Inspector Morse - Cherubim & Seraphim

Customer Reviews:

"Why did she do it? Because she'd seen everything and there was nothing more?".......2007-08-07

One of the most personal of all the Morse episodes, Cherubim and Seraphim reveals Morse's difficult early family life, and we meet his stepmother, his half-sister, and his half-sister's children. All is not well. His stepmother, who has dementia and is living in a nursing home, still hates him, and his niece, a young woman to whom he has been extremely close, has suddenly died. Morse offers comfort to his half-sister and her family, but when the postmortem reveals his niece's death to be a suicide, he himself is so distraught that comfort is not possible. Soon another talented young person, the hope of his immigrant family, has also committed suicide in another part of town. By week's end, three young people have committed suicide.

As Morse and Lewis investigate these separate cases, the lives of young people in the late 1980s are fully revealed--their interest in non-traditional music and art, their willingness to trust each other but not share their lives with adults, their love of concerts (especially those given secretly in abandoned buildings), and their search for meaning in a world that they see as meaningless. Presented through the keen eye of cinematographer Peter Greenhalgh, the visual details of this period and lifestyle are dramatic and memorable for the viewer, whether filmed in abandoned buildings at night, at impromptu concerts in haze and smoke, or during the day in the private rooms of the victims.

Morse (John Thaw) is powerfully effective in this episode, emphasizing the gap between his own life and that of his niece, and Sgt. Lewis (Kevin Whately), whose own children are the ages of the young people who have killed themselves, reflects the concerns of parents of teenagers everywhere. Though an episode featuring the deaths of talented teenagers may seem morbid to some viewers and melodramatic to others, the emphasis on Morse and his reactions to events broadens the viewer's knowledge of Morse's life, and makes him a more sympathetic character. And when the young people's reasons for killing themselves become clear, viewers will be as outraged as Morse at the crassness of some adults. Powerful and personal, this episode is an effective reminder of the times and of the seriousness with which young people search for answers in their confusing worlds. (4.5 stars) n Mary Whipple

Teenagers.......2006-12-27

This entry is worthy as a good mystery, but not up to par with what we have come to expect from this series. Our usual topping or icing which usually is opera, non-operatic classical music as well as romance - and to a lesser extent literature and art, cannot be found. And because of this, other "filler" material is substituted - in one of the featured roles the character could be eliminated without any effect on the plot whatever. However we do learn some very interesting information relative to Morse's teenage years.
Now the curmudgeon finds it extremely difficult to deal with drugs and rock, without alcohol - he just cannot comprehend our youth in such an environment. In an interesting aside he calls Lewis by his given name "Robbie." This is worth a view, but is well down the list of Morse episodes.

Worth a Sunday Afternoon.......2006-07-10

This was a very good episode of the Inspector Morse series. First of all, it let the audience in on a part of Morse's past that we hadn't explored before and also let us know about Lewis's life at home with his family as well. It also brought home the dangers of these modern day raves that teenagers attend and all the different drugs and sexual activities that they are exposed to when they attend such events. Mr. Thaw was really at his best in this one. He can certainly rest in peace because he left us a lasting legacy of brilliant work as Inspector Morse.

Haunting, real: the hidden lives of teenagers.......2005-07-11

I believe the Morse series to be outstanding. Only the Wonder Years matches it for quality and exceeds it because of the W. Years' timeles themes, not just for teenagers. But Morse is top-notch and it is doubtful any actor has surpassed John Thaw in making a series so gritty, real, so compulsively watchable, no matter how weak the stories (and there are some weak ones). The secondary roles are well done, the photography is excellent I have read three of Colin Dexter's (originator of Morse) novels and they are far, far inferior to the televised version-which is unusual. Cherubim and Seraphim does drag a bit, but the theme, the anguish, the pain trumps its over-length. Young people do take drugs for a variety of reasons and this twist on the kind of drug they take is quite clever. There should have been more scenes of teenage partying. But if you watch carefully, you may recognize that the main theme is the vulnerability of humans and the inability of Morse to fully comprehend teenage angst and the attraction of euphoric drugs. Given his liquor addiction and his love of opera (INSIGHT: most operas border on the edge of madness either in part or whole: it is interesting that Morse loves opera so much. It is worth an analysis). Beginning should have spent more time on Morse's step-niece while she was alive. But this is a judgment call by the writer and director--they went for big dramatic effect without development of character. This was one of the best Morse's--family emotion, young people and drugs, Morse's feeling for his niece (largely it seems because she was highly intelligent, like Morse himself--very true to life). Highly recommend this episode and all Morse episodes--I've seen all but three. Of all the mystery-suspense serieses put out by Brit. T.v. this is by far the best.

slow and dragging .......2004-08-30

This is an un-typical Morse. It is very slow and drags on. They took 50 minutes of plot and padded out to a 100 minute program by making the scenes much too long and adding irrelevant scenes.

The other more bothersome feature is the culturally lower class behavior of all of the characters, including the ones that have jobs that would ordinarily be held by middle class people. It is bothersome to see someone with a job that requires a college degree acting like an inner city slum dweller.

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