Call me an Anglophile, I don't care--it's probably true. This is a program for dedicated Anglophiles and those aspiring to be one. (LOL) The continuing adventures of Detective Inspector Lewis and his trusted sidekick Detective Sergeant Hathaway stand out for the strength of production values, acting, writing, and direction that are credits to the Masterpiece: Mystery! series tradition here in the States and television anywhere. Unlike most reviewers, I've never seen the Inspector Morse series which gave this one its genesis, but be assured I will be checking those discs out on Netflix shortly. Just know that this series stands completely on its own and is without peer, at least in my experience. The principals all acquit themselves with increasing wit and flair as the series progresses, creating a palpable matrix of living relationships which provide the sort of ongoing back story that insists you return, like that finish at the end of a wee dram of single malt, for more.
The cinematography (this is shot on film, not video), score (it is far too high quality to call it simply "music"), sharp pace of direction, and of course the acting, by both regulars and guests, is more than first-rate--it is better than we have any right to expect. Oxford is a very photogenic backdrop for the stories which manage rather niftily to send up the upper class snobbery of England at the same time that it celebrates the hallowed tradition of academia and culture with which it is inextricably entwined. The squarely middle-class education and perspective of the older Lewis is also projected against the Cambridge-educated Hathaway, a lapsed theologian who is at once intellectually on par with these Oxford denizens while yet at the same time apart, due to the inter-school rivalry as well as his own lineage, which we learn more of as the series progresses. The subtle windups Lewis and Hathaway deliver each other are to be savored, for they are the real mark of affection and respect each develops over time for the other.
That each episode fills in certain intriguing details of our regulars' back stories at the same time it guides us, with red herrings aplenty, through the solution of some very puzzling cases is also part of the magic of Inspector Lewis. I find myself at moments ignoring the developments of certain cases, not because they are dull, but because I am so consumed by disclosure of personal details and the repercussions amongst series regulars. Their lives matter to us, greatly, and their relationships are not completely static.
Never dull, frequently witty, and almost always a step ahead of us, Inspector Lewis is a series that entertains at all times, often plumbs surprising emotional depths, and occasionally achieves the elusive grace of art.
