Lewis

[bakedpotato]

'twas cack last night, was it not?
So much to cringe about:
The clunky dialogue (according to the credits, Alan Plater wrote it )
Rebecca Front can't act
Ridiculous Geordie hacker character (what's the betting they asked Jimmy Nail first)
Those 80s-style Sloaney studes with their champagne/punting
Who on earth would like to stay in that malmaison? It looked hideous.
I liked the pilot and 1st episode, but oh dear, this was dreadful.

Blonde husband killed his wife becuase she had with ex husband had engineered wife swap in Madagascar because dead lady had chopped off her baby brother's hands when she was 9 years old (she wanted to help him stop scratching his face and so ex hiusband couldn't stand being married to her anymore.
Blonde husband not upset re hand chopping but more becasue the wife swap thing was not his decision but his business partners idea and he had been an innocent pawn.So strangled her

REading that, I don't reckon that sheds anymore light on it at all.

Guffaw at Darrell's summary.
What I didn't get was, if James wilby's business partner was scared off Rachel bcs she was a child murderer, why then did he leave his children with her?
Eh? Eh?

OMG that's horrible - I have a helpful toddler and a tiny ds so I can't bear to think about the hand chopping thing

Many thanks for summary, though All makes perfect sense.

Was dying don plot intertwined or merely parallel?

I only watched the last hour (tuned in just as the hand chopping incident was being explained) but unfortunately, I keep seeing Harry Hill moments in it.

Not sure Lewis would have gone for that woman. I think Laurence Fox is quite wooden (well in this at any rate). Don't like the female police boss (all a bit odd) and can't understand why every murder in the Oxford region has to be based around the university.

But other than that, it was watchable.

I thought that too, I 'd rather be married to the nutter and have my children with me where I could keep an eye on them.
There would have been no story as well if eejit boy next door had told the truth about the husband coming home at lunch time. Why didn't he tell truth?Did husband manipulate that in anyway that i missed?

I tell you , if i was next door neighbour, my first priority wouldn't have been trying to cop off with Lewis (well proabably with Hathaway) but to keep my head down, and make sure I didn't get arrested of killed.
People do the oddest things on TV dramas in times of stress

the dying don had been a govt adviser when Alison Bright (Rachel)'s case had been considered
So he knew her
And so did the man who had been sent down, he knew she liked to go and look at the shrunken heads in the museum
oh lord it's ridiculous when you write it down

quite right darrell, without eejit boy's eejit behaviour we would not have had an episode

i liked lewis and the lady neighbour: OK, unlikely, but you could feel her desperation

lol

what did the trolley bloke in the supermarket have to do with it all (that sidekick went to speak to about shrunken heads)?

AHH, he was chap who dying don had ruined his life when he was a Oxford, because the don had kissed him, and then sent him down as he couldn't face having him around and so RUINED his life so much that he enede up in sainsbury's car park for the rest of his life.
Don wanted Lewis to find this chap so he could seek forgiveness and so die at peace, and in return he would spill the beans on the hand chopper offer/Rachel /Alison Bright.
Who also seemed to know chap in car park, maybe from going to do supermarket shop too much and perhaps chatting about the lack of parent and toddler parking spaces.

lol

yes, after all, it's only a tiny leap between getting outraged about parking and talking about chopping your sibling's hands off and feeling like a model of a shrunken head

thanks for explaining

No, she knew Trolley Man because she had been to see old don (without discussing her identity and his role in her case) and he had also asked her to try and trace him

fox, it's a slippery slope
thanks Marina, that makes more sense

aah

(marina, hope you don't mind but I had to quote you on the Raven thread!)

I'm all for British produced/made stuff - quite pleased that ITV have given it a go. It was definitely watchable - thought this last one (though I didn't see it all) was better than the others (though still think the pilot was the best so far).

I felt really, really uncomfortable with the Alison Bright plotline last night. but agree it was hugely better than having to listen to Owen Teale's grindingly laboured Geordie accent last week.
Thought the first in the series owed a large, unacknowledged debt to The Secret History.
Bring back Michael Kitchen and Honeysuckle Weeks now! Please!

Marina, you're so right about the Secret History, I'd thought of that too

It was ok, as murder mysteries go, but all the way through I kept thinking how clumsy and laboured it all was, unlike Colin Dexter's brilliant, clever stories. I'd rather watch old Morse episodes, or, failing that, lovely Midsomer Murders, where murder is jolly horrid but a nice cup of tea and a chat about the village fete and it's soon forgotten.

Or even Rosemary and Thyme, where someone on the production team must be trying to get into a florist's pants as there are always ridiculously OTT arrangements crammed into every possible shot (boy I'd LOVE that contract, I could retire!).

I'm starting to get quite cross about these programmes: loads of them but the quality is shte. Once upon a time, crime writers and drama makers gave you a sporting chance of working it out. For instance, I'd discounted husband because the 2-dimensional receptionist (who had no* other screen time) claimed he'd been at work all the time: then at the end suddenly announces she's in love with him and lied and doesn't care if he's a murderer (WTF?)?

And as for all that stuff about social services people being employed to follow released murderers to 'keep an eye on them'...what, the same person, for 20 years? for what point exactly? Hardly be able to stop them doing anything.

I quite enjoyed the first half, I thought it was set up to be a good mystery, but the second half/resolution was just ludicrous. And as for the characteristics of Lewis/Hathaway, they just seem to have chopped up the characteristics of Morse/Lewis and distributed them between L & H. Lewis has a completely different personality to the one he had before, he just turned into Morse without the erudition (hence Hathaway).

I assumed it was the neighbour what-did-it on the grounds that there was romantic interest for Lewis and everytime Morse had romantic interest they always turned out to be victim, accomplice or murderer.

There I feel better now I've had a rant about the state of British crime drama! [smile}

Oh my, I do go on a bit, don't I?

Is there romantic interest for Lewis every episode in this series, like there was for Morse by the end?

Loved Morse (books, programmes, John Thaw, "Lewww-is!", Kevin Whately) and am warming to this Lewis.
Kevin Whately great - think he doesn't take it or himself seriously.
Am hotting (not merely warming) to sidekick - 1st episode thought he was a prat but I think they work well together and phew... that voice

But who writes the stories? Why is their boss so shrieky and unbelievable? Last night's started all right but I agree, the other man couldn't stand being with hand-chopper (and that's grim) but left his children with her??

Yes, it's soft-tinted Oxford but I'm an expat so I don't mind that at all. Would love that house belonging to the wheelchair guy in the Second Born Sons episode.

But last night was the last? Did I miss any?

I'll join the Morse Appreciation Society any day.

You'd never guess that Laurence Fox is James Fox's son would you?