Claws Out

I could barely make it through this episode, because the writers seem to have decided to make Annette Badland's character an increasingly unpleasant b---- whose preferred mode of snark is making fun of DI Winter and implying that he's an idiot every chance she gets. Winter has never been presented as less than an intelligent person and astute cop, nor has he ever demonstrated any animosity toward the M. E., so where this is suddenly coming from makes no sense at all. Badland is a good actress, but if the writers think that Fleur's many past-life "fringe" interests and snippy and condescending attitude make her funny, they're seriously mistaken. This episode is the worst example yet of their miscalculation. As for the actual story... well, some people get killed (a couple rather gruesomely), there are dogs and cats involved, and the case gets solved. And Fleur ends up with ...wait for it ....an insult-comic parrot as a pet! Uyyyyy. Next....

Grade: F--