Little Things… Again

Still. Always. *heh*

My lil Kindle Fire is a trap. As I’ve noted before, via the Amazon Prime videos, I’ve watched a lot of TV shows I’d otherwise not have watched, particularly quite a few British shows. In general, they’ve all beat the pants off the usual fare on cable TV around here. Some, though are just barely better.

Midsomer Murders. What to say about it? *sigh* Very good programatic instrumental music, and on the Fire, with a good set of headphones or ear buds, the sound in general is amazing. All the tiny sounds of the really quite interesting environment–passing traffic, birds, background conversations, etc.: wonderfully reproduced.

The sets and locations are gorgeous, very interesting, lush. And the video is very beautifully done.

So, production values: superb, in general.

But. The plots are pedestrian ripoffs of the typical English village mystery murder story. *meh* Often, the acting is really overdone–a fault in direction, IMO. And some of the details are pretty poorly executed. Depictions of blood are particularly transparently stage blood (I’ve made and used enough of it–and had even more experience with the real stuff *heh*–that the telltale look is really grating at times) poorly applied in unrealistic manners. Settings depicting places that have been ransacked or where fights have supposedly occurred are often clumsy as well.

And then there are the anachronisms and especially the chronological issues that arise when large time offsets are depicted in preview or flashback scenes.

Altogether, these sorts of things reduce what might have been an A- show to a B- or even C+ in my estimation. Sad, really, but I’ll keep watching it, because even a C+ beats the heck out of most other TV that’s available, and the music and visuals are worth it, anyway.

But still… only four episodes per season?!?

Another minor quibble, but this applies to any streaming video from time to time: pixelating, etc., when there are some pipeline issues. But, eh, notaproblem, really.