I understand the criticisms and they are are all valid, but to me it was still a very enjoyable hour of TV, I laughed a lot ( Piers Morgan gag :-) ) and it really entertained me. Sarah Alexander was excellent. The attempted murder reveal added a different dynamic to normal.
Of course its not the same as it was in 1997, nothing ever stays the same. In terms of writing and production it is very difficult even for someone of DR's talent to stay at those heights and tie it in with cast and crew performances etc.
Looking forward to the next 2 episodes, I only wish there were more than that to come.
Although most people on here seem to disagree I also thought the episode was quite funny at times it's just the fact that there was no real mystery that spoiled the episode for me. I actually think if they had not shown the initial stabbing it would have been a good mystery and the episode would have had better reviews on here. I'm still a bit baffled as to why they decided to tell us what happened at the beginning
To be honest, I thought the last couple of episodes of the previous series were pretty dire. I still had to watch though. I knew I wasn't going to like it.
Oh dear. This in the same week as Silk (awful), Death in Paradise (juvenile) and DCI Banks (tedious). Plus that Belgian thing that's not half as good as The Bridge.
[/end marvin]
I must get out more. After I've watched Line of Duty.
Although most people on here seem to disagree I also thought the episode was quite funny at times it's just the fact that there was no real mystery that spoiled the episode for me. I actually think if they had not shown the initial stabbing it would have been a good mystery and the episode would have had better reviews on here. I'm still a bit baffled as to why they decided to tell us what happened at the beginning
I agree with this. Had the initial stabbing not been broadcast then the mystery would have been quite good and I would have enjoyed the episode more. The reason the lack of mystery worked on Columbo was because of the sublime performance of Peter Falk as he seemingly stumbled towards the correct conclusion, even though we in the audience really knew that was an act and he had already shrewdly discovered the killer's identity and was simply waiting for them to slip up so he could pounce. There wasn't enough in this episode to sustain interest without a mystery. Jonathan wasn't used enough and largely seemed bored and the amateur sleuth was embarrassing as was the rest of his family. And all the stuff with Hazel seemed to be given much more weight than it deserved in the grand scheme of the episode.
And I'm not sure why the episode referred to the Septimus Noone letters in the title since they were actually a tiny part of the overall story and dealt with very quickly and again not in a particularly satisfactory way. I can't understand why Hazel didn't simply tell polly about the letters when she raised it with her initially. After all there was no reason to keep it secret now both polly's parents were dead.
I was left quite deflated after the episode. I hope that things improve next week.
I agree with this. Had the initial stabbing not been broadcast then the mystery would have been quite good and I would have enjoyed the episode more.
The stabbing/ mystery was actually quite clever, and I think that if they had stuck to the usual format, it would have been a pretty great episode. The mystery is the glue which holds the show together. You can take away the sidekick, the windmill, the magic show and the duffell coat, but as long as the show has a great mystery then it can just about hold it together (which is what I believe happened in the most recent easter special) But remove the mystery and it's Jonathan Creek in name only. Last night could have been any TV mystery drama.
Series 1-4 weren't perfect, and watching some previous episodes today highlights the fact that not every episode before tonight was gold dust, but they all had the essence of the original show, and that is what was lacking last night.
To do that, you'd have to decide what the episode was about.
The title and the vast majority of the screen-time and most of the speaking-part characters were about Poppy's father dying - so it's reasonable to assume that THAT was the kernel of the show - not solving the stabbing.
Putting all that aside, if you did want to make it about the attempted murder (if that's what it was), it would be a huge job. You'd have the first few minutes of scene-setting, skip the next 20-odd, lose that ghastly child, her awful mother, the dippy neighbour and no-sh*t-sherlock (and that pony ... -- why do that? seriously: what was the point? ). Without them, Sarah Alexander becomes surplus to requirements, too.
All you'd be left with would be the slapstick in the theatre at the start, the "incident" in the theatre and dressing room later, a medic to say "that's funny - this wound is several hours old", and the 10 minutes of sleuthing we got. Then the reveal at the end, Half an hour would still leave you room for a couple of advertising breaks.
I don't understand why you'd need to lose any of the stuff they've filmed. It would just need to be rearranged.
I agree with this. Had the initial stabbing not been broadcast then the mystery would have been quite good and I would have enjoyed the episode more. The reason the lack of mystery worked on Columbo was because of the sublime performance of Peter Falk as he seemingly stumbled towards the correct conclusion, even though we in the audience really knew that was an act and he had already shrewdly discovered the killer's identity and was simply waiting for them to slip up so he could pounce. There wasn't enough in this episode to sustain interest without a mystery. Jonathan wasn't used enough and largely seemed bored and the amateur sleuth was embarrassing as was the rest of his family. And all the stuff with Hazel seemed to be given much more weight than it deserved in the grand scheme of the episode.
And I'm not sure why the episode referred to the Septimus Noone letters in the title since they were actually a tiny part of the overall story and dealt with very quickly and again not in a particularly satisfactory way. I can't understand why Hazel didn't simply tell polly about the letters when she raised it with her initially. After all there was no reason to keep it secret now both polly's parents were dead.
I was left quite deflated after the episode. I hope that things improve next week.
I would say that it wasn't just that alone, but that it was also to do with the main culprit being a main antagonist throughout the episode who Columbo often crossed swords with. It was usually a known actor who was a strong adversary for Columbo to bounce off and the entire episode was a game of cat and mouse between them.
I obviously enjoyed watching Peter Falk as Columbo, who was obviously remarkable, but I also liked to watch it to see how he interacted with the criminal of the week who was almost always an actor of great calibre too.
But in this episode of Jonathan Creek the culprits appeared near the start to commit their act, then they only appeared again near the end of the episode when the crime was being solved.
So I think one of the main failings of this episode was that there was no strong antagonist. That's why for most of it I felt that it was just meandering around and coasting along with no feeling of threat, suspense or peril.
They only appeared at the start and at the end, so everything in the middle felt like inconsequential nothingness.
So if they do another episode of Jonathan Creek where we know how the crime was committed at the beginning, then don't just forget about the culprit until the last scenes. Otherwise the drama of the episode is going to mostly consist of scrabbling around chests of drawers and under floorboards.
The thing that was most frustrating about last nights to me was that if that mystery had been played conventionally it would probably have been a really good episode
When the girl stabbed the actress and withdrew the knife we clearly saw it covered it blood up to the hilt. Yes a few minutes later it was described as "only a flesh wound" WTF?
It was nice to have Jonathan Creek back, but this episode was so disappointing.
I originally thought mad wife thought the knife was a stage prop and that she was only trying to threaten the singer and warn her off but that she was being set up by her infatuated husband to get her committed.
I originally thought mad wife thought the knife was a stage prop and she was being set up by her infatuated husband to get her committed.
Yes, I thought that it was a stage prop but that it went wrong so was covered up because it was a mistake. You always expect that someone will know whether or not they have been stabbed, but I have heard it explained more than once by someone in a fight that they just thought they had been punched. It's a bit of a giveaway when you see a knife with blood on though. Why anyone would accept that "it is just a flesh wound" and not go to hospital I have no idea.
Indeed - I can't help feeling Renwick missed a trick here... He could have made us think that Ridley was spot-on and Creek was losing his touch, up until the ending when JC would have revealed the correct solution thereby also revealing Ridley's ineptitude.
that's a good point. On balance, I would have preferred a reveal at the end.
Really, JC was a bit of a failure in this episode, in not solving it quicker and so being able to stop the original attacker hanging herself - although as a shock factor it was pretty effective. I'd assumed she was intending to drop something onto Ridley.
The only mystery about this episode of JC was who in the BBC was brave enough to shove this tripe on TV.
Good grief it was embarrassingly bad on so many levels, and I actually felt for Alan D having to go through this. If it had said 'Kraplakistan TV Production' on the end credits I would not have been surprised for a second. Who on earth wrote it?
Nothing about it seemed to equate to the earlier episodes of JC. We don't even know what he now does for a job (do we? ).
We've lost Adam Klaus and JC's raison d'être, and gained what? A wife, a new house, an unspecific job where he has the time to do what he wants when he wants, and several odd 'hangers on' that made me cringe. And possibly the most confused storyline since the recent Lone Ranger film.
If next weeks ep isn't a significant improvement on this weeks, I'll stick with fond memories and the old boxset.
Still hard to believe 24 hours later that what we watched last night was JC , or that it had been written by the same writer, or that NO ONE from any cast member, producer, director or cleaning lady didn't once say……… shouldn't the big reveal be at the end??? Whats the flipping point in giving it all away now !!!
How very different would The Scented Room have been if we had seen the school girl shove the picture between the gap in the door all along….. or….
if we had seen the released prisoner brick himself into the bomb shelter in Jack in the Box at the start !!! The list could go on and on !!
Leaving that aside…..there was no spark at all to Jonathan…he seemed jaded and withdrawn. I'm sure the actress who plays the wife is a lovely woman but I hate her character. There is not an iota of chemistry between them. Truly praying that the murder in the last ep this season is HER !
It goes without saying that it makes the Quentin episodes a treasured collectors item, that the Sawalha years were up there too…. very good indeed, that Sheridan Smith, lovely woman, could have stayed at home, and that this latest bird must be related to Renwick to get cast.
They have taken too much of what was a winning formula away, the windmill, the duffle coat, Adam Klaus, Maddie. What are you left with. Of course as in anyone's life, nothing stays the same and it does make sense that Jonathan would have moved on from doing the magician shows, but it should have been to something equally creative or eccentric.
