Midsomer Murders: Series 1 DVD 3-Discs (529 minutes)
Released by Acorn Media on July 30, 2013. SRP $59.99 (DVD)
Subtitles: English SDH Letterbox
One thing I am really happy about
is that Acorn Media has re-released the first 5 Series of Midsomer Murders. Since I started to review this series, I have
become enamored with it. I originally started much later on the series. I found
it to be pretty incredible when I started to watch it but I was curious to see
how the series started. I wanted to know more. This was my chance to do so.
This re-release of Series One may
be one of the first times that the episodes had been released in UK broadcast
order. I am not quite sure how they had been released before but I am a big fan
of things being released the way they are intended to be seen. This is how it
always should be in my opinion.
I wasn’t sure what to expect from
the beginning. I wasn’t sure if this was
a proper first episode (like a beginning to a story line) or if we were dipping
into their lives. As it happens, we enter the lives of Barnaby and Troy as they
begin to investigate….murder.
Just as I would have expected, there
is no “beginning” story line to Barnaby; there is no introduction. We get
“introduced” to Tom Barnaby the way we would see him n any episode of Midsomer Murders. I appreciated that.
Tom Barnaby is such an underplayed character that I feel if any big deal was
made of his introduction would have undermined the character. We get introduced
to his wife and his daughter Cally. These are the same characters we see in the
final Tom Barnaby episode, meaning that these actors nailed these characters
right from the start. We also get introduced to Troy. Troy is Barnaby’s
Detective Sergeant and although he is the original of Barnaby’s partners, he is
new to me.
Right from the start, Barnaby is
fairly rude to Troy. It is clear Barnaby loves to give his partner a hard time.
Troy is like Jones (from when I started to watch the series) in a lot of ways
because he is a nice guy but likes to use his “muscle” when he can to achieve
results. For some reason, Troy also appears to be unable to drive very well. One
of the ongoing gags of this series is that while Troy is driving, he almost
nearly runs into or cuts off somebody much to Barnaby’s annoyance.
Series 1 consists of 5 stories. All
of which achieve that level of darkness and quirkiness that sets Midsomer Murders apart all the while
being set in gorgeous English villages and countryside. The crimes are never
mundane. They center around something unique like art or the theatre. I think
that’s what I like about it, they are not gritty crimes. There are other TV series
around that do that very well and I do enjoy it but I also love watching people
of high standing in Midsomer commit these crimes. I think that is what is some
of the appeal to this series. The breakdown of the stories is as follows:
The
Killings at Badger’s Drift: The first episode starts out with the murder of
the elderly. The tone of the crimes and the reasons for them are very dark. I
think of the quirkiness and humor of the series but in reality Midsomer Murders are very dark. A
special guest in the first episode is Jessica Hynes but she goes by Jessica
Stevenson in the credits of this episode. Speaking of names, neither Jane Wymark
nor Laura Howard is listed in the opening credits as they are in later series. I really enjoyed this first episode mainly as
I said above, after watching only the later series after nearly a year this
shows that the same quality has always been in this series. This is really
enjoyable.
Written
in Blood: This is a unique story about Barnaby and Troy investigating the
murder of a writer after what is essentially a book club meeting. The episode starts off with some amazing shots
of a farm land in Ireland. This is what I love about this series is that so
much of it is shot on location and is just beautiful. In this episode even more
so than the first is remembering how wonderful and important the incidental
music is to the entire production. Jim Parker does an amazing job with the
music. It is haunting and dare I say it, quirky. I apologize as I have already
used that word multiple times in this review but I feel it sticks.
In this episode we have David
Troughton, Una Stubbs and Joanna David who was also in Lillie. There is a fun
side plot that involves Cully leaving town and forcing Tom and Joyce to take
care of her cat named Killmouseki. Cute! Once again to prove my point, murder
in this series doesn’t come from everyday criminals but people who are thought
to be more refined. There is snobbery amongst writers and it eventually turns
deadly. I did find that the ending wasn’t great as it got a little convoluted but
I will let you decide.
Death
of a Hollow Man: This is a episode that actually is written by the woman
who the series is based from Caroline Graham.
Once again we find the Barnabys taking part in the community. This is
something I have noticed about Tom & Joyce. They always took part in the
Midsomer community. This is more so than I have seen of John Barnaby in the
episodes I have seen of him so far.
