · 29/12/2016 17:56

On planner so haven't rtft yet

But love Jc so hope good

Tho miss his sidekicks. Wifey isn't the same

PoisonousSmurf · 29/12/2016 17:57

Not many of the actors are speaking much? Is there a budget?

Celaena · 29/12/2016 20:21

hmmmm the murder by flames, we were WTF!??!

the wife seemed to actively dislike JC

and we got anti-money right away as well (neither of us big on chemisrty)

wish they would/could bring back CQ

Hassled · 29/12/2016 20:28

I quite enjoyed it but then I'm easily pleased. Aside from the killing the psycho stalker with fire bit, which seemed a tad much. And aside from the revelation that Jonathan gets things wrong - he got Glasses Man incorrectly acquitted of poisoning, and hardly seemed to care.
Warwick Davis is always good to watch, though. I liked the Phil Jupitus joke.

GraciesMansion · 29/12/2016 20:36

My chemist DH says antimony isn't water soluble and so the first wife might have noticed a metal marble in her water!

lottiegarbanzo · 29/12/2016 20:43

OK, so just a pun on his initials, not a clue to the poison used.

I did enjoy Warwick Davis and his lousy 'vicar jokes', thought he made a good vicar!

NotCitrus · 30/12/2016 01:04

I got the Sb reference at the start, but thought that was all part of the framing of SB. I thought Warwick Davis was going to be part of it.

Agree why did no-one tell Alison at least later or it get in newspapers her mum and sisters died if an illness, even if not before the sisters' deaths. Though many rare diseases don't show up in routine blood tests and aged early 20s she may never have needed any.

Also vodka needs to be diluted about 50% to freeze, so how many ice cubes did she chew?!

At least Polly got a bit if character and seemed more sympathetic to J by the end - the previous specials where she's been down on him, his magic, his windmill etc were unpleasant to watch even before terribly plots (lottery nos etc)

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