The show stars Shaun Evans as the young Endeavour Morse, with Roger Allam portraying his mentor and superior, Detective Chief Inspector Fred Thursday. The Masterpiece Web site provides this synopsis of the season (which was already broadcast last fall in the UK):
New year (it’s 1971), new cases, and new struggles lay ahead for Morse, Thursday, and their team. While still reeling from the events of the past year, they’re summoned to investigate cases involving IRA relations, and a string of murders that may end up threatening not just the public, but the detectives themselves.Wikipedia provides brief write-ups about each of the three forthcoming episodes: “In ‘Striker’ Morse solves a case of a Northern Irish footballer being threatened by paramilitaries; in ‘Scherzo’ the murder of a cab driver near a naturist resort while dealing with the consequences of a murder spree at a hotel eight years previous. Meanwhile, in ‘Terminus’ Sam Thursday goes AWOL in Northern Ireland, causing conflict in the Thursday family, and Morse remains stranded at an abandoned hotel during a snowstorm.”
After Violetta [Talenti]’s tragic death at the end of Season 7, Endeavour has spiraled deeper and deeper, struggling with the loss, guilt, and love weighing heavy on his heart and mind. But crime doesn’t stop for heartache, and the trouble in Oxford is bigger than ever.
As tensions rise outside and inside the team, Endeavour and Thursday find themselves continually at odds. The question is, will their relationship withstand the strain?
“[Series Writer] Russell Lewis has really done a great job with the scripts,” Evans said about the new season, especially with Endeavour’s mental health struggles. “Human beings are so complex. People want to label things and explain them away. But you can’t. One of the beauties of being able to do something long form like this where we return to it again year on year is that hopefully you have the opportunity to show that in a way that’s a little more subtle. That has always been the intention from us all.”
So, less than three months remain before Endeavour, Season 8, debuts here in the States. To stay entertained in the interim, my wife and I have been watching—and greatly enjoying—Murder in Provence, a three-episode BritBox series based on M.L. Longworth’s Verlaque and Bonnet detective novels, set in Aix-en-Provence, France. The show again features Roger Allam, this time playing Investigating Judge Antoine Verlaque, with Nancy Carroll (Father Brown, The Crown) in the role of his romantic partner, law professor Marine Bonnet. The mysteries and suspects are well crafted, and the connection between Verlaque and Bonnett is both fully credible and engaging. There’s no word yet on whether Murder in Provence will be given a second season, but I certainly hope it will.
No comments:
Post a Comment