The usual format, at least so far in this series, has Morse, followed by Lewis, slouching leisurely around, scowling at the floor, mumbling to himself. The crime takes place within a limited social network, often a family. There are many scenes in which the inspector sits in someone's living room and has an elliptical conversation with another, who may have been involved. The reveal comes at the very end, usually casually, in the form of an offhand remark, and the villain is shown to be someone who has been marginal throughout the story.
The writers must have decided to try something new in this episode because the pace is far more lively than it has been previously. "Vivace" instead of "allegro", as Morse might put it.
It looks a lot more like a traditional detective mystery. Someone is out to make Morse suffer -- and he's a genius at it. Morse has his car keyed, spends time in jail, and has his house set afire. The problem is that hardly anyone is smart enough to outwit Morse, to anticipate his actions, and a computer check shows that that the one man who MIGHT be that smart died in prison in Sweden. Everywhere Morse and his colleagues turn, there is more evidence that Morse was involved in the initial murder and perhaps in the ones that followed. And why not? At the opening, Morse is about to perform in the chorus of Mozart's "The Magic Flute" when a scream is heard. Morse rushes into the adjacent room first. There is the body of a woman stabbed to death. A kitchen knife lies on the floor next to her. And what does Morse do? He lifts the dead body in one arm and picks up the knife with his other hand. When the others stumble into the room, there is the inspector leaning over a dead body with the murder weapon in his hand. If that's the best Morse can do, it doesn't take a genius to outwit him.
There are more conventional suspense-enhancing tricks in the direction and editing too. I won't bother to describe them but you'll notice them. Best acting award to Richard Kane as Morse's temporary replacement. He overacts outrageously and resembles a sort of comic version of Vladimir Putin.
The title of the story is "The Masonic Mysteries" but it has little to do with Masonry. There are references throughout to the Masons and to Mozart, who was supposed to be a Mason himself, but the heavy is a Zoroastrian. That has practically nothing to do with the plot either.
The writers must have decided to try something new in this episode because the pace is far more lively than it has been previously. "Vivace" instead of "allegro", as Morse might put it.
It looks a lot more like a traditional detective mystery. Someone is out to make Morse suffer -- and he's a genius at it. Morse has his car keyed, spends time in jail, and has his house set afire. The problem is that hardly anyone is smart enough to outwit Morse, to anticipate his actions, and a computer check shows that that the one man who MIGHT be that smart died in prison in Sweden. Everywhere Morse and his colleagues turn, there is more evidence that Morse was involved in the initial murder and perhaps in the ones that followed. And why not? At the opening, Morse is about to perform in the chorus of Mozart's "The Magic Flute" when a scream is heard. Morse rushes into the adjacent room first. There is the body of a woman stabbed to death. A kitchen knife lies on the floor next to her. And what does Morse do? He lifts the dead body in one arm and picks up the knife with his other hand. When the others stumble into the room, there is the inspector leaning over a dead body with the murder weapon in his hand. If that's the best Morse can do, it doesn't take a genius to outwit him.
There are more conventional suspense-enhancing tricks in the direction and editing too. I won't bother to describe them but you'll notice them. Best acting award to Richard Kane as Morse's temporary replacement. He overacts outrageously and resembles a sort of comic version of Vladimir Putin.
The title of the story is "The Masonic Mysteries" but it has little to do with Masonry. There are references throughout to the Masons and to Mozart, who was supposed to be a Mason himself, but the heavy is a Zoroastrian. That has practically nothing to do with the plot either.