Tuesday 14 February 2017

DEATH IN PARADISE - SERIES 6, EPISODES 5 & 6 (BBC ONE)

DI Humphrey Goodman and the team find a man murdered on his boat five miles out at sea. The only clue leads to four suspects from London who quickly return to the British capital.  

Commissioner Patterson sends Humphrey, Florence and Dwayne to work on the case in London with DI Jack Mooney of the Metropolitan Police.
 
The bottom line: Here's the computer, said Florence.

It took five episodes of Death in Paradise (including last year's finale) to prepare the departure of Kris Marshall/DI Goodman and his replacement in this London two-parter. This is certainly an improvement over the inelegant ice pick exit of Ben Miller's DI Richard Poole, his predecessor. Too bad all this is at the expense of most of the current series, stucked until now into the annoying romance of Humphrey and Martha (Sally Bretton). The only purpose of this storyline (and consequently of the two-part episode) became obvious right from the second episode.

Then, ahead of the official confirmation that Kris Marshall was leaving, the trick was to spot the presence of Irish comedian/actor Ardal O'Hanlon (Father Ted) as DI Jack Mooney in the guest cast of the fifth episode. The laboured first half of the London story is saved by his introduction and the excellent Danny John-Jules (Dwayne). Except  for him and the the always enthusiastic J.P. (Tobi Bakare), the rest of the regular characters look like they seriously need a permanent new posting off screen. 

The second part of this double episode is better, particularly for a scene between Humphrey Goodman and Jack Mooney (« Be my guest. ») and an appropriate nod to Love Actually. Ardal O'Hanlon does a very good job for his arrival. Anyway, the feel-good detective drama has a worldwide audience so there's no doubt that the new Detective Inspector has been choosen very carefully.  Although the character reminds of his predecessors, Jack is a recent widower and has a daughter in her 20s named Siobhan (Grace Stone). Next time, we'll see how he manages in Saint Marie.

See also:

http://tattard2.blogspot.fr/2017/02/no-sht-humphrey.html
http://tattard2.blogspot.fr/2017/01/midsomer-murders-series-19-episode-4.html
http://tattard2.blogspot.fr/2017/01/death-in-paradise-series-6-episodes-2-3.html

No comments: