Following the death of Inspector Morse in 2002 much has changed in the life of young Sergeant Lewis. He has been promoted to inspector but since the death of his wife in 2002 he has been on a two year sabbatical in the Virgin Isles. On his return to Britain he is collected at the airport by Detective Sergeant Hathaway in order to take him straight to see his new boss, Chief Superintendent Jean Innocent. On the way though Hathaway gets called to a murder of American student Regan at the Oxford Sleep Institute with all clues pointing to the wild heir to a car manufacturing company, Danny Griffon. Lewis isn't sure though and is also intrigued by the fact that Morse had once looked into Danny's only other crime (cutting his Uncle's break cables) despite it being a fairly simple crime.
Spin-offs from character-driven detective series tend to worry me a little bit; nobody remembers the Mrs Columbo series and the Perry Mason series gave up trying to keep it going after Raymond Burr's death. So with Lewis I wasn't hoping for much but was nicely surprised by it in terms of it being a nice little television mystery. I was never really a Morse fan but I was familiar with the approach and the characters. The film starts with some lazy writing to produce more of a Morse character in Lewis; so his kids have left the nest, his wife is dead and he has become a little bit cynical and weary. Meanwhile we have the bright young Hathaway rolled out as Lewis' replacement. It isn't the most impressive way to start things out but it is easy to see why the writers wanted to stop things being too different for Morse fans.
Once the story itself starts though I put it out of my mind about the Morse connections (although the writers further show their insecurity by wheeling in the "ghost" of Morse here and there). The plot is well developed and, although not brilliant, was certainly good enough to work as a Sunday night TV drama. It is developed well across the two hours and I easily got into it even if events get a bit extreme after a while. I can't comment on how it compares to Morse simply because I didn't watch enough of it but I enjoyed it as an one-off drama. Whately does pretty well in the title role and has enough character about him to make this type of role work. I'm not sure I can see him becoming a great regular as a leading man but he is still good. Fox looks a bit bored by it all but he is still reasonably good and he provides the sidekick contrast nicely (although he isn't helped by the script planning seeds in this film for a possible series later on). Front is obvious and boring but the rest of the cast are reasonable enough, making one-off appearances in this special and making the most of it.
Overall this is an enjoyable enough television detective film that will please fans of the UK genre. I'm not sure how it stacks up to the legacy of Morse but it did seem that the writers had done all they could to connect this film to that original series even changing Lewis as a person to be something more familiar as a leading character. Nothing special and I'm not sure if it deserves a series (although worse things are given airtime by ITV) but if you like Morse and similar types of detective things then you'll probably enjoy Lewis.
Spin-offs from character-driven detective series tend to worry me a little bit; nobody remembers the Mrs Columbo series and the Perry Mason series gave up trying to keep it going after Raymond Burr's death. So with Lewis I wasn't hoping for much but was nicely surprised by it in terms of it being a nice little television mystery. I was never really a Morse fan but I was familiar with the approach and the characters. The film starts with some lazy writing to produce more of a Morse character in Lewis; so his kids have left the nest, his wife is dead and he has become a little bit cynical and weary. Meanwhile we have the bright young Hathaway rolled out as Lewis' replacement. It isn't the most impressive way to start things out but it is easy to see why the writers wanted to stop things being too different for Morse fans.
Once the story itself starts though I put it out of my mind about the Morse connections (although the writers further show their insecurity by wheeling in the "ghost" of Morse here and there). The plot is well developed and, although not brilliant, was certainly good enough to work as a Sunday night TV drama. It is developed well across the two hours and I easily got into it even if events get a bit extreme after a while. I can't comment on how it compares to Morse simply because I didn't watch enough of it but I enjoyed it as an one-off drama. Whately does pretty well in the title role and has enough character about him to make this type of role work. I'm not sure I can see him becoming a great regular as a leading man but he is still good. Fox looks a bit bored by it all but he is still reasonably good and he provides the sidekick contrast nicely (although he isn't helped by the script planning seeds in this film for a possible series later on). Front is obvious and boring but the rest of the cast are reasonable enough, making one-off appearances in this special and making the most of it.
Overall this is an enjoyable enough television detective film that will please fans of the UK genre. I'm not sure how it stacks up to the legacy of Morse but it did seem that the writers had done all they could to connect this film to that original series even changing Lewis as a person to be something more familiar as a leading character. Nothing special and I'm not sure if it deserves a series (although worse things are given airtime by ITV) but if you like Morse and similar types of detective things then you'll probably enjoy Lewis.