Monday, January 25, 2016

Endeavour Season 3 - Coda - Episode Review

 My review of last week's episode: Prey

After last week's hijinks, Coda returns to more familiar territory. In many ways, this has been a wildly different series of Endeavour - so much so that it's been difficult to establish a status quo. Coda suffers from this, but in all the chaos, there are moments of pathos.

The story begins with the death of Harry Rose - you might be forgiven for forgetting him - Bixby's gangster pal back in Ride, and the only prominent baddie in a landscape free of Vic Tyler (Home) and Clive Deare (Neverland). The first scene of Coda is almost identical to the opening of the Inspector Morse episode Promised Land (same location, similar characters - the parallel is deliberate). Harry is put to rest as his mourners are observed by two policemen: Strange and Thursday. Who will fill the vacuum of power? Could it be thuggish scrap metal dealers Cole and Peter Matthews, and their stooge, Tommy Thompson? Or what about Larry Nelson, a lawyer? Peter Matthews's wife certainly seems upset: she disrupts the funeral by punching the widow.

Trouble is brewing, and Thursday knows it. He's living close to the edge - a bullet rattling about in his lung, too close to the heart to remove by surgery. Nothing and everything matters. He beats details out of informant Bernie Waters, realizing too late that Morse has seen him do it. Morse is at a crossroads - he's just taken his sergeant's exam, and as Max points out, Thursday can't have two sergeants - a parting is inevitable. With this breach in loyalty hanging, guiltily, in the back of his mind, he takes Thursday to task. How can he take the law into his own hands? It goes against everything he upholds. Thursday scoffs, and the two part on bad terms.

At this point, of course, there has to be a murder, and there is. Cedric Clissold is found, shot dead, in his car - but the motive, it seems, is not simple robbery. Money was taken, but the body was searched. The killer was looking for something. Could it be - Morse and Trewlove wonder - the films in the trunk of the car?

Immediately after his argument with Thursday, Morse runs into an old mentor, Felix Lorimer. While Lorimer is content at first to merely reminisce, it quickly becomes apparent that there's more on his mind: namely, his imminent divorce. Playing off Morse's guilt and nostalgia, he convinces him to investigate his wife's new beau, Paul Marlock. Reluctantly, Morse agrees - once he sees Nina Lorimer, less reluctantly. The two hit it off, and Morse enlists Trewlove to further investigate Marlock, who is a bingo caller. Sure enough, he's a sleazy character - "eminently resistible," as Trewlove describes him. (She's growing on me a bit, but Dakota Blue Richards doesn't convey enough depth in her line readings to really intrigue me.)

Their investigation leads to a new spin on the case: maybe Felix wasn't quite as innocent as he appears. His wife is convinced he killed Clissold, who had pressured her into starring in a porn film when she was young. Morse, a sucker for a damsel in distress, is immediately sympathetic to her sob story, but he retains some doubts, going to Felix, who provides an alibi. Not that his reputation is pristine - as he leaves Lonsdale, Morse runs into Jerome Hogg (a character from the Morse episode Greeks Bearing Gifts, here played by Kevin Trainor, an entertaining character actor who's popped up everywhere from John Adams to Vera to Sherlock). Hogg is quick to push gossip upon Morse: it seems that Felix may be fiddling around with grades.

In the meantime, Fred's life is crumbling around his ears. His son, Sam (who's played a larger role this series), has left for the army, to make his own life. Morse is concerned, but refuses to indulge Thursday's anger, resulting in a further breach of friendship. It all comes to a head when Bernie Waters puts in a complaint for harassment - resulting in Thursday's suspension from the force. Things are going downhill fast, and Fred's cough is nearly ever-present.

Traditionally, the final episode of each Endeavour season is High-Noon-in-Oxford, and so it is today. Thursday has never been a drawing room detective - his trademarks are not beerstains and crosswords but a fedora and revolver. Yet the world is changing. His brand of vigilante policing - which did not begin with but was exacerbated by his near-death experience - can't survive.

