The 23th season of "Midsomer Murders" has not been the greatest with "The Blacktrees Prophecy" starting off promising and then becoming more dull as the episode went along. "A Grain of Truth" was not very good episode as well to , only "Debt of Lies" has been an episode in this season that I have enjoyed quite a bit.
"Dressed to Kill" is unfortunately not very good either and I am saying it with a sincere regret. The episode had a solid premise and I did enjoy Maria Ward's previous story "The Witches of Angel's Rise". "Dressed to Kill" though has quite a bit of problems.
Let's start with the good aspects, shall we?
. The production values of the episode are great as usual. The direction's decent and the music fits the scenery. Out of the disappointing cast Ace Bhatti, Suzanne Packer and especially Sophie Stone fare the best. Stone gives a very good performance indeed.
. The murders are clever and there are some humorus sequences here and there.
But....
. The acting is at times not good enough. LJ Johnson and Baxter Westby have to improve as actors, because their line delivery is not always spot on. Nigel Lindsay does not make much of an impression and Felix Kai's performance is just too much.
The characters in this story are mostly lifeless and the narrative feels padded for the most part- there was too much attention given to drag queens. After a fine start, the story sadly becomes dull, the dialogue feels unnatural too. The solution (Olivia being the culprit) felt flat at best.
Overall, I just did not like it. And believe me: I wanted to.
3/10 HK.
"Dressed to Kill" is unfortunately not very good either and I am saying it with a sincere regret. The episode had a solid premise and I did enjoy Maria Ward's previous story "The Witches of Angel's Rise". "Dressed to Kill" though has quite a bit of problems.
Let's start with the good aspects, shall we?
. The production values of the episode are great as usual. The direction's decent and the music fits the scenery. Out of the disappointing cast Ace Bhatti, Suzanne Packer and especially Sophie Stone fare the best. Stone gives a very good performance indeed.
. The murders are clever and there are some humorus sequences here and there.
But....
. The acting is at times not good enough. LJ Johnson and Baxter Westby have to improve as actors, because their line delivery is not always spot on. Nigel Lindsay does not make much of an impression and Felix Kai's performance is just too much.
The characters in this story are mostly lifeless and the narrative feels padded for the most part- there was too much attention given to drag queens. After a fine start, the story sadly becomes dull, the dialogue feels unnatural too. The solution (Olivia being the culprit) felt flat at best.
Overall, I just did not like it. And believe me: I wanted to.
3/10 HK.