My review of last week's episode.
With appropriate timing, this week’s Endeavour features a visit from royalty. After last week’s episode, Rocket’s comparatively lighter tone is welcome.
The prospect of a visit to Oxford by Her Royal
Highness Princess Margaret, who is to unveil the British Imperial Electric
Company's new "Standfast" Mark Two missile, has Chief Superintendent
Bright, slated to provide security, on red alert. But when an unpopular worker
is found murdered in a secluded area of the shop floor, Endeavour must pursue
the truth -- and then justice -- from the sidelines…and in the intoxicating
presence of Alice Vexin, an old acquaintance from his days at Oxford.
Featuring a plot
involving factory owners, unions, and Middle Eastern businessmen, my political
correctness detector was running on full spin. Perhaps it was unfair, but after
the rampant PC in Lewis, I wanted to
see how Endeavour measured up. And
while it wasn’t as gutsy as good old very anachronistic Morse, neither did it descend to blatant caricaturing. The factory is owned by the Broom family, a
group composed of five vindictive individuals. There’s the mother, a
domineering, spiteful but practical businesswoman. The daughter, Estella,
similar to the cold, enigmatic character of the same name from Dickens’s Great Expectations. Two awkward brothers,
another brother dead four years back, and a shifty father round off that happy
family.
Meanwhile, down
on the floor, tensions are rising among the workers. Reg Tracepurcel (Craig Parkinson), the shop
steward, is suspicious that the dead man might have been a spy. A recent
accident has got the union up in arms, and the Brooms are trying to quell the
unrest while simultaneously striking a deal with Crown Prince Nabil of the
United Hashemite Kingdoms.
While the Broom
family is hardly likeable, the union folks aren’t entirely righteous either. There’s
a somewhat predictable dig at the UK from Prince Nabil, and an underlying theme
of miscarriage of justice. C.S. Bright, who for a while at the beginning was
beginning to seem like nothing more than comic relief, starts to unravel when
his reputation is threatened, and will do anything to keep his place in the
political scheme of things. Which, of course, drives Morse up the wall.
Thursday, on the other hand, says a rather unhearty “aye, aye, sir,” and glumly
takes it in stride. Good detective, bad policeman thing, I suppose. It is the first time, I notice, where Thursday is seen in a bad light, and there's one scene where he displays a prejudice against Germans which feels, while not inauthentic, superfluous the plot.
We now come to
Alice Vexin, an old acquaintance of Morse’s from Oxford. Well aware that she
must overcome the specter of Susan, Morse’s old flame, Alice makes awkward,
slightly pathetic advances at the young policeman. The synopsis calls her
intoxicating…I’d go more for irritating. Partly it’s just her makeup. Also, her
seduction of Morse doesn’t feel likely. It’s very much in keeping with the
sometimes ridiculous love affairs in the original (I shudder to remember Remorseful Day), but that doesn’t make
it any better. It felt tacked on.
The conclusion
was not particularly dramatic, somewhat unrealistic, but the method is witty, with a Poirot-esque twist. Overall,
a good but not exceptional episode.
3/5 stars
Next week's episode review.
Longish
They are all there...Stanley Windrush, Richard deVere Cox - and of course Bertie Tracepurcel. Of course, this is not 'I'm All Right Jack' despite being set in a missile factory and worries about Middle Eastern orders being sabotaged...
ReplyDeleteThis time it's Reg Tracepurcel...and he is trying his best to do a Fred Kite. No Peter Sellers, but it does make you wonder where they got this idea from...
I did think that was a really weird name.... Too bad Peter Sellers isn't still around.
Delete