Jonathan Creek (TV Series) The Letters of Septimus Noone (2014) User Reviews

why bring this back if you're going to do this to it

[blanche-2 · 6/10 · 25 June 2017]

I am a huge fan of the original Jonathan Creek episodes with Caroline Quentin. In my opinion, the series remained fun though less so after she left.

Now it's really on the down-low. I did like part of the story - but I will say up front the Septimus No one part of the script was ridiculous.

This mystery takes place in a theater, after a performance of The Mystery of the Yellow Room, based on a 19th-century story by Gaston Leroux of "Phantom" fame. It's a big hit, and the music sounds like Andrew Lloyd Webber, from what viewer hears. Bad Andrew Lloyd Webber, but Andrew Lloyd Webber.

One night, its leading lady, Juno Pirelli, is found stabbed inside her locked dressing room. There is no weapon, and no one entered the room. She doesn't die, but as she recovers, everyone tries to figure out what happened. It falls to Jonathan to come up with an explanation.

This plot is juxtaposed with one involving Jonathan's father-in-law, who passes away, and some letters found underneath a floorboard.

The locked room mystery is clever but the overall feeling I had was one of being let down. Davies is more mature now but with that maturity, his performance as Jonathan lacks something - like he doesn't quite know what he's supposed to be doing. His wife adds nothing. The show lacks the energy of previous episodes.

I'm going to persevere and watch as many as I can get my hands on. I still love Jonathan Creek but he's not the man he used to be.

I'll stick up for it, I liked it.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 7/10 · 12 February 2021]

I quite enjoy this episode, I can see from other reviewers that it isn't popular, and I can understand why, but I liked it, it is certainly different, they changed the format, and made this one a little different.

Here we get to see the crime first, which is unique, and we get to see Jonathan put the pieces together and solve it, not such a mystery, more a howdunnit.

Juno Pirelli is a cracking character, she's one you feel incredibly sorry for, she's talented, she's very likeable.

Sharon is absurd, as are her children, the Sherlock references are very funny, and doesn't he look like a young David Tennant?

The ending comes as a shock.

Better than you think. 7/10.

Slightly Different initially off-putting

[Spicetest67 · 7/10 · 2 July 2020]

As with others, on first viewing it strikes the seasoned JC viewer as odd that the solution is shown openly from the outset, leaving little to reveal. This seems to have been done to lampoon the younger sleuth, Ridley and pillory his theories. No doubt that this is the writer's indulgence and aimed at contemporary Sherlock episodes that do include similarly ambitious theories of deduction. On my own initial viewing I did feel a little short-changed but have since changed my mind with subsequent watching. There is a great deal included in this episode. Polly's family situation, her self-indulgent friend and quite disturbing daughter and some dark humour with mobile phone confusion. There is a new bonding and regrouping of Polly and Jonathan's lives, also the mystery of the disappearing ashes and the various 'nothing' clues. Easily drawn and mysteries simply explained, including the mystery of the 'Sawjoy' painting - another clever 'Sherlock' clue again. Such inclusions seem to go unnoticed at times, these require a strong writer's imagination and great application in writing.

Like Ridley, too many are quick to pour scorn and think maybe at times we know better. I don't think we do. A broader understanding of magic and education is explored by the writer himself as Adam Claus and Jonathan's tricks are seen through with more enlightened and educated audiences. Suddenly we hear criticism that the writing is grossly unlikely. Really? To me, JC plot-lines have been incredulous from the outset. Plausibly drawing them together is a large part of the charm and skill of the writer. Perhaps we should be a little less critical and just sit back and enjoy them for what they are while we are lucky enough to get them.

And people that don't agree? Well, what do they know? The square-root of Llareggub is about all by my reckoning.

This is NOT the Jonathan Creek I know

[mmath04 · 1/10 · 28 February 2014]

I was extremely eager to watch this as I have been a huge Jonathan Creek fan for the longest time. The first couple of seasons were brilliant in creating and solidifying the character that is Jonathan Creek. They served to tell a tale thoughtfully, intricately and in a way that left you eager to tune in next week for more.

