Perhaps because so many good English mysteries come to America, we're used to seeing some terrific stories with great acting, directing, and story lines. This is a rather strangely bad piece of work. Roy Marsden plays Inspector Dalgliesh as a somewhat nasty and whiny man; the rest of the characters are all extremely unpleasant, and the one good person in the story ends up making a completely inexplicable decision at the end of the interminably long show (the other police sidekick is a terrible actress who seems to only be able to squint and wheeze at the camera). The writing is very poor quality, with constant speeches explaining what characters are doing or what they should be doing, and the direction is bafflingly amateurish. All in all, given that the people involved, including PD James, are for the most part talented professionals who have done far better work, this seems as though it were put together in a few weeks and then thrown onto television. Just not up to the standards of a Foyle, a Morse, a Lynley, etc.
Review of Original Sin
