STRIKE 5 - TROUBLED BLOOD - bbc 1 9m sun and mon - TV PACE ONLY. NO SPOILERS

[Blondeshavemorefun]

Yah no 5 of the strike series starts on Sunday

BBC
Based on the 2020 novel, the second most recent in the Strike series, Troubled Blood sees Strike tackling his first ever cold case.

The official synopsis the season says: "Private detective Cormoran Strike is visiting his family in Cornwall when he’s approached by a woman asking for help finding her mother, Margot Bamborough, who went missing under mysterious circumstances in 1974.

"Strike’s never tackled a cold case before let alone one 40 years old, but despite the slim chance of success, he’s intrigued and takes it on, adding to the long list of cases that he and his partner in the agency Robin Ellacott are currently working on. Robin herself is also juggling a messy divorce and unwanted male attention as well as battling her own feelings about Strike.

"As Strike and Robin investigate Margot’s disappearance, they come up against a fiendishly complex case with a psychopathic serial killer and witnesses who cannot all be trusted. They learn that even cases decades old can prove to be deadly

I agree.
We the viewers could handle 6 episodes, no problem.

The subplots are what gel everything together in my opinion. I can't say I'm sorry that Charlotte doesn't feature much because she annoys me a lot. I'd love them to make a much longer series. 24 episodes like the Americans do or at least 8. It needs that to do it justice. Still, enjoyable though and it was a lovely early Christmas present to have Strike in my life🥰

If I hadn't read the book I'd have found the final reveal completely out of no where!

I don't think the tv shows captures the books which are mostly character studies than murder mysteries to me.

I did like aunt /uncle scenes, welling up at both the flood bit and the final bit with his uncle.

Oh wow. I got a little confused and even recap s5 e4 didn’t help me much explain why she killed all those people

bur glad they found Margot in concrete. Not sure how knee was in the ottoman

Because of the neighbour below who complained about his ceiling?

I enjoyed it but I agree that it could have done with more episodes, it felt a bit rushed and the twist seem to come out of nowhere.

The flood scene didn't make much sense to me. Maybe because I haven't read the book?

I love Strike and love the TV series but just didn’t get the murderer here at all and felt that she was an inconsequential character. I had to remind myself where she fitted in. So she wasn’t having an affair and was just a bit bored in her marriage? I also found Margot a bit confusing - she worked as a bunny girl but then became this doctor, married well and had a big house? It was all a bit odd and jarring.

It was all about strike and Lucy getting to Cornwall in time to see Joan.

Interestingly Anna Calder-Marshall, who played Janice, is Tom Burke's real life mum.

I thoroughly enjoyed it, although I agree it could have stretched to 6 episodes as there was so much detail in the book. I love the chemistry between Strike and Robin and am hoping this builds in the next book.

I think it helps massively to read the books first. Although I read the first 3 strike books after watching the series. The books are great but initially took me a while to get in to but having watched the series helped. The latest, The Ink Black Heart took me chapters and chapters to get into because of all the chat room transcripts and possibly due to my own poor concentration due to covid at the time. I really don't see how they can do justice to TIBH in 4 one hour episodes. It's convoluted and so detailed.

I really hope she does write more Strike books. Controversially I hope that Strike and Robin don't get together. The tension is delicious and a romance or even just a sexual relationship, brief or otherwise would change the whole atmosphere too much. The anticipation is everything and anything beyond a kiss that is swept under the carpet would be disastrous in my opinion. They are better as friends and business partners. They are great together like that.

which is the best book to start with?

The Cuckoo’s Calling, where Robin & Strike first meet.

thank you @EmpressaurusOfWitchesBackFromTheDead

The books are so, so much better. Enjoy them!

Watching episode 3 I was suprised to discover there was only one episode left.

I've read the book enjoyed it to a reasonable level but felt it needed editing down. Sometimes wonder if JK Rowling purposely tried to make the next one longer. (I've not read the new book, just too put off my the length.)

Would have like a bit more time on Louise. Even just confirming it was her. It was just such a sad part of the book. Her poor dad.

yes neither i nor dh were that keen on the first Strike we saw, but we are watching the current one and only on reading about it here, i realise that so many of you have enjoyed the books.
i have bought him the book, and of course could read it myself

I think I have an issue with the muddle of genre that is these programmes. I know detective series often have a subplot about troubled personal lives but generally, on the telly, the murder mystery should take the front seat. And it didn't for large chunks of what was a short run. I found it really dull and the mystery plot cliched, stereotyped and actually in places ageist and rather misogynistic re the two older farting women (I am sure it was thought a great twist that the murderer was not male but it's still a 'woman as victims' plot) I didn't find the disability plot sensitively handled. It all felt Midsomer Murders to me with added sexual tension and personal backplots.

Disclaimer - don't rate the books either and find JKR a dreadful adult writer so didn't read beyond the first two. Kate Atkinson did this kind of thing soooo much better with Jackson Brodie, and it made better TV too.

I haven’t watched the 4th episode yet but I found the book too long and convoluted, it was my least favourite to date for that reason and I have really struggled with TIBH because of all the online transcript content, I find it hard to physically follow on the page and have only read about a third of it having started in September, I keep putting it down. This hasn’t convinced me to go back and watch the previous Strike series although I loved the earlier books.

I miss the subplots and agree they make an important part of the books but can also see why they can't all fit into four episodes.

24 episodes is much too long - US series of these length tend to be the very formulaic type and whilst I enjoyed an episode of Bones as much as anyone its a different offering.

6 episodes could well do it and would have been better - the final resolution did come a bit out of nowhere compared to the book. Possibly 8 episodes but it would put up the overall costs of the production substantially.

If you don't like the books you are unlikely to enjoy the dramatisation. There was one fart in the entire book from someone with digestive issues (who was in fact being poisoned - it was a pointer to the health condition).

Much of it was looking back describing misogynistic behaviours in an era when misogyny was socially acceptable and up front even in the middle classes as opposed to being continued behind coded language.

Have you actually read the book?

No, as I said I read two and found them bland and predictable.

I was really criticising the programme, not the book. Why so many farts in the programme then? I really switched off during that scene and found it seaside postcard. Which means I totally missed the point and barely knew who those women were. Just stereotyped elderly meddling ladies is how they seemed. I found it all a proper curate's egg.

I don't think you need to have read books to watch adaptations . It's a different viewing experience. If anything, not having read the book makes one a more objective viewer.

The misogyny I am noting was in the presentation of older, working class women.

Unsatisfying viewing for me. The stories were choppy and I couldn’t get into any of them. I also thought Kenneth Cranham as Creed wasn’t really trying to be at all chilling.

I fast-forwarded the conversation with Janice & Irene after the first fart, because it became obvious it was just going to be annoying.

I thought the denouement came out of nowhere. It seemed very rushed. I felt I must have missed a bit.
The last scene was lovely.