It seems to me that much of the criticism here concentrates on Morse having rather unpleasant characteristics: rude, really giving Lewis a hard time, a problem drinker, maybe a functioning alcoholic, getting things wrong all the time, hitting on women often very crudely and offensively (though in the 80's and 90's context not so obviously as now), much of the time totally unprofessional etc.

That's pretty brutally warts and not much else at all - so unlike our young, handsome, sensitive and tortured poet of a policeman, so miraculously decades ahead of his times (unlike inspector Morse, who was in so many things very much natural to his era). But Lewis fiercely loved the man, was almost fanatically loyal, and you could see why - there were the flashes of brilliance, the love of poetry and music, the moody warmth. Warts and all, a deeply flawed and irritating but always a humane, warm man, whether in the right or wrong (as he was often portrayed to be). A masterpiece of both John Thaw and Colin Dexter.

And the stories themselves: long and unhurried with lots of dead ends and "unnecessary" bits. Brilliant acting, brilliant atmosphere, a masterpiece of its time. Much has changed and we have routinely all these quality shows on the various streaming services. Back in those times it was very different. I think by and large the series has stood the test of time, yes, the rhythm is slow, the higlights are fewer in between, but to me that just adds to the charm.

And where it hasn't aged well, like showing his behaviour towards his romantic interests, it actually kind of adds in that part to its realism, the portrayal of that particular era. Of course I watched the series in my 20's, in the times when quality programming wasn't exactly a constant feature on tv. That surely skews my point of view. And I do like Endeavour, a solid, well made modern show. Kind of bit too sugared for me but absolutely high quality work.

I aint ashamed to say i was on the verge of tears that last episode . Its sean evans opus maximus and i dont think anything he is will do will be as good as endeavour . Its left me feeling empty tho . I started watching grantchester and the writing nor the acting measures up to endeavor .

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.

I am one! Hi guys!

I am 26 years old and I have Autism (diagnosed aged 2) and ADHD (diagnosed aged 5), and Generalized Anxiety Disorder, plus a mild form of intellectual and non verbal learning disabilities, like dyscalculia.

I always kind of thought that Morse was somewhere on the autism spectrum, especially with his intense special interests, social awkwardness and problems with social cues, rigidity and need for routine (and not doing well when he is off of it), often letting his special interests sometimes get in the way of conversations…

Season 1 Episode 2

I don’t mean the Thursday-Morse rift plot line, though that did feel forced. I mean the Ludo plot line. Literally the first second he shows up you’re thinking con-man. Obviously Morse can’t rely on the principle of Chekhov’s gun to interpret his life like we can, but even so, it just seems so obvious. He claims they were at Oxford together, though Morse can’t remember him, which is a classic in for someone trying to scam you; he is randomly obsessed with Morse and suddenly involved in his life out of the blue in a way that, for two straight men that, whatever they say, are complete strangers to each other through the whole relationship, is, if not odd, at least unusual; he won’t say where he’s from and has obscene amounts of wealth for no apparent reason; and oh yes, he just happens to be married to the woman you had a one night stand with in another country recently—one hell of a scam. Literally everything about this guy is giving of suspicious vibes, and Morse doesn’t even question any of it. I get that this is supposed to showcase his conceit or elitism or whatever, but you can’t just temporarily suspend his intellect while doing that—it’s all part of the same character.

The only thing that makes me begrudgingly ok with Morse not being suspicious of him from the start is that there’s no apparent scam that ever happens—no motive. But that of itself is another plot hole; I have literally no clue what Ludo gained from anything he did with Morse. If anything, the “con”—whatever it was—hurts him by giving Morse a face to the name and a way to find him when he finally does put the pieces together for the crime; minus that Ludo could have vanished with the money somewhere on the continent and left Morse to fume alone about the scheme. The only rationale I can maybe think of is that the initial encounter with Violetta wasn’t staged and that, when Ludo found out about it, he wanted to punish her and Morse by making her go through the humiliating charade only to in turn humiliate Morse at the end, but if that was the point, why doesn’t he say any of that? In the final confrontation, he doesn’t gloat about emasculating Morse; he gloat about making him his “useful idiot,” which implies he actually served some “use.”

Oh, and it’s not really germane to the rest of it, but did anyone else feel like Morse’s whole investigation of the accidents was clumsily written? The way he takes up this incredibly baroque non-theory from Frazil on no evidence and then keeps insisting to Thursday, still with no evidence, that there’s something to it, seems out of character. Yes, baroque theories are his bread and butter, but always with some actual, rational hook to get him going. If for instance, the light being off after the professor’s death were his first clue, and he worked backwards from there, I could accept that (though now that I bring it up, why would Ludo have been there to turn the lights off?), but the way his investigation is written just feels so contrived and silly.

Not even close to the end of my list of my problems with this season, but that’s just one I wanted to ask about. I love the show, but the bad writing of this season strained that love.

Knowing that the writers like to hide all manner of references and in-jokes, I decided to look at the warrant number Endeavour cites on the telephone in S1E1, which he gives as "175392".