That brings us back to this episode's gangsters. It should be fairly obvious - as the camera keeps returning to it - that their target is Wessex Bank, where Joan Thursday works. Is it too much narrative convenience that Morse, Joan Thursday, Nina Lorimer, and Jerome Hogg all happen to be there when the Matthews brothers burst in? Definitely, but I suppose there wouldn't have been enough time to sort out all the plot details if Morse hadn't had an audience of suspects. Because he's Morse, he spends his time being held hostage trying to crack Clissold's encoded directory of names. The other hostages are by turns helpful and obstructive. Ronnie Gidderton (who Joan mentioned back in Fugue, you'll remember) is jealous of Morse and Joan's obvious trust. Nina Lorimer has her own secrets. Joan's trying to keep her true identity from the Matthews brothers (everybody knows Fred Thursday).

The standoff serves as a character reunion. Dorothea Frazil and Win Thursday stand around looking worried. Max De Bryn, awesomely, wants to rush inside when he hears gunshots. C.S. Bright, awesomely, strides into the open and dialogues with the robbers. Fred Thursday, awesomely but a bit stupidly and pointlessly, calls the bank and threatens Peter Matthews, revealing that he's only got three weeks to live.

Spoiler alert (SERIOUSLY STOP): this is where Fred Thursday's Chuck Norris side shows itself. He literally coughs the bullet out of his lung (I am really wondering about the medical credibility of this plot twist - but maybe Fred's been taking lessons from the Great Zambezi) and storms a bank with no one but Jim Strange to back him up. He then comes to the moment when he has to choose whether to follow the law or his own sense of justice.

I won't deny the whole thing's quite tense, but it's hard to worry about Morse's safety - his survival is ensured. To shoot Joan would be rather too grim for this show, and once he'd coughed up a bullet, Fred might as well be Superman. Oddly, it didn't hold the dramatic weight - at least for me - that last week's tiger did.

On top of that, the villains were underdeveloped, and acted out a variety of cliched stereotypes (the extended sequence in which it turns out Cole Matthews was just sadistically playing with Morse is both pointless and out of character). The Matthews brothers are drawn from a story Morse told in Promised Land, but even in that, they were no more than names. Here they just feel like knock-off versions of the bank robbers in this year's George Gently finale. It doesn't help that while all this is happening, Mrs. Thursday is smoking and chatting with Dorothea, and Fred's reminiscing to Trewlove about his old guvnor, Sergeant Vimes (wait, what?!), waiting for bureaucrats to move, and threatening the robbers over the phone. Their daughter is literally a hostage.

At last, it's all over. Morse ties up the loose ends. He then has a romantic revelation, which I don't really buy: (spoiler again) he's never exhibited anything more than slightly over-eager brotherly affection for Joan - she seemed to have a bit of a crush on him, but there was no tragic romance. For a show which has fast been losing its subtlety (Sergeant Vimes, I ask you), it's asking a lot for us to infer a great passion from a few vaguely flirtatious moments. But I'll give him this: Shaun Evans plays it for every ounce its worth. If I'd never imagined a happy future with Joan before (ahem, where is poor Monica?), then in that five minutes he imagined it, he convinced me it had always been there.

My review of the next series premiere: Game

Season 3

Overall, this season has been a bit of an oddball. I'm not quite sure whether it's indulging in fan service, going off into crazy Midsomer land, or simply stretching its legs after a long absence, taking a lot of chances and occasionally doing some mad things just to shake it up. I'd like to think it's the latter, but only time will tell.

Of course, on that score there's ground for hope. This is still a solid show: acting is top notch, production's amazing, character development is for the most part convincing and engaging. Morse is slowly morphing into his older self. If he's unusually pious here (anyone hear echoes of Lewis's Driven to Distraction rebuke of Morse in Morse's rebuke of Thursday?), then there's still a long bitter path to travel before 1987. Thursday facing his own dark side reinvented a character who was becoming a bit too stable. And, of course, Strange is slowly becoming an authority figure (though he struck me as more likely to mimic Bright's legalism than Thursday's anger).

