the-aleator

[the-aleator]

sure! here's that link again: https://drive.proton.me/urls/WW864VRHA4#44YT3AWrlBuA sadly and frustratingly, for some reason Barcroft never interviewed RL on s9. if you come across any from different sources do please let me know!

Oh my goodness, really? Well, I am going to read these with enjoyment, thank you again! I will let you know if I find anything about s9.

[the-aleator]

endeavour musings xxi

featuring: exeunt iii

Thursday is coded as Cyril Morse: (1) he's associated twice with Horatius, from Lays of Ancient Rome, once in a voice-over and secondly when he quotes it in the beginning of the ep. According to book!canon, "he [Morse's father] could recite all of Macaulay’s Lays of Ancient Rome by heart;" second, Morse pays off his debt; third, he's having heart trouble, which Thursday brushes off with "a turn or something," exactly what Cyril says in Home. (Of course, by the end of the episode, we also see the other Thursdays coded as family for Morse: Sam shares his news, Joan hugs him, Mrs. Thursday gives him a Wed Special)

I'm still trying to understand the ending: I do think this is one of the places where it's supposed to be vaguely ambiguous, but the more you think about it the more it dissolves into a incoherent mush--I think trying to shove BV and a COW and Thursday into 90 minutes was WAY too much. I also think the ending is problematic because: -in order to make this work, we have to totally ignore the fact that 7e3 happened -we have to make the leap that Morse went out to meet Lott but was saved by the deus ex machina Bikers and only then told them about Tomahawk / Lott -- I think if we decide that Morse told them beforehand as insurance, he has actually committed premeditated murder. Which obviously would make him morally culpable than Thursday. And I find the coherence of this ending problematic: either we have Morse be innocent but saved by the narrative, or guilty of conspiring to murder and justified by the narrative. -magically, Morse has re-recovered his idealism from s8e2: then it was Morse insisting that Sian was "nothing to anyone" and Thursday arguing, even as the lone man, she was "something to us," something to "me at any rate." Part of my problem with this is that, up to this point, we have seen Thursday put everything on the line for that principle: up to and including his career, his marriage. How many times has he nearly died for it? Well, half a dozen at least in canon. Except his children -- but I can't believe we're supposed to think that Thursday should let himself or Sam be stabbed to death.

- Thursday arrives at exactly the right time for Sam to still be in the toilets and to nearly be stabbed to death -I do think that the distinction between the actual stabbing and the cover-up needed to be more delineated in the show. One of the big problems I have here is that the cover-up, according to what we're shown or told, is totally unnecessary. Sam was still in the toilet. Are we supposed to think that Thursday is trying to protect his son from...being a witness? From being found out doing drugs?-- altho if he was just a witness (which he is), that would be fairly easy to obfuscate--the episode establishes the Biker gang are very capable of indiscriminate violence. Or are we supposed to think that Thursday is terrified of being arrested for murder? If it's supposed to parallel Neverland, that is. Or Sam being arrested for murder? But again, that assumes that Thursday wouldn't step up and say he did it, which he clearly tells Morse. -the reveal of Raymond Kennett as Peter Williams seems like a plot device to pile on emotional angst but not actually do anything. We couldn't have gotten that Jakes reveal scene??? -I honestly feel like either leaning into this situation: ie, having Thursday cover up that Sam did kill Tomahawk might have worked better? Or just having Thursday die.

-The problem with making the forces of Corruption so powerful and evil in this series that Corruption has totally sealed up BV, and will be able to shut it down again. Driven Thursday out of London 2x -- with the threat of death on his head. And yet, it turns out to be Lott, whose easily dealt with. It just doesn't work for me. And yet another narrative trope I really don't like: the Corruption is so widespead so evil that they can't trust anybody else. Except, we know that's not true in canon (ie DCI MacNutt) so it's just a narrative convenience. -the Conga trauma line that takes place in s9 to make this happen, on top of what has already happened to Thursday in the whole series + and his own traumatic backstory makes this seem totally character-breaking. On the one hand, we have Thursday saying over and over again that he will do anything for his family, but in order to make it believable in the show, so many separate things have to be applying pressure at once it seems a lot like character derailment: he's leaving Morse, he's totally burnt-out, actual trauma of BV where he nearly died being reopened, he's ill, Charlie, Sam, actual murder attempt. -Strange never manages to mention his wife's name or Thursday's (his FIL!) name's ever again. Neither does DeBryn -- even though they have no reason not to. Everyone in canon forget they exist. (Yeah, I'm playing around in a v meta way here, but also I think if you decide to anchor the Thursdays so strongly in canon, you have to expect that!)

-Yeah, he can forgive Violetta actually murdering people but not Thursday defending himself and his family. QED.

[the-aleator]

Endeavour musings, xx

Featuring: Exeunt ii

MORSE: "Is that it?" CONDUCTOR: "That's it."

One of the little moments at the beginning of Exeunt I really noticed is when Bright is talking to Thursday about BV, and Bright asks Thursday if he knew about Jakes, and Thursday says "Not when we were working together....Nor, obviously, when what happened… happened." Thursday can't even talk about it--what happened to him at BV. When he keeps asking Morse to shut it down or let it go, he keeps reminding him that Morse's life is on the line. He never says: I was shot and nearly died. Bright says it; Morse keeps seeing it in his head. We can clearly see that it makes him afraid. Yet it's only the threat to his family / Morse that makes him shut the case down. And he can't or won't say that about Tomahawk either: that he was going to stab him. He has to say about his "turn" that he's fine. Just the level of trauma here...it gives you this sense that Thursday doesn't think himself worth defending. I just wish the show had been a bit more compassionate about the Thursdays in s9.

I love everything about DeBryn in this episode, from having many handkerchiefs to the "flesh" line in the pub. He's "married to the mortuary."

3. I do get that Thursday is the only possible final heartbreak for Morse, I can see that in the ending--and yes, him living and estranged is the Worst of All Possible Endings. But also, I don't really agree with that for either Book! or Thaw! Morse.

4. The fact that Morse doesn't take Bright up on his offer to send him over to McNutt at the old Cowley station. So what now, Canon? 5. I can really really admire RL's dedication to the story he was telling between Morse and Thursday: all the foreshadowing, the missed chances, back to s1. I do think he had to stretch the character arcs and play too much with Fate to make that happen to make me happy. 6. Yeah, I'm here rooting for Dorothea Frazil and Max DeBryn.

