Death in Paradise

[Drunk Monk]

My latest binge series has been BBC's Death in Paradise, which relies heavily on the Castle formula, arguably more so than the Mentalist did.  The first two seasons are on Netflix.

It's set in a fictional Caribbean Island of Saint Marie, and has a bumping reggae soundtrack, which like RastaMouse, really sells it for me. 

The lead is a nerdy but observant DI (like Castle) who is a transplanted Brit and always wears a suit and tie in the tropics, paired with a hottie DI (like Beckett), and two assistant cops, but instead of an ethnic macho vet and a milktoast goody-two shoes, it's an old cagey veteran cop and a young rookie.  There's a commanding officer who always tells the investigators to be prudent.  There's even a mom, although it's the hottie's mom, and she's not a ginger, she's French.  Every episode starts with a murder and there are a lot of red herrings until the very end when the lead DI gathers all the suspects together and unravels the complicated murder plot.  It's very formulaic that way. 

Wikipedia gave me some spoilers about upcoming cast changes in Season 3, and the show went 4 seasons.  The seasons are short, just 8 episodes.  It has completely derailed my DareDevil viewing.

Carly Rae Jepsen?  WTH?

I caught an ep of Death in Paradise from season 4.  Three of the four lead roles were swapped.  And there wasn't as much reggae music.  I'll probably bail out on the series by then as it didn't work nearly as well with the new cast.

LCF and I have watched a few Death in Paradise episodes, some with the original lead, some with the replacement.

Our problem with the show has always been the British lead as protagonist.  There's something demeaning and imperialistic about a British dude showing these lowly islanders how to solve criminal cases.  It reminds me a bit of The Principle and The Substitute, where James Belushi and Tom Berenger respectively enter a problematic black neighborhood and win the hearts and the minds of would-be dropouts and drug addicts.

True, there is an attempt to show the naivete of the Britisher as he tries to fit in on the island; still, when it matters most, the Britisher takes control, holds forth, and the islanders hang on his every word as he solves the latest murder.  And a lot of times what the islanders overlook are things they should know (lack of footsteps in the sand, the fact that it rained last night, the boat schedules to and from the island).

Still, when LCF and I stumble upon the show when I'm channel-surfing, we usually end up watching the rest of the episode.  It's such a beautiful setting, with beautiful islanders, that we can usually ignore what we consider its shortcomings.

My latest binge series has been BBC's Death in Paradise, which relies heavily on the Castle formula, arguably more so than the Mentalist did.  The first two seasons are on Netflix.

I poked back into Death in Paradise because Season 7 said 'new eps' on Netflix.  And there's a new detective.  DI Humphrey decided to stay with his love in London in a two-part transitional episode in Season 6, and now DI Mooney steps into the lead.  Frankly, the show lost it for me when Camille exited at the end of Season 4.  Mooney has a t'ick Irish lilt and is funnier than Humphrey, who was a bit of a lost soul.  I suppose it's sweet that they wrote him out finding love in the end, because his crushes on Camille and Florence was a bit icky.  I kind of wish they wrote him out like they wrote out the original DI Poole at the beginning of Season 3 because that was awesome.  

The series has become more formulaic than ever but there seems to be more reggae in the soundtrack and the settings are more beautiful.  The Saint Marie patois no longer works for me anymore.  I'm not planning to watch more of this really.  It was just an excuse to ttt this old thread.

Hey! I started watching Death in Paradise completely as a coincidence. I saw the first two episodes and they were horrible. How many cliches can you put in an hour? Turns out a lot.

Plus, the whole lets stand around while the detective tells us how it was done drove me nuts.

Hey! I started watching Death in Paradise completely as a coincidence. 

I know. That's why I brought it up.

The whole genre of murder mysteries and police procedurals are just a pastiche of cliches.  It's really just about the hottie partner with these now.  And Camille was cool.

Brit Box has Death in Paradise season...um...9? Anyway it was supposed to be 2020. It's still Mooney and almost all of the cast has flipped except for JP, the Commissioner and we think the bar owner (Camille's mom from way back when they had Camille, an original cast member who left around s4. It was pretty much the same. I called the perp almost immediately, called the frame up and solved the murder very early on. It had Siegfried from the new All Creatures Great and Small. The new DS is annoying with her fakeass patois. But it's still lovely scenery and the reggae soundtrack ain't bad. 

It's weird tho because it's set in 2020 and 2020 didn't look like that at all as I remember it.

[Drunk Monk]

Brit Box has Death in Paradise season...um...9? Anyway it was supposed to be 2020. It's still Mooney and almost all of the cast has flipped except for JP, the Commissioner and we think the bar owner (Camille's mom from way back when they had Camille, an original cast member who left around s4. 

So I was mistaken. It was S8 and S9 flipped to another new DI. BritBox just posted S10, which is the 2nd season of the new DI Neville, who is the worst one so far. Florence is back (apparently she left for S9) as well as JP, the Commissioner, and Catherine (Camille's mom). I solved the murder almost immediately when the crime went down - didn't have all the motivations but put together the mcguffin - twas so obvs. This show is so formulaic that Stacy and I decided it's even dumber than it was before, although they've upped the reggae soundtrack and seem to show more scenic segue shots, which is really all that we watch it for. 

The original DI Poole and Camille were great. And the twist of having Poole be the murder victim when he left the show for the S3 premiere was brilliant. Both characters have a cameo somewhere in S10 and I may have to search that out.

[Drunk Monk]

The original DI Poole and Camille were great. And the twist of having Poole be the murder victim when he left the show for the S3 premiere was brilliant. Both characters have a cameo somewhere in S10 and I may have to search that out.

Poole and Camille make guest appearances in a two-part ep - 5 & 6. Just leaving this note here for myself for later.

[Drunk Monk]

Dammit. S10 only goes to e4 as of now.

[Drunk Monk]

We watched e10e2 and were totally duped by some red herrings, but guessed other plot twists. Still very predictable, but the views are nice.

[Drunk Monk]

Beyond Paradise is a spin off series following DI Humprhey. He left Saint Marie to be with his fiancee in Shipton Abbot on the Devon Coast. He's still the bumbling detective in another beautific quaint seaside town with a lot of tourists. The reggae is replaced by English jigs. Humphrey and his fiancee reprise their roles. It has much of the same formula - a stodgy commanding officer (female this time), a young cop who gets in a lot of foot chases, another DI who is always a step behind but entertains Humphrey's quirks because she knows he's oddly brilliant. Humphrey solves the crimes with the same 'aha!' expression, piecing together the absurd clues to catch the culprit. 

We're about 4 eps deep. It's ok. Inocuous enough. I haven't been able to solve any of the crimes yet. Stacy solved one as soon as the perp appeared (I fell for the red herring on that one). It's scenic.

Seen on BritBox ala Amazon Prime.

[Drunk Monk]

Seen. There were only 6 eps so only 2 to finish. 
Stacy watched them both last night but rewatched them with me over dinner.
E5: I considered pointing out who the perp was but didn’t say it out loud so it didn’t count. In retrospect there weren’t any other viable suspects.
E6: The crime was trivial to the end where Humphrey, distraught over his fiancée issues, returns to Saint Marie and reunites with the chief inspector and the beach restaurant owner, plus meets the new team (completely different from when he left). I was just despairing over the lack of the wonderful theme song of the original series and this closed with that. Such a classic tune. Irie vibes.

Here’s the Skatalites version (not what is used in the show, not the original version, but the tightest one because … well … skatalites)

[Drunk Monk]

Season 14 (!!!) e1 Xmas special

Haven’t checked in with this show in a minajte but it’s a new London DI and shockingly, he’s black. The remaining cast is Dwayne, Commissioner Patterson, Camille (who’s now the mayor), and the lizard. I think I missed 2 Dais since I last watched this. Don’t really like the new guy. And the crime was preposterous - no way to solve it until the final clues came in right before the reveal. 

Not sure if I’ll watch more. We only watched it because it was Xmas.