The only good thing about him being married, is that she is not likable, they don't seem remotely compatible, and she is easy bump off fodder. If they are celebrating pregnancy news by the last ep, I will hang my hat up and give up !!
Yes, I thought that it was a stage prop but that it went wrong so was covered up because it was a mistake. You always expect that someone will know whether or not they have been stabbed, but I have heard it explained more than once by someone in a fight that they just thought they had been punched. It's a bit of a giveaway when you see a knife with blood on though. Why anyone would accept that "it is just a flesh wound" and not go to hospital I have no idea.
Let's hope for a better episode next week...
but I suppose that if the victim didn't notice how much blood was on the knife and therefore how deep it had been, she still might think it was only minor.
They should ask Caroline back. I read somewhere the only reason she stopped being in it was because she declined to be in a special episode because of family commitments (a new baby, I think?) but didn't say 'no, I never want to do this again'. She just never got called back again.
It could fall flat on its face, or it could be quite interesting. What has Maddie been up to all this time? I think it could have a lot of depth to it.
I've not actually seen the new episode to give comment yet, but I'm quite the opposite to 'spoiler-adverse' :P
I guess the other mystery series that we tend to watch is Midsommer murders and in that one the married couple have just had a baby. Maybe by the end of this series, she will have a baby too?
Just looked up their ages, she is 43 and he is 47 so if they are going to have a baby, they should get on with it! Although their character ages are probably younger?
I have to agree with many posters on here that there just wasn't enough Jonathan Creek in the whole thing. We had too much of Ridley/Mrs Creek/the demon child/Mad Aunty.
Loved the dreadful riding hat they gave Jonathan in the pony scene though
I shall carry on watching in the hope it improves, in the hope the storyline doesn't meander so much, in the hope there's some real sleuthing and intrigue involved, more dialogue and interaction between Jonathan and others, and that Sarah Alexander's character becomes a little more sympathetic and likeable.
Comments
^^This.
Although most people on here seem to disagree I also thought the episode was quite funny at times it's just the fact that there was no real mystery that spoiled the episode for me. I actually think if they had not shown the initial stabbing it would have been a good mystery and the episode would have had better reviews on here. I'm still a bit baffled as to why they decided to tell us what happened at the beginning
Oh dear. This in the same week as Silk (awful), Death in Paradise (juvenile) and DCI Banks (tedious). Plus that Belgian thing that's not half as good as The Bridge.
[/end marvin]
I must get out more. After I've watched Line of Duty.
I agree with this. Had the initial stabbing not been broadcast then the mystery would have been quite good and I would have enjoyed the episode more. The reason the lack of mystery worked on Columbo was because of the sublime performance of Peter Falk as he seemingly stumbled towards the correct conclusion, even though we in the audience really knew that was an act and he had already shrewdly discovered the killer's identity and was simply waiting for them to slip up so he could pounce. There wasn't enough in this episode to sustain interest without a mystery. Jonathan wasn't used enough and largely seemed bored and the amateur sleuth was embarrassing as was the rest of his family. And all the stuff with Hazel seemed to be given much more weight than it deserved in the grand scheme of the episode.
And I'm not sure why the episode referred to the Septimus Noone letters in the title since they were actually a tiny part of the overall story and dealt with very quickly and again not in a particularly satisfactory way. I can't understand why Hazel didn't simply tell polly about the letters when she raised it with her initially. After all there was no reason to keep it secret now both polly's parents were dead.
I was left quite deflated after the episode. I hope that things improve next week.
Extremely disappointed. They continued their love fest with Sherlock which was mildly amusing at best.
The Columbo format fell flat on its face.
As for the letters subplot, I guessed it from the episode title as soon as it started.
The robot vacuum cleaner has been done to death too.
It can't get much worse surely can it?
The stabbing/ mystery was actually quite clever, and I think that if they had stuck to the usual format, it would have been a pretty great episode. The mystery is the glue which holds the show together. You can take away the sidekick, the windmill, the magic show and the duffell coat, but as long as the show has a great mystery then it can just about hold it together (which is what I believe happened in the most recent easter special) But remove the mystery and it's Jonathan Creek in name only. Last night could have been any TV mystery drama.
Series 1-4 weren't perfect, and watching some previous episodes today highlights the fact that not every episode before tonight was gold dust, but they all had the essence of the original show, and that is what was lacking last night.
On the other had the woman thinking the ashes had been removed by god and taken to heaven when in reality it was a robot vacuum cleaner was funny.
I don't understand why you'd need to lose any of the stuff they've filmed. It would just need to be rearranged.
I would say that it wasn't just that alone, but that it was also to do with the main culprit being a main antagonist throughout the episode who Columbo often crossed swords with. It was usually a known actor who was a strong adversary for Columbo to bounce off and the entire episode was a game of cat and mouse between them.
