Last Year's Model

Great episode! The mystery is complex and straightforward at the same time. I enjoyed the look into UK courtroom procedures.

The little old lady is a standout. Not quite Miss Marple, who would have remembered the fishmonger's boy and known the truth immediately, but very well-written and played. Also a standout is Lance, the defendent's soon-to-to-be ex. Made my skin crawl. And the little girl Ed was very good.

As usual, the scenery is lovely, if a bit sparse this time. Excellent production values.

There are some funny moments (the dripping secretary). And Jones is now a DS! He and Barnaby work well together.

I was very impressed with the two back to back episodes of this fascinating mystery with its strong acting and characterization. The location of the trial and and action is the busy town of Causton, which seems an agreeable change to the often strange hamlet of Midsomer, whose inhabitants can be a rather depressing lot despite the landscape beauty. Detective Barnaby is for once cast in the role of a doubting detective, first brought on by the intuitive daughter of a murdered woman and then his psychologist friend Pru Plunkett. The doubts come after he amasses the critical evidence to charge Annie Woodrow with the murder of her friend Frances Trevelyan. Then he has to revisit the case once more. The character of Barnaby has never been stronger than he is here, realizing that his own work might not have been thorough enough to get the real murderer. His constable Ben Jones is also on the case every step of the way. There is great chemistry between the two actors during the two episodes. Mrs. Beverley, the elderly lady who is swindled by Annie Woodrow's husband and a shady real estate agent, becomes a key player in the strategy to capture the real killer. Annie Woodrow and John Trevelyan, husband of the murdered woman, are secretly attracted to one another but too proper to break up John's marriage and family. John was excellent as a classy family man and Annie was the antithesis of a murderer, being reluctant to even put John in an embarrassing light. The plot was complicated and required all of Barnaby's talents with the aid of Jones and others intent on finding the truth.

A slightly different episode that has Barnaby second guessing himself in court, all the while making goo goo eyes with a friend psychiatrist named Pru. I'm assuming her full name is Prudence as I've never heard of anyone being named Pru. I enjoyed this episode. I must not be a true romantic, because I think Mr. Trevelyan at the end should have avoided the unstable Annie. First of all she lied various times to the police, even though she had committed no crime. The biggest reason to wonder about her judgement is that she had married that creep Lance.

I consider this to be the best of Midsomer Murders, due to the psychological depth of the characters and to the excellent acting. The story was great, and there's only one murder!(unusual for Midsomer Murders). Consequently, there was no need for those preposterous explanations as to why a lovely old lady had to kill 3 or 4 times in order to protect her son or some such nonsense. Lately, I've been watching MM for the love of beautiful images only. But this episode is believable and dramatic - the way Midsomer Murders used to be.

Also, I enjoyed the great chemistry (and relationship of trust) between John Nettles and Siobhan Redmond(Dr. Plunkett), and the intimation of something that "might have been". Great insight into Barnaby's soul.A devoted husband, a doting father...but not only.

It seems that the nature of many of us humans is to continue forever in the same path. Change is to be resisted. I've seen all the Midsomer Murders episodes from the get go. For the first time, we get to be involved in a trial. Just this once, there isn't a murder committed which leads to an investigation of several characters. This time an arrest is made in the first two minutes and Barnaby takes it upon himself to look at what appears an open and shut case, to try to find a reason for the murder. In the process, we find things are not as simple as they appear. In many mysteries, once we have in our heads what we believe to be the right answer, we then fill in the blanks with the evidence (often hearsay) to bolster our theories. The woman here has already been convicted by the press. She has been caught in a couple lies (or careless answers to investigators' questions) and so she must have done the deed. But the motive is sketchy. The relationship with the victim's husband tenuous. And the forensics are rather shady. The eyewitness testimony of an elderly woman with bad eyesight is almost enough to set things right in the first place. I welcomed the plot here and would imagine that for one episode a bit of difference is a good thing.