HoodlumSheep

Uughhh those awful treatments 😞 more kitty less ned please. I wish we could have gotten her sooner. Still wanna see him duel someone with those mad fencing skills from last episode, though. i personally loved watching george's uncle squirm all episode. I bet the actor's enjoyed getting to do a little more than what he's usually gotten to do past seasons (mainly stand in the background and make rude/awful remarks). were my eyes deceiving me or did the new maid's hair suddenly change color? No glimpses of the evil Bond villain this week.

So we finally met Spiros' wife. Now we finally have a face. Loved the song and montage of them travelling to larry. Leslie inviting lugaretzia was sweet. However, i don't care for him trying to push his mother into interfering with spiros and dimitra's marriage. The Cap is back!!! Probably the surprise of the night. It's too bad to see him a mess again bc i think the last time we saw him he really was trying to change for the better...maybe? My memory's a bit hazy. The least impressive house guest we've had so far; understandable bc for once they weren't meant to be the main side plot of the episode. Seeing margot flourish back in britain is quite fun to see. RIP leslie's boat.

A mysterious figure complete with a bird of prey pet? We got ourselves a Bond villain and i'm really enjoying it. I want ned's name to be cleared but i wouldn't say i want to see him given his post back. He's a bit too emotionally unstable right now with that temper. I know prison did a number on him but he needs to pick up yoga or something. He's a pretty awesome fencer, though. Might be the only one (and it might be an unpopular opinion), but i was happy to see demelza's behind-the-scenes antics go wrong for once. It's happened too many times and succeeded too many times to the point where i just roll my eyes when she does one of her schemes. Like i get it, but i'm just tired of the same old thing at this point so it's nice to see a change of pace for once. Could care less about the new maid storyline. So irrelevant. Jeffy boy missing his momma 😢 i keep waiting for george's uncle to do something about george's condition. I'm currently uncertain if 1) he'll even do something about it and 2) will he try to take advantage of the situation or not. now if only we could get nana poldark back to haunt george as well...

The colonel guy was entertaining. Of course leslie brings the baby hunting. Not surprised there. I miss larry and now margo's leaving too :'(. At least it looks like we get to see more of her still. i'm impressed theo didn't crack due to the disorderliness. Yeah he bolted down the furniture but i was expecting to see a meltdown of sorts. Lol. the moment basil revealed his intentions i was like...you're related, dude. Then i had to remind myself it's 1930 something and i couldn't remember if they were straight up cousins or a bit more distantly related. Anyways, i'm glad louisa rejected him. poor louisa. A rough episode for her :(. Reminds me of last season when she was emotionally dragged thru the mud due to everything. glad she stood up for herself when she kinda told spiros off. Reminds me of when she stood up for herself when she broke things off with sven. It's not fair to expect her to be happy with getting the short end of the stick.

Larry: that's what i was wondering. I have no idea what the schedule for filming was like though. It does feel a tad odd though bc larry moving out was made a big deal in seasons 1 and 2 and now it seems a lot more nonchalant. I guess we'll have to see if his screentime dwindles. Spiro/spiros: i'm just sticking with spiros at this point 😛 I agree that spiros x louisa is awkward now. I wouldn't have minded as much if the wife just left for good, but she's back and it makes everything all squicky now. 😞 i don't want to see her or the kids get thrown under the bus to keep this romance alive. I want margo to get a better storyline too. She's just a punchline at this point.

This is the first episode in probably a whole season that i've actually enjoyed. It was nothing special, but i at least didn't want to strangle everyone 24/7 like last season (gosh, last season was so bad, uughhh) it was good to see jeffy boy sober for once I actually felt bad for george. I knew he'd take elizabeth's death hard but i wasn't expecting it to be to the point where he's starting to have delusions. I wonder if his oh so wonderful uncle will try to pull one over on him Happy that we didn't have to sit thru ross giving his usual speech of the week I'm actually digging the villains/antagonists/??? this season. I was fully expecting mr. supreme chancellor palpatine to start telling ross about the tragedy of darth plagueis the wise. He even had the head-turn down. Kitty is a nice addition I can get behind ross doing undercover work Everyone on this show seems to have magical gray-defying hair

