(05-04-2015, 02:31 PM)Drunk Monk Wrote: 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.

(05-07-2015, 11:11 AM)Drunk Monk Wrote: 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.

(05-09-2015, 01:35 PM)cranefly Wrote: 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.

(08-31-2018, 10:18 AM)Drunk Monk Wrote:

(05-04-2015, 02:31 PM)Drunk Monk Wrote: 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.

(08-31-2018, 10:34 AM)Greg Wrote: 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.

(08-31-2018, 11:40 AM)Drunk Monk Wrote:

(08-31-2018, 10:34 AM)Greg Wrote: 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.

(02-12-2021, 09:32 PM)Drunk Monk Wrote: 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. 

(04-11-2021, 06:54 PM)Drunk Monk Wrote: 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.