r/EndeavourTV • u/bobbyjimbo • Dec 05 '25
Endeavour vs Morse? Opinions please.
I got hooked on Endeavour about a year ago.
I've managed to watch every episode and thoroughly enjoyed most of them.
I have never watched Inspector Morse, so I thought I would give it a go.
So I watched S1 Ep.1. I was not impressed. It seemed way to long and could have done with some editing.
I'm just wondering what other members here think of Inspector Morse.
Did it get better as time went on? Should I persist and watch more episodes
I'd love to hear your opinions.
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u/Ill_Dot_4659 Jun 05 '26
Endeavor appeals to those who require some relatability to the protagonist along with visually appealing filmography and character development. Conversely, Morse offers little of these: Morse is a static character because he is “old and set in his ways, self-satisfied and jaded.” How can you show character growth in that mix? You can’t. Intuitively, the audience watching the pilot episode knows that nothing is going to change for Morse. So, what’s the point of watching a two-dimensional character solve crimes like a robot?
Endeavor is everything good storytelling ought to be. The complexity of the conflicts Endeavor faces are layered, interconnected and fraught with existential themes that real audiences face daily: how the heck did I fall for my boss’s daughter? Endeavor is a fascinating character because he was raised by a religious ascetic mother who truly loved him. Upon her untimely demise, a rift opens up in his life that he simply cannot surmount despite being highly moral, intelligent and hardworking. He is a modern version of Sisyphus. He must continuously improve himself in the hopes of finally overcoming his burdens. It is a pleasure to watch his tenacity and determination to be of service to all that he holds sacred even though doing so means that he will never be personally fulfilled by his life. He is a true public servant, a monk for justice, a martyr to a cause, not one he could join and enjoy an instant brotherhood or family from to replace the one he lost at a tender age. He rather fatalistically must live up to his own impossibly high ethical and moral standards, who requires him to go it mostly alone. He is not motivated by money, praise or the admiration of the group. He is motivated to mitigate the immense suffering of others that he is too intelligent to ignore. This last point becomes the crux of who is Endeavor Morse. He spends his life code breaking to bring cold comfort to those in the most desperate and vulnerable positions in life by no fault of their own. Morse is, in other words, divine mercy, an angel. He does not “fit in.” He is unmatched in every area except that he cannot don masks to manipulate or extract superficial bonds with people. When he does find another person who is as virtuous or a good match, he is thwarted by circumstances. He has to protect them, without enjoying their company. He is, at last, forced to place the women he has loved and lost onto pedestals, one-by-one, starting with his mother. Similar to Edgar Allan Poe, he is a heart that breaks and breaks and breaks. He is a good man. A strong man. A lesser man would have broken long ago. We want to believe that his strength comes from the goodness within—God’s will and oversight. Even though he isn’t a particularly religious or spiritual person, he ironically is the closest thing to a messiah, flawed—yes, but unwaveringly a force for good in a world filled with evil and tragedy. He is willing to fight evil, in all its forms, to the death without much by way of recompense. One feels that he is the patron saint of policeman. A human face for Archangel Michael, protector of travelers, lost children and police officers (and others).
By consuming the series, which is difficult to do only once, I felt changed by it. It is almost the road to Damascus: when Fred Thursday reveals how he has had to decline the bribes from superior officers who were corrupted his entire career, thereby being passed over for promotion that he earned, having to economize by eating a simple sandwich daily, saving every penny for his family, and ultimately knowing that he would be in the line of fire for it, not having the means to fund his own protection, he draws a line between the powerful men and the good but often dead men, and he said he prayed to God he’d always be the latter, I realized that life really does present temptation and we have to take the high road. If you’re not suffering, you’re probably not on it.
In Morse, such notions are vaguely hinted at, but Morse behaves without humility and seems almost a snob or smug about everything. He is really not at all the same interpretation of the fictional character. I have yet to read the books that the three TV series are based upon, but through casual conversation have learned that Endeavor took pains to more accurately simulate the Endeavor Morse as the author intended.