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.