7. Is this a story about love?

[the-aleator]

endeavour musings xix

featuring: Exeunt i

MORSE: "Is that it?" CONDUCTOR: "That's it."

1. I just watched this last night, and the rest of the season in the last week or so. This is probably not the only thing I'll write on this (and the show as a whole), but I had to write something because, well, that's it. So, you can call this a bit of a first impressions post, reacting in the cooldown of the moment. And honestly? I'm a bit disappointed. And hurt -- if I'm allowed to be such a thing about a fictional show with made-up characters. One of the lessons you learn as a musician is that what the audience remembers is the beginning and the end: those are the two bits you have to land and land well. And Exeunt? Well, it's a bit of a mess isn't it? Every time I start thinking about it, I feel the need to launch a separate monograph, so I'll just stick to what's churning the most. Caveat lector.

2. Fred Thursday is not a murderer. He absolutely killed Tomahawk, but what is clearly depicted on screen is self defence. Tomahawk has verbally threatened Sam, he has a knife out, Thursday tells him to be "on [his] way" and Tomahawk replies he'll "do for the pair of them," and tries to stab Thursday. Thursday at this moment is unarmed, has not provoked him or threatened him--he has no intention of killing him. We later learn that Tomahawk in particular has two convictions for GBH, and is wanted for attempted murder. Thursday is more than twice his age, clearly ill, and under an immense amount of stress. Thursday even calls it "instinct." What little we are shown is absolutely self defence. The fact that even TvTropes lists Thursday as having "murdered" Tomahawk ! There are a lot of other unvoiced problems I have with this scenario, but the fact that the show managed to leave this ambiguous for viewers really bugs me. Laying everything else about Thursday aside, I don't think Morse would ever cover up an actual murder or attempted murder. Even for Thursday.  

3. Yes, the Requiem, Morse closing his heart forever, everyone is dead to him, etc etc. I'm not trying to be trivial, I did think it was a beautiful fitting meta ending, but also, I do think it doesn't really work. Do I think it's a lovely mirror action of the Pilot? Absolutely. Do I think it works as a last scene? Yes. Is it beautiful? Yes. But does it wooooork to cast off Endeavour for IM? For me? No. The man who is IM tries over and over to let people in; to the point where his desperation blinds him to people who are murderers (should I say especially murderesses?). His old university professors, his old friends, random drunks he meets in pubs, the old guy around the corner with his car, Adele, Strange, Lewis. He still loves Joyce, and eventually his niece / nephew. He has an extended correspondence all over the world. Whatever he thinks of Gwen (you know, the stepmother who drove him to think about suicide as a teenager, and contributed to his serious drinking problem in Scherzo), he still helps take care of her in a nursing home. This is not a man who's closed his heart forever. 

4. The way the show treats Morse's alcoholism and Sam's alcoholism / drug problem or dealing. I'm sorry, but what? Magical wand waved, and Morse has managed to get sober, go back to drinking but only in an as-needed way as the plot demands? The same thing with Sam, he's been wandering around in a drunken stupor for three episodes but now magically, at the end, he's bright-eyed, cleaned up and going to join the police. I do think this is a serious flaw of this season, and of the show as a whole, standing in the shadow of both Book!Morse and Thaw!Morse, where alcoholism is treated in a much more realistic and sophisticated way. 

5. Justice and redemption: these have been our key motifs throughout the seasons. I do think part of the issue with Exeunt for me on a philosophical level is the loss of exactly what thrilled and consoled me about Deguello. Which is that Morse finally has to face up to the fact that ideal justice isn't possible. It's not just the dilemma with Thursday either. We have Jakes too, who shows up at BV because " It's like half of me has always been here.  Half of me never left," and wanting to know about Peter Williams. And Morse (we assume) can't tell him for the same reason he can't tell Thursday: because Peter Williams was dead a long time ago. He can never "find" him for Jakes. He can never get justice for either Peter. Half of Peter Jakes will always be at BV. In some sense, it's just like Morse all over: justice for the dead is an answer that can be gotten because the dead no longer have questions, or change, or live. They are a book to be read, a puzzle to be solved. But in Deguello, into that gap -- which is always there, in justice-- stepped mercy and the hope of redemption.  Box: "The world is bent.  Always has been. We can't fix it." Thursday:  "We can try." We don't get that hope here -- and that's what feels like a kick in the teeth about this ending. Justice, suum cuique, is impossible, and thus drives away Morse. There is no redemption; this death is the end. 

6. Morse is once again saved by the narrative. Those bikers just neatly showed up so Morse never has to kill anyone. I don't know how many times I've pointed this out over the course of 36 episodes, but unlike Thursday, Morse is never faced with that final dilemma: it's always taken away from him by deus ex machina.  Even in this episode: Lott shoots at Thursday, and he has to defend his brother and himself. There's no one to save him. Tomahawk tries to stab him and Sam, and he has to defend himself. There's no one to save him. And yet, Morse is saved here just like every other single time Morse is saved by the narrative. 

7. The Joan / Morse plotline and wedding fantasy. I didn't think they put in the work to show us a happy Joan/Strange wedding but making it Morse-centric really is something else.

8.  One of the themes about this episode / season in particular is straight out of 1850 and I Do Not Like It. We've learned, over the course of 9 seasons, that Thursday's background is the worst in the show (save perhaps Jakes). His father was an abusive alcoholic, he grew up in extreme poverty in the East End (an outside privy, "one for every eight houses. 20 families." Quartet), and as a result of that he is personally known to many of the villains who come from the East End: Vic Kasper, Eddie Nero, Ken Drury, Mickey Flood. Arthur Lott, the Big Bad, is his former bagman. Charlie, his brother, is responsible for involving him in a long term fraud ("My whole life. Everything I've worked for. You've dragged me into the sewer." Icarus), which as of Exeunt was revealed to be a blind, just so Lott would have something on Thursday--we're not actually sure how much Charlie is involved but he clearly has serious connections to Lott ( Lott: "It's only being Charlie's brother that's kept you above ground.") Thursday is betrayed and stolen from by Charlie btw s5-s9, and Sam in s9; his life savings are all gone. This giant messy web of corruption eventually sucks Thursday in: he's trapped by it and as a result, shuts down BV and also covers up Tomahawk's death. It's that old Victorian favorite: Poor People Have No Moral Fiber. Perhaps it's not on purpose? But there's a definite correlation between working class poverty and corruption here with a fatalism that I don't like.  9. I promise there are things I liked, even loved about this final show: I just need to wait out the frustrated heartsickness of it first. And I have no doubt I'm going to write more about it. And I will absolutely defend that every single actor in this was magnificent, but particular shout-outs to James Bradshaw, Sara Vickers, Anton Lesser, Roger Allam and Shaun Evans. 

