I have been lucky enough to get my
hands on the upcoming Acorn Media Blu Ray of this series and thought I would
approach the review differently than usual. If you are a US fan of Foyle’s War you know that it will make
its PBS debut on Masterpiece Mystery on Sunday September 15th. It
also will be making its debut on the really wonderful streaming service Acorn
TV on September 16th (www.acorn.tv)
and the Blu Ray arrives to purchase on September 24th. I figured over the course of the next three
weeks I would review a new episode of Foyle’s
War each week prior to air and hopefully some people will find that
interesting.
There is one thing that is quite
prevalent with the start of Series 8 of Foyle’s
War and that it is truly a new world. World War II is over but that doesn’t
make everything better. Things don’t instantly go back to how they were before
and nothing will ever be the same again. There is an eye-opening moment when
Sam and her new husband Adam are talking about the rationing that is still
going on and she remarks how odd it is that they have to still ration after the
war has ended but they won the war. As a civilization today, could we do that?
The year is 1946 and the UK is war-torn especially in London. A way to take
care of the displaced population whose homes were bombed out, pre-fab homes
were built as way to keep people in housing.
When we left Christopher Foyle at
the end of Series 7, he was off to America. He made a bit of a fuss over there
but as he gets off the boat back in the UK, there are people waiting for him. The
group of men is led by Arthur Valentine who works alongside Hilda Pierce. We
have seen her before in the series and she has been forced to bring Foyle into
MI5 to help investigate a suspected Soviet Spy ring called The Eternity Ring
located in the heart of London.
As mentioned above, things have
changed a lot since Series 7 and we actually start this episode off with a
bang, literally. We are privy to seeing Professor Fraser, his wife and a man
named Max Hoffman in Jornado Del Muerto in New Mexico where we see the very first
test of the atomic bomb in 1945. It’s a great effect and tells us that things
are very different in the world of Foyle’s
War. It’s these same people we catch up with a year later as Foyle needs to
investigate Professor Fraser in regards to the Eternity Ring. He is extremely
patriotic and hates Stalin which makes the investigation more difficult. Still,
information is being leaked. Before Foyle is allowed to begin his
investigation, he is shown a photo of an actual hand off of information between
the Soviet spy Gorin and the person working for Professor Fraser. It is Sam,
Foyle’s friend, who is believed to be a spy.
I have been waiting for new
episodes for a while and this did not disappoint. Written by the creator of the
series, Anthony Horowitz, this is a great episode of the series that feels like
Foyle’s War but takes us in a new
direction. I think I am really going to like this new series. One reason is
that I feel, at least so far, that it is more focused than Series 7. Series 7
was great and in fact that was where I started to watch the series, before
going back and watching all of them, but the
3 main characters Foyle, Sam, and Milner were living different lives during the
post-war and it was becoming a little tenuous for them to meet up or interact
in episodes. I was also disappointed in what the character Milner became in
Series 7. With what I have seen so far of Series 8, it is in some ways a
re-boot without throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Milner is out as the
focus of the series has now shifted.
The series has moved onto to a new
war for Foyle. The Cold War. This revelation is hit over our heads a lot during
this episode. I call it the Goldeneye
effect. Basically in that film we are told ad infinitum about how the Cold War
was over and James Bond was an old relic from a bygone age about 70 times. This
is the reverse; we are told that this is a new war that the Soviets have
started. Maybe people spoke like about the Cold War like that back then, I
obviously don’t know but it seems like much. What I did learn from this episode
was that the term Cold War was coined by George Orwell in 1945 after the first
Atomic bomb was dropped. Of course Foyle’s
War always educates me in some way.
I really liked this episode. It was
hard to get used to some of the changes. We get new opening credits and a new
take on the theme music. New credits are virtually the same as the old but
updated to incorporate the Cold War. The new theme music is growing on me but I
prefer the more traditional approach that we are familiar with on the old
version. We have new characters to meet. I thought the direction of the episode
overall was good. To me there was one big hiccup where something was made so
obvious that it gave away its importance too early on in the story. It actually
ruined the surprise for me and I felt it could have been done in a more subtle
way. I would be interested to see if other people pick it up.
