the audience applauded

Overrated and overhyped

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

written by Elizabeth George, you will surely find these lacking. Characters missing, character changes. Generally these series out of the U.K. are well acted and the scenery, of course, is lovely. But if you are a fan of the novels, you will not see the wonderful twisted plots Ms. George weaves.

I saw my first episode a couple of months ago. I loved it ... until the last ten minutes. The end was plain disappointing. You were left with a strange feeling of hopelessness, rather than anything being (properly) ended.Then last night we happened to come across another episode as we were flicking channels, looking for something to watch. It looked promising, I thought. (I had forgotten about my previous experience with this series.) It was going so well. The acting was great. The plot was beautifully crafted, I thought. I would have given it a 9 out of 10 - but for the ending. (Here's the spoiler, sorry.) One of the main characters died. I can understand that happening in a series when it is the last episode of the season & the producers need to write out a character who'll be unavailable for the next season - but that wasn't the case in this episode. It was more as if, the viewers *have to* be given something miserable and pointless - yet again.I don't know who the writer is, but I can only guess that when he/she went to film-writing school, the class on How to Write a Good Ending was at 8 am or similar - that is, far too early, so this writer slept in and missed that class every time.It has great acting & a good beginning and middle - but that cannot make up for miserable endings which leave a nasty taste in one's mouth.I give it only 2 out of 10.

I have now rewatched several of these, and have refined my appreciation. The usual models for these sorts of projects is to distribute the episodes among different directors and screenwriters, assuming that the continuing characters are what matters. This series is different. The producers kept a firm hand on the way the episodes are framed; there is a consistent framework carried from one to the other that understand George's structure perhaps better than she does herself.There is a murder or two. The dynamics of this murder happen in their own word, a world of madness or unraveled anger. The sense behind this is fantastically abstract, and is framed by a sort of soap opera centered on the events and characters that are suspects.A more human, immediate layer — an entire third world — is the soap opera of a quite different nature in the lives of the continuing characters: Lynley and Havers. He is derived from Peter Wimsey, a second order aristocrat engaged in justice for his own reason. He has friends and lovers. Havers is an abrasive young lower class woman, struggling with family issues. This world is layered as well between Lynley and Havers.One can easily imagine George seeing herself as Havers, watching and commenting on Lynley as he tries to understand the dynamics of the world he has entered to solve the crime, and find the embedded "world of motive." This layered narrative format is understood by the producers of the series. Significant attention is paid to camera distance to register intimacy or lack of it. In particular, Havers is always the omphalos of the thing. Sharon Small is the actress who has taken on this central role and she is simply magnificent in it. She has the job of being a person in the thing, but that is an ordinary chore for an actor. She also has to be the observer and observer of the observer as the writer's surrogate. We never lose sight of the fact that this is a novelist's construction and she has included herself in the world as its origin.Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

This is about the worst cop series on British TV I have ever seen although not as abysmal as the books. Here we find stereotype after stereotype although the BBC at least managed to keep out the worst misconceptions about British police work. The characters are two dimensional but still the script tries to give them a depth which they simply do not have. The stories are very contrived and not particularly realistic, the pace is very slow and nothing really breaks that pace. It's exquisite boredom and the series gives itself an exaggerated air of seriousness. To me, the Lynley series, both the novels and the TV shows, are the most overrated items in crime fiction.