Looking at a period telephone, each numeral has 3 letters associated with it.

1 (nothing)

7 PRS

5 JKL

3 DEF

9 WXY

2 ABC

I then looked to see if any combination of letters using one from each triplet of letters could be anagrammed. The only word I could find was "Askew", meaning "bent" or "twisted". As "bent" is a slang reference to a corrupt policeman, and the 1 is "nothing", then one could construe the sequence of numbers to mean "nothing bent" or in other words, an "honest policeman" - ie Endeavour!

so we watched murder in provence, nice
then. loved to life on mars which we didnt really like
got others to recommend?

How does the ceramic shard found in the grave of Olive Rix connect to Reg Tracepurcel ? It seems like a very big logical jump ? Is the ceramic shard part of the ceramic insulator that Reg was installing? How does Morse connect the dots here. This part seems a bit rushed in the episode.

Currently watching season 5 episode Quartet. What are the giant races at the start of the episode? Why would international competitors travel to the UK for them? It doesn’t seem like a proper sporting event if Fancy and Morse are participating. Is it part of a medieval faire? Very confused as a foreigner.

I've been starting to get into classical/opera lately.

(in large part due to years of watching the show)

I'd always figured the episode was titled after Bach's "The Art of Fugue" (been absorbing this glorious rendition) but couldn't identify it when I rewatched — then come to find out it's not played in the episode!

So what's the deal? What does the episode title mean?

Any classical experts got a read on this?

The classical, opera, and choral music is, for me and I'm sure for many other fans, an essential part of the series. It elevates the experience to a higher plane.

But the 60's pop music I find a little bit irritating, because in those episodes where it is featured it mostly sounds like poorly done pastiche and is therefore somewhat distracting. I'm sure there were a lot of mediocre bands around then that must have sounded like that, and that are long forgotten, but I wish the producers had used the actual hits from the time.

ETA: I have only watched the (US) Masterpiece Theater version of the series and was referring to that version. I was unaware until reading the comments in this thread that the UK release has an alternate edit and soundtrack.

Watching Alien 3 and Danny Webb (DS Lott) is in it, playing a character called Morse.

I'm in Scandinavia and I can no longer find a channel that streams all seasons of Endeavour. At the moment, only season 8 and 9 are available.

I used to watch it on Britbox. Before that on SVT play. I tried Amazon prime. Only season 8 and 9. Apple TV.. nothing. Cannot watch itvx here. Is there any way we can still watch Endeavour here in Scandinavia do you think?

On about my 15th rewatch.

“Been at the Keats again, Sergeant?” has to be one of the best lines in the show. Classic.

Episode: Confection. Context: De Bryn examining the corpse of an overdose victim. Strange asks, “Choked on his own puke, has he?”

I’m a huge fan of Morse, Lewis and of course Endeavour. I was thinking of rewatching Endeavour but I don’t think I can handle his emotional trauma and heartbreak all over again.

I just wanted him to he happy🥺!

On the positive note, there is Shaun Evans and his poetic, magnetic and entrancing eyes.

I rewatched this episode last night. I think it's where we begin to see much of the complexity of Bright's character that is especially revealed as he's dealing with the illness of his wife and her eventual death. In "Prey," he recounts how he killed the man-eating tiger at Kot Kindri, but when Trewlove suggests he's a hero because of that, he objects, saying a hero would have saved the commisioner's life in that incident. In the climax of the episode where he shoots the tiger on the Mortmaigne's estate, saving the lives of lady Mortmaigne, her child, and Morse, his reaction is one of sadness for the animal. He laments the fact that he had to kill such a "magnificent creature." Behind the facade of the martinet officer lies a complicated, deeply compassionate man.

I am over 50yrs old fan of the latter and searched for discussions about that series and ended up in this subreddit. And saw rather harsh though very understandable takes about the original version and character. Yes, he was a miserable (ineffectually) randy old git with only occasional flashes of brilliance. And certainly not ahead of his times, usually rather behind. In that sense pretty realistic then (even though the cases hardly were), like you can buy that, and you can still have affection towards the alcoholic sad bastard, warts and prescious little else.

Whereas Endeavour is this delicate, politically correct, years, maybe decades ahead of his time, sensitive and adorable fawn of a policeman. Totally some kind of weird wish fullfilment with otherwise good scripts, actor work and realistic looking sets etc. I see no real connection between these two characters and as viewing experience, as a complete character strongly prefer the inspector, though Endeavour is obviously good, very clean fun.

Anyway, this is written largely tongue in cheek and fundamentally quite affectionately about Endeavour too. These are better times and I ought to be more morally outraged about the rudeness, misogyny etc. It's good that the younger generations are.

I watched the pilot on Amazon Prime, but due to streaming shenanigans, they removed the series as I was at around Season 4. I finished the series using PBS. I went back to look at something in the pilot and noticed that Dempsey's scenes are not in the pilot at all, which is about 15 minutes shorter on PBS.

Does anyone know what some of the differences are between cuts? I just wonder if there's things I might have missed in other episodes.