The Inspector Lynley Mysteries

My review is based Season 1 - 4.

We really enjoyed the first two seasons, Season 3 Lynley became increasingly annoying and by Season 4 he was completely unlikable. Even though the character had a privileged upbringing he wasn't an arrogant so-and-so the first season but was by the end of the 4th.

The character was painfully rude to colleagues, especially Barbara. She had to take the brunt of his sulking and arrogant behavior all the while doing the real police work. I don't expect the main character to be without flaws but I do want to root for them, I stopped caring about him mid-way through the series. Too bad the show wasn't The Inspector Havers Mysteries, she was marvelous.

I have really enjoyed this series. I have not read any of the books so I cannot comment on how true it is to them and really do not care. As a stand alone series I love all of the characters and I especially think Nathaniel Parker is a beautiful man and he and Sharon Small have an excellent chemistry. It is a dark show and the characters are neither perfect nor brilliant and they solve crime the old fashioned way. In other words, it is very non-Hollywood. I don't know how indicative they are of how crimes are investigated in Britain but I assure you CSI isn't even remotely close to how things are done in the US. I also like that the characters are not in their 20's and are mature, seasoned people. This is the only series that I have actually purchased. I cannot praise this show enough. I did not give it 10 stars simply because I know it isn't perfect.

I never read the novels so all I know of Lynley is the tv show. As far as British mystery show go it's not Morse, Lewis or Holmes. Also the two actresses who play Helen are so different that it makes no sense. Nathaniel Parker is good as the aristocratic Lynley and Sharon Small is cute and tough as Havers. As a midwestern American I love seeing the English countryside and the camera work is great. I bought the entire series on DVD and overall it's a worthwhile show. It does have it's weak points but taken as a whole it's very good. It could've been great, but just missed it. That said I will re-watch the shows.

I have now rewatched several of these, and have refined my appreciation.

The usual models for these sorts of projects is to distribute the episodes among different directors and screenwriters, assuming that the continuing characters are what matters. This series is different. The producers kept a firm hand on the way the episodes are framed; there is a consistent framework carried from one to the other that understand George's structure perhaps better than she does herself.

There is a murder or two. The dynamics of this murder happen in their own word, a world of madness or unraveled anger. The sense behind this is fantastically abstract, and is framed by a sort of soap opera centered on the events and characters that are suspects.

A more human, immediate layer — an entire third world — is the soap opera of a quite different nature in the lives of the continuing characters: Lynley and Havers. He is derived from Peter Wimsey, a second order aristocrat engaged in justice for his own reason. He has friends and lovers. Havers is an abrasive young lower class woman, struggling with family issues. This world is layered as well between Lynley and Havers.

One can easily imagine George seeing herself as Havers, watching and commenting on Lynley as he tries to understand the dynamics of the world he has entered to solve the crime, and find the embedded "world of motive."

This layered narrative format is understood by the producers of the series. Significant attention is paid to camera distance to register intimacy or lack of it. In particular, Havers is always the omphalos of the thing. Sharon Small is the actress who has taken on this central role and she is simply magnificent in it. She has the job of being a person in the thing, but that is an ordinary chore for an actor. She also has to be the observer and observer of the observer as the writer's surrogate. We never lose sight of the fact that this is a novelist's construction and she has included herself in the world as its origin.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

The BBC Series is based on novels by Elizabeth George and original scripts. The stories are about two seemingly mismatched London detectives. He is the polished DI Thomas Lynley the eight Earl of Asherton, and his parter is Barbara Havers a sloppy, working class DS. His colleagues think he is a rich, spoiled, golden boy who is a detective as a hobby. She is thought to be difficult and unmanageable. Both have troubled home lives and both are overly dedicated to their jobs. They bicker and they fight, but all while a real respect grows.

I really great series that has yet to get the respect it deserves from the BBC. It is fun to watch this partnership that was thrust upon them by their bosses (with the hopes of getting rid of both of them),click right from the beginning. If you watch it from the pilot "A Great Deliverance" to through to the most recent series, you can see the partners' relationship really develop nicely. In many ways they are more alike them different. Both use the job to avoid the problems in their personal lives. Some even argue that the actor have brought romantic chemistry to the TV show that is not in the books.

Really worth seeing.