Arcadia

A supermarket, owned by a very rich family, seems to be at the center of some bad doings. Right at the start, a young artist is killed when his apartment is set ablaze. Meanwhile, a young woman leaves the supermarket, begins to gasp and dies on the street. There is also a connection to a commune in the country. A young an seems to be the leader although he says he is merely the one who started it. In the midst, there is a kidnapping and a ransom demand. The grocery guy's daughter has been kidnapped. This man is a tyrant and is in a nasty marriage. His wife is lonely and seems to have her needs met outside the boundaries of marriage. She is attracted to Morse and comes on to him. There is a protest going on outside the store by some Rhodesian students and their sympathizers. It has to do with the purchase of Rhodesian sugar. Anyway, as is usually the case, a series of connections develop and Morse and Thursday are given the task of sorting it out.

This is another episode related to specific political issues again that regarding Southern Rhodesia, by now it's blown up to a full blown international incident involving a trade embargo with Britain.

It impinges on Oxford in a rather tangled web having at its centre a local business family the Richardsons, the seemingly innumerable strands involving a kidnapping of the daughter for a large monetary sum under the pains of death.

A protracted campaign against the company possibly in relation to them trading in embargoed goods, that involved poisoning and contaminating food produce, produced by the company and sold through its stores.

The consequences of everything include explosions, murder and a lucky escape for a young baby from contaminated baby food, an abducted baby, and political intrigue.

A happy and momentous occasion occurs in the life of Cowley stations DS Peter Jakes, something that to all accounts comes completely out of the blue, a new love of his life, and new family, his new Spouse Hope has study, work, and family connections to the States.

Morse seems something of a rum cove, invited to his mates leaving do he prefers to lurk outside the pub, when Jakes asks why he's not inside, he rather lamely cites work.

Most peculiar especially as he has gone out his way to ensure that, he "someone single with no one in his life" should take Jakes place, in any possibility of danger.

Morse is not seen to be working rather lounging in his new home, but when Jakes and his new partner are on the bus out of town, he discovers a good bye note to Peter from Morse, accompanied by some postal orders for their new child's future.

I'm very impressed with this series and the acting of Shaun Evans in this prequel to Morse. In fact, Endeavour is a more complex, less one-dimensional character than Morse. He matures with each episode and this one shows his friendship with another detective named Jakes that pre-dates his later friendship (of sorts) with Lewis. Not to forget Thursday who is his mentor. Jakes leaves for a new life in America at the end of this show so we can only imagine the collaboration that might have followed with the two young police detectives. The Morse-Thursday relationship is interesting because we see in Thursday a man who is similar to the Lewis character: down to earth and hard-nosed but without the intellectual bent of Morse. Nevertheless, both Lewis and Thursday recognize the intuitive mind that Morse/Endeavour brings to his work. In this show, Endeavour and Jakes work effectively together and risk their lives for one another. We also see the young Morse as a man who is attractive to women and is quite open to their overtures towards him. Nevertheless, he resists the temptation here to give in to one who would compromise his investigation. He is quite a capable and smart young man although with a much softer side than the older Morse. This show is set in the sixties but Morse was not one to fall for the sixties' anti-establishment bias if he were to compromise his work. This show is a very carefully created character study of the young Morse (Endeavour). It is also a complex story involving corporate ethics, the racial policy of Rhodesia and its impact in the United Kingdom, as well as the confused idealism of the 1960's.

Right out of the box, "Endeavour: Arcadia" begins with two deaths, that of a woman dying in the street after she exits Richardson's Supermarket, and a man killed by an explosion in his apartment when his cigarette catches fire.

Morse, back at work, doesn't think the explosion was an accident. The man's alarm clock stopped at 5 o'clock; it was the catalyst for a bomb. Morse and Thursday get a lead that the man lived for six months on a commune called House Beautiful.

People who shop at Richardson's are becoming ill, and it comes out later that the store has had threats that they ignored. As a result, the daughter of the owner is kidnapped and held for ransom. Also, there are protesters outside who believe the store is selling Rhodesian sugar.

As it turns out, the cases are connected.

Morse has some uncomfortable moments with Mrs. Richardson, who wants Morse to zip up her dress, I guess after she's taken it off. I noticed the character of Endeavour, who is as much like Inspector Morse as I am, is much bolder this year, more easygoing with women, and more sure of himself.

Anyway, it's very good and the two plots come together well. The acting is wonderful, and I'm sorry to see Jake Laskey leave as DS Jakes heads for America. A friendship has developed between the formerly nasty Jakes and Morse, and it was great to see.

Loved the '60s atmosphere too. Highly recommended.

More 'similarities.' Mrs. Robinson and the Graduate. Then Morse going full Dirty Harry with his holdall. Though Clint never thought of aniseed balls.

They still haven't matched the episode in which it was revealed that Thursday apparewntly trained with Sam Vimes on Discworld.

Still, I love the characters and - especially - the period. Nothing yet to match Neverland but way better than the original Morse.