[the-aleator]

@too-antigonish Just watched Uniform, so I get to add to this post:

Thursday is absolutely using his Staff Sergeant Thursday voice when he responds to Bright in this scene at Blenheim Vale:

BRIGHT: Did you know about this, Thursday? THURSDAY: Certainly, Sir.

And also, I note at the 1:25 minute mark, when they go back out to Blenheim Vale again, and Bright makes his declaration, "We'll have the truth, whatever the cost," Thursday's right hand is either once again shaking or he's fiddling with his fingers.

endeavour musings iv

featuring: Fred Thursday's PTSD / CPTSD 1. Fugue, s1e2 Everything about this scene is perfect: Morse + Thursday subdue Gull; Bright shows up to ask if everything is under control and Thursday, on autopilot, fixes his hair + hat, tie, suit jacket, and says, "More or less, sir." After Gull gets his parting shot, Thursday picks up his -- now broken-- pipe and his hands (particularly his right) are shaking. Morse definitely picks up on this, ? if Bright does. His whole stance is that of a man in shock. 2. Prey, s2e3 After attacking Hodges, we get Thursday, in his office (? Achilles in his tent?). The framing device of Thursday's office window is such a lovely subtle choice -- mirroring a frequent stylistic choice in hospital dramas -- usually the outside looking in on the patient, but in this case the side profile and slow pan down to see Thursday's hands, his right shaking violently.

It's definitely not a coincidence either that the scene immediately following this one is the discovery of where the tiger has been kept, in a cage. It's Thursday's right hand that trace over the tiger's claw marks, and then he says:

THURSDAY: It's hardly big enough to house a dog in. MORSE: Poor creature must have been driven half mad.

10/10 for Morse's line being a voice-over on a shot of Thursday looking down and finding Inid's dress, covered in blood. 3. Coda, s3e4 I've never before noticed that Thursday actually is pressing the point of his dart into Peter Matthew's neck when he attacks with a beer bottle. I'm fairly convinced that the dart flipping after this scene is meant to be an effective distraction for his hand shaking -- except then we get Thursday's Cough of Death.

But then we get Thursday's roughing up his Snout, and the gun-fighting at the bank: no hand shaking. But I would argue, judging by the way Thursday yells "Sergeant Strange," he is effectively back in the war--the whole episode is just one a pile-on of new!trauma bringing up old trauma. 4. Apollo, s6e2 Immediately after Thursday getting beaten up, we get DCI Box giving him Scotch! and Light Duties!, and oh yes, DCI Box does notice Thursday that your right hand is shaking.

Also, I know Endeavour aims more for the stylized theatrical than on the side of realism, but Thursday is a Man of Iron, for being able to walk off a pick handle and a thorough kicking. (Seriously though: human ribs are actually fairly fragile.)

Which also brings up the really big question in my mind: we never get anything from Win on this! honourable mentions to:

Prey, +100 pts to Bright for being the only lovely person to realize "He hasn't been right since Blenheim Vale" and to say to Thursday's face:

BRIGHT: There isn't a man in this station who will gainsay it but you [Thursday] need to rest and keep your checkups.

A pity that Endeavour is a hurt/comfort show that is aaaalll out of comfort by ... season 2? 2. Ride, s3e1: the full-on body flinch response to being "fake" shot as part of the Great Zambezi's trick.

3. Cartouche, s5e2: staggering out of the burning theater with Morse like two soldiers hobbling off the front line. And then we get a shot of Thursday's right hand and Trilby, still covered in soot, in Bright's office.

4. Coda, s3e4: Thursday reaching for Joan's hand after the bank; and the only shot we've gotten so far of Thursday hand-in-hand with Win afterwards.

[the-aleator]

Your thinking here on the sex / marriage / divorce theme I think is spot-on. But I also think they tried to do WAY too much here and what might have been compelling ambiguity disappears into incoherency under a mess of plotlines. (I also really don't love how the Baz-Del O'Grady plotline is yet again tied to a plot device DV victim.) I also wish they had picked up on the line that the window-washer says to Thursday re his bad temper, "Isn't he getting any?" because honestly that would have been a great tie-in to whatever-the-heck has supposed to have been happening in the Thursday marriage since s6 and also a contrast w/ the London sex shop scene.

There's a great contrast to with all the paintings in this episode which I wish had been more a thematic motif: we get Morse and Thursday looking at Bright's art, Thursady gets a good 30 second stare at the Night Watch, Bright obviously. I do think this a huge weakness of building the Masons up as the ultimate / penultimate? evil of the show: it leaves Strange's character out in the cold somewhere, and also (I now assume) Joan. Even OGShow!Strange and Book!Strange are supposed to be decent, bumbling, bureaucracy focused, cleverer-than-you-think-they-are matey. He wouldn't tolerate being part of a cabal, even for his ambition. I would love for a Thursday in London show. Direct me to the petition! The Semaphore could have been OTT in such a good Colin Dexter way. I do think it could have been made to make more sense, but I guess it was a vestigal part of the mystery that was originally more important. Yes, that scene with Strange was beautiful.

endeavour musings, xvii

featuring: Scherzo (s8e2)

Gwen, the evil Stepmother with a twist of Hyacinth Bucket. Pretty much the star of this whole episode. She's so real: spiteful and petty and overbearing, she's the Dolores Umbridge of Endeavour.

This is one of those episodes that would be twice as good with half the references. Also, the Nudist camp? RL says this episode is supposed to be a commentary on sexuality, so I do see how that would fit in with blue films and "living in sin" themes of this episode, but I also think Gwen is a weird B plot if so.