I obviously enjoyed watching Peter Falk as Columbo, who was obviously remarkable, but I also liked to watch it to see how he interacted with the criminal of the week who was almost always an actor of great calibre too.
But in this episode of Jonathan Creek the culprits appeared near the start to commit their act, then they only appeared again near the end of the episode when the crime was being solved.
So I think one of the main failings of this episode was that there was no strong antagonist. That's why for most of it I felt that it was just meandering around and coasting along with no feeling of threat, suspense or peril.
They only appeared at the start and at the end, so everything in the middle felt like inconsequential nothingness.
So if they do another episode of Jonathan Creek where we know how the crime was committed at the beginning, then don't just forget about the culprit until the last scenes. Otherwise the drama of the episode is going to mostly consist of scrabbling around chests of drawers and under floorboards.
It was nice to have Jonathan Creek back, but this episode was so disappointing.
Yes, I thought that it was a stage prop but that it went wrong so was covered up because it was a mistake. You always expect that someone will know whether or not they have been stabbed, but I have heard it explained more than once by someone in a fight that they just thought they had been punched. It's a bit of a giveaway when you see a knife with blood on though. Why anyone would accept that "it is just a flesh wound" and not go to hospital I have no idea.
Let's hope for a better episode next week...
Did the hoover suck up the urn too?
that's a good point. On balance, I would have preferred a reveal at the end.
Really, JC was a bit of a failure in this episode, in not solving it quicker and so being able to stop the original attacker hanging herself - although as a shock factor it was pretty effective. I'd assumed she was intending to drop something onto Ridley.
Good grief it was embarrassingly bad on so many levels, and I actually felt for Alan D having to go through this. If it had said 'Kraplakistan TV Production' on the end credits I would not have been surprised for a second. Who on earth wrote it?
Nothing about it seemed to equate to the earlier episodes of JC. We don't even know what he now does for a job (do we?
We've lost Adam Klaus and JC's raison d'être, and gained what? A wife, a new house, an unspecific job where he has the time to do what he wants when he wants, and several odd 'hangers on' that made me cringe. And possibly the most confused storyline since the recent Lone Ranger film.
If next weeks ep isn't a significant improvement on this weeks, I'll stick with fond memories and the old boxset.
How very different would The Scented Room have been if we had seen the school girl shove the picture between the gap in the door all along….. or….
if we had seen the released prisoner brick himself into the bomb shelter in Jack in the Box at the start !!! The list could go on and on !!
Leaving that aside…..there was no spark at all to Jonathan…he seemed jaded and withdrawn. I'm sure the actress who plays the wife is a lovely woman but I hate her character. There is not an iota of chemistry between them. Truly praying that the murder in the last ep this season is HER !
It goes without saying that it makes the Quentin episodes a treasured collectors item, that the Sawalha years were up there too…. very good indeed, that Sheridan Smith, lovely woman, could have stayed at home, and that this latest bird must be related to Renwick to get cast.
They have taken too much of what was a winning formula away, the windmill, the duffle coat, Adam Klaus, Maddie. What are you left with. Of course as in anyone's life, nothing stays the same and it does make sense that Jonathan would have moved on from doing the magician shows, but it should have been to something equally creative or eccentric.
The only good thing about him being married, is that she is not likable, they don't seem remotely compatible, and she is easy bump off fodder. If they are celebrating pregnancy news by the last ep, I will hang my hat up and give up !!
but I suppose that if the victim didn't notice how much blood was on the knife and therefore how deep it had been, she still might think it was only minor.
With a stupid name, reminded me of The Riddler from Batman !
Spoiled it for me, amongst so many other reasons.
A totally pointless episode, dumbed down so far and it was ridiculously telegraphed from the start.
As others have said, what a waste of an hour, and a concept ruined.
The episode should have been consigned to the Graveyard, next to Septimus !!
However, I continued to watch, for the absolutely gorgeous Sarah Alexander.
http://ilarge.listal.com/image/1878728/936full-sarah-alexander.jpg
It could fall flat on its face, or it could be quite interesting. What has Maddie been up to all this time? I think it could have a lot of depth to it.
I've not actually seen the new episode to give comment yet, but I'm quite the opposite to 'spoiler-adverse' :P
Just looked up their ages, she is 43 and he is 47 so if they are going to have a baby, they should get on with it! Although their character ages are probably younger?
Loved the dreadful riding hat they gave Jonathan in the pony scene though
I shall carry on watching in the hope it improves, in the hope the storyline doesn't meander so much, in the hope there's some real sleuthing and intrigue involved, more dialogue and interaction between Jonathan and others, and that Sarah Alexander's character becomes a little more sympathetic and likeable.
What sex scene? I recall a scene where she was sitting in bed talking to her husband who had fallen asleep but I wouldn't call that a sex scene.