Service of All the Dead

Plot issues aside (and this is one of the worst plots in the entire series - and, yeah, completely cringe -worthy "romance") - this is shot so terribly that it interferes with the very bad plot. The director only wanted to shoot through something else (windows, candles, bushes), or super up close shots done with a handheld camera to induce motion sickness and obscure what is going on, or off a mirror. I mean - it's like a film student gone wild with showy experimental shots that serve no purpose and directly impede storytelling. They should show this in film school as an example of what not to do.

I love Morse, and Lewis...and later - Endeavor. Watched all of these with my mum back then and have rewatched them all over the years. This one, however, is utterly dreadful!

This is a superb episode in the Morse canon and improves upon repeated viewing. The direction and camera work is wonderful, full of quirky angles, dark lighting, riveting close-ups, unusual tracking shots. The later episodes in this brilliant show were a little more bland and safe regarding the cinematography. It's certainly not a weak episode, but definitely one of the more challenging ones. It has a great late 80's feel to it.. the grey summer, the parked 80's cars, the females dresses and hair styles. John Thaw and Kevin Whately play their respective roles with realism and warmth. I think I prefer this earlier version of Thaw's Morse rather than the pompous and aloof persona of the later episodes.

There was something rather endless about this episode. Part of the problem was that we had characters misidentified. When a man is found stabbed in a church, Morse is brought in. This quickly leads to him becoming enamored with a woman who is employed by the church. She is in control of cleaning and sprucing up the church. It is obvious that she also participates in other ways. As time goes by, we begin to have a series of murders or suicides, all of which are connected. What is interesting is that the service that began all this was never announced to the congregation but there were thirteen participants. A negative factor, to me, was Morse's hurried relationship with the woman. Still, even though this was not the best episode, it still is superior to most of its kind.

I personally prefer the middle years of Morse, in the second series they really did seem to get into their stride, after a great first episode I found the two that followed somewhat unremarkable.

Service of all the dead has some very memorable moments, a good start, a cracking ending, but there are two things I'm not a fan of. Firstly, Morse moons after Ruth like a lovesick puppy, almost to the point of being obsessive, and secondly the story is very confusing, the motives for the murders seem wafer thin.

It's Morse, so it's still a very fine watch, Thaw and Whateley are as wonderful as ever, plus it works as a mystery, you are left guessing. It has a very dark, gothic feel to it, the music is perfect.

I really didn't care for the character of Ruth Rawlinson, although John Normington is very good here, if very creepy.

Pretty good, but much better episodes would follow, 6/10.

There are a number of negative reviews of this episode and though in principle I agree that the storyline is absurd and utterly unbelievable this is how UK crime dramas generally work.

If you want watertight plots and police procedures then I highly recommend the French cop drama 'Spiral', if you prefer flights of fancy then this episode will be right up your street.