Endeavour ****
I had never watched Endeavour, the Morse prequel, until last December, when I was on holiday and decided to try an episode. I was hooked. I've now - thanks to the benevolence of ITV - managed to watch the entirety of the series so far, although this has taken some persistence, and a willingness to watch them in completely the wrong order.
As in, simultaneously watch parts of series 2 and 4, or find I didn't catch the end of a series in time and have to wait months to finish it. For this reason, I can't account in what follows for the larger plot developments. That means there won't be any spoilers here!
I should explain that having watched all of Morse again, (also in the wrong order, but never mind) I was essentially in mourning for the loss of John Thaw and, indeed, Colin Dexter. There was something strangely nostalgic and comforting about the Morse series, which is completely at odds with the mysogyny, lack of political correctness, and the fact that the 1980s and early 1990s wasn't actually a good time for anyone really!
(I insert a brief note here to add that I recently heard a top notch radio adaptation of The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn, and thought that John Shrapnel made a very nice Morse. Also, the attitude towards disabilities displayed in this is extremely old-fashioned, and therefore rather awkward. But I digress....)
I have watched Lewis, for many years, and I'm afraid to say that for me, Endeavour is much better. I think there are several reasons. In my view, the fact Endeavour is set in the 1960s means that it more closely follows the social commentary of Colin Dexter's Morse. The series is beautifully shot, very possibly influenced by Mad Men or Life on Mars.
Attitudes towards women, issues of race, homosexuality, all the themes of the day are carefully contextualised and commented on but in a way which doesn't leave the viewer feeling preached at. The sense of Morse's moral battle with the establishment at its worst and with evil in all its forms is a perfect echo of the original series. At the same time some storylines seem remarkably relevant to our own era. I think Lewis was a little guilty of creating a picture postcard Oxford, where Endeavour has more of a focus on the reality of Oxford, and its underworld, and its all the better for that. There's a bit less 'town and gown' and more 'town'.
I think Kevin Whately in Lewis is superb, but have reservations about Lawrence Fox, his side kick. He's just a little too dry. Whereas the combination of Inspector Thursday, played by the wonderful Roger Allam and Endeavour, played by Shaun Evans works much better. There's also much better use of long running characters, such as Anton Lesser (another brilliant actor), Dakota Blue Richards, Abigail Thaw and Sean Rigby (as Jim Strange).
One of the shortcomings of the series is that of course, there's no room for Endeavour to have a genuinely happy romantic relationship, unlike Lewis, whose able to walk into the sunset having found a second love after his wife dies. We know what happens to Morse. However, that doesn't mean that his love affairs don't add some value to the series. But unlike Morse, many of Endeavour's love interests have a bit more depth to their characters.
A great aspect of the series is the care and attention paid towards keeping the character true to form, and the links with Morse are clever, rather than overly obvious. Freemasonry links series 2 and 'Masonic Mysteries' in Series 4 of Morse, for example. In fact it took me a while to work out why young Strange says 'Matey' so much, until I made the connection with Strange in Morse. Much less time to recognise the young Max.
There have been a couple of rather barmy episodes, which riffed off Spooks, James Bond or John Le Carre, but seemed in keeping with the times. One episode in particular seems a little bit over the top, involving a tiger in a maze, but on the whole the episodes tend to make sense, and don't leave you too confused or disappointed by sudden denouements.
For me the twist in these particular murders is that the star of the show is so much the setting (much like Life on Mars in that respect), except on the whole, lacking the schmaltz or overt nostalgia of many shows set in that period.
All in all I really enjoy watching this series, and look forward to another. Even though I know it can't last forever...