Pauline Lunn is a fantastic character and I wanted to see way more of her.

Suddenly + randomly Thursday is talking about his kids to everyone. I get that it's to remind us that Sam exists since it's going to be the big climax of S8 and we haven't seen in him...(checks wiki)...3 years. But also, seems careless there, Fred.

There's being clever with your references, and so on the nose that they're cringeworthy. For me, Mark Lunn as an exact duplicate of Morse's past is exactly that. I just find it unbearable clumsy--I can see what RL was trying to do, it just doesn't work for me at all.

featuring Fred Thursday's Traumatic Backstory

MORSE: What will he have had in his wallet, £10, £15, £20? Would you kill someone for that? THURSDAY: I've seen people killed for less.

7. I find the Strange-Joan date strangely compelling. Honestly, though, since Joan is a lot like Thursday, Strange is supposed to be the Win in this pairing: which he sort of suits?

8. "I didn't kill her." And the direct contrast with Win afterwards?!? Is this not the best scene in the last 2 series? ME: why did they so underuse Gwen???

9. Now would be a good time to leave the Masons, Jim. Has it been 3 Grandmasters killed or implicated in 7 years? But they "do a lot of charity work." Please tell me we get some justification that Strange needs to keep a lookout on the inside or something. 10. Thursday in London! Okay, yep, yep, death threat, return death threat, the perfect enunciation of those hard 'c's in "I don't care whose coat you're carrying." 11. I think the semaphore plotline is totally ridiculous but I actually like it a lot and wish it had been more used. 12. Oooh the scene at the end. There's so much to unpack there! [Placeholder for thinking about that here]. +150 pts to Thursday for a great Dad pun.

[the-aleator]

Thank you very much for your nuanced argument! You've helped me to clarify my own thinking. I think your last point, that the female characters are really never given interiority, is bang-on. It's what's driving my frustration with the believability of Joan going to Morse for help. On one hand, if I accept Joan as a flat character w no interiority, accept also the Morse-centric nature of the show, then yes, I do find it believable. She is absolutely ashamed of her circumstances, and I do think she goes to him not only because he won't judge her but also because he's already been established as a character who won't do anything.

But I also find it unbelievable in the sense that Joan has been set up to a rounded character, and as a viewer, I don't like the sense that infamous Russell Lewis Emotional Manipulation:tm: is going on re yet another female character. For example, we know from s1 that she thinks Ronnie Gidderton at the bank is a wet drip; we know she's worked at the bank for 4 years and has friends there. Then, in all her options, she only (so far as we know) contacts Morse: which we only ever see or hear from Morse's side of things. Even the usage of mirrors for interiority is only ever used for Morse in Joan's apartment (and later Thursday).

I guess I just find it bothersome that the only female character who does get a sense of interiority is Dorothea Frazil. I just feel that much more could have been done with Win and Joan.

I really enjoy reading your Endeavour musings. I was particularly interested in your reference to Joan's DV as a plot device as I agree wholeheartedly. I was hoping you could go into your thinking a little bit more about that. In my view, it felt like Joan's DV and miscarriage/abortion was used just as a setting for more Joan/Morse angst (the "marry me" scene was not romantic in the least, to me, and actually signaled how tone-deaf Endeavour was to think that what Joan needed in that moment of vulnerability and hurt at the hands of a man she was in relationship with was a romantic overture by another man) and focused entirely on how Morse felt than on how Joan felt.

I absolutely agree that the scene is focused on how Morse feels, in that moment, seeing her as victim of DV, and yes, his offer is very tone-deaf. I think Sara Vickers does her best to counterbalance the scene, but it's absolutely Morse-centric (in both cinematography and emotional emphasis) -- about how her refusal devastates him, and I don't love it for that reason.

One of the reasons I see Joan's DV as a plot device is that it seems both unnecessary and gratuitous. It seems to be there just for Angst level. We never get any exploration of her trauma from being at the bank, because the DV trauma is heaped on-top and takes the focus. I also think it cheapens the way that Ray is taking advantage of her: a situation that was devastating in itself (Thursday's monologue in Muse springs to mind). Speaking of Thursday, I vaguely see RL's connection about the circle of violence: Thursday beating up Ray leads to Ray beating Joan and how it parallels and contrasts the other plots in Harvest; Seth killing Laxman for being "quick with a back-hander;" and Donald Bagley not wanting to commit violence because he "love[s]" peace and his wife more than killing. It's all very neatly done. But I'm a firm believer that significance of stories work when they build on real situations and people: so the disconnect between that here bothers me.

(I also question the believability of Ray beating Joan when he now has intimate knowledge that her father (1) knows where she is (2) knows who he is (3) has handily beaten him up (4) threatened to have him arrested as a pedophile.) Lastly, the very fact that Joan turns to Morse for safety and help, I feel is played because it's Morse-centric. Joan is an intelligent, strong-minded, stubborn woman who comes from a stable middle class background. Even if she "can't" go home (another point I find v unbelievable -- her mother wouldn't take her back?), she has no female friends who would help her? Or other support network? I'd be very interested in anyone's else take on the Joan & DV plot; I find it an unfortunate example of how RL struggles to write female characters.

[the-aleator]

endeavour musings, xvii

featuring: Scherzo (s8e2)

Gwen, the evil Stepmother with a twist of Hyacinth Bucket. Pretty much the star of this whole episode. She's so real: spiteful and petty and overbearing, she's the Dolores Umbridge of Endeavour.

This is one of those episodes that would be twice as good with half the references. Also, the Nudist camp? RL says this episode is supposed to be a commentary on sexuality, so I do see how that would fit in with blue films and "living in sin" themes of this episode, but I also think Gwen is a weird B plot if so.

Pauline Lunn is a fantastic character and I wanted to see way more of her.

Suddenly + randomly Thursday is talking about his kids to everyone. I get that it's to remind us that Sam exists since it's going to be the big climax of S8 and we haven't seen in him...(checks wiki)...3 years. But also, seems careless there, Fred.

There's being clever with your references, and so on the nose that they're cringeworthy. For me, Mark Lunn as an exact duplicate of Morse's past is exactly that. I just find it unbearable clumsy--I can see what RL was trying to do, it just doesn't work for me at all.

featuring Fred Thursday's Traumatic Backstory

MORSE: What will he have had in his wallet, £10, £15, £20? Would you kill someone for that? THURSDAY: I've seen people killed for less.