Sadly, this is nothing like the previous episodes. It isn't even a shade. Whereas in every Jonathan Creek episode to date, the resolve has been at the end of the episode, the murderer and crime is given away within the first twenty minutes here. I sat there wondering what arcing storyline would emerge that would lead to the 'real mystery' but there wasn't one. There was no tension. There was no mystery. What the hell is this - Columbo?

This whole episode is one big mess of poorly written, badly cobbled together mini- plots which come together in the worst manner imaginable. There is next to no character development throughout which makes the final few scenes almost painfully hard to watch as we have to emotional attachment to the people who are being described.

The chemistry between Davies and Quentin (or later Sawalha and Smith) is non existent. I understand that Jonathan has grown older and matured and his life is supposed to reflect these changes but Jonathan's wife is a bland, boring character who brings nothing to the plate and pretty much just serves to pad the script to the 60 minute mark.

It's just sad that this series has been brought back to such poor standards. Jonathan Creek was expertly written and put together for the most part, this is the work of a group of people who either have never watched the series or people who are simply writing to a contractual obligation i.e. WATER IT DOWN.

And that's what this is in a nutshell. A watered down, easily digestible version of the real thing. Extremely disappointed.

Dreadful

[anthonywelsh-25868 · 1/10 · 6 August 2020]

Jonathan Creek was one of my favourite programmes, certainly for the first three series.However, if I had been unfortunate enough to have seen this particular episode first, I would very likely never have watched another. It was, quite simply, dreadful. Annoying characters, a quite incomprehensible storyline with bits hanging off it like debris trailing from an itinerant's cart, and no chemistry whatever between Jonathan and his *wife*.I won't even bother to try to explain the *mystery* as if you bother to watch it, you'll be able to solve it in about 2 minutes flat. I've given it one star, which I think is generous. Take my advice - watch the early series and be grateful for the banter between Alan Davies and Caroline Quentin. Give this one a very, very wide berth.

We are shown what happened but it was still rather fun

[Tweekums · 8/10 · 28 February 2014]

This, the opening episode of the fifth series sees a few changes; the most notable being that the 'impossible crime' is explained to the viewer as it happens rather than being revealed at the end. The case involves an actress with an abdominal stab wound who was found lying on the floor of her locked dressing room moments after she was seen apparently uninjured! Johnathon is asked to investigate and is pressured to take the son of a family friend, Ridley, who sees himself as a latter day Sherlock Holmes… providing some good laughs with his outrageous theories. That isn't the only mystery to be solves; Jonathon's wife finds a box full of her late mother's love letters and must find out who she was having an affair with and another woman believes supernatural forces are involved in the disappearance of some spilt ashes.

Given that the story was only an hour long I was rather surprised that the main mystery wasn't introduced until around twenty minutes in and I was even more surprised that we were shown how it was done… This change of format didn't spoil the story though as knowing what happened made Ridley's preposterous theories even funnier. There were plenty of other laughs to be had too if you have a slightly twisted sense of humour; notably the way Jonathon's wife learns of her father's death and the funeral director's attempt to make the body look 'happier'! As one would expect it was all rather silly but for me that was part of the charm. The cast do a decent job without taking things too seriously and the numerous secondary mysteries give the audience plenty of things to speculate about. Overall a fun episode even if at only an hour in length it felt a little short.

Down the creek...

[velijn · 3/10 · 2 April 2014]

If you've never seen a Jonathan Creek episode before you're left with a competent but not really exciting mystery that would have suited "Midsummer Murder" better than the original series.

If you're in for another pleasant meeting with Jonathan Creek you're in for a less pleasant experience. The originals series were a heady mix of outrageous crimes and a brilliant magician's solutions. Never mind the improbabilities, it was pure fun, something the present (2014) series utterly lacks. This series have no real mysteries, and certainly no magic.

Series 5 are three episodes on a single disk, also a sign on the wall; The Letters of Septimus No one, The Sinner and the Sandman, and The Curse of the Bronze Lamp.

Not quite the bottom of the barrel

[boxyfella · 4/10 · 1 April 2022]

Oh dear. Where to start? Firstly, I applaud them for trying something different, but it didn't come off. I understand a lot of the humour was supposed to come from the hapless Sherlock Holmes character coming up with his outlandish theories, (and yes, he does look remarkably like a young David Tennant), but as Jonathan never got to publicly debunk his theory, what was the point?

