The Sins of the Fathers

As many of the other reviewers, I , who really love this excellent series, was appalled and also distracted by this very very bad director, who seemed more keen to show his arty farty vision of how to visualize a detective story then that he was interested in the actors and the story itself. Indeed, lots of glasreflections, windows and extreme and unnecessary close ups; A real bummer, this one !! Sad to say.

There was nothing interesting or entertaining about this episode apart from maybe one scene with only Morse and Lewis in it. The other characters were deadly boring as was the so called plot. Not even much in the way of beautiful scenery of Oxford. I skipped many parts just to somehow get through it all.

This is a good episode with a jolly decent mystery.

Above all, it's a wonderful exhibition of how to act from the legendary, but criminally underrated, Lionel Jeffries. He was primarily seen as a comedian. But he was so much more than this.

The story finally comes together in the usual inimitable Morse manner.

It's also got the telltale analysis of upper class snobbery and hypocrisy that only exists in England. This prevails to this day where the Lord of the Manor looks down on his and hers slaves and minions.

Mutton dressed as lamb, as Morse points out with such gleeful alacrity.

It's hardly a subtle episode, but elitism is rarely subtle or pleasant.

Morse always makes brilliant societal observations.

Morse is an acquired taste.

It's a taste I acquired long ago.

Just to second the motion raised by other commenters: This episode is notable for its weird, distracting camera angles; lots of shots in mirrors, through windows, on polished metal signs, etc.; confusing focus on hands, ears, lips, armpits (yes, literally), or other body parts; stiff, stagey, unnatural placement of actors, as if they're posing for a photographer; and many unnecessary, jarringly sudden close-ups.

The result is that you're pulled out of the story by a director who clearly doesn't think the plot is enough to hold your attention on its own, and who, in scene after scene, is practically screaming, "Look at me! I'm so clever! I'm much more interesting than Morse!"

One crucial boardroom scene lacks a standard establishing shot, so that -- except for, briefly, their hands and a bit of the back of their heads -- we never see three of the people sitting around a long table till the end of the scene, as if the director shot just one side of the table and forgot to include the other characters.

I do like the fact that Lewis keeps smiling and continues to hold up well under Morse's perpetual grouchiness, and that he actually gets in a few impish comebacks of his own.

A good story with lots of surprises though the director, Peter Hammond, just couldn't stop himself from shooting the character's reflections off of as many mirrors and any other reflect-able items that might be around as possible. But that was not enough, as any pane of glass about also had to be shot through. And one more thing. The back's of John Thaw's ears get top billing in that half of the the back of Morse's head was shot so often during police interviews. Peter Hammond's three "Morses" were definitely the darkest shot episodes in the series -- especially "Service of All the Dead."

I didn't see Colin Dexter's mug in this episode.