7. I find the Strange-Joan date strangely compelling. Honestly, though, since Joan is a lot like Thursday, Strange is supposed to be the Win in this pairing: which he sort of suits?

8. "I didn't kill her." And the direct contrast with Win afterwards?!? Is this not the best scene in the last 2 series? ME: why did they so underuse Gwen???

9. Now would be a good time to leave the Masons, Jim. Has it been 3 Grandmasters killed or implicated in 7 years? But they "do a lot of charity work." Please tell me we get some justification that Strange needs to keep a lookout on the inside or something. 10. Thursday in London! Okay, yep, yep, death threat, return death threat, the perfect enunciation of those hard 'c's in "I don't care whose coat you're carrying." 11. I think the semaphore plotline is totally ridiculous but I actually like it a lot and wish it had been more used. 12. Oooh the scene at the end. There's so much to unpack there! [Placeholder for thinking about that here]. +150 pts to Thursday for a great Dad pun.

[the-aleator]

endeavour musings, xvi

featuring: Terminus, s8e3 + why this better not be the end 1. WIN -- wut?. (Sidenote: I love the fact that Thursday calls her Winnie as a pet name. Pretty sure he does that in s6 too.) 2. The Bundy Clock scene. Yes, I do like the character exchange between Morse - Thursday afterwards, but it's one of the scenes where I think RL cheats at the expense of other characters to make Morse seem like a genius. (A previous example of this was in Oracle (s7e1), where Morse gets to explain to Thursday/Strange that the unique splaying of Professor Blish's fountain pen proves that it was him at the murder scene. Are fountain pens a historic topic that current audiences might not know? Well, yes. Is it something that Thursday + Strange would have known? Absolutely. [FYI, Thursday likely would have been taught as a child in the 1920s with a DIP PEN. He also has about 12 fountain pens on his desk in s1-3.] [Historical note: Handwriting as a means to identify criminals has been in practice by CID since the mid-1860s.] Again, a Bundy Clock would have been regular knowledge circa 1970 re bus riding, and would have been the kind of dogged police work that someone would check. I think this is lazy writing, and it's been happening more and more since s6. 3. We name-dropped 'Terminus' in Striker. 4. The Mystery Plot in this one is a bit of a stinker. Overly-convoluted, utterly implausible (maths do not work like that), and way too crowded. This is again an episode where multiple people are murdered in a particularly gruesome way to drive the plot forward, and I do Not Like it. Also, I gather they actually wanted to make a Slasher and TPTB said 'no' so they changed it to a Christie style big house in the country mystery but only half-heartedly so it's a weird conglomeration that doesn't really work. They took the setting of a Christie but didn't either understand / care how they actually work, which is about 1. social commentary 2. the Twist which is a clear reveal 3. justice in a communal setting / judgement. So it's a bit of a mess. 5. The number of female murderers in this show is actually ridiculous. Also: the number of serial murders in Oxford is doubly ridiculous. The implausible deus ex machina rescue at the end is trebly ridiculous and makes me yearn for Degeullo. 6. The Salvation of this Entire Episode rides on Thursday's shoulders: the scene where he tells Morse off for "checking their homework," where he calls him out for being a drunk, where he gets yelled at by Win, where he talks to Bright re Sam, where he talks to Creech, the Sun Comes Up scene. I do give 100+ pts to Morse for the "stop" scene in the bar after Thursday has called him on his drinking.

7. WIN. I don't appreciate that basically all the character development in this ep got given to Joan instead of Win. Also, none of these scenes work for me at all: I feel like RL has here a character who's just sort of a stock 1950s housewife trope and then he's trying to add emotional depth but it doesn't cohere so it just turns into a bizarre mess both of flat character and emotional responses that seem way off character. Part of it is we never see Win's response to Sam by herself, it's only ever through her response to Thursday. I understand that Win is supposed to have had it in this episode but honestly that's happened in s5, s6 and s7 so far so I just want Win to get some real character development and behave like an actual woman with character grit intregrity and a brain in her head, including: life experiences being bombed in the Blitz and working in the ATS and raising two children and generally being an awesome woman and mom with a great husband (who admittedly has a saving people thing). [This TED talk brought to you by the women of the-aleator's family who ironed their towels, did professional jobs, did their husband's accounts, travelled the world, and kept their families together through multiple deployments.]

8. I really don't get the people who say that the Strange-Joan plotline is just like Joan marrying her Dad. But I also agree that I don't love it as a romantic end-game, and that's definitely where we are going.

9. Shaun Evans / RL and I are going to have to disagree on Morse's drinking. Is Book!Morse a functional alcoholic? Yes, although how much given it was the 1970s.... Is Thaw!Morse? More arguable. Do I believe in the character progression that Endeavour is now a full-on non-functioning alcoholic as a result of Venice, is going to somehow "improve" his drinking enough to become the DCI Morse in the next 15 years? Characterisation marches on, but that seems like a real leap. 10. The Bright scene about staying with Thursday is so lovely and sad. Dorothea coming to Thursday's house at the drop of a hat is also lovely and sad but in a different way: he knows her well enough to know she'll want whiskey instead of tea. (Somebody please start a special AA/therapy group for all of these characters!) 11. {This post is getting LONG, so I'm going to placehold my notes on: intimacy, understanding, memory, secret relations for another post}. Last quick notes:

-As someone who lives in a place with more than 4' of snowfall every year, the fake snow / cold acting made me laugh.

-Also, Thursday's canonical father was a "devil with a drink," (why hello again Fred Thursday's CPTSD) and he implies he can't take care of Morse because of Sam; why won't you accept you've been adopted Morse (he just tidied your coat for you accept it)

-Strange calls the black Jag "his car" referring to Morse: are we supposed to think he's purchased it from the station? Or is just the one he always uses?? -Strange need to bite his pride and go hat-shopping with Thursday: he'll set him right.

-Dr DeBryn wins the best dressed for the 32nd episode.

