The Show
Inspired by the novels of Caroline Graham, Midsomer Murders is a quirky British murder mystery in the same vein as Perry Mason or Columbo. In the villages of Midsomer county, Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby (John Nettles) and Detective Constable Ben Jones (Jason Hughes) track down murderers.
The show follows the same type of formula as other murder mystery shows have done over the years. Asking around the village, meeting a wide variety of characters, all who have a motive for killing, but only one is the true killer. It’s never the person they make you think it is, and the twist at the end reveals everything.
Midsomer Murders is beautifully shot, and gives a beautiful representation of the English countryside. Nettles plays a great unflustered senior detective, and Hughes is perfect as his eager yet loyal companion.
Each episode offers a wide array of quirky characters, which is the mainstay of the television murder mystery, here in America or across the pond. I liked the characters, but felt like each episode, approximately 100 minutes each, is a little too long for a show like this. It’s hard to commit the time to watch a 100 minute TV show, when there are plenty of other murder mystery shows out there that wouldn’t eat up so much time.
Questions arise though, when you think this is set 11 of Midsomer Murders, and if there have already been ten sets of this show, how does this small English county have any residents left?
The DVDs
This set contains four episodes each approximately 100 minutes long: “The Haunted House in the Woods,” “Dead Letters,” “Vixen’s Run,” and “Down Among the Dead Men.”
Each disc also contains a scene index, and fully interactive menus. The first disc has a few special features on it, including fascinating facts like where scenes were filmed and the names of the villages in Midsomer County.
Article comments
1 - MonicaS
Hi. Great review of the DVD set. I just want to comment on your critique about the length. I thought it was funny that among your wishes you wanted the episodes to be no more than 90 minutes long. Well, guess what? They are roughly 90 minutes.
When these episodes were made, the production company decided to cut back on the length from 100 minutes to about 93 (but that's including the ending credits. It's still about 90 without them).
Acorn just copied or assumed from previous releases, which were 100 minutes. :)
So while you thought they were longer and wished them to be 90 minutes, they actually were. :)
2 - Aaron
Thanks for your comment.
But, like I said "90 or even 60 minutes." 60 minutes would be a much more palatable time for this show.
3 - Christina
I wonder if that's an American thing. We can't have anything too long, our attention spans are just too short for that. Think of this series, and other BBC series that last longer than 60 mins per episode as an enjoyable book. The more BBC shows you watch the more you'll see how they operate outside of this country. I have fallen in love with BBC tv and rent any dvd I can get that's not American, just to have a different style of tv watching.
4 - Aaron
I have actually watched quite a few BBC series, and British TV shows.
What I was getting at was not "I wish the Brits would make their shows shorter just for me." I was merely saying that a show with this kind of plot and formula would be better suited for a 60 minute show, rather than the 90-100 mintues that it is.
I love British TV shows, and mini series. Take a look at my review of Mobile. I just thought "Midsomer Murders" had a concept that would be better suited for a shorter time period. Kind of like when you watch a comedy at the theaters that's longer than 90 minutes, it seems to drag on. Or when the American "The Office" had it's hour long episodes, it was just too long for what the show was.