Trove

Endeavor Morse, in the form of Shaun Evans, returns to the Inspector Morse prequel, "Endeavor: Trove" for a second season.

Morse was apparently shot while at the opera and has gone through the death of his father. Now, four months later, he's back at work.

During a pageant marking 900 years of history, Kitty, a feminist and daughter of Barbara Batten, running for MP, paint balls a beauty queen. Then a man comes out of a window and lands on top of a car. Suicide? Or murder? The dead man turns out to be a man of many names, and he has a notebook with a cryptic message inside. He turns out to be a private detective named Pettifer who made it a habit of blackmailing his clients.

Morse gets to work on the various cases while his superior (Roger Allam) is concerned about him. He finds empty liquor bottles in Morse's apartment and wonders if he's really ready to be back at work.

This has the usual mark of the original Morse series -- you have to watch it carefully as the stories can be complicated. Though Morse has grown somewhat tougher in year 2, I still can't connect him maturing into Inspector Morse. I think it's the voice and accent. Shaun Evans is a marvelous actor, though, and I thoroughly enjoy "Endeavor."

Morse came back. Expectedly. In fact, I have no idea about gunshot would. Therefore I lost some degree of empathy for what Morse behaved.

However, the scene was still good, and Morse was still blue. That's enough for me to keep enjoying.

The last scene meant a huge conspiracy? A mole in the department? Unfortunately, that is something I'm indifferent to.

More machinations amongst the dreaming spires of Oxford, murder, suicide, politics party and feminist, theft of museum antiquities, Masonic skulduggery, a beauty pageant and a young woman missing from home. As these events happen individually they can be considered as quite separate, and distinct crimes in no way related to one another.

Endeavour shows supreme lack of tact along with arrogance, but his nous gets him into lumber that it's as well a new female acquaintance, is on hand to be of assistance in his hour of need.

Strange who has been keen to accept assistance in getting higher up the ranks and has advised Morse of the need for diligence in his studies, has apparently made a career defining choice.

Paradoxically Morse's diligence in doing his duty leaves him, with what is supposed to be an offer he can't refuse, by an allegedly upright citizen and pilar of the community.

At Issue in this episode is the health of our good detective. Surviving a shooting, he is back on the job, but his superior and Thursday, his partner are suspicious of his effectiveness. When a beauty queen is paint balled and a man falls from a building, they look like unrelated events. But soon we have a couple murders, a missing woman, a political race, a couple of pompous pillars of society, and some miscalculation. Morse becomes embroiled in the case but truly is a bit overzealous, making a couple misjudgments. Nevertheless, his humanity shows. The acting and the conflicts are so well presented here. This is a superb series. Not one episode has disappointed.

Having recently been, and just finished being, on a roll reviewing all the episodes of 'Lewis', which generally was very enjoyable before having some disappointments later on, it occurred to me to do the same for 'Inspector Morse's' (one of my favourites for over a decade, and all the episodes were also reviewed in my first year on IMDb eight years ago) prequel series 'Endeavour'.

As said in my review for the entire show two years ago, 'Endeavour' is not just a more than worthy prequel series to one of my favourite detective dramas of all time and goes very well with it, but it is a great series on its own as well. It maintains everything that makes 'Inspector Morse' so good, while also containing enough to make it its own, and in my mind 'Inspector Morse', 'Lewis' and 'Endeavour' go perfectly well together.

Was very impressed by the pilot episode, even with a very understandable slight finding-its-feet feel (that is true of a lot of shows, exceptions like 'Morse' itself, 'A Touch of Frost' and 'Midsomer Murders', which started off great and were remarkably well established, are fairly few. The first episode of the first season "Girl" was a very welcome return, a fine episode in its own right and was even better. Morse's personality is more established with more obvious recognisable personality quirks and generally things feel more settled. Then there was "Fugue", which to me is one of the best episodes of 'Endeavour', while "Rocket" and "Home" just as good.

Even with an appreciatively darker tone than the first season, Season 2 starts very well with "Trove". To me it was let down somewhat by the ending, which was rather far-fetched and over-complicated with explanations that feel rushed or unsatisfyingly resolved.

However, the production values in "Trove" cannot be faulted. The episode is exquisitely photographed and there is something very nostalgic and charming about the atmospherically evoked 1960s period detail. It was also a genius move to keep Barrington Pheloung on board, with his hauntingly beautiful scoring and immortal 'Inspector Morse' theme, and while the use of music isn't as ingenious as it was in "Fugue" for example it's hugely effective still.

Writing, even for so early on, is every bit as intelligent, entertaining and tense as the previous episodes and as the best of 'Morse'. The story has tension, a good deal going on and little feels improbable or too obvious while being suitably complicated. There are plenty of red herrings and twists here, without being cluttered. Morse's struggles with coming back to work is very sensitively handled.

Loved all the 'Inspector Morse' references, like Morse's leg injury mirroring John Thaw's real life limp, seeing a younger Matthew Copley Barnes from "The Infernal Serpent", a younger Strange well before becoming superintendent, a younger Max, the antagonistic relationship with the masons seen in "Masonic Mysteries" and the Wolvercote Trove reminding one of "The Wolvercote Tongue". However, those not so familiar to 'Morse' or new to 'Endeavour' will find plenty to enjoy, and while the pilot and first season are more accessible in tone they will still appreciate the darker route "Trove" and most of Season 2 takes.

Relationship between Morse and Thursday, which is like a father/son sort of chemistry, is entertaining and heartfelt with so much warmth. The pacing is restrained, but that allows the atmosphere to come through, and pretty much all the same it excels in that aspect. The characters are interesting, lead and supporting, with Morse displaying more recognisable character quirks with each episode and as aforementioned it is impossible not to love his relationship with Thursday.

Shaun Evans as ever does some powerful, charismatic work as younger Morse, showing enough loyalty to John Thaw's iconic Morse while making the character his own too. Roger Allam is also superb, his rapport with Evans always compels and entertains but Thursday is quite a sympathetic character, as well as loyal and firm, and Allam does a lot special with a role that could have been less interesting possibly in lesser hands. All the acting is very good, Anton Lesser has always been fine to me as Bright, the character and performance more sympathetic than usual, while Sean Rigby does a nice job as Strange and James Bradshaw would make Peter Woodthorpe proud. Abigail Thaw (John Thaw's own daughter) makes a more than welcome return, and the supporting cast, especially David Westhead and Jonathan Coy, are strong.

In conclusion, was let down by the ending but loved the rest of the episode. 9/10 Bethany Cox