Michael Kitchen returns as
Christopher Foyle. This is what I have been waiting for since March. There is
nothing better on TV than watching Christopher Foyle question the accused. Kitchen
always underplays Foyle. When he gets mad it is never about raising his voice but
one always knows what he’s thinking from the way he looks at people or the
cadence of his speech. He is always a treat to watch. If there is ever a
re-make of one of my favorite British TV series Quatermass, he would be an
awesome Quatermass. As usual with most episodes there is a point that Foyle
explains to the criminal (and us) what is going on. He explains what he knows
about the situation and how he knows it. This is always a highlight to the
episodes because Kitchen delivers these scenes so well.
Honeysuckle Weeks returns as Sam
Wainwright. She is married now to Adam. She met Adam at the beginning of Series
7 in The Russian House. They ended up
working in a hotel that Adam owned that literally fell apart at the end of the
series. Adam, who is now played by Daniel Weyman, is going into politics. He
needs his wife to be by his side since perception is everything. It is a new
life for both of them. Sam is the same girl she has always been so one wonders
how she got messed up with spying for the Soviets….
Ellie Haddington returns as Hilda
Pierce. She is a mysterious lady who always turns up in strange places that
surround espionage. She is not quite the ally of Foyle’s as might be expected.
It is always good to see her in these episodes. We first saw her way back in
the episode War Games. Tim McMullan
plays Arthur Valentine. He is the person that meets Foyle as he returned from
the US. He has a secret that would have been a big deal in 1940s England.
I love programs that recapture the
look of the 1940s. It is done very well here. I looked online and I saw some
people posted some goofs made in this episode in regards to historical detail
and they called these goofs sloppy. I would disagree. There is a lot that goes
into these episodes. As we get further away from the 1940s, the harder it is to
recreate it. The series is filmed in Ireland and the attention to detail, the
way I see it, is pretty awesome. I just sit and take in the sets, the roads,
the atmosphere; everything that makes this series so special.
I watched this from the Blu Ray
set. I was first sent the DVD which looked nice but then I received the Blu Ray
which is absolutely gorgeous. The attention to detail is phenomenal and I feel
this is truly the correct way to watch this series. Foyle’s War Set 7 Blu Ray and DVD are available on September 24th. Both sets retail for $49.99. Don’t forget to give Acorn TV a try (www.acorn.tv). It’s a great streaming service for wonderful British television and extremely affordable. I started to use it when writing reviews for DVDTalk and still use it. For one low price, I have access to a great selection of television. Let me know if you have any questions about it. Apart from that, support Foyle’s War by watching this weekend on PBS!
Next week: Foyles War
Series 8 Episode 2 The Cage. I also
will be publishing my review of Doctor
Who: The Ice Warriors from BBC
Home Entertainment with the two missing episodes animated.
Have a great week!Also please subscribe to my From the Archive: British Television Blog Facebook Page for updates about new articles.
4 comments:
This series sounds exciting. I'm going to set my DVR to record. Out of curiousity Greg in an earlier article you mentioned the possibility if upconverting classic Who for Blu Ray, but you had naysayers saying it was not possible. What is the differance between upcoverting Season 1-4 of the New Series to the Classic Series eps of Doctor Who?
It's not that it is not possible but more people are wondering if there would be anything gained from doing it. The quality of the releases are pretty high yet the thought is that Blu Ray uses different compression methods which may slightly enhance the quality of the compression. If you take a look at the original release of The Green Death, and the new one you can see how much the compression has improved.
The new series Blu Rays, to me, are a way to repackage a segment of the show that is still on the air. I am not so sure if they will be doing that with the classic series but who knows. There are more episodes they need to release now so Season sets on Blu Ray have suddenly become a lot more viable.
Take care,
Greg
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