After seeing "The Night of the Stag", I expected to watch something much better. "A Sacred Trust" is easily the best episode of the 14th season. It's not great, but it is a pretty good episode indeed.
Let's start with the good aspects, shall we?
. The production values of the episode are great as usual. The music fits the scenery and the direction's solid. The acting is quite good all around. The chemistry between John Barnaby and Ben Jones has gotten much better over the season - Neil Dudgeon looks invested and Jason Hughes is wonderful. Out of the good guest stars Joanna David stands out the most.
. The mystery is mostly very compelling with surprising twists and turns, the characters are colorful and there is some suitable wry humor here and there.
But...
. The story is, agreed, let down by a rather stupid and hard to believe solution in which Matthew Hendred turns out to be the killer. Also there are some red herrings in this story that could have been built something more of merrit.
Overall, still a very good episode.
8/10 HK.
Let's start with the good aspects, shall we?
. The production values of the episode are great as usual. The music fits the scenery and the direction's solid. The acting is quite good all around. The chemistry between John Barnaby and Ben Jones has gotten much better over the season - Neil Dudgeon looks invested and Jason Hughes is wonderful. Out of the good guest stars Joanna David stands out the most.
. The mystery is mostly very compelling with surprising twists and turns, the characters are colorful and there is some suitable wry humor here and there.
But...
. The story is, agreed, let down by a rather stupid and hard to believe solution in which Matthew Hendred turns out to be the killer. Also there are some red herrings in this story that could have been built something more of merrit.
Overall, still a very good episode.
8/10 HK.