User Reviews

Used to love Endeavour but boy has it gone off the rails with this latest ghastly narrative arc in latest two series...Ludo and his missus are both repulsive non credible characters in every possible way, unless they are working together in some sort of ruse to use Endeavour for crime which is now the only possible justification for their inclusion (i wont be hanging around to find out). Even if they ARE, as friends and lovers for Morse they re horribly awkward and phoney, about as much chemistry between both husband and wife and Morse as cheese and barbed wire. She looks like she stumbled in off a little theatre set practising for an amateur production of Carmen and he puts one in mind of an obsequious annoying leech. And their lines !!!! Shaun Evans does his best but looks ridiculous trying to play it straight (that scene in the restaurant when there s the show down omg so embarrassing) and Roger Allam has to work super hard to stay on track, he looks genuinely ticked off and it would not be hard to see why...so why has this terrific series been polluted with this tawdry dross? Who in God's name thought this was a good idea?

This is a far more intellectual treatment of the later Morse, or Lewis characters. The writing is excellent and doesn't try to explain more than necessary, allowing the audience to draw nearer, and in doing so, draw their own conclusions.

Shaun begs us to reach out to understand him, as he gives more away with his subtle expressions than words. It's as though he practised his scenes, first pretending to be mute.

It's been said the show is too Sherlockian, to which I would agree. Solving too many complex pieces of the crime puzzle in just one moment or scene, or crowded in near the ending, makes Endeavor's character less human, less embraceable. The writers should focus on a more smooth process of revelation to enhance our connection with the young Morse and avoid over time, to produce episodes so formulaic as the Lewis series.

Often, these out of period TV series appear fake, say, recreating the 60's with actors displaying a 2014 social maturity. Fortunately, but not perfectly, it sidesteps most of the usual puddles. However, Thursday's daughter is anachronistically wise, balanced and foolish, all at once. Definitely a time traveller. And the antagonistic sergeant is overdue for his comeuppance.

One of my most favourite authenticity ingredients is the little old man with the huge grin. He's placed in every episode, like Hitchcock shows in every one of his own films. He reminds me of the six-fingered man at Michael Cain's bar in Get Carter. Nice touch!

Thursday and Morse are the standard bearers of quality acting for this series. I have rarely been so excited to see more. Keep up the great work!

Well here we are The End. It's Over. Exeunt. Not just Endeavour but the whole canon. It has been a superb ride. I watched all of Morse "Live" back in the day from January 1987. It was brilliant, unbeatable and ground breaking. I bought all the double pack VHS tapes and then the DVDs with the magazines. It was that epic. I was thrilled when Lewis returned, almost in tears during the pilot, or "Reputation" as it became known, it was, in it's own right a really good series, not quite Morse, but close enough. The addition of Laura was the deftest of touches. (I'm looking for Inspector... Mouse?" - If you know, you know).

Then came Endeavour, what to make of this? There was a two series cross-over where both Lewis and Endeavour were on screen. How would the Liverpudlian Shaun Evans fill those massive Morse-sized boots?

Well he did and he was helped enormously by the cleverest of writing. Russell Lewis, I doff my cap. You achieved the seemingly impossible.

Endeavour works, like the very best of shows, on many levels. It works for the World wide audience, for people who have no connection, other than via media, to the UK. But it really works for those of a certain age. There are a *LOT* of the cleverest of Easter Eggs in many of the 36 episodes. Easter eggs than mainly work if you get the references.

From mirrored choirs, to mirrored songs bookending the series'. From Fred's "turn" in the very spot Morse met his end (what would have been) 28 years later.

Character names used in Endeavour that would turn out to be wrong 'uns in Morse like Matthew Copley-Barnes, unforgettably played by Geoffrey Palmer in 1990.

The mention of a young Police cadet up in Newcastle being the only relative of a dead man. One Robert Lewis.

So Endeavour really works if you know your Morse.

But in also works if you know your pop-culture Britain. Subtle and clever references to Thunderbirds, Crossroads Motel, Mr. Benn, On the Buses, James Bond's Thunderball, Dixon of Dock Green. There are too many to mention.

It also works if you know your Dexter with an unsolved crossword puzzle in the last episode being set by "Codex" the real life nom-de-plume of one young crossword setter called Colin Dexter.

All this is without the wonderful Dorothea Frazil, played superbly by Abigail Thaw, daughter of the original Morse, John Thaw. Her first meeting with Endeavour is a true gem. "Oh, another life then?"

Imdb is littered with failed endings of otherwise superb TV shows. This will not be in that group. It succeeded and like the whole show it succeeded on many levels.

The ending will have anybody who loves Morse gulping for air and wiping back a tear. The overhead shot of black and red Jaguars crossing should be a Bafta winning moment.

The main question has been answered as well. Why did Morse never mention Thursday or Joan at all in any book or film? Now we know. Sorted.

So thank you to all involved, I can't imagine there is anywhere else to go. Halfway through Lewis I could have seen a series called "Hathaway" but that is never going to happen now. 'Cos, y'know. There is a small 14 year window, from summer 1972 to summer 1986, when filming started for the first Morse, but I really can't see them going there.

My vote for the three series would be Inspector Morse 8.5, Lewis 8.0 and Endeavour 9.5.

Morse is only so low today as it is ageing, as any show with clunky car telephones will. In it's day it was solid 9.0.

So Endeavour bows out at the very top, it achieved something that very few long (cop) series do, it got better and the end was the best, rather than doing a "Line of Duty" hitting us with a bang and , ok not getting much "worse" but certainly not getting any better and leading to a very strange conclusion. Happy Valley is close but that was less than a 10th of the screen time that Endeavour had to consistently rise to those heights. Endeavour could easily have had 4 or 5 more series, but they are doing the right thing. Morse has done his time and is laid to rest before the gap gets too small.

"Gratias tibi ago pro omnem" as Morse might have said.