The 13th season of "Midsomer Murders" is the last season with John Nettles and sadly not one of the better seasons. It's not awful, just a mixed bag. "The Sword of Guillame" starts the season of on a fine note, which is still quite impressive (when one starts to think about the 13th season of "Midsomer Murders".)
Let´ s start with the good aspects, shall we?
. The production values of this episode are great as usual. The episode is well-directed and the music's solid. John Nettles and Jason Hughes are wonderful in the leads, but the guest stars are also strong. Neil Gudgeon does well in his debut as John Barnaby, he is quite charming. Tim McInnery, Janet Suzman and Brian Capron are pretty good too, but Mark Gatiss and especially Lucy Cohu are fantastic in their roles. Wish we would have seen more of her...
. The story has good amount of wry humor, gory deaths, twists and turns in it. For the most part the narrative is enjoyable.
But....
. The mystery does take a while untill it gets started, making the episode drag quite badly at times. The solution (Marcia being the killer) was not surprising and the motive for the murders felt lacklustre at best. Also, agreed, the subplot about the mayor was not as interesting as it could have been.
Overall, a decent episode.
6/10 HK.
Let´ s start with the good aspects, shall we?
. The production values of this episode are great as usual. The episode is well-directed and the music's solid. John Nettles and Jason Hughes are wonderful in the leads, but the guest stars are also strong. Neil Gudgeon does well in his debut as John Barnaby, he is quite charming. Tim McInnery, Janet Suzman and Brian Capron are pretty good too, but Mark Gatiss and especially Lucy Cohu are fantastic in their roles. Wish we would have seen more of her...
. The story has good amount of wry humor, gory deaths, twists and turns in it. For the most part the narrative is enjoyable.
But....
. The mystery does take a while untill it gets started, making the episode drag quite badly at times. The solution (Marcia being the killer) was not surprising and the motive for the murders felt lacklustre at best. Also, agreed, the subplot about the mayor was not as interesting as it could have been.
Overall, a decent episode.
6/10 HK.