Foyle's War is a good intro to a British detective story format. It follows the cases of Detective Chief Inspector Christopher Foyle along the provincial south coast of England. Foyle is an intriguing, complex figure. Stoical, perhaps to a fault, he yet retains a rigid sense of right and wrong and the rule of law as he pursues the bad guys. Smarter than his bosses, he must suffer the typical snubbing that comes from mediocre superiors. Because of the snubbing, he brings his formidable deductive skills to bear on unsuspecting yokel perpetrators who nearly always get nabbed by him. He is joined in his adventures by a pleasant female driver and a somewhat brooding Dunkirk veteran. All three of the primaries are people you come to care about and their lives usually make up part of one of the subplot elements. Each episode usually has three subplots that often get inter spliced during denouement. US viewers will note the lack of car chases, and culminating shoot outs that are standard fare in American crime dramas. These shows wear well with second and third viewings. What wears less well is the tiresome BBC political bias. A pronounced distaste for the British aristocracy, conservatism, nationalism, and over-paid, over-dressed American GIs that are over there is sprinkled liberally throughout the various episodes. Anyone watching BBC, or HBO to take another example, is girded for these invariable skews. Expect it here too. Point it out to young minds as you go along enjoying the ride through this well-crafted reconstruction of the British Homefront during their Finest Hour.
Review of Foyle's War
