Midsomer Murders: Set Eight (The Maid in Splendour / The Straw Woman / Ghosts of Christmas Past)

For many years now, I've been able to depend on the "Midsommer Murders" series bring me good entertainment that always resulted in me having extreme comfort in the knowledge that I would be viewing a series that contained some wonderful acting, great stories with "jolly good" mysteries and some very interesting characters. This three disc, three episode (about a 100 minutes each) Season Eight is no exception. Barnaby played wonderfully by John Nettles is back along with his "new" sidekick a kind of cynical Sergeant Dan Scott as played by John Hopkins. As in season seven, they are still making a "good team" solving dastardly murders in supposedly peaceful Midsommer village. Barnaby on an occasion does wonderfully lose his patience with Sergeant Dan Scott; however, as I've said before, he does it like a "favorite" uncle would do it and Sergeant Dan Scott does in this season deserve to be taken down a "notch or two"---he does seem to think that he has all of the ladies in a swoon including Barnaby's wife and daughter. Nevertheless, on my part, there were never any longings for homophobic Troy (Barnaby's former partner). I do still like Scott's demeanor and humor and I do think he and Barnaby make a good team for as long as it may last.All in all this is a really good season with murder/mysteries that are intriguing and interesting enough to keep one awake and alert; however, complicated enough to keep one guessing just who might have done the deed. The "body count" is still rather large; however, the length (about 100 minutes)of each episode, allows each case to be solved splendidly with many false leads of "who done it?"; plus, it allows a fine introduction to some eccentric and fascinating inhabitants of Midsommer--what a great assortment! It kept me always guessing the outcome--jolly good!(By the way, the episode called "The ghosts of Christmas Past" is marvelous. It is filled with villiagers singing Xmas Carols, plum pudding, questionable suicides, magic, murders, spooky houses, a very precocious kid, etc. After one views that episode "visions of sugar plums" WON'T be dancing through one's head. It's really good and mysterious!)

This review will have to suffice for all the other "Midsomer Murders" DVD's we have purchased and will buy in the future!These Amazon issued Midsomer Murders are truly magnificent! Each takes place in a small British village that has been around for centuries. The people have secrets that have been around nearly as long and festered! Everyone thinks that they know all there is to know about one another, but they don't. Something happens to rile someone enough to off his or her neighbor which brings in our familiar, reliable, intelligent Chief Inspector Barnaby and while he and his assistant attempt to find out what has happened yet another person bites the dust! We get involved in the lives of the police and C.I. Barnaby's family and, of course, the people in the villages.Each "Murder" in each Set lasts nearly 2 hours and there are nearly always 4 units in each Set so one gets nearly 8 wonderful hours of viewing. We ration ours carefully. We were delighted to find out that there are far more sets than we had been seeing on our PBS TV station, which seems to have gotten to only Set 8 or 9. Maybe 10? Having seen those 2 or 3 times each and now seeing that the sets go up to number 22 via Amazon we are very, very happy.

I will admit in the interest of transparency that I am addicted to Tom Barnaby and Midsumer. The lush meadows, spooky woods, fairy tale cottages and mansions, and characters, so eccentric they could only live in insular English villages, all combine to trap the viewer in a world that probably doesn't exist anymore if it ever really did. I defy anyone to hate being so trapped.And the murders! Wonderful murders committed by a variety of baddies for a variety of motives, using a variety of weapons: knives, swords, ligatures of all kinds, poisons, assorted blunt instruments, and the shotgun. All mystery lovers and Anglophiles ought to own all the Midsumer Murders DVDs.

This is one of the best detective shows ever. John Nettles is terrific! The acting and the writing are outstanding. Even if you're not usually into mysteries, the regular cast and writing make it worth a try.I was disappointed that there are only 3 discs, yet the cost is the same as the 4 disc sets have been. That's a rip, so I only gave 4 stars. It's also always disappointed me that these are not released in order and not all of the episodes are released. The Maiden episode is clearly an earlier one when Dan Scott and Barnaby are still trying to get used to each other. The writers were trying to loosen Dan up and make him a bit more like Troy -- a mistake. I do miss Troy. He had much more humor than Scott does and he screwed up now and then, like a young, over-eager detective may do. Mostly, his driving "skills" made for some good laughs. Scott doesn't provide too many laughs, so the whole series has less right now.Still, John and the other cast members make the show so good, it's worth buying this set. Christmas episodes tend to be overly sentimental and sugary sweet, but this one isn't -- Thankfully! The writers did a great job, as usual.

Great DVD's. One arrived damaged and I did not know it until we had it in our house for a while and I no longer had the receipt. I called customer service and he was extremely polite, friendly and helpful. Sent me the return label and authorization within minutes and I had the new set two days later. This all took place on a Sunday too! I am SO impressed with your customer service that I think you all should train every other company that deals with the paying public! Thank you again.

This video contains the best Christmas episode of the series. The 12 year old steals every scene he is in, he alone is worth the entire DVD. Now I can enjoy this program every year.