Inspector Lewis: Series 2
by Rebecca Eaton (Co-Executive Producer), Michele Buck (Co-Executive Producer), Ted Childs (Co-Executive Producer), Damien Timmer (Co-Executive Producer)
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Actor: John Thaw, Kevin Whately, Laurence FoxDirector: Damien Timmer (Co-Executive Producer), Michele Buck (Co-Executive Producer), Rebecca Eaton (Co-Executive Producer), Ted Childs (Co-Executive Producer)
Brand: WGBH HOME VIDEO
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 602 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2009-10-13
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: PBS
Product features:
- Oxford's Inspector Robert Lewis (Kevin Whately), prot g of the legendary Inspector Morse (John Thaw), and his brilliant, brooding partner, Detective Sergeant James Hathaway (Laurence Fox) are back with four twisting new thrillers, and this time their personal connections to their work threaten to expose more than a killer. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION Rating: NR Age:
DVD Reviews of Inspector Lewis: Series 2
DVD Review: Now I understand what the problem is with every plot -- PBS cuts 10 minutes out of each episode, reportedly!
Summary: 2 Stars
Review Part I:
After watching the last of PBS' current series of Lewis last night, I am so glad I stopped by these reviews today, because it has explained to me something that I was puzzled and unhappy about, regarding the entire Lewis series (which I have only watched in the US on PBS, not in the UK on ITV).
About 75% of the way through each episode of Lewis, there always seems to be a huge jump in the story, where the viewer cannot put 2 and 2 together to make 4, but the lead characters always seem to understand it perfectly. One minute it's a murder fest and the next minute they are having a pint after the dastardly villain has been taken in for questioning. I have had to watch almost all of the Lewis episodes that were shown in the US a second time, for the plot to even make sense. This was really bothering me, and I was blaming the Lewis writers for it, because the Inspector Morse series, as far as I can remember, did not have this kind of weird, incomprehensible rush to the ending.
However, after reading the 1-star and 2-star reviews here, I know what has been happening -- PBS has been cutting 10 minutes off of each episode (for absolutely no good reason), therefore showing a cut version in the US, and that's why the dramas seem so choppy in places (especially towards the end, in my view).
It's one thing to cut 10 minutes off of a musical program or a travelogue, but it's quite another to cut 10 minutes, towards the end, off of a mystery drama the very point of which is how interrelated every element of the story is in reaching a final conclusion in a natural manner and at a reasonable pace. Ridiculous. This is a crazy decision by PBS. It is insulting to the audience and it's unfair to the creators (writers, actors, producers, etc.) of the series.
Review Part II:
There is another reason I have given this series a low grade. I cannot stand Alan Cumming's introductions.
The late Alastair Cook who introduced various UK miniseries on the PBS of old was a great host, and I later learned that he was quite well-known in the UK for all sorts of journalistic reasons that had nothing to do with his PBS hosting bit, although it was the main thing he was known for in the US. Of course, he can't be replaced.
But Alan Cumming is kind of an odd choice. He always seems a little dodgy -- in behavior, countenance, and fashion choices! His voice isn't pleasant, and his attempts to be "dramatic" and clever fall flat. He's worn the same outfit to introduce every episode of the current PBS Lewis season (obviously the intros were all filmed on the same day, but that's no reason not to make it look a little more polished by having a different outfit on when introducing each week's program) and his shiny trousers this time are way too tight and caught my attention for all the wrong reasons (and not in a pleasant way either).
Now, it might seem petty to give PBS' box set of Lewis a low mark due to shiny too-tight trousers on a too-actory fellow who comes off as a bit of a tosser, but the entire series would be much better off if these silly introductions were axed and we could just have the deleted 10 minutes of the actual productions back on the screen each week.
Review Part III:
Even if we had the full-length episodes and no Alan Cumming introductions, I would still give the Inspector Lewis episodes a 3 out of 5. Respectable, worth it at times, but no instant classic. I thought the Inspector Morse series was better generally, although the quality across episodes varied, of course. I think the Lewis writers are really stretching to think of the most outlandish things they can to bring something new into the stories, and they often go too far into the ridiculous.
I find the Lewis shows comforting, like a familiar blanket and cup of cocoa, when you don't want to think too much (in fact, you cannot think too much while watching, since PBS America has deleted 10 minutes of crucial plot build-up), and when you just want to see some pretty scenery and to hear some British accents. I have never really warmed up to Lewis as a character (or even to Whately as an actor); I enjoyed Morse's personality more. I actually like the Hathaway character since I think the actor himself is kind of attractive (in a gangly, geeky way; miles more handsome than Chris Evans in my book, but that's another thing altogether!) and he does lend some oldish-youthfulness to the situations they find themselves in.
However, I am sure that if I lived in the UK at the moment I wouldn't watch these shows very often, because of all the other choices on UK tv. It's only because I live in the US right now and there are very few UK dramas available to watch (although I get BBC World in the US, it's a sorry excuse for a channel -- there is no relation between its schedule and the real schedules of the real BBC channels) that the Lewis shows are of interest to me.
The first Morse episode I ever watched was when I was living in Woodstock (Oxfordshire) and flipping around the channels - it was the "Last Bus to Woodstock" episode, so it caught my attention. Ever since, I've seen about 1/3rd of the Morse series, and I have a soft spot in my heart for Morse, even though I'm seemingly about 25 years younger than the program's current fanbase.
Review Part IV:
My PBS station shows almost no UK content, except for the current Masterpiece series coming from the national level (anyway, you can have Wallander - ugh, and Cranfield - not great, etc.) In the last couple of years I have travelled around a fair bit in the US for work (having to stay in hotels) and I've noticed that many PBS stations have more UK series (old ones, ancient ones, new ones) in their lineups. I guess it's partially a good thing that each PBS affiliate has a huge choice about what to air, but the monetarily-poorer ones and the less-well-managed ones are kind of letting the team down (in many ways: not just about UK content, obviously -- my local station shows the same boring content repetitively and it's often quite old -- there are surely many more recent and wonderful PBS programs from the US and all over the rest of the world that they could be showing). The Kenny Everett show, Monty Python, Love for Lydia, Brideshead Revisited, the Dave Allen show, the Young Ones, etc. etc. on PBS, late at night, on a 16-inch black-and-white tv when there were only 5 channels to be received, made a big impression on me when I was a little kid (I stayed up really late even then!), and started my interest in the UK. Seeing some international television, even if it's just from another English-speaking country, can broaden the mind, and give us a little more understanding about the rest of the world. I think there should be more international programs available in the US to watch in English or dubbed into English (without having to have an expensive satellite connection).
Description of Inspector Lewis: Series 2
Oxford's Inspector Robert Lewis (Kevin Whately), protégé of the legendary Inspector Morse (John Thaw), and his brilliant, brooding partner, Detective Sergeant James Hathaway (Laurence Fox) are back with four twisting new thrillers, and this time their personal connections to their work threaten to expose more than a killer.Inspired by the Inspector Morse novels of Colin Dexter
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