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The lovely, deadly county of Midsomer
My lovely wife M is a huge fan of the British style when it comes to mysteries, whether in print or on television. In our pre-satellite TV days, she had relied on the local PBS affiliate to supply her with such programmes as Rosemary & Thyme, New Tricks, the Miss Marple mysteries featuring Joan Hickson, and the Hercule Poirot series starring David Suchet. The problem with relying on local PBS is that such programming was often sporadic; a given series might run for two or three weekly episodes, then disappear for months at a stretch. Even moving to satellite didn’t much improve things, given our cut-rate subscription.
Much too long a time passed before the solution came to me. “Hey!” I exclaimed mentally. “I have a Netflix subscription. Netflix rents TV shows as well as movies. Why don’t I…”
Yes, why don’t I, indeed. So I did. As a result, my Netflix queue has undergone a complete transformation. Banished for now are the usual noirish crime stories and Fifties monster flicks. In their place, we now have a steady diet of Poirot and Miss Marple, Rosemary & Thyme and a wonderful show called Midsomer Murders. I could try to describe it for you, but the show’s official website does such a good job that I’ll yield the floor:
The programme possesses a unique style. It is almost entirely set within the closed, backwards-looking fictional English county of Midsomer. Midsomer is a world whose inhabitants are a collection of wealthy, amoral and snobbish eccentrics often obsessed with the fairly small lives they lead in these isolated communities. This provides for an enormous amount of friction between them which is observed with a self-mocking, sardonic humour.
The show often highlights the facade put up by people. To the eye Midsomer is a picturesque, peaceful and prosperous county but in fact behind the well-trimmed hedgerows and cricket on the village green is a society brimming with all kinds of vices. Barnaby by contrast offers a stable homelife and an exceptional morality.
Each story is built up carefully, with underpinning currents and unsolved mysteries adding to the bemusement of the detectives. There are usually a number of false leads, such as those who have committed petty crimes, or harbour some dark secret that they attempt to conceal from the world. Despite the sinister, atmospheric edge that runs through the show, it maintains a constant humour.
One feature of the programme is the extremely large number of deaths, especially considering that Midsomer is a small, rural county. Because of the slightly bizarre nature of the place, this does not seem entirely improbable. The show at times even plays on this lack of realism, with characters within it often commenting on the astoundingly high numbers of deaths.
Fittingly, the show’s opening theme is a eerie little tune performed on a theremin.
At the center of the show is Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby: a middle-aged man, devoted to his family but habitually distracted - absorbed, really - by his work. And there’s a lot of work for a homicide detective in Midsomer. John Nettles brings an oddly cheerful gruffness (interesting combination) and dogged persistence to Barnaby, and he is well-complemented by his fellow actors. It doesn’t take much watching before you begin to regard these characters as old friends.
We make the journey to Midsomer County every four or five days, and always enjoy the trip. Pity about all those dead bodies, but entertainment requires sacrifices.
Also: Can’t believe that I forgot to mention that this television series is based on an actual series of novels by an actual author - Caroline Graham. I will have to seek out some of her books for M.
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8 comments for “The lovely, deadly county of Midsomer”
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We make the journey to Midsomer County every four or five days, and always enjoy the trip. Pity about all those dead bodies, but entertainment requires sacrifices.
I carry a certain amount of guilt over my love for books/TV/movies that involve inordinate amounts of dead bodies. I once saw a bumper sticker that said something like “Murder is Not Entertainment,” and I think it was created by a victim’s advocate group. I even knew someone who was murdered.
Yet one of my first “adult” reads (at around age 12) was Agatha Christie’s They Came to Baghdad, and I’ve never looked back and never quite apologized. (I’d love to go back and read that book now in light of modern events, and I see that my school’s library has two copies, so I think I’ll go check it out.)
Thank you for bringing this to my attention, since I am quite enamored of British mysteries myself. In fact, I have the first installment of the Inspector Lynley mysteries in my tv armoire, unwatched and collecting dust. (Netflix has been making its money on me lately.) Perhaps I’ll watch it tonight.
I see this post is dated May 19, but I just noticed it today. I’m not quite sure why, but sometimes I just don’t see things on the blog when they first turn up. That’s not really a complaint, by the way. It makes the blog something of a treasure hunt for me.
Don’t feel guilty. It’s all make-believe. :-D
We have Midsomer Murders: Blood Will Out in the mailbox at home (along with another Rosemary & Thyme disc), according to Netflix. Good times!
Glad to have introduced MM to you. The show is such a pleasure.
I investigated Midsomer just now. Its website and Netflix aren’t much help as to what order I should, um, order. What would I do without imdb.com, which answered all my questions?
The first 3 eps are now at the top of my queue and I expect to travel to Midsomer sometime Tuesday.
(This is Britain’s own Law & Order, isn’t it? Ten years on the air? And I never heard of it. Thanks so much!)
I investigated Midsomer just now. Its website and Netflix aren’t much help as to what order I should, um, order.
Netflix is astonishingly bad at providing that info, which seems essential and basic to me. The commenters there are much more helpful, if you have time to wade through their reviews.
The Midsomer site I referenced does have a chronological episode guide, but that may not be the site you visited. M and I watched MM: Blood Will Out last night, enjoyed it. Barnaby is my decent, grouchy, middle-aged hero.
Ah, I forgot you provided a link. That’s much more useful than the official site and is now duly bookmarked.
And I’ve so far never found a show for which IMDB can’t provide the basic episode info.
I also discovered today that the Inspector Lynley Mysteries are available on Netflix instant viewing and have watched two more. They’re good-enough mysteries, but I am now primed for Midsomer, too.
(Andy Sipowicz is my decent, grouchy, middle-aged hero, although it took him some years to fully reach the “decent” level. But that’s what NYPD Blue ultimately became: the redemption of Andy Sipowicz. It’s very frustrating to me that only four seasons of that show have been released on DVD and it’s hard to catch on TV. Almost impossible.)
Instant viewing - congrats. You have the advantage over second-class computing citizens such as myself (read: Mac users). But I’ve carped about that before.
I agree with your take on Sipowicz. The way he became the moral center of that show is really very interesting. I can’t believe the show isn’t available in its entirety on DVD. Who takes the blame for this?
There is, I firmly believe, a real need for a cable network that runs some of the classic shows currently not in rotation.
I initially put WKRP in Cincinnati at the top of the list I was going to make, but I did a search and discovered that on Friday WGN is running four episodes. I have no idea if it’s a regular thing — it looks like a “best of” since they’re offering the pilot and the “turkeys” episode.
But there is a list –
L.A. Law
Hill Street Blues
St. Elsewhere
And now NYPD Blue
Etc.
They may be airing somewhere, but not in my area.
(Homicide: Life on the Street airs on WGN, but I already have all of those on DVD. I really am a murder nerd.)
You have my sympathies on the instant viewing. I’d heard about that from you and from a friend. I actually don’t use it that often. Every now and then. It requires sitting in front of the computer for hours…oh yeah, I do that anyway. Netflix is now also hawking a $99 box so you can instant-view on your TV, but I say wait. Better technology is coming. Sooner rather than later there will be no real difference between a TV and a computer. I know many machines will do both, but what I meant is that it will be the norm soon. Really soon, I’ll bet.
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