[the-aleator]

endeavour musings, xv

featuring: Striker (s8e1) 1. I am always up for moments of Fred Thursday badassery. Handily dodging a strike from a pipe and taking on a pickpocket is quite satisfactory, thank you. The silhouette of the hat in shadow, the noirish greeting, "Hello Alf," 10/10 would gif this scene, if I could. And of course, the striking contrast with Morse, drunk and smoking at the bar, and Strange, at his desk but totally focused on the football. 2. The plotline of this episode reminds me of the New Tricks episode, "Gloves Off." Hmm, famous sports star, career about to be scuppered by a thrown match, former girlfriend marries best friend who happens to be violent towards her & also associated with the terrorist organizations / criminal underworld. Manager throwing him under the bus. 3. Duke Ward is clearly supposed to be a parallel with Thursday in this episode re his feelings for Morse (taking the bottle away from Martinelli). I see it. It doesn't do anything for me. Normally I'm all about these kind of "parallel" moments, but I really think that the issue here is the Thursday-Morse relationship problem. The parallels only work when they match-up to the intimacy expressed between Morse and Thursday. 4. RL has an interview where he talks about how the big wigs don't like it in the show when Morse and Thursday are on the outs. Me, at my screen: this is correct. The whole show is the relationship between the two of them. I also think Drunk!Morse who is both Disinterested and Aggressively Bitter just isn't that interesting.

5. I don't like how the COW only works in this episode because (1) Morse is totally incompetent at bodyguard duty but never called on it (2) Everyone else (Thursday, Strange) has apparently stopped being a competent police officer and only Morse can solve anything (see, e.g., only Morse realizing what the typed thesis means, even though Thursday searches the flat. Me: any competent police officer would be building her recent movements / relationships. Thursday's been in Oxford for nearly 25 years -- isn't likely he would have seen a typist taking on extra paid work on the side?) 6. +25 pts for Thursday quoting poetry, here "The Charge of the Light Brigade."

7. Bright uses the word "razzamatazz."

8. Miss Newell is my favorite character in this episode. 9. Yes, yes, Thursday is missing Sam and also trying to connect to his surrogate son Morse by talking about activities he used to do with Sam, but Morse is having none of it. (See #4.) 10. I have no idea where the Max Bygraves song, "Decimalisation" appears in the UK version, but despite the NARM factor it is totally catchy. The other music in this ep doesn't do anything for me at all.

11. I think one of my other issues with this episode is that it doesn't balance the drama with humor at all. And also, that Morse once again gets away with the Talk Down the Killer strategy while Thursday provides the firepower to make him disarm, even though George Sellars literally just shot a policeman in cold blood. 12. I give 100+ extra points for Thursday, brooding at the dining room window over Morse being late, and also "I chose you."

If you can tell, I agree with everyone else that this episode is pretty meh. There's just a lot of talking about what happens, and not much actually happens. Anyway, it's done: I suspect I'm not going to rewatch it in a hurry, which makes me sad.

[the-aleator]

I really enjoy reading your Endeavour musings. I was particularly interested in your reference to Joan's DV as a plot device as I agree wholeheartedly. I was hoping you could go into your thinking a little bit more about that. In my view, it felt like Joan's DV and miscarriage/abortion was used just as a setting for more Joan/Morse angst (the "marry me" scene was not romantic in the least, to me, and actually signaled how tone-deaf Endeavour was to think that what Joan needed in that moment of vulnerability and hurt at the hands of a man she was in relationship with was a romantic overture by another man) and focused entirely on how Morse felt than on how Joan felt.

I absolutely agree that the scene is focused on how Morse feels, in that moment, seeing her as victim of DV, and yes, his offer is very tone-deaf. I think Sara Vickers does her best to counterbalance the scene, but it's absolutely Morse-centric (in both cinematography and emotional emphasis) -- about how her refusal devastates him, and I don't love it for that reason.

One of the reasons I see Joan's DV as a plot device is that it seems both unnecessary and gratuitous. It seems to be there just for Angst level. We never get any exploration of her trauma from being at the bank, because the DV trauma is heaped on-top and takes the focus. I also think it cheapens the way that Ray is taking advantage of her: a situation that was devastating in itself (Thursday's monologue in Muse springs to mind). Speaking of Thursday, I vaguely see RL's connection about the circle of violence: Thursday beating up Ray leads to Ray beating Joan and how it parallels and contrasts the other plots in Harvest; Seth killing Laxman for being "quick with a back-hander;" and Donald Bagley not wanting to commit violence because he "love[s]" peace and his wife more than killing. It's all very neatly done. But I'm a firm believer that significance of stories work when they build on real situations and people: so the disconnect between that here bothers me.

(I also question the believability of Ray beating Joan when he now has intimate knowledge that her father (1) knows where she is (2) knows who he is (3) has handily beaten him up (4) threatened to have him arrested as a pedophile.) Lastly, the very fact that Joan turns to Morse for safety and help, I feel is played because it's Morse-centric. Joan is an intelligent, strong-minded, stubborn woman who comes from a stable middle class background. Even if she "can't" go home (another point I find v unbelievable -- her mother wouldn't take her back?), she has no female friends who would help her? Or other support network? I'd be very interested in anyone's else take on the Joan & DV plot; I find it an unfortunate example of how RL struggles to write female characters.

[the-aleator]

A New Banksy artwork in Marseilles.

In other news, does this remind me of something? Yes, yes it does. "This is a story about love."

[the-aleator]

endeavour musings, xiv

featuring: Why the Money Plot + a Research RabbitHole about Taxes & Wages in 1970, UK 1. As of Degüello, Councillor Burkitt uses the loan that Thursday has given to his brother Charlie as a blackmail threat, that Scotland Yard wants him in connection with a long term fraud(ft 1). I'm assuming that this arc, which was set up way back in Cartouche, is going to finish out in s8/s9. It's apparently also the reason that Fred can't retire. 2. Relying as it does on Fred Thursday's tragic flaw: the greatness of his heart and his willingness to do anything for family, I want to love this sub-plot. But it requires me to suspend so much disbelief that I find it a really poor narrative choice. 3. For one: Endeavour is a show that wants to play character choices and emotional results realistically. Physical consequences? Not so much: tabula rasa every episode, baby. (Well, except for s3, as the plot demanded but I digress). That's one of its operating premises. Unfortunately, The Thursday's Savings sub-plot falls into a strange paradox: we are supposed to take both its physical and emotional consequences realistically (or at least semi-realistically), but as a setup--the more I try to wrap my mind around it, the more the cracks show through.

