Shot at Dawn

I enjoyed the setup of this episode where a man who is stunned in battle and walks away is charged with treason and executed in ranks. This execution has led to a modern day Hatfield and McCoy situation. Evidence has been gathered showing that the "traitor" was charged unfairly and suffered the ultimate. He is now being added to the war memorial. As it is with these feuds, people who really have no memory of the cause continue the feud. This is an interesting setup with some incredibly unbelievable events taking place in modern times. Barnaby and Jones come on the scene when a surly old general in a wheelchair is shot in the head. There are forces at work attempting to put an end to this fighting, but it goes. Internal battling and challenges to the situation continue to break people up. What is ultimately the method used for murder is preposterous. If one turns his back on the reality of the thing, one might enjoy it a bit. Otherwise, it is so far fetched that it goes right over the top. While it's not horrible, it is seriously lacking.

Personally, I've always preferred the first two eras of the series, namely the Troy era and the Scott era. The era of Jones in a duet with Tom Barnaby was ambiguous. Jason Hughes is a great actor, he perfectly plays all the scenes, from the comical to the tense, but you can't help noticing that the quality has greatly decreased. Season 9 turned out to be quite mediocre and was the first season that did not include a single episode on the top ten.10. The tenth season was a remarkable improvement. The eleventh is an ambiguous season, with three solid episodes of the show, one just good, two weak and this non-successful episode. There's a lot of good stuff here - a baguette fight, a pretty memorable killer, a tearful ending, a tie-in, mayor Hicks, and a couple of funny dialogues. However, "Shot at Dawn" does a few things that should have been abandoned at the discussion stage, namely the overly banal ending, virtually all flat, cardboard characters, a boring plot, a lot of sexual themes, and the disgusting Arabella Hammond. I mean, you know, I really want to love this movie, but it's too boring, even sleepy to watch, and there are too many sickening moments. Subtotal. an ambiguous episode. 7/10

The story is a cross of a family feud between the Hicks and the Hammonds similar to "Romeo and Juliet" and a tontine. So naturally, the first to go is the patriarch.

Now all Chief Detective Inspector Barnaby (John Nettles) and Detector Sergeant Jones (Jason Hughes) have to do is figure out who and why and why the unique electronics are involved.

Maybe they ran out of time but the story took a long time introducing the assorted characters and inferring that they could have done it before doing it. An added plus is Arabella Hammond played by Samantha Bond.

Well, we are off and running with a new season 11. This might not be the best in the nest but it make a good beginning.

Next: S11 - E2 - Blood Wedding S11 - E3 - Left for Dead S11 - E4 - Midsomer Life S11 - E5 - The Magician's Nephew S11 - E6 - Days of Misrule S11 - E7 - Talking to the Dead.

As has been said by me a number of times, 'Midsomer Murders' is one of my most watched and most re-watched shows. It is nowhere near as good now and the Tom Barnaby-era wasn't alien to average or less episodes, but when it was on form or at its best boy was it good.

"Shot at Dawn" was a pretty poor start to Season 11, and is down there as one of my least favourite Tom Barnaby-era episodes (in a list that comprises of the likes of "Second Sight", "The Electric Vendetta", "the Straw Woman" and from memory "Blood on the Saddle") and perhaps one of my least favourite 'Midsomer Murders' episodes ever. It is an episode that starts off with a great opening sequence but falls rapidly downhill.

There are a few positives for "Shot at Dawn". The production values are without fault, the idyllic look of it contrasting very well with the story's grimness, and quaint and atmospheric photography. The music fits perfectly, with some lush jauntiness and sometimes an ominous quality, and the theme tune one of the most memorable and instantly recognisable of the genre.

Donald Sinden, George Cole and Samantha Bond do what they can with weak material, Bond for example having some very stilted and clumsy "humorous and cutting" lines, and John Nettles and Jason Hughes also try very hard to enliven proceedings. As aforementioned, the opening scene is harrowing and poignant and it was a shame that the rest felt like a completely separate episode.

Was really disappointed in how Barnaby and Jones were written and how their chemistry never got the chance to shine. Barnaby is out of character and Jones is woefully underused, and because of the material being so lacking their chemistry (a huge part of 'Midsomer Murders' charm) barely comes through.

That's not all. The script, which usually is of very good quality with previous 'Midsomer Murders' episodes, is sluggish and clumsy, and the characters are lifeless, usually in the show the characters are colourful and eccentric and that was not the case here. After such a promising start, the story rapidly descends into tired predictability, scenes and subplots that are not that interesting and some add little, leaden pacing with an exposition-heavy first forty minutes that feels like an eternity and far too much sheer ridiculousness (including the pub fight and a serious contender for the most outrageous attempted murder in 'Midsomer Murders' history). The final solution, identity of the killer and the motives were not a surprise at all, among the show's most obvious.

On the whole, pretty poor and hugely disappointing. 3/10 Bethany Cox

This episode revolves around a feud between two families, one posh, one common, that began during World War 1. Right there we have the first logistical problem. One of the families is descended from a VERY young soldier who was killed in 1916. We are supposed to believe that he was old enough to have children at the time (although he looks like a teenager in the flashback), and that his son (played by the venerable George Cole) is still alive and kicking in 2007. He would have to be at LEAST 90 years old (even though one character refers to "80 years"). The generational time-line of the characters doesn't make sense.

Then of course, since there is a feud, there must also be a romance...or two... between characters from the two families. No surprise there. What IS surprising is the relatively explicit nudity, which has not been a regular part of MM in the past.

But overall, the characters are even more two-dimensional than usual, and there's not much suspense in the unraveling of the murder. And as others have pointed out, there are difficulties with the logistics of the electrical "gizmos" used to bump off the victims. Not one of the best, but it was fun to see George Cole and Samantha Bond, two of my favorites.