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 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've just finished watching the whole series over a period of a month or so. This series is hard to rate, due to inconsistency -- not the actors' fault - the writing for these series is distinctly weird. It starts off as a pretty good series, then sometime around the middle or end of S2 it becomes distinctly bad, then for s3 and maybe early s4, almost too bad to watch, then it gets tolerably good again.

I didn't mind the replacement of Helen, in fact I thought the last Helen was the best of the lot. If she had been Helen all along, the series would have been better IMHO.

I haven't read the books and, given the horrible clichéd writing of many of the episodes that were based on the books, I am disinclined to.

I like the stories and the contradiction in characters with Lynley and Havers. It would happen and it gives a broad view of the crimes and their details rather than having two people from the same background. They have their problems but work together well in solving the mysteries. Sharon Small is a favorite of mine anyway but I like Nathaniel a lot too. I recognize the Jensen Interceptor in the first lot but what is the red car he drives later on. The "Helen" character is a dead loss and superfluous in the extreme. She gets In the way and contributes zilch. I like the series a lot, the stories are complex and different. A few of the episodes are exceptional.

It's a very good series, one that seemed to run for longer than it's twenty three episode run.

Based on the novels of Elizabeth George, the Series saw Highly educated, suave Inspector Lynley solve crimes alongside his colleague DS Havers, a little more down to Earth. Known for being hard to work with, Havers would form an unlikely, strong bond with Lynley.

I like the earlier episodes best, they feel more raw somehow, the later series are still good, but feel a bit too polished.

The acting was always great, I loved both Small and Parker, there were many strong guest performances throughout, Sophie Ward in particular.

It ran its course, and ended on a strong episode, it's not up there with Morse, Endeavour and Vera I would say, but it's not far off. 8/10.