Kissing Christmas Goodbye

I love smutty innuendo of the British seaside postcard variety but this is excessively lewd, crude, crass and unforgivably unfunny. It's also very slow moving and lacking anything that might pass as Christmas spirit. Give yourself a great Christmas gift by giving it a miss.

Agatha Raisin has gone through transformations over its seasons. The first season was Miss Marple-esque with a strong lead and support characters, with quirky locals. Season two the support characters became more quirky, but had more screen time. Season three Agatha became like a character portrayed by Lucille Ball with more physical humor and the support cast and locals developed even more quirks. Season Four is full-blown Scooby-Doo more played for laughs with a few detective scenes interspersed between the gags.

Overall still an enjoyable show, even with the overt innuendoes and humor. Each cast member has developed their own quirks and play them for laughs. The detective work has fallen by the wayside and been replaced by an occasionally funny but always enjoyable show.

If you don't come in looking for Sherlock or Miss Marple, and simple to relax while watching, you will leave with a few chuckles.

I loved the first couple of series. Despite physical differences-that Agatha was close to the intelligent Agatha, with her massive inferiority complex.

I've read every book.

However series 3 surprised me with it's silliness and an over exaggerated, gurning Agatha which departed from the character of the books. It became ludicrous.

I was hoping better from this new series- but it's still relying on over-the-top facial expressions and slapstick comedy. Not just Agatha-but the rest of the cast too.

This episode was only slightly improved on last series.

I will watch the rest out of nostalgia for the books. But if there's no improvement- I'll ditch the series and re-read the books.

One often hears of an actor "chewing the scenery" when they over-act to silly extremes. Think Dustin Hoffmann in "Hook", or (at least to me) Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow in anything. Rarely does anyone say the WRITERS were doing so, but this episode achieves it in spades.

The cast does their usual jobs, the overall show is lightweight (enough to float), so if your expectations are for time killing diversion, watch it. Based on the first three seasons though, if you have to miss an episode, this is the one to pick.

It is nice to see Agatha and her friends again after a long absence. We've been through a grueling couple of years, so it was a lot of fun to watch the pure escapism of Agatha Raisin. The show had a magical Christmas spirit, which we all need about now. Looking forward to more Agatha Raisin.