It's so good to have the durrells back for one last season! This show always warms my heart. What happened to all the guests at the end of last season? There was probably a good dozen + of them and they've all vanished save for basil and the two girls. The police officer bringing up the drink thing that louisa mentioned from last season made me happy. Just the continuity of it. I love it when shows don't slack on the details like that. My prayers have been answered: last year i had issues with louisa's whole makeup/styling. She's already looking less fake-tanned and they toned down the lipstick from last season. Back to more of a natural look. Based on this episode i have hopes that they've learned to curb back on all those blurry out of focus shots they did last season. The camera shot that starts outside the house and moves through the window to show louisa was lovely. Gerry's voice has dropped!!! Something that's changed: i'm no longer as fond of louisa x spiros as i was in the past. I know he's unhappy and all that, but he's still married so the romance is a bit more...eeehhh :(. Also, while i didn't mind it being more in the background, i can't say i'm too fond of it taking the forefront. It's starting to feel dragged out and not in a good way considering it really only just started a handful of episodes ago. Especially now that the wife's back to be an obvious obstacle. Larry's moving out!!! Say it ain't so!!!! Will he really move out this time? The revolutionary-in-hiding was fun.

*flips table* I finished the series. Not happy. How could he kill off hildegard? I feel like the author decided that the characters had it too good bc gosh: Amanda gets caught up in an art scam and loses her fortune, her dad dies (who had always been team sidneyxamanda, the complete opposite of what he was in the books) Cathy gets cancer Helena gets raped Mrs. M dies Sidney's sis' son runs away Hildegard dies Like i know some of these things kinda right themselves in the end so to speak (amanda gets rich again due to inheritence, sidney finds his nephew and he returns home to his fam, the surgery to remove cathy's cancer seems to be a success)...but still. Everyone had it rough this book. Hildegard didn't deserve that 😢 and to end the book, sidney gets a job promotion offer and geordie shows up needing help with what potentially may be sidney's last case. well, i'm happy i read the series. I much prefer the overall plot and mysteries in the books compared to the show, though i do love the actors and actresses on the show. Some of my favorite mysteries: the vicar murders, the mystery that took place during hildegard's first visit to grantchester (where hildegard's musical expertise got to shine), and all the out of town mysteries.

The fact that good eats is back on tv...*cries* A major part of my childhood-teenhood that i've missed dearly. Loved both episodes. Now i want the original iron chef back (complete with the ridiculously wonderful english dub). Then the time travel back to my earlier years would be complete. Same! I also love this aspect. It feels like the show never left our tvs.

Just starting book 6! Thoughts: I've enjoyed malcolm (the curate after leonard) just as much as leornard tbh. Sidney got a promotion and moved out of grantchester which was a surprise (why couldn't they have kind of taken that route instead of him running off to america? I mean, the season 3 finale did cover the whole church vs love thing in which he ultimately chose the church over amanda). I was worried that would mean we'd lose a lot of time with his friends but luckily they show up quite often. Gotta say while i appreciate the supporting cast getting fleshed out a bit more in the tv series, i'm actually more fond of the book versions. The reoccuring cast is a bit larger and a number of townspeople pop up more than once too which just make things seem more close knit somehow. I like malcolm and helena (the journalist) being part of the circle of friends. I've especially enjoyed the stories that take place out of country (their trip to italy, germany again, etc. Sidney going to a pink floyd concert and the mention of sir ian mckellen made me giggle more than the 50s references, probably bc they're both still around so i'm a lot more familiar with them. A shame about amanda's short-lived marriage. I wish she would have never settled for him in the first place. Her former hubby was kinda a spineless chap. Her swearing off love and a career promotion seem to be working out well for her though, so i'm happy for her. Leonard's whole storyline was basically taken care of in one mystery. He got with the antiques dealer and quit the church!!!! Makes me wonder what the future holds for him in the show with how much he's been struggling with everything. Sidney's daughter is seven now and they just found a dead body in the woods while looking for flowers. Byron's also getting old now :( so yeah, one more book to go. Might have to check into what @dargosmydaddy mentioned afterwards :)

Geordie's behavior this episode: not good, but still not as bad as he was in the season 1 whooping cough episode imo. Will, count yourself lucky that you've only seen the tip of the iceburg that is geordie's nasty personality. Yay! The creeper is gone! Mrs. MC was entertaining. Glad to see that she and leonard are kinda-ish beginning to start trying to mend their relationship. Daniel probably won't be happy about being banned from the vicarage. I wonder if they could possibly break up next season. Congrats other detective guy, you've earned the LVP (least valuable player) award for this season. You literally did nothing but stand there, drink coffee and make an occassional rude and/or vile comment. Your character is so pointless. Here we were presented some teeny bopper dance songs and i can't name the songs or artists for life of me and it's driving me nuts. I know these songs. Why are the names not coming to me though????

