Reviews

This is a fun slow reveal exposition that allows the viewer numerous opportunities to figure out not only the main mystery but also the relationships and past history of the characters. There are indeed a few events hat probably wold not have happened in real life - for example at one crime scene one of the witnesses must have left foot prints but the police don't find them - but this doesn't really distract from the enjoyment of puzzle solving. Some aspects of the two detectives character are developed in anticipation of later episodes in the series - the fact that these are not completely resolved in this episode is fairly standard for a multi-part series. Pretty much everyone in town is a potential suspect with a potential motive so unlike some puzzles where one has to figure out who could possibly have done it, this one is largely a puzzle of elimination.

The clues just are not here to solve this mystery. If you like to play along and try to solve a murder, The Last Seance is not for you. As another review said, the production values are immense. But any episode of Inspector Morse has a better mystery. Most of the story is completely irrelevant, and the final "Aha" moment involves jumping to a conclusion that only one person in the world would be able to get a particular item - despite the fact that a second copy of that item is sitting in front of the person making that logical leap and almost certainly a hundred other copies of that item could also be found in similar places.