As mentioned other places and I
will, I’m sure mention it again, I really like how these plots take place
around modes of art but this also features something else I find as an
interesting topic, religious artifacts like statues. One is stolen at the
beginning of the episode. Someone is also murdered at the beginning of the
episode too and I was hugely mistaken because it looked like Sir Derek Jacobi.
Wow! They got Sir Derek Jacobi to be in an episode of Midsomer Murders. No, it was a woman and I need glasses!
As we have established, Sir Derek
Jacobi is not in this but Bernard Hepton playing a great role of the great
director Harold Winstanley who is more of a prima donna and a bully than a
director. Although I felt the episode
sometimes was a little long-winded and oddly paced, the plot seemed to take forever
to get going, I thought the ending was a nice surprise and very graphic. Not
visually graphic but mentally so. Not done in a way to show they could do gore
but done to victims in a sad way. This episode is one of the highlights of the
set.
Faithful
Unto Death: I love these titles. I can really see this title plastered onto
a book cover. Once again as Tom & Joyce Barnaby take part in the splendor of
a local fete, a problem breaks out. Some residents of Morton Fendle are going
to lose money in the local mill that they have invested in for some time. Suddenly
the wife of the mill owner Alan Hollingsworth is kidnapped. There isn’t murder
to start with but it comes. There are some great twists in this episode. In
fact, it may be one of my favourite episodes of this set.
To start with you get the voice of
the book from The Hitchhikers Guide to
the Galaxy Peter Jones plus Tessa Peake-Jones who played Raquel in Only Fools and Horses.
Death
in Disguise: This is the first of the commune episodes. They always seem a
little out of touch to me. Like all of the people are off-versions of hippies. There
are a couple of nice comedy moments with Barnaby. In the beginning of the
episode he is in the kitchen cleaning a fish when May Cuttle comes to the house
to tell him about a murder. She is always bothering him so he hides in the
living room taking the fish with him. Then when he was talking to Ian Craigie,
Tom mentions his wife had therapy sessions with Ian. Twelve sessions at 20 quid
a pop. He mentions this a couple of times almost under his breathe which is
even funnier! It’s a fun final episode to a wonderful first series!
Extras:
This set has some of the usual
types of Acorn Media extras such as Production Notes and Midsomer Map. It does
say on the packaging “Now with SDH subtitles” so apparently it wasn’t there
before? As I mentioned elsewhere I like extras but for a series like Midsomer Murders, I am happy with just
having the episodes to watch.
Quality and Packaging:
Although I haven’t seen it, I would
assume that the picture quality is the same as it has been since its first
release on DVD. Each episode has an A&E ident at the end of it which I
appreciate. Now, I am not trying to say the quality is bad. It is perfectly
acceptable. I am just saying that I am pretty sure this is the same quality as
it always has been.
As for the packaging. All 5
episodes are on 3 discs so it is compacted together. It is housed in a single
sized Amary DVD case that can hold 3 discs. Seeing that they have re-released
in this wave the first 5 episodes, it would be easy to assume that the others will
be coming out this way. I love the cover for this. There is a design on the
cover. The inset is the Midsomer Murders logo and on top of the design is a
silhouette of a country village but on the bottom side is a noose, an axe and
other sharp objects. Very clever and striking. I like the look of it.Disc 1: The Killings at Badger’s Drift, Written in Blood
Disc 2: Death of a Hollow Man, Faithful Unto Death
Disc 3: Death in Disguise
I love this series. I was hoping to
be allowed to review Series 2-5 too since they have also been released but was
not given the opportunity but I was greedy. There was no need for me to review
them other than to watch the episodes I have not seen. I plan on buying the
other sets as I enjoy this series too much not too. If you haven’t seen it,
this Series 1 set is the perfect excuse to give it a try.
Next review: So many reviews, so little time! I am suspending
regular articles on British television until I get caught up with my reviews
which includes: Midsomer Murders Set
22 and Smiley’s People Blu Ray. Plus
some Doctor Who titles: The Green Death, the animated episodes
to The Ice Warriors and Spearhead from Space on Blu Ray.
Incidentally, I have 3 copies of that I will be giving away soon!
Have a great week!
Do you have feedback, article requests or want to talk about a program but do not want to leave a public comment? Feel free to drop me an e-mail at FTA13867@gmail.com
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Do you have feedback, article requests or want to talk about a program but do not want to leave a public comment? Feel free to drop me an e-mail at FTA13867@gmail.com
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