If there were anything I hope for the new season, it's that we abandon the outside references (as Darrell noted last week). Commander Samuel Vimes, the consummate badass copper, is one of my favorite literary characters - but he has no place in the Morseverse. Don't get me wrong, I've long been a champion of fantasy's merits (that it's dismissed as unserious literature annoys me) but the reference was out of place and distracting. Next thing, Fred will be recalling his old uncle Jules, from whom he inherited his pipe. I was completely drawn out of the world.

Want something good to watch? Check out my full list of British detective shows.

Longish

43 comments:

  1. Hurray!! Your review has been published! If you only knew how many times I hit "refresh" waiting. And if your counter shows it, I'll deny everything (It must have been the cat, I tell you!)

    It is possible to cough up a bullet (or shrapnel or a foreign object,) but I'd still go to the hospital to make sure that there is no internal bleeding. That said, I liked the episode and am going into depression now, knowing that I'll have to wait for another. Morse is more in love with the concept of love than any object of desire. Notice how his memories focused on her reactions to him, niceties on her part. I would expect no less from an Oxford man. I might have been curious as to exactly where Joan was going, as well. I am surprised that some wag hasn't suggested that this episode is the exact plot of the Beatles song "She's Leaving Home." Unfortunately, there is still time for that. And long as I'm all over the place, let me just say that the biggest things I've noticed about DS Strange the last couple of weeks is how competent he has gotten in such a short period of time. Just a few weeks ago he was the sort-of-bumbling Copper stumbling around Carny trailers looking for purses--and not even realizing that he found the motherload (the dead woman's purse.) And stopping his search for other stolen purses as soon as Morse distracted him. After a couple of hours of being Thursday's DS, he was acting all authoritative with Morse, clueing him in on how the job and the world works. I wouldn't see him imitating Bright. At least not until he has his job.

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    1. I'll admit, while I suspect it's unlikely, there is a certain perfection to the idea that Fred Thursday literally coughed up a bullet. Roger Allam certainly seemed to enjoy himself chasing villains, breaking into banks, waving a gun about and beating up thugs. It must take him back to his Les Miserables days.

      Yeah, Strange is a bit all over the place. I'm just not sure he'd be breaking the rules and risking his neck for Thursday - after all, he didn't before. Surely he could tell that declaring for Thursday, who's on the edge of death and dismissal - would be a very bad political move.

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    2. All they have to do next time out is put in a bottle of Talisker for Thursday to steal.

      (That's Cabin Pressure, his radio series with B. Cumberbatch, in case anyone missed it.)

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    3. Last week, when Sam Thursday said "You'll catch him. You're my dad" my father turned to me and said "Don't worry! Douglas will do something clever and everything will be okay."

      Cabin Pressure is A+

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    4. Glad to see the "She's Leaving Home" reference. I immediately felt it, when Joan puts her letter on the mantle while the clock pointedly reads 5 am (5 after 5 am, but whatever). The mum breaks down and cries to her husband, Daddy our baby's gone. Plus, PLUS, their name is THURSDAY!

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  2. Disappointing. The episode, not your review. It seemed to me to be the exact plot from The Beatles song 'She's Leaving Home.'

    Anyway, the good news is the new series of Vera starts next Sunday (in Endeavour's place)! I look forward to reading more of your excellent reviews.

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    1. Very funny, Tom. But after listening to what YouTube allows for a Beatles song without blocking, I noticed at about 1:50, you can hear the Morse code effect with the strings pretty similar to the original Morse closing theme. I think we've finally reached Peak Meta.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2H1-w7otkI

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    2. I'm just finishing the third series of Vera, so I'm not sure I'll be able to catch up in time to review it (I'll need to find another streaming service too - Hulu only has the first three). I hope so: it's one of my favorite shows.

