Midsomer Murders - Set Nine (Acorn Media)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C+     Extras: C-     Telefilms: C

 

 

Some shows go on to many seasons, no matter how good they are or remain.  When we began looking at Midsomer Murders, we felt the show was decent as this link will show:

 

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/1926/Midsomer+Murders+-+Sets+1+-+4

 

 

By Set Eight, we still though the show was holding its own as this link will show:

 

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/5075/Midsomer+Murders+-+Set+Eight

 

 

However, by this new ninth set, the show is starting to get very formulaic and long in the tooth.  The series at this point stars John Nettles (Barnaby) and newcomer John Hopkins (Scott) as the usual old cop/new cop team.  However, they bring with them old ideas, old formulas and mysteries that now feel thinner than Murder, She Wrote.  The telefilm series this time includes the following:

 

Thing That Go Bump In The Night

Dead In The Water

Orchis Fatalis

Bantling Boy

 

 

If the show had lost whatever edge it had, the playback is poorer than ever as its anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is too soft, color poor and even featuring slight digititis and fuzziness that is as surprising as it is disappointing.  I liked the show’s look in the beginning for what it was, but it has even lost that.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo has no surrounds and the recording is adequate at best.  Extras are two text pieces from previous sets: a Caroline Graham biography, and cast filmographies that seem to reflect the business as usual aspect of what the show has become.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo