"Midsomer Murders" was at its finest in the first nine seasons, I have said it numerous times. In that era mostly very good episodes were made (with the exceptions of "The Straw Woman", "The Electric Vendetta" and "Second Sight"). The third season of "Midsomer Murders" is solid in the long run with "Death of a Stranger" being a pretty good season opener. It's not a great entry to the series, but manages to be very good indeed.
Let's start with the good aspects first, shall we?
. The production values of the episode are great as usual. The direction by Peter Creegan is gorgeous and the music fits the scenery. Out of the mostly strong cast Diane Fletcher, Dominic Wafham and Jeanne Hepple do particularly well.
. The murder mystery is compelling, has nice humor and is never boring, with a lot of twists and turns. The characters are colorful and the ending (with Grahame turning out to be the killer) has nice horror-tones in it.
But...
. There were way too many revelations in the last half an hour of "Death of a Stranger" that it was hard to keep track of them. It would have been much better if the mystery was better structured.
Overall, pretty good, if not great.
8/10 HK.
Let's start with the good aspects first, shall we?
. The production values of the episode are great as usual. The direction by Peter Creegan is gorgeous and the music fits the scenery. Out of the mostly strong cast Diane Fletcher, Dominic Wafham and Jeanne Hepple do particularly well.
. The murder mystery is compelling, has nice humor and is never boring, with a lot of twists and turns. The characters are colorful and the ending (with Grahame turning out to be the killer) has nice horror-tones in it.
But...
. There were way too many revelations in the last half an hour of "Death of a Stranger" that it was hard to keep track of them. It would have been much better if the mystery was better structured.
Overall, pretty good, if not great.
8/10 HK.