Had to double up on the past two episodes bc we've been out and about on sunday evenings lately: Episode 4: like most everyone here, i was cheering when the grandma took out her awful daughter-in-law. The leonard/mrs. MC stuff continues to break my heart. That photo of him, her and sidney :'(. I'm glad to see that the mention of sidney has lingered on since he left. There have been shows that once they drop a character it's like they're never mentioned again. At least they aren't pretending sidney never existed. Episode 5: Will's family sucks. Leonard has reached his boiling point and while the pettiness wasn't cool, i can't fault him too much for his behavior. Did he go too far with calling the archdeacon? Yeah, but to be fair leonard's on the mark about how Will has kinda dropped the ball in terms of the vicarage duty, especially considering he just arrived there. I actually kind of like how leonard is at odds with Will. It's different from before and i would have been miffed if Will moved in and the character dynamics would have stayed unchanged from what they were like with sidney. Anyone notice in the past two episodes geordie keeps picking up pieces of evidence all willy nilly with his bare hands??? Like, he was careful to pick up knives and stuff with a handkerchief in the first few episodes and now he just doesn't seem to care. The new detective dude continues to be a waste of space. He literally adds nothing to the shows. He doesn't do anything. Can't believe next week is the finale. Has it really been five episodes already? :(

Leonard was so precious this episode. After seeing all the delightful awkwardness i'm kinda mad that will's popped in to steal the vicar spot. I would have been totally happy with the rest of the season just being leonard attempting to help solve crimes. Leonard and Mrs. MC have been super precious this season so far, so her finally learning about daniel hurt my soul. I have faith that she'll come around hopefully. They seemed to have grown so close in the mysterious amount of time since the season 3 finale (? Seriously, does anyone know what year it's supposed to be?). Mom took one look at Geordie in his new suit and said, 'he looks better in brown' so she and geordie are both in agreement about not being fond of the new suit. Poor cathy :( she didn't deserve this. Cathy and Geordie haven't been married nearly as long as i thought they've been. They married old (nothing wrong with that, ofc). I was expecting like 20th or 25th or something (even if their oldest is only a young teeny bopper). Huh. Larry (?) of the police department is also precious and needs to be protected. The other new detective/copper (?), however hasn't left an impression yet. He's basically just a extra body used to fill up some more space at this point.

The timeline is throwing me through a loop still. In my earlier post i mentioned how leonard mentioned going to see 'the king and i' in what i'm pretty sure was the cinema, thinking that it gave us a 60s timestamp (I was thinking it came out in the 60s at some point before tsom in '65 (?)). But nope. 'the king and i' was released in '56 so we can assume it's basically '56 or '57 unless the uk theater release was delayed for some time for whatever reason. Paired with the fact that wikipedia (i know it should be taken with a grain of salt) has the season 3 finale episode description listed as 1955...is it really only supposed to be about a year or two after the season 3 finale has taken place bc that's not how everyone seems to act in the show???? They're all acting and talking like it's been multiple years (which would land us in the 60s). ????? It doesn't match up well at all.

Finished book 3!!! Rip dickens :'( also bby anna :'). That was a nice way to end the book. a good set of stories. Really enjoyed them.

