Midsomer Murders, series 23, ITV1, review: warning – this show has reached hokum overload
When you watch Midsomer Murders on ITV1, don't expect to see realistic film-making. However, The Blacktrees Prophecy took things to a whole new level of absurdity. I believe that the writer, Jeff Povey, purposely created such outrageous content. If you overlook the lack of believability and embrace the nonsense, you might enjoy it as a lighthearted experience.
The blog post talks about the strong start of the first episode of the 23rd series, with a vividly portrayed murder and a thoroughly unnerving villain in Warren Kaine. Kaine leads a group of local doomsday preppers who have built their own bunker in the woods. When he receives a message on his shortwave radio saying that someone has pushed the nuclear button, he urgently rushes to the shelter, only to find out that it was a false alarm. However, things don't go well for him in the end.
An unidentified person dressed in protective clothing and a mask tampered with the ventilation system, causing Warren to die from lack of oxygen. While some may have been reminded of Walter White from Breaking Bad, the faceless antagonist added to the spooky atmosphere of this episode of Midsomer Murders, which is often lacking in scares. Masks certainly have a way of inducing shivers.
Of course, the character known as the hazchem individual (whose gender was unclear) kept appearing with various weapons and large containers of cooked meat, dispatching people in an impressively creative manner. One of my top favorite murders in Midsomer Murders involved this person, where a suspect was ruled out from DCI Barnaby's (played by Neil Dudgeon) investigation after being launched into a tree due to a lifeboat explosion (which for some reason was stored in a forest). We can probably learn something from that, although I'm not entirely sure what it is.
Povey, like the ill-fated lifeboat, managed to take audiences through the extensive, and often excessive, exposition with a clever use of irony. Midsomer Murders moves along ponderously, navigating the muddled paths of its plot with an exasperatingly sluggish pace that can leave viewers feeling as though they've been forced to endure an endless reading of Proust by Alexa.
As MM's main strategy is to maintain consistent and predictable violence, which has become one of Britain's top selling points, it must be something that people find attractive. Personally, I don't understand the appeal when there are far superior shows to watch. However, I did appreciate the small jokes intertwined throughout the storyline, such as the juxtaposition of an impending apocalypse with the unexpected arrival of Barnaby's mother-in-law at his home. These moments added enough interest to the otherwise dull plot.