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  3. I love reading your reviews and this one didn't disappoint :-) If there is another series of Endeavour, one thing I would like to see is a return to creating original characters and storylines rather than just using characters that will later crop up in Lewis or Morse. Like yeah it was good to see all Morse's university aquaintances and the Mortmaignes and this weeks characters but I think it gets a tad tedious after a while. I didn't quite buy the rush romance either but i agree with you that Shaun made it work - those eyes!

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    1. I agree. There were so many references that it became self-congratulatory and way too overt. Recreating the first scene of Promised Land? Really? Apparently all Oxford's gangsters frequent the same cemetery. It's just feeling a little lazy.

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    2. I really want there to be a 4th series, I think we just need some more original content

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    3. Oh sure. I'd hate for the Morseverse to come to an end here. I like that they're trying new things - as opposed to the more stodgy Lewis, for instance - but some of those things haven't worked. Hopefully, they'll get back on track next season.

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    4. There are inherent limits on what they can do. Some, literally: Morse Can't Die And We Know It. Others, practically: you can't have a grisly murder at the heart of each plot in a small city or else the series starts to visibly suffer from Jessica Fletcher Syndrome. In the occasional references to the coming of the larger Thames Valley force (Bright made one in this ep), they may be paving the way to at least expand the bailiwick beyond the Uni and city centre so there's more ground for everyone to cover.

      Putting Sam Thursday into the armed forces may open some plot points, given that we're heading to 1968 and the explosion of the antiwar movement. Joan could go in any number of directions that would lead us to follow. And that brief bit with the bank manager about Morse's gambling overdrafts- not a vice I remember him having in his future self, but one that could easily be put there.

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  4. I want to think that the Sam homage was a one-off, a literal homage to Sir Pterry. Now if I see a clacks tower above the Camera next series, I'll stand corrected.

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  5. Also re the Sam Vimes reference, if you remember he also said something along the lines of being based in 'Cable Street', cant remember the exact quote but something along the lines of "My old governor Sargent Vimes when I was at Cable Street". Cable Street station being where Sam Vimes started in the Watch. So yes defiantly a Sir Pterry reference!

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    1. Yes, this, but also a double layer in the reference. Not 24 hours after UK air, and already the first bit of IMDB trivia on it:

      DI Thursday quotes "No pasaran!" ("They will not pass") from when he was in Cable Street. Adopted from the Spanish Civil War, this was the slogan of British anti-fascists in the October 4 1936 Battle of Cable Street, when a march by Oswald Mosley's anti-semitic Blackshirts were forced to abandon a pro-fascist march in the face of opposition from East-end Londoners. It suggests that Thursday was a young officer on duty that day.

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    2. I'm a huge Sam Vimes fan, but I do hope it's an isolated incident. After all, last week C.S. Bright was recalling the events in Temple of Doom - so nothing is impossible!

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    3. @Ray - Thanks for that!! Very interesting.

      The stuff about Cable Street is in "The Nightwatch" and from what you have said the plot in the book sounds very much like the incident in 1936 and I expect thats where Sir Pterry took his inspiration from, so yes a double reference or even a tripple?

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_Watch_(Discworld)

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    4. Also, in Night Watch, Vimes is there both as himself and as the sergeant who teaches him how to be a good and decent cop. So the implication I got is that Thursday was young Vimes and has become old Vimes. Of course it was timely homage to Pratchett, but it associated Thursday with what is now an archetype. However much it punctured the Morseverse, I loved it.

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    5. I think the parallel could be construed as Thursday seeing his young self reflected in D.C. Trewlove as well.

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  6. The more I think about it, the angrier I get over Fred Thursday’s storyline. I didn’t believe a single word of it. Last week Thursday beat up a suspect and only got ‘a slap on the wrist.’ This week he beat up a suspect and was given three weeks’ suspension. He was coughing so badly that the bad guys were laughing at him.

    Clearly he was in no condition, mentally or physically, to carry on. So what did Chief Superintendent Bright do? Returned his revolver to him. Uh huh.

