Fantastic!

A very feeble attempt at affirmatie action

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

David Renwick is a comedy genius, but Jonathan's successful career and glamorous wife in last year's Easter Special were unconvincing. Perhaps the new episodes that are promised for this year (2014) could be presented as flashbacks to a nerdier past. It will be a shame if there are no more appearances by Sheridan Smith as Joey Ross - the most endearing of his companions so far, who obviously harboured a secret passion for him. Some of the plots have been a bit ropey - notably "The Omega Man" which portrays the US Air Force as ridiculously incompetent. They would have cracked the "mystery" straight away without any help from Jonathan. There must still be plenty of plot lines that could be adapted, for example from Chesterton's Father Brown stories (the current BBC series is woeful) or the locked room mysteries of John Dickson Carr, alias Carter Dickson. However on the evidence so far I think the writers can continue to come up with new, baffling, and entertaining stories.

This series is in the English tradition of the « independent » investigator who helps the police solve some bad criminal cases essentially with their mind power and their observation power. The great model of them all is Sherlock Holmes but many more were invented and developed in detective story literature, especially female specimens like those of Agatha Christie. In this case the main mind, Jonathan Creek, is associated to a woman who is a reporter or writer of some kind. They are only interested in complex cases, especially having to do with some surreal or super-real elements. Jonathan Creek is by profession the technical inventor of a very successful magician, a certain Adam Klaus. So there is always the disappearing of a criminal or of some artifact, or some illusion that has to be placed back in context, and that cannot be explained at all with normal physical considerations. In other words magic. Then the stories always add a personal element about the victims and the people around the victims that is strange too and has to do with some kind of mysterious business often shown as a scam. The object here is to show that most "magicians" are nothing but crooks who pretend they are performing something supernatural, only when they are performing a sham, an illusion, a treacherous dishonest act. The stories are extremely inventive and the situation in which Jonathan Creek and his female associate finds themselves are often hairy and frightening. Generally it ends up in the hands of the police except from time to time when they decide it is worth a special treatment. The second Christmas special is typical at that level. Satan's Chimney really is Satan's Chimney. Of course not the Satan you may think of, but quite a different one that has not been living since the Middle Ages, but one of blood and flesh today. That Satan is so perverted that he leads some people into doing some so unnatural things that the name of Satan is by far miles away from his reality. The second quality of this series is that, being a BBC production, it has no advertising and an hour is an hour. I must say that is slightly different from the one hour American series that are reduced to a small 45 minutes, when so much, because of the advertising that is interspersed in the show. The extra fifteen minutes gives the story some depth because they just have the time to build that depth and there is only one enigma in each episode which makes it possible to concentrate on the details, and that once again is a major difference with American series in the field, today imitated by some European series, particularly French series. That's definitely a positive point. If you add to that the acting that is perfect, even at times more than perfect you nearly have a totally admirable picture. But in fact there is another essential element that is 100% British. It is humour (note the spelling of course). At times it is gross, at times it is subtle, or sexual, or political, or whatever but it is humour all right and it gives the series a catching look that you cannot miss. You laugh in the midst of the worst details of the worst crimes you can imagine. Finally we will note the police is practically always shown under a non-negative light, often positive, and some times not too swift. There is a nasty copper from time to time just to spice up the vision. This series is worth the numerous hours it covers at least 1,000%.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, University Paris 8 Saint Denis, University Paris 12 Créteil, CEGID

This series offers something different than most other detective series. With this one, you genuinely have a chance of figuring it out yourself if you spot the right clues along the way. It isn't like most other whodunits where you are just following the story, here you can choose to do that or try and exercise your gray matter. In one case a friend of mine and I stopped the episode just before the explanation at the end and tied all the loose knots ourselves.What I really like about this series is that with each episode it takes an impossible situation as its premise and then runs with it. Alan Davies fits the title role perfectly - an anorak with some social issues. Caroline Quentin is quite the opposite - a bubbling character always sticking her nose where it doesn't belong. Again, perfect typecasting. When CQ was replaced by Julia Sawalha the show took a bit of a hit in my opinion. Additionally the ideas which were so free-flowing in the beginning, seemed to dry up.Seasons 1 & 2 are by far the best. Season 3 starts to feel a bit formulaic and season 4 is only just watchable.

Can't they do a Johnathon Creek special like they did for The Office? They can't leave it so open-ended! I want Jonathon and Maddy to ride off into the sunset together!! I need closure and I need it now!!! * NOTE: They have book tours in England, why can't Maddy just suddenly show up for a book tour and meet up with Jonathon--then they can get things together, finally, so I can stop watching the old episodes crying in despair (lol) that it will all 'end badly'--I think that the ABFAB kid is okay but she doesn't have the on-screen chemistry with Alan Davies (going out or not) That Caroline Quentin had with him. So her leaving the acting world shouldn't put a damper on the plans...and I'm just babbling on so I can fill the ten line requirement.