Jonathan Creek: The Grinning Man

[poliphilo]

I love a locked room mystery- and this was a good one.

I miss Caroline Quentin. Did she leave under a cloud or something?  Creek's line last night about "Carla and the other one" seemed distinctly ungenerous. She and Davies were a great Holmes and Watson act.

I miss Anthony Head too. The guy who took over as the oily magician is- well- just too oily.

Two hours was too long. I mean, that's half an hour longer than a regular, old-style, feature film. The subplot- about Mr Oily and the pneumatic porn actress was very broad-brush- and it was hard to see why it was there except as padding. Creek is fluff- and you don't need fluff to last two hours.

Sheridan Smith is fun. I'd be very happy if Renwick were to write more episodes- and she stayed on board.

Comments

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

I have a lot of problems with Jonathan Creek. I so want to like it, but I find the mix of genuine horror and Benny Hill style humour very hard to cope with. It just doesn't work for me. If it's fluff, then the horror is too horrible and if it's horror, then the fluff just doesn't belong.

As to the oily magician, he's the same chap he always was isn't he? (Checks on Wikipedia) Fancy that! I honestly don't remember Anthony Head being in it, but I see that he played Adam Klaus (the oily magician) in the very first episode in 1997. That was the only episode though so I only remember the newer chap in the role.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I don't have a problem mixing laffs and horror- just so long as it's well done. Last night the mystery/horror elements were excellent, but the laffs misfired.

I'm surprised to find Anthony Head only did the one show. I thought he'd been around for at least a season.