    And Morse, if he had any sense at all, instead of dreaming of Joan Thursday, he should have been pounding on Monica Hick’s door begging for forgiveness. If he continues along this vein, I predict a lifetime of heartache for him.

    Enough moaning for one post. On a positive note, I’ve had the good fortune to see the script for the opening title sequence of the first episode from the next series. I paraphrase, but picture this:

    Friday morning. Nine o’clock. The camera zooms in on Joan Thursday, who is far away. She’s waiting to keep the appointment she’s made. Cue the arrival of the man from the motor trade.

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    1. I didn't want to come down on it quite so strongly last night because I was too tired to really think clearly, and also most of the plot points had been spoiled for me, so I thought I simply wasn't able to buy the suspense because I knew what happened. But you're right.

      Fred's breakdown last week had real stakes. He'd never done anything that brutal before, and it seemed to really shake him - and everyone else - up. The fact that it's been forgotten this week, and that he has not changed his ways, meant his suspension held exactly zero weight.

      Furthermore, his redemption wasn't really deserved - he hadn't shown any evidence of changing his ways up until that point, and his miraculous escape from death meant he's pretty much immune to consequences. Sure, Joan leaves, but that's not a direct result of his actions. He gets off far too lightly. Alternatively, it would have been grim but satisfying if he'd continued his turn into darkness, thereby explaining the schism between Morse and him.

      Morse's failure to make up with Monica not only condemns him to lifetime of heartache, but it means he deserves it.

      But I'm trying to be optimistic. After all, this is still a far cry from the trainwreck Sherlock is right now!

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  7. Excellent review, as always!

    Now, I will say that I had no problem with the Vimes reference at all - it made me laugh at a tense moment in the storyline, and apart from that, the main effect it's had is that I now badly want Roger Allam to do audio book versions of the City Watch novels ;)

    I also admit to being rather fond of the references to the two related series - I love coming across characters we've already met before - as long as the writers are careful that it doesn't take away from the character development in this show.

    I agree that the romance with Joan came completely out of left field. Their last moment was beautifully acted, and I was certainly willing Morse to say what was clearly on the tip of his tongue, just because you could feel his agony in that performance, but in hindsight, it made no sense at all. And it doesn't help that we've had no explanation whatsoever about what happened between Monica and Morse - one moment she's the only one who can contact him when he's in hiding, the next they barely acknowledge that they've met before. What the hell?

    I'm far too relieved that Thursday made it through the episode alive to worry too much about the credibility of coughing up a bullet. As for the rest of his behaviour, I'd probably attribute that to PTSD, although if that's the case, it might have been interesting for the show to go a bit more into that.

    And that brings me to an issue I do have: the writers need to acknowledge that this is a prequel, and embrace that, rather than treating it as a standalone show. What I mean is, trying to get suspense from Morse being in danger or considering his future in the police force is considerably less effective than getting suspense from properly exploring Thursday's issues would be (e.g. yes, what happened to him causes him to lose control sometimes now; what does that do to him, how does it affect him, etc). Because let's face it, we all know Morse survives and stays with the police. Not saying seeing Morse in danger doesn't can't be suspenseful - I was certainly at the edge of my seat when the tiger was getting ready to jump in the previous episode - but it might be time to explore other options. Would the conclusion of the Morse episode "The Way Through the Woods" have been half as suspenseful if it had been filmed after Lewis already had his own show taking place years after that episode? I think not.

    All that aside, it's one of the best things on TV at the moment (technically, I prefer Lewis, but that's as much down to Laurence Fox as anything else ;)), and I definitely hope we'll get at least one more series of it. Preferably more.

    I hope this was semi-coherent. I should probably go to bed ;)

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    1. I think, if it hadn't been a feature of the show already (last week's Temple of Doom reference, for instance), I would have loved the Vimes thing. A couple years ago I picked up a Watch novel and ended up reading the whole series straight through (or rather, that thread of the Discworld).

      Monica was one of my favorite characters. I hate to see her overlooked.

      And I agree that the Morse-in-danger thing isn't really effective. It's only interesting to the extent that it makes him who he is later in life. When he was shot in the season 1 finale - that began to send him spiraling into darkness, and also cleverly gave him John Thaw's limp. The bank raid served no such narrative purpose.

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    2. I'm not that into Indiana Jones, so I probably wouldn't have even noticed the Temple of Doom thing if it hadn't been pointed out in discussions, which might be why having a reference I do actually recognise didn't bother me so much :)

      Now, we know that Morse ends up alone, so I don't think anyone was expecting a happily-ever-after with him and Monica, but to just drop her without explanation is careless writing. At the very least a short scene of him breaking up with her because he thinks being with him puts her in danger, or her breaking up with him because his life is too complicated and she doesn't fancy being scared for her partner's safety all the time, would have been welcome. Surely, there would have been time for that.

      Exactly. If we can say, "oh that's why he's got a limp", or like in that episode he was climbing across the clockface to get to Thursday, we can say, "no wonder he's scared of heights," it makes sense to include Morse-in-danger scenes. And things like the tiger work because it happened so fast. But the bank raid was a substantial part of the episode that depended to a large extend on us worrying about that bloke telling the bankrobbers that Morse is a policeman, and them threatening his life, etc, and because it was so drawn-out, there was plenty of time to consider that Morse isn't really in any danger. So yeah, no narrative purpose at all.

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  8. Fascinating review. Russell Lewis has plenty of form for studding his scripts with in-jokes and sly references - Jaggers from Great Expectations in Neverland, for example. Not being a massive Pratchett reader, the Vimes line passed me by.

    Deciding hum much of Morse's backstory to use in Endeavour must be quite a balancing act. Hardcore Morse fans might decry overuse, but realistically wouldn't someone who worked the same job in the same city for thirty years run into people they know all the time?

    Just my humbles, of course - mileage may and so forth.

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    1. Sure - but when the majority of an episode's cast are characters from a later episode (as they were in Coda), it's hard to drum up suspense. And this season has had far, far more references than the previous two. I just think they could dial it back a bit.

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  9. OK, which one of you is Andrew Collins from the Guardian?

    Sure, nick our original ideas without attribution . . .

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  10. Thanks for the great review. A point that's niggling me is the Sam Vimes reference, which seemed entirely inappropriate at the time. However, on reflection, I'm wondering if this is a case of putting the cart before the horse. Thursday says that Sgt Vimes was his old guv'nor at Cable Street. Then he says 'No Pasaran', which is associated with the real Battle of Cable Street in 1936. So, I'm wondering whether there was actually a Sgt Vimes at the real Cable Street, and it was Sir Terry who did the referencing by borrowing the names. That would be so like him.

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    1. Other commenters have mentioned the Battle of Cable Street. I'm sure Russell Lewis meant it to be understood, in-universe, as the real-life Cable Street encounter, but the reference to Sir Terry so soon after his death? Surely not coincidental, and I've never heard any evidence that Pratchett drew the name Vimes from anywhere but his imagination.

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  11. I want to highlight the whole ordeal with Monica is really unsettling. Him not addressing their issues, moving away, and giving a small customer service smile at the hospital really bugged me.

    I was hoping they would at least have some sort of resolution before he went off having small sexual scenes with other women, and then finally magically falling in love with Joan....left field much? I was put off Morse after seeing he clearly wasn't in a hurry to show some respect to Monica who clearly did all she could for him. It all feels a little sloppy, with a fairly crumbly suspension of disbelief.
    At the end of that episode I was looking at Morse's face with snake eyes, like "uh huh" he is clearly not very grounded and failed to regain my respect.

    There is mention on the Endeavor facebook page that the screenwriter has said he will put in some kind of resolution for Morse and Monica, but --- kinda took a long time... 'gettin round' to a woman he was looking at rings for at one point.

