Having recently been, and just finished being, on a roll reviewing all the episodes of 'Lewis', which generally was very enjoyable before having some disappointments later on, it occurred to me to do the same for 'Inspector Morse's' (one of my favourites for over a decade, and all the episodes were also reviewed in my first year on IMDb eight years ago) prequel series 'Endeavour'.
As said in my review for the entire show two years ago, 'Endeavour' is not just a more than worthy prequel series to one of my favourite detective dramas of all time and goes very well with it, but it is a great series on its own as well. It maintains everything that makes 'Inspector Morse' so good, while also containing enough to make it its own, and in my mind 'Inspector Morse', 'Lewis' and 'Endeavour' go perfectly well together.
Was very impressed by the pilot episode, even with a very understandable slight finding-its-feet feel (that is true of a lot of shows, exceptions like 'Morse' itself, 'A Touch of Frost' and 'Midsomer Murders', which started off great and were remarkably well established, are fairly few. The first episode of the first season "Girl" was a very welcome return, a fine episode in its own right and was even better. Morse's personality is more established with more obvious recognisable personality quirks and generally things feel more settled. Things are even better in one of the show's best episodes "Fugue", which rivals the best of 'Inspector Morse' in my opinion.
"Fugue" once again looks great. It is exquisitely photographed and there is something very nostalgic and charming about the atmospherically evoked 1960s period detail. It was also a genius move to keep Barrington Pheloung on board, with his hauntingly beautiful scoring and immortal 'Inspector Morse' theme, and the use of operatic excerpts are some of the best of the whole show, beautiful and frightfully ominous as well as ingeniously clever.
Writing, even for so early on, is every bit as intelligent, entertaining and tense as the previous episodes and as the best of 'Morse'. The story has tension (one of the most tension-and-suspense episodes to the point of being creeped out), a good deal going on and little feels improbable or too obvious while being suitably complicated. Morse and Thursday's father/son relationship, while even stronger later being more entertaining and heartfelt, has a lot of warmth, is so well written within the story and is a large part of the series' appeal and there is some good suspense. How great to see a younger Max and Strange well before he became superintendent.
The pacing is restrained, but that allows the atmosphere to come through, and pretty much all the same it excels in that aspect. The characters are interesting and the murders are some of the show's cleverest and creepiest.
Shaun Evans again does some powerful, charismatic work as younger Morse, showing enough loyalty to John Thaw's iconic Morse while making the character his own too. Roger Allam is also superb, his rapport with Evans always compels and entertains but Thursday is quite a sympathetic character, as well as loyal and firm, and Allam does a lot special with a role that could have been less interesting possibly in lesser hands. All the acting is very good from the likes of Sean Rigby, Anton Lesser, James Bradshaw and Abigail Thaw.
Overall, one of my favourite episodes of 'Endeavour'. 10/10 Bethany Cox
As said in my review for the entire show two years ago, 'Endeavour' is not just a more than worthy prequel series to one of my favourite detective dramas of all time and goes very well with it, but it is a great series on its own as well. It maintains everything that makes 'Inspector Morse' so good, while also containing enough to make it its own, and in my mind 'Inspector Morse', 'Lewis' and 'Endeavour' go perfectly well together.
Was very impressed by the pilot episode, even with a very understandable slight finding-its-feet feel (that is true of a lot of shows, exceptions like 'Morse' itself, 'A Touch of Frost' and 'Midsomer Murders', which started off great and were remarkably well established, are fairly few. The first episode of the first season "Girl" was a very welcome return, a fine episode in its own right and was even better. Morse's personality is more established with more obvious recognisable personality quirks and generally things feel more settled. Things are even better in one of the show's best episodes "Fugue", which rivals the best of 'Inspector Morse' in my opinion.
"Fugue" once again looks great. It is exquisitely photographed and there is something very nostalgic and charming about the atmospherically evoked 1960s period detail. It was also a genius move to keep Barrington Pheloung on board, with his hauntingly beautiful scoring and immortal 'Inspector Morse' theme, and the use of operatic excerpts are some of the best of the whole show, beautiful and frightfully ominous as well as ingeniously clever.
Writing, even for so early on, is every bit as intelligent, entertaining and tense as the previous episodes and as the best of 'Morse'. The story has tension (one of the most tension-and-suspense episodes to the point of being creeped out), a good deal going on and little feels improbable or too obvious while being suitably complicated. Morse and Thursday's father/son relationship, while even stronger later being more entertaining and heartfelt, has a lot of warmth, is so well written within the story and is a large part of the series' appeal and there is some good suspense. How great to see a younger Max and Strange well before he became superintendent.
The pacing is restrained, but that allows the atmosphere to come through, and pretty much all the same it excels in that aspect. The characters are interesting and the murders are some of the show's cleverest and creepiest.
Shaun Evans again does some powerful, charismatic work as younger Morse, showing enough loyalty to John Thaw's iconic Morse while making the character his own too. Roger Allam is also superb, his rapport with Evans always compels and entertains but Thursday is quite a sympathetic character, as well as loyal and firm, and Allam does a lot special with a role that could have been less interesting possibly in lesser hands. All the acting is very good from the likes of Sean Rigby, Anton Lesser, James Bradshaw and Abigail Thaw.
Overall, one of my favourite episodes of 'Endeavour'. 10/10 Bethany Cox
