Mystères au paradis

I am pleasantly entertained by the comic police investigations by Humphrey and his police team.

However I find myself reaching for my phone every time Martha gets a scene. She is a potentially charming character, but she has somehow been burderned by BBC script writers who scrape the barrel for woeful daytime soap plots.

I cannot guess why the BBC has tried to mix overwrought histrionics with the otherwise comic and light theme of the detective work. This strange conflation of genres rather emphasises that the soap plots are tacked on, and so stand out like a sore thumb.

Perhaps it is BBC social propaganda, or perhaps it is a cast member or film maker who wants to do something more 'worthy' or 'serious'.

Either way it working like a reverse romance where I am rooting for Humphrey to find another girlfriend (or script writer).

Humphrey and Martha's relationship really drags the show down. I don't think they have good chemistry and none of their plot lines make a lot of sense. They are both a bit old for the baby storyline IMO. Humphrey is played by a 50 year old man, Martha is played by a woman in her mid-40s. They look their age, especially in the brutal lighting of this show. Shouldn't there at least be a line about how time is running out to have children at all and that's why they needed medical interventions?

Why is there a love triangle at all? The other man is also well into his forties. Their engagement was decades ago. It seems forced for drama.

Their relationship story just seems like it's written for characters around age 30-early 20s failed relationships are still fresh but they are thinking about settling down, deciding if they want kids but still have a lot of time left for these big decisions. These two don't have that time! Where is the urgency?

Why is her mom so against Humphrey? Wouldn't it be better for her to excited about her daughter getting married and maybe having a baby? Not that anyone has to do either but by your mid-40s having never been married or having children is still unusual in 2023, you'd think someone would remark on it. Finding love when you least expect it, a chance at grandchildren. Something!

The mysteries are cute and the team there is pretty solid. They all seem to get along well and have their own personalities. Why have the dragged out, downer, unrealistic personal life subplot? Why couldn't Humphrey move there and be happy? Do the writers realize their relationship is a bad idea/they don't have chemistry and that's why it gets worse every episode? Could they be writing Martha out? I can only hope.

This is a lovely gentle series of local 'whodunnit' crimes set in a rural village in Devon. The countryside and aerial coast photography is gorgeous, will definitely encourage more tourism! Kris Marshall is as good as ever, continuing his 'bumbling genius' detective role from Death in Paradise. The support cast are wonderful, the local accents are delightful to hear, and the stories are interesting and varied, without murder and other gruesome crimes. The humour is wry and amusing, I think, and it's just a lovely comfortable show to watch, especially for those of us from the 'colonies' hankering for our British entertainment, rather than the usual brash American stuff.

I'm a big fan of Death in Paradise and Humphrey in particular. I'm also a fan of Johnathan Creek and this series has the same kind of feel.

I've rewatched Death in Paradise so many times and the Humphrey episodes are just that little bit more fun, and now we have more of the kindest, most unintentionally funny, brilliant detective St. Marie ever had. What's not to love?

I'm really enjoying the series so far, the cases are weird and new and enjoyably confusing, and I love that they've found a way to bring it home but still base it in a small community. Plus they've actually kept the character, there's even been a couple of call-backs to the original series. So many spin-offs take a beloved character and throw their entire personality and history out the window, as if just the name and the actor are enough, they aren't. But this series is obviously created by someone who really appreciates DI Goodman in all his bumbling glory.

Until the ex-fiancé was introduced into the mix. She's that naive to think it's okay and it's strictly a business arrangement and it's going to stay that way. And Humphrey is okay with it. Humphrey is enough of a clueless dork who spends money on another useless boat, that we don't need Archie in the story to cause friction. Humphrey does that on his own well enough. Reverse the roles and let's see if she would be okay with an ex coming into the picture... Was interested in this to see if I would enjoy it as I was a fan of Death In Paradise, but it's more of the same predictable writing. Same old predictable tropes that are still prevalent in the year 2023. I'll pass if the writing doesn't improve.