Britainology 91: Midsomer Murders
Added 2024-10-15 19:13:09 +0000 UTCFor the much-belated second Britainology of September, we watched Season 2, episode 4 of Midsomer Murders ("Blood Will Out") and.... enjoyed it? It was somehow good? And was early enough in a very long-running series to not have any supernatural elements shoehorned in. We discuss the aesthetics, the weird British archetypes represented, and the universal motivating truism through all of human experience, which is: "I want that twink Obliterated."
Comments
see also - Father Brown, detective, but he's a vicar! Pie in the Sky - detective, but he's a baker! Lovejoy - detective, but he's an antiques dealer! If they haven't at least tried one where the detective is a farm vet I'd be amazed.
Tovfly
2024-10-24 09:20:46 +0000 UTCwhoa whoa whoa, Nate, my good man, Um Jammer Lammy is *not* a shitty game
Tovfly
2024-10-24 09:10:10 +0000 UTCIf you're doing stuff that mum and dad watched on Sunday evening like this and Foyle's War you need to do Time Team.
dase
2024-10-19 22:40:18 +0000 UTCIdk if it was an accident or purposeful choice on Shocks' behalf but this episode seems like exactly what Hot Fuzz was a send up of down to the missing goose.
Tom Hauptman
2024-10-19 13:43:49 +0000 UTCrunning through twinks like Sherman through Georgia... 10/10
jakub
2024-10-19 04:32:12 +0000 UTCNot a detective show but one that came about in the same period would be League of gentlemen. It’s very good but has some questionable choices and characters
Martin Wright
2024-10-19 01:56:12 +0000 UTCDeath in Paradise might be a fun show to cover and on the topic of unhinged duos, there's Shakespeare and Hathaway, a duo of detectives (plus a flamboyant actor assistant) solving crimes in Stratford upon Avon
weronika mamuna
2024-10-18 22:29:41 +0000 UTCMilo's Orville Peck joke was absolutely masterful and I'm gutted that it didn't get appreciated
Pat Biss
2024-10-18 21:29:18 +0000 UTCI’d love to hear you both chat about the Cornetto Trilogy (maybe with guests?) - I was a rare case in that I only saw the series in its entirety this year at age 26, I know a lot people were probably exposed to it before then and it’s likely both of you have seen it, but I think that from a “fucked British vibes” perspective it’s a pretty fun example
Anna
2024-10-18 14:23:14 +0000 UTCI’m amazed you guys talked about John Nettles and there was not even a whisper of the word “Bergerac”
Stuart Harrison
2024-10-18 05:51:04 +0000 UTCUnrelated to this episode, but I would love a Britainology about the cursed reality TV of the noughties (e.g Big Brother and Jade Goody as a phenomenon, Supersize versus Superskinny, which features the most ED-baiting/triggering content I have ever seen on TV)
Katherine Allen
2024-10-17 13:16:22 +0000 UTCOne thing that's an interesting dynamic in the earlier seasons is the framing of Barnaby as the *knowledgeable and tolerant* person while his much younger sidekick Gavin as the "fascist sidekick". If two women share a flat Barnaby knows what's up, he knows life and love comes in all shapes and forms, nothing human is alien to him, while Gavin assumes they *surely* must be sisters or somesuch. With time of course the writers turn Barnaby into the typical old fart out of synch with the times and his final season he is shocked and surprised for the reason that two men or women are living together. I just wanted to shake the TV and scream: You knew about gay people 10 years ago! It's a shame that they didn't continue with the setup of the old guy being the more tolerant, having had time and experience widening his horizons contrasted to his crypto-fascist sidekicks, and instead slowly retconned Barnaby into being just another old man who understands nothing of todays youth with their gizmos and gayness.
Gunnar Hansen
2024-10-17 09:20:11 +0000 UTCYou do get a lot of Romany travellers with southern accents, although more typically Leeds and Essex way than west country. Most actually travelling rom in the UK came over about 200 years ago so you'll get basically any regional accent in the UK, hell I sound west country myself
Tali Ladd
2024-10-17 06:58:57 +0000 UTCSome other British detective series that you might look at are Inspector Morse (the original) and Inspector Lewis (the sequel series). I never watched any of the Inspector Morse series but I remember watching Inspector Lewis as a kid. How it fits in/reflects British culture of the time I have no idea.
Kolby
2024-10-16 19:02:57 +0000 UTCPeak British Boomer Mum Television
Ian Priest
2024-10-16 17:43:09 +0000 UTCBath mentioned!
Erin Taylor
2024-10-16 13:03:31 +0000 UTCI watched exactly this episode with my English grandmother and my dad and made the immediate mistake of explaining the usage of “Gypsy” vs “Traveller.” My grandmother immediately bombarded me with a hateful speech on how she would “call them whatever she wanted, they should know to jump in to the sea” and immediately went back to drinking tea. This woman, towards the end of her life, had an ongoing rant about how Britain was no longer Britain because they gave India back.
A Gaggle of Geckos
2024-10-16 12:59:17 +0000 UTCNate giving me nostalgia whiplash with the Um Jammer Lammy reference 😅
Tera
2024-10-16 12:58:07 +0000 UTCAmazing incidental PS1 Memory Corner, as someone who never forgot any video game he ever read about in a games magazine up to about 2008
Nah
2024-10-16 12:49:49 +0000 UTC"They hang the man and flog the woman Who steal the goose from off the common..."
Michael Hopwood
2024-10-16 11:55:17 +0000 UTCTravellers once let their horse loose on the B road by the local shopping mall, whether wittingly I know not. A majestic horse rearing in the road and stopping the funereal mall traffic was a heartening sight.
Michael Hopwood
2024-10-16 11:52:49 +0000 UTC+1 for Lovejoy. Or for a more obscure cosy crime series (and more Richard Griffiths): Pie in the Sky
Richard McKinley
2024-10-16 10:28:24 +0000 UTCi remeber watching this all the time when i was young was very popular in scandinavia. john nettle was on skavlan when he retired and one episode was set in denmark. you should have used the excellent theme song as intro or outro. cant belive you forgott to mentiom the theremine.
SunRaTheThird
2024-10-16 06:12:11 +0000 UTCI have a similar Royal Mail story as Nate, they handled 10x parcels totalling 3k of stock that was meant to be redirected because I had a redirection notice on the address, they delivered it and they went missing. The delivery office excuse was ‘the redirection used to show up for these, but it was Christmas (it was early November) and the bins that parcels go into are quite small and obviously (yes that word was included) your parcels are too big so we delivered them’. Incredible reply, I worked out the personal emails for their senior leadership at their head office, sent it then and they didn’t take to kindly to the delivery office’s email and I got the value back as a bank transfer
H
2024-10-16 03:17:14 +0000 UTCGood God, I was not prepared for the amount of middle aged people fucking that goes on during Midsummer Murders. It’s like every 3rd episode over the life of the series. I don’t think PBS got Midsummer Murders until like mid 2000’s so that might explain why Nate missed it. You guys should also tackle Lovejoy.
Man, I Got Nothing
2024-10-15 21:50:01 +0000 UTCI have watched all of this show as a guilty pleasure. So good.
M
2024-10-15 20:06:44 +0000 UTCThe Ur-Twink...
rachel alday
2024-10-15 20:02:46 +0000 UTC