4. Charlie?!? In order to loan Charlie the money, we have to assume that Thursday will overlook his brother's general sliminess, as well as fall prey to his emotional and social manipulations (not telling Win, the fancy dinner, embarrassing him in front of Bright, embarrassing him in front of Morse, throwing his weight around). Okay. Is it believable that Thursday, the 30+ yr policeman would be fooled by this? Well, people make stupid choices for their family. That's certainly realistic, as is Thursday making terrible sacrificial choices to protect other people. 5. I think one of the big cracks here is that we never learn how much Charlie wants, or how much of Thursday's money that is. It's a typical RL scene which (I will go out on a limb here) will never resolve. Okay. In fact, it happens so often that I would call it a "symbolic shorthand" where we are just supposed to take as read that something resolved here based on the lead-up to this point. I digress, but the fact is, it does actually make a difference. 6. When Thursday takes the backhander from Box, he counts it. Thursday to Win, "It's not all of it. Not yet, but it will be." Based on what's on-screen, it's at most £250 (20-30 £5, 10ish £10). Apparently, Thursday's sold his soul for Wales. (Or 2 days of Overtime Pay...) 7. Thursday has a pension! This fact apparently only matters sometimes: Thursday himself mentions it in Cartouche, but the He-Can't-Retire plotline doesn't make much sense with this in play. And as a long-standing policeman of DI / DCI rank, his pension / wages would have been quite good. Based on this regulation from 1970, Thursday's annual pay would have been between £3,200 - £3,700 p.a.. He also would have been entitled to a Detective Duty allowance of up to £200 p.a. (and/or a Housing Allowance / Supplementary Duty Allowance?). He would have gotten 26 days of annual leave (which he could have had paid out to him), and would have been paid anywhere from £140 - £160 for 8-12 hours of overtime (depending on if he was an DI/DCI). And based on the amount we see him working on nights and weekends, he would have pulled in a fair amount! Based on the UK Median Gross Weekly Income in 1970, more than 75% of jobs in the UK paid less than approximately £34.5 / week, or £1794 p.a. Now, obviously, taxation in the UK during the 1970s was at a high--I'm going to link some sources here , so we can guess he probably would have paid between 30-40% of his income in tax (although many of the Duty Allowances were actually Benefits and not taxable income). But bear in mind, Win was also working as a cleaner, and as far as we can tell the Thursdays have few expenses. Thursday has a car from work, and we don't ever see them driving one, though they have a garage. They have a mortgage on their house (which I am assuming by Degeullo is paid off, "You can have the house"). We see them go out to the pub, the Legion, and dancing. Over the course of the series, their house gets painted (by Fred), they get a new sofa, a colour tv, and a vacuum cleaner. Win wants a new oven. They aren't supporting their children anymore. There is nothing extravagant about their lifestyle. 8. So on the one hand, we're supposed to think that this is a source of desperate anxiety for them for Reasons, but at least on the face of it, it doesn't make sense. There was still money for a holiday to the seaside! I do think it could have been used to explore the difficulties of a working class couple who are now quite middle class, but have a mindset of scrimping / saving. 9. But we also know that Thursday could put in his papers today (or whatever day) and HAVE A PENSION. So as a 25-35(ft 2) years on the Force, Thursday would have been fully pensioned, at somewhere between 2/3 and 15/16 of his full pay. But even that would have been more than twice the median income (ft 3). 10. WIN: "It was never about the money." But if that's the action driving the plot, then it IS about the money. But which is it? Reader, help me!

(ft 1) This threat never makes sense to me. Charlie mentions it in Icarus, and Thursday says "The cheque. Can it be traced back to me?," and obviously it's implied that it can, and by the Yard. I have two huge problems with this (1) Thursday has been the victim here which I find it hard to believe that Scotland Yard wouldn't realize -- it's a FRAUD scheme (2) How on earth would they not be able to find a policeman named Fred Thursday who used to work in London?

(ft 2) We know that Thursday was a copper when he met Win, before the war, so that puts his beginning date at at least 1938-9. His six years of war service probably means he re-entered policework in 1945, so in 1970, he could have had at least 26 years of service (I think based on the Police And Fireman War Act 1939, they would have accounted his Army years as pensionable). We know in 1949 that Thursday was a DS (Zenana @ 41:11), and already in Oxford. And by 1954 or so that he was a DI (Pylon). Pre-war, you would have needed to be at least 18 to enter the police, and based on what he says in Apollo, that he was a "boy" in 1919 when Alcock & Brown crossed the Atlantic, that he was probably born sometime between 1910-1915. So he could have entered the police as early as 1928, and as late as 1933.

(ft 3) Many people who enter a pensionable job will do so and take retirement between 45-55 and then get another job, so they will have a full pension + still be earning wages. This is very common in jobs like the AF or Police / Fire. I almost hope this is going to be a plot point, but I suspect it won't.

[the-aleator]

other things: 8. I am scandalized, I tell you, that in order to make the Ludo-the-conman plotline work that they had to make Dr DeBryn anything less than excellent. He is a pathologist of "some standing" and wouldn't realize that the bruise on her neck would be from a necklace?!? 9. I know it's supposed to be about Thursday's obsession and vendetta against Sturgis, but really? Two murders, 2 or 3 indecent exposures and there's no police presence on the Towpath. And wait -- people are still walking there? 10. I really really struggle with how Endeavour is going to wind up being like either Thaw!Morse or Book!Morse.

endeavour musings, xiii

featuring: S7 + Oracle "You've always thought too much of me."

