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*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Midsomer Murders: Painted in Blood starts like any other for Joyce Barnaby (Jane Wymark) who travels to the small English village of Midsomer Florey where she is going to try her hand at oil painting in an amateur group, but her day takes a sinister turn when she meets the very rude Ruth Fairfax (Anna Northam) there who within a few hours just before lunch is found dead having been stabbed in the back. Joyce's husband DCI Tom Barnaby (John Nettles) & Sgt. Gavin Troy (Daniel Casey) are on the case, however it's not long before Barnaby has the rug pulled from under him & the national intelligence service have took over & have Troy working for them while he is left to investigate a spate of bag snatching's, what Barnaby doesn't know yet are the two cases are linked...Episode 3 from season 6 this Midsomer Murders mystery was directed by Sarah Hellings & I must admit I didn't think this one was quite as good as usual. The script by Andrew Payne isn't typical for this show, I felt it was both rather predictable & ignored the murder side of things far too much & ended up concentrating on some stolen money which frankly was dull. It's all pretty complex & intricate as usual with plenty of red herrings along with lots of potential suspects & motives over it's near two hour duration but the murder aspect of things takes a backseat as Barnaby has his nose put out of joint by a rival police division & the mystery surrounding 5 million pounds of stolen taking center stage, I like a good murder mystery & this one didn't really do it for me I'm afraid. It's something a bit different from the usual format but quite frankly why fix it if it ain't broke? Having said that it's still a decent enough mystery drama that entertains but it's nothing special.As usual there's plenty of the English countryside on show here, it's well made with high production values as it's one of ITV's flagship show's so they probably give it a decent budget. The acting is pretty good here & Leslie Phillips has a small cameo.Painted in Blood is one of the weaker Midsomer Murders in my humble yet experienced opinion, it just didn't feel like a Midsomer murder if you know what I mean. It's still a watchable episode from a generally excellent series but there are better mysteries out there.
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