    Anyway thank you for the review :)

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    1. Yeah, I found it annoying too. Monica was by far the most important woman in Morse's life. It just didn't feel realistic for him to drop her so suddenly and without any explanation. And I agree - any attempt to approach the topic in season 4 feels like it would be too little too late.

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  12. There is still a lot of ground left to cover in the series as they haven't really taken Morse very far down to road to where he was at in the later series. But they have done something very interesting, which is to show the moral underpinnings which still stood for the rest of Morse's life, whatever his failings. The decency of men like Thursday and Bright (and Max de Bryn) shine through. It makes you think about the state of things when you realize few would even try to write such characters in anything set in 2016. Everything seems to tend to ambiguity these days.

    You can only speculate, this being a fictional world, that Morse was tough enough to survive in the world but never really quite tough enough to get over losing his family (the Thursdays). When the chocks were knocked out from underneath he slid down the rails, never quite strong enough to go it alone but doomed by his nature to be alone.

    In any case, for an episode to center on a hostage situation in a bank and avoid falling into cliche is really quite something. And spitting a bullet out? John Wayne never pulled that off.

    Enjoyed the review. Filled in some blanks for me.

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    1. I do love the way the show designs the influences on Morse - Golden Age archetypes mentor him (Thursday is quite similar to Maigret), ushering him into his own age. Morse was one of the latest Golden Age style detectives, being out of step with his own time, so it feels quite appropriate.

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    2. The writers and actors still have a fair amount of territory to cover if the opportunity presents. I would think if Endeavour continues it will start to put the pieces together to show how Morse got to the degree of cynicism and regret he displayed. I suppose it depends on what happens with Thursday. Morse respects Thursday, but when you pull him out of the equation you'll have a very good detective surrounded by people he doesn't hold in professional regard. That's when the troubles will set in. Strange's promotion no doubt will set some of that up, even if Morse likes him personally.

      Different tangent, but I've really enjoyed seeing Abigail Thaw's performances. She's very good and not in any way that seems like her dad. Just makes good use of the time she's given.

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    3. What happens to Thursday is a huge question. Since we've made it this far, I suspect death is off the table - instead, it seems to be building to an eventual retirement. After that, Morse will presumably meet McNutt and transition into a new phase. I'm fascinated - if a bit anxious - to see how Russell Lewis (the show's only writer) handles that relationship.

      Abigail Thaw is terrific. There is a slight physical resemblance to her father which is always a bit uncanny, but she's a delightful presence and a fun character.

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    4. I think the writers are working up to another character who will be the most important woman in his life: Morse's "true love," Constable Trewlove.

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    5. Oh dear, I hope not. There is absolutely no chemistry there.

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  13. Fred Thursday fired a bullet at the bank robber while the man was holding his daughter Joan, and not only that, Morse egged him on to do that. This was the most disturbing scene in this episode. Is that why Joan left them all? No one mentioned that he put his daughter in real danger.

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    1. I think the episode glossed over it in the way shows usually do with sharpshooter characters. No one would really aim for the arm and hit it when there's a hostage - you always aim for center of mass. But there's a level of suspension of disbelief you have to accept. Joan left for a different reason.

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  14. Obviously very late to this post but just have to say, I’ve only discovered this show a couple weeks ago and after Coda left me confusingly heartbroken and simultaneously disillusioned to tears at 3 in the morning I desperately scoured the internet for reviews to make sense of it (which I never do), thankfully coming across yours which not only pulled me out of my cognitive dissonance-driven despair but has also been a joy to dig into while working through the 4th series. As a fellow American, Im delighted to find a discussion board that indulges my obsession with British crime shows. Looking forward to following along for series 6 (and reviewing as I get through series 5!) Really well-written and insightful reviews, thank you!

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  16. Can't really understand why the Don asked Morse to investigate his wife and her 'lover', or why she suggested to Morse that her husband could be the murderer of Clissold - when they all ACTUALLY WERE involved in it. Personally I'd be trying to keep the police away, not asking them to get involved and investigate me/us!!

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