S7 is as far as I watched when Endeavour originally aired, and last night I remembered why. We actually wound up watching Oracle and Raga in one go because we all went: what just happened. I'll concede that this season has the courage of its convictions. But: It's a weak season hamstrung by poor narrative decisions all over the place. It's not: I've got a little list, but a BIG list. But I'll cherry pick because so many other brilliant people have already explained it's weaknesses so well! 1. I love that Dorothea Frazil is back! Also CS Bright is lovely and his poor wife! 2. Lack of Emotional Resolutions I tagged a post elsewhere "can you have a sustained dissonance if the music was never stable" and I stick by that as a tagline for Endeavour as a series. S7 is now 4-5 seasons / years away from a season with a satisfying emotional resolution that lasted more than 30 minutes--and it's been too long. In part, it's exacerbated by the symbolism and in media res of RL's writing and the production decisions -- which, while working out okay in a contained episode in earlier seasons--is almost unbearable over a long arc in a season. In another part, it's also exacerbated by the fact that the corollary to psychologically hammering on Morse to "break" him is that as long as Thursday loves him, you have to psychologically hammer on Thursday too. And since Thursday tends to carry a lot more of the emotional weight & gravitas of episodes, you get these episodes where the amount of psychological stressors is absurd. 3. Realism / Theatricality It's just weirdly mixed in this season, and doesn't work. They don't do enough of the action-building to make the character decisions work. For example: I actually love the canary scene. I find it totally believable that Thursday just wants something that isn't bloody to love. But apparently, even though as far back as s2 in Sway, Win is apparently lamenting that Thursday doesn't talk to her about work or what's bothering him, when Thursday does talk to her, she says nothing. (Is it any surprise that in Raga, when she says "You can talk to me," that he absolutely doesn't?) Whatever the resolution they reached in Degeullo, it's apparently gone? Also, when he asks how she is after she's seen Dr Benford's body ("You're the one I'm married to) and she says very condescendingly "I saw worse on fire watch, in the war. Really." Is it any wonder, Winifred, that he doesn't want to talk to you??? 4. "This a story about love." Yes, but not that kind. 5. I actually love the scene with Dr Blish and his wife and the checkbook. It is actually the kind of thing that a Dr Blish would do, and completely the kind of cringe revenge that an intelligent wife to a pompous idiot paternalistic husband would do in front of 2 total strangers who are policeman. 6. TEA SCENE WITH BRIGHT: stunning beautiful--it made me tea up a little. One thing I am curious about is this line: THURSDAY: "Well, can't say I've ever had much use for it in civilian life outside of court, of course. We weren't Bible raised." Because Thursday is so hilariously Christian coded, it's almost ridiculous.

7. It's going to take Morse until 1987 to get his house fixed up at this rate. All that wallpaper!

[the-aleator]

endeavour musings, xiii

featuring: S7 + Oracle "You've always thought too much of me."

S7 is as far as I watched when Endeavour originally aired, and last night I remembered why. We actually wound up watching Oracle and Raga in one go because we all went: what just happened. I'll concede that this season has the courage of its convictions. But: It's a weak season hamstrung by poor narrative decisions all over the place. It's not: I've got a little list, but a BIG list. But I'll cherry pick because so many other brilliant people have already explained it's weaknesses so well! 1. I love that Dorothea Frazil is back! Also CS Bright is lovely and his poor wife! 2. Lack of Emotional Resolutions I tagged a post elsewhere "can you have a sustained dissonance if the music was never stable" and I stick by that as a tagline for Endeavour as a series. S7 is now 4-5 seasons / years away from a season with a satisfying emotional resolution that lasted more than 30 minutes--and it's been too long. In part, it's exacerbated by the symbolism and in media res of RL's writing and the production decisions -- which, while working out okay in a contained episode in earlier seasons--is almost unbearable over a long arc in a season. In another part, it's also exacerbated by the fact that the corollary to psychologically hammering on Morse to "break" him is that as long as Thursday loves him, you have to psychologically hammer on Thursday too. And since Thursday tends to carry a lot more of the emotional weight & gravitas of episodes, you get these episodes where the amount of psychological stressors is absurd. 3. Realism / Theatricality It's just weirdly mixed in this season, and doesn't work. They don't do enough of the action-building to make the character decisions work. For example: I actually love the canary scene. I find it totally believable that Thursday just wants something that isn't bloody to love. But apparently, even though as far back as s2 in Sway, Win is apparently lamenting that Thursday doesn't talk to her about work or what's bothering him, when Thursday does talk to her, she says nothing. (Is it any surprise that in Raga, when she says "You can talk to me," that he absolutely doesn't?) Whatever the resolution they reached in Degeullo, it's apparently gone? Also, when he asks how she is after she's seen Dr Benford's body ("You're the one I'm married to) and she says very condescendingly "I saw worse on fire watch, in the war. Really." Is it any wonder, Winifred, that he doesn't want to talk to you??? 4. "This a story about love." Yes, but not that kind. 5. I actually love the scene with Dr Blish and his wife and the checkbook. It is actually the kind of thing that a Dr Blish would do, and completely the kind of cringe revenge that an intelligent wife to a pompous idiot paternalistic husband would do in front of 2 total strangers who are policeman. 6. TEA SCENE WITH BRIGHT: stunning beautiful--it made me tea up a little. One thing I am curious about is this line: THURSDAY: "Well, can't say I've ever had much use for it in civilian life outside of court, of course. We weren't Bible raised." Because Thursday is so hilariously Christian coded, it's almost ridiculous.

7. It's going to take Morse until 1987 to get his house fixed up at this rate. All that wallpaper!

[the-aleator]

When Google's AI sums up the lack of narrative resolution in your current TV show fixation.

[the-aleator]

Endeavour musings, xii

featuring: Confection s6e3

It's the first time Morse has had to go tell someone that their relative (nephew) is dead. What does he do? Talk like this to Mrs Clamp:

MORSE: The last time you spoke to him, how did he seem? Anything troubling him? Nothing on his mind? CLAMP: Normal. Same as ever. MORSE: Right. CLAMP: [cries] I'm sorry. I'm sorry. MORSE: Of course. CLAMP: Will you excuse me? I'd better call Brenda. MORSE: Of course. My condolences.

It's an emotionally charged social situation, and Morse has just broken terrible news. He isn't awkward at all. He's consolatory, kind, respectful of her feelings, and genuinely polite. He acts just like Thursday.

THURSDSAY: Detective Inspector Thursday, Thames Valley. Detective Sergeant Morse. CRESWELL: Murray Creswell. My wife Clemmie and my younger brother Rupert, and his fiancee Sarah. THURSDAY: Our condolences. CRESWELL: Thank you. Thank you very much.

(AKA that other time when Morse uses the same language of comfort from his dearest friend brother Dad guvnor).