Reviews

This guy allegedly rapes your daughter and is out of jail walking the streets. You know that he is, again, allegedly the father of your grandchild. You have been trying to find out where he's been living since he's been out and you almost find him. Then, he finds you first and is keen to be acknowledged as your grandchild's father.

He's later implicated in a kidnapping, you find him and rescue the victim, and he escapes. The one thing the viewers, the writers, the producers and everyone on planet earth knows about cop shows is that this guy is going to come back for his son.

The writers build in such open, obvious soft spots for these detectives they write and we all come running back for me. I despise the running theme of a bratty kid/whining spouse who then ends up in peril and the cop has to save them from the villain. The cop is trying to solve serious crime. I get it when a kid doesn't fully understand the gravity of the job they have, but when an adult starts whining about how little time the cop spends at home, I check out. That wasn't the case here, but it's the same trope.

This has to be based on a true story. I have never seen tv cops portrayed as so...incurious in my life. Every dead body they encounter, they take it at face value. Three dead gay men in the same area, they don't see a pattern. Vaguely written suicide note that loved ones are skeptical about? Who cares! What a bunch of clods.

I've watched so many of these shows. Inevitably, it's an emotionally unavailable single detective who has lost a spouse, with a daughter (it's almost always a daughter) who is aged 15-23. The daughter is always the Achilles heel for the detective. She's obstinate and oblivious to obvious danger. She's constantly saying things like "Dad, I'm not a child anymore. I can handle myself" just before she runs headlong into a situation that will put her near death. The daughter makes the detective reckless. It's his only source of vulnerability.

This structure is exhausting. Maybe once the daughter can listen to her detective parent to be appropriately cautious. Or maybe the detective can have several point of vulnerability or none at all. But the minute that the widowed/divorced detective shows up on my screen with his teen/young adult daughter, I know what I'm in for. At that point, I can accurately predict most of the storylines that will be forthcoming.

The story is centered on an illegal war that "we've" been fighting for 18 years. I think maybe the baby boomers and Fox Newsers might enjoy this, but the Afghan War angle took me out of it.

This gets a 10 based on the reappearance of my favorite sidekick. It's great to see DI Jones back in Midsomer.

Oh, Kari, when will you learn? You know you're going to meet up with this "evil genius" and you always come empty handed. It's beyond dumb.

In all my 49 years, I've never seen such a quality stunt done on a broadcast tv program. Harri getting dragged behind that car in the garage was amazing. Kudos to their stunt people.

Once the boys have the family kidnapped at gunpoint, what's the successful ending here to them? Do they expect to be set free while Sorjonen goes to search for their mother? The police have already told them they think she left of her own free will and that it wasn't a crime to do so. They committed a heinous crime in trying to get their mother and sister saved. I know I'm just watching part 1, but I don't see the logic in their holding the family hostage. That was the end of any possible "happy ending" for them.

Why would the daughter's boyfriend be a target? Wasn't he a teenager and the killer an adult woman? What am I missing? Is something off in the translation?

The energy on this show has been consistently weird. This has been the worst case of the entire series.

Perhaps she's just great at playing a teenager or she's written poorly, but the daughter is an annoying idiot.

If recurring plot lines are going to keep putting a small child in peril/harm's way, I'm going to have to stop watching. My anxiety will not allow me to continue watching. This is worse for my nerves than Uncut Gems.

Officials treating someone who has exhibited extreme violence that was WITNESSED AND TAPED BY THE POLICE so cavalierly is insane. I can't believe that procedures would be this lax. It's completely implausible. I don't have the ability to suspend my belief to this extent in a program without supernatural or sci-fi elements. I'm disappointed that my investment of time was so unrewarding and repaid in such an insulting manner.

I blame no one but myself. I hope the actors and creative team were paid well. I hope the money earned bought something lovely.