Hacker Cinema
Midsomer Murders
1997 · TV series · 90 min episodes · 25 seasons
Created by Anthony Horowitz, Caroline Graham
The peacefulness of the Midsomer community is shattered by violent crimes, suspects are placed under suspicion, and it is up to a veteran DCI and his young sergeant to calmly and diligently eliminate the innocent and ruthlessly pursue the guilty.
6 positive7 neutralfrom 13 commenters
Where to watch
No streaming data for this title.
14 comments on Hacker News
> Every episode of the show conforms to a formula where he gets suspicious of one of the other characters in the show and we spend the episode wasting time while it's finally determined that the suspect of the week is actually innocent.
Something like this applies in the UK Midsomer Murders. Specifically, if one of the suspects has a prior criminal record, they get always grief from Inspector Barnaby's current sidekick but are then proven innocent of the current crime. However, if an old police colleague from Barnaby's past offers to help, they are always guilty of something.
"Midsomer Murders" is actually a documentary series.
Honestly detective fiction is perhaps the worst format you could give for your example, because the structure of the story allows you to essentially tell a different short story with different characters every time. Moody Twin Peaks has almost nothing in common with the goofball Psych (except the one tribute episode). Inspector Lewis plots are complex and intellectual, while Castle is fluffy and predictable. Recipes for Love and Murder, Brokenwood, Midsomer Murders, and Murdoch Mysteries are more about life among the varied settings than the murders; the murders give us an excuse to explore the characters around them.
Though maybe the most important point of that is that watching TV from different countries will make your viewing more interesting.
Episode of Midsomer Murders: Ring Out Your Dead - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0647499/ - that was previously to reading this wikipedia article the sum total of my bell ringing knowledge.
I’m trying to decide whether Midsomer Murders [0] follows these rules. I think it does with the possible exception of Rule 6 (no accidents or unaccountable intuition): DCI Barnaby often develops an intuition about a complex chain of events (usually multiple murders). Additional rules that seem to apply to Midsummer Murders include:
* If one of the suspects is a previously convicted hardened criminal, he will turn out to be innocent
* Any person identified as obviously guilty by Barnaby’s sidekick will turn out to be innocent
* If, early in an episode, Mrs Barnaby is seen to have acquired a new hobby, it will definitely be related to the murder in some way
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midsomer_Murders
>Nowadays there is a big focus on series where every episode ends with an addictive cliffhanger. I hate that.
Me too. And most of the cliffhangers are stupid, you know they were added in just to pad out the episodes.
> Lately everything has to be dark and quirkiness is used to explain how someone is directly rude.
Yeah, I've stopped reading crime fiction (and watching crime drama) for exactly this reason: Every detective *has* to be rude/obnoxious, hate their life, be an alcoholic with marriage problems.
And I'm like, why can't we have a mentally stable detective who solves crime because of duty, and not to excorcise their "inner demons" (or other such psychological BS reason usually given).
For this reason, I love Columbo, Poirot and Midsomer murders: The detectives are honourable people, very polite and respectful, but polite doesnt mean they let people walk over them.
It seems to me most crime writers cannot grasp the fact that one can be polite and ruthless (or relentless) at the same time.
I really liked the anaphylactic shock induced by putting rabbit hair into the car ventilation system of the highly allergic victim in the Midsomer Murders episode "Red in Tooth & Claw".
Would you please share the name of the episode, or the episode number and season number? I like Midsomer Murders, and would love to watch this particular episode.
> I hope you're not assuming Midsomer Murders bears much resemblance to real life. :)
Unlike Hot Fuzz, which is basically a documentary.
I hope you're not assuming Midsomer Murders bears much resemblance to real life. :)
(Source: until a couple of years ago, we lived in one of the Oxfordshire locations where it frequently films.)
I watched a few episodes of Midsomer Murders today. It's a classic.
>Here in the UK our cop shows are like Midsomer Murders. Most episodes don’t even feature a gun...
Midsomer Murders is a murder mystery show, not really a cop show. There are plenty of action oriented Brotish Cop shows.
I love Midsomer Murders by the way.
> Here in the UK our cop shows are like Midsomer Murders. Most episodes don’t even feature a gun...
But your rusty gardening tools seem as efficient and they enhance murdering creativity :-)
Find what's different in America and fix it
The average American spends several hours a week watching TV and movies where the rule-breaking shoot-first-and-ask-questions-later cop is the hero. Probably most people who join the police see themselves in that role.
Here in the UK our cop shows are like Midsomer Murders. Most episodes don’t even feature a gun...