Much of the pleasure of watching Jonathan Creek was in trying to figure out how something might have happened, all of that fun was taken away when we were shown the sequence of events unfold at the beginning.

The subplot of the disappearing ashes went nowhere - a waste of Paula Wilcox's talent. Even worse was the other subplot about the love letters, there was no actual mystery for Jonathan to solve.

This is not the JC I know and love, they have neutered him by making him more mature and teaming him up with a woman who brings absolutely nothing to the show. I've seen rocks with more life in them. Maddie, Carla and Joey all had an energy about them which is sadly lacking in Polly. Are we really supposed to believe he was attracted to her? There's absolutely no chemistry between them.

I'm half wishing they hadn't bothered to bring it back, as this diminishes my memories of a once great show. Even worse was to follow.

Pretty awful by the standard expected

[larry-485-161583 · 4/10 · 8 March 2014]

Well this modern episode is pretty dreadful and I hasten to add that I'm a huge JC fan. I came very close to turning it off after thirty minutes but stuck with it for the whole tedious hour. Come on David, you can do better than this. There was no attempt to grip the audience in the first few minutes. The very thin story line wandered from place to place and included a totally unnecessary sex scene and a horrible young girl who delighted in vandalism. The format departed from the norm and was all the poorer for it, depicting a locked room attack,,,,,,that never took place. All in all a terrible episode of what has been an incredible series for many years. Even the delightful Paula Wilcox couldn't save this one. If you're a fan and missed this one, you missed absolutely nothing.

Jonathan Creek failing to be Jane Marple

[me_t · 3/10 · 2 September 2018]

I get it - experimantal storytelling and all that, but the plot is in shambles, it is fragmented and lacks a pivotal point. It lacks personality - I see Creek changed, but I don't see what he's changed into. It's like lacking character-viewer intimacy. We used to see his professional and personal interactions, which got us a little into his head, but now his sidekick-wife is like not even there. We used to have intricate plots, like a murder hidden by a suicide, hidden by another murder - that is to say, I don't need murder episodes per say, I just need a twist and some good storytelling. The whole episode goes out of its way to mock the goofy Sherlock lookalike, and not solve the case in its entirety (it is probably about the original series beating the Sherlock series of its time, but do we really need such insights). Please, make a reboot and show me some criminal magic.

Polly Creek was a stupid addition!

[kmmilitano · 1/10 · 11 November 2021]

The addition of a wife for Jonathan Creek was a horrible idea. She is a jerk, who can't stand her husbands former job. She wants to put "that life behind US". She's all about her career and her friends who are jerks too. She treats him like a little boy that needs to grow up and she doesn't take him seriously. In this episode he gets in trouble with her for "helping" and gets cracks for it.

Shocking!

[boerelul-261-104555 · 1/10 · 28 February 2014]

Apart from the numerous clichés applied in this incoherent/fragmented episode, to have a woman with post traumatic stress syndrome/post natal depression hang herself in a judicial style scenario in front of a Poirot episode compatible audience is just plain shocking. From the beginning it became clear this was supposed to be a humorous (?)episode. Why on earth would you add this suicide hanging scene? Let the woman throw a sandbag from the walkway above the stage (and miss!), but this climax was totally unnecessary and distasteful. There literally is nothing left of what the Creek episodes used to deliver: obscure, silly mysteries. I hold my breath of what the next two episodes in this series will bring us.

Just AWFUL!!!

[drobey2 · 1/10 · 6 September 2022]

I LOVED this from the beginning, and have "hung on" this long, but it has become like fingernails on a chalkboard, irritating as HELL!!! So, I have pressed on to complete it.

The series lost the fun and appeal when they kept trying to pair him with all of those people who DID NOT fit in. Especially that annoying Joey, just WHY?!?!??!

It is understandable that characters age/change, but there was NO reason whatsoever for Polly! Her insertion into all of this was just WEIRD. She DID NOT belong.

I almost hate that it came to an end, but it was apparent that the writers ran out of good ideas and material...

Alan Davies is an enjoyable actor; I will seek out other shows/movies with him.