Midsomer Murders

            This past weekend I watched the last Midsomer Murders episodes available to me on DVD.  I have been trying to stretch the discs out so I don’t have to wait too long before I am able to see new episodes, but now I have reached the end of the discs and I have to wait for the most recent season to be released.  The new episodes have already aired in Great Britain, so I know they will be coming.  I just don’t know when they will be available to me on DVD. 

So much has happened since I last wrote about Midsomer Murders, and I’m sure much more will in the future.  It’s hard to predict what direction this show is going to take next.  While I wait to find out, let me catch you up on the events so far. 

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          When I wrote about Midsomer Murders before, I was still in the early episodes.  The two main characters were DCI Tom Barnaby (John Nettles) and DS Gavin Troy (Daniel Casey).  There have been a lot of changes since then.  First, Troy was promoted which meant he had to move on from working with Barnaby.  In his place came DS Daniel Scott (John Hopkins) who somehow disappears after calling in sick on day.  Needing someone to work with him in Scott’s absence, Barnaby calls upon a police constable by the name of Ben Jones (Jason Hughes).  Ben quickly becomes Barnaby’s right-hand man and works his way up to the rank of Detective Sergeant.  After years of service, Tom Barnaby retires and is replaced by his cousin DCI John Barnaby (Neil Dudgeon).  This does not go over well with Ben who was close to Tom, but eventually he and John form a good relationship that lasts even after Ben is promoted and moves on.  In comes DS Charlie Nelson (Gwilym Lee) from London, and that is where the team stands now; John Barnaby in the lead with Charlie as his second-in-command.  That is a lot to have happened over the years, and I haven’t even talked about the murders.

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                The murders themselves have not really changed throughout the seasons.  They are as strange as ever.  As Barnaby and Charlie try to solve their cases, they still run into affairs, incest, blackmail, and just general creepy behavior.  The murders are carried out quite inventively, for lack of a better term.  It’s never clear from one episode to another how the victims are going to die.  Some are gruesome, but most I would put in the “creative” category.  The murderers on this show certainly don’t use traditional methods.  Even when they do, there is somehow always an odd twist to it.  The same can be said for the motives behind the crimes.  There have been many times where I did not follow the logic of why someone did what they did, but I know I’m not alone in this.  No matter which two people are investigating the case, they don’t always understand the reasoning either.

                With so much chaos during the cases, I have found myself more and more looking forward to the home scenes creating a break in the action.  This is especially true since John and his wife Sarah (Fiona Dolman) came on the scene.  They have such a great relationship and I love to watch them together.  It is obvious that they adore each other, and that their teasing is done out of great affection.  They have a dog named Sykes, who is a character all on his own.  Then after a couple of seasons, Sarah gave birth to a daughter, Betty, adding a new dynamic to the family scenes.  Charlie is often in the Barnaby home (he’s even baby-sat so John and Sarah could go out) as well as the medical examiner, Dr. Kate Wilding (Tamzin Malleson).  There are great relationships amongst all these characters, which makes every scene with them so much fun to watch.

                As much as I love how the cast is in the season I have most recently seen (season 17), I know it will not always stay that way.  History has shown, as well as knowing a little about the season 18 episodes I have yet to see, that the cast will not always stay the same.  Different characters will come and go, but now that I have seen it happen so many times, I don’t worry about it so much anymore.  The writers do a great job of making sure that each new character comes in as their own person.  They have their own personality, their own history, and it makes it difficult to compare that character to any other.  The actors then of course enhance this by putting their own spin on who they are supposed to be.  With both the writers and the actors working in this way, no two characters ever come out alike.  That’s why while I may not like when a character leaves, I don’t necessarily dread it, because the probability will be high that another interesting character will be right around the corner.