Incoming ramble happening very late at night so sorry if this is a hot mess (you have the season 4 premiere to thank). Just some random thoughts after making it almost 2 books further in: Halfway through the third book: sidney and hildegard are married!!! and happy!!! And the show robbed us of sidney and hildegard swimming across a river to escape the germany split!!!! Dickens exists now but is getting old!!!!! Leonard is leaving!!!! It's the 60s!!!! Miffed that we were robbed of the germany plotline. The show stays much closer to home most of the time. Anyways, sidney and amanda's whole thing was wrapped up nicely in the books and now they are a delightful pair of wonderful friends and sidney has his wonderful wife. Finished the 'nude' mystery if that gives people a better idea of where i'm at in the books. One thing that is interesting: I think the show begins to diverge from the books quite early on. Basically it starts diverging in episode 2. For some reason the creators like to add murder into some of the mysteries when that was not the cas.e The engagememt ring mystery never involved murder, the near-kevorkian case never technically involved murder (it was a very skirting-the-line issue) and boy did they change stuff around in that one, which is a shame bc i actually really liked it in the book). There have been other mysteries involving stolen paintings that i'm sure the show would have twisted to involve murder. It would have been nice to see more non-murder mysterie included in the show than like the two or whatever we got. Sidney never slept with the jazz singer, obviously. I like how the kgb storyline carried over for more than one chapter/mystery. Geordie kinda pushes things with the reporter woman who has popped up a few times, but he doesn't cheat on his dear wife (as of yet?). So his character hasn't been destroyed yet like in the show. weirdly enough, as much as the secondary/minor characters aren't really explored in the books i've enjoyed them more than most of the ones on the show, including their show counterparts. There's a better sense of community in the books. No romance for leonard. Boy did they change that mystery around. They somehow turned a simple housefire mystery into an extremely depressing, soul sucking multi-episode murder/trial plotline. There's no jack yet either. The one mystery involving a murder on stage of the theatre felt like a total ripoff of ms. marple. The minor character who got murdered had been involved in a previous mystery and i was kinda fond of him :'( you also get a much better sense of time passing in the books. Where i'm at has been about an eight year jump. Sidney mentions civil rights and new fads and shifting culture of the younger crowd. Dickens is getting old :'(. Sidney and Hildegard's courting lasted an entirety of seven whole years. Geordie's oldest is mentioned to be a teeny-bopper. Whereas in the books i know time has passed but it honestly doesn't feel that long. I suppose bc the show has only been on for 4 years compared to the 8 years that pass in the books :P. The actors haven't aged all too much.

Sad to see sidney go even if he's been a hot mess for a while now (i mean, he's always been a hot mess but his character tanked pretty quickly in season 2+ along with geordie's). Their final scenes together made my eyes go teary a bit, i'll admit. I actually really enjoyed the first episode. I thought it had a good feel to it compared to what the last 2 seasons had given us. It just had a different atmosphere to it, ya know. Then it quickly goes back to the usual feel with episode 2, which was actually a bit jarring when watching it back to back. To my delight amanda was only mentioned once and in a 'that was a while ago' way. I'm wondering how much time has passed bc i can't remember if we were given any timestamps last season or if there were any events mentioned that gave an accurate time period. Leonard mentioned 'the king and' so that gives us the current year. Is it just safe to assume that a year (or maybe more??) has passed? Anyways, enough rambling: Enjoyed the opening scene and the elvis inclusion Sidney has sadly reverted back to alcoholism like in the good ol' days of season 1 (season 2+ was never nearly as bad from what i can recall) i thought sidney and violet had good chemistry (a non-toxic relationship to boot unlike a few others that i shall not name), but like others expressed, i would have much rather have seen it span over the whole season. Him leaving really did feel like he was running away and chasing after one of the many ladies he had a fling with. It felt like he left on a whim. Keeping the above bullet point in mind, how much time had passed between violet and co. arriving and sidney leaving? Violet was staying around for the death certificate, right? From how everything was framed it seemed like maybe months had passed and it doesn't seem like it should have take that long to get a death certificate. Leonard and mrs. m (she'll always be mrs. m to me) were an amusing duo throughout Leonard was happy for once, at least. A new police colleague will be interesting Sorry if i got any of the details wrong. My mom was on the phone with my brother the whole time so i didn't catch about a third of what was said.

Finished mystery #2: the one where amanda finally shows up and her engagement ring gets snatched Book! Amanda >>>> pbs! Amanda already Yes, sidney still has a thing for amanda but at least it doesn't consume his entire being like it does in the show, so while i'm not thrilled i can at least read about it without getting the urge to punch a wall Leonard makes his debut! You know all those discussions we've had in the episode threads about the 50s and society, etc. in terms of amanda rejecting guy, divorcing him and so and so forth??? Well guess what? Toss that all out the window because book! Amanda basically flips the bird on all of that by rejecting guy's proposal basically on the night it happened bc he acted like a total twat. Book amanda ain't got time to waste on him. And she's richer than him to boot in the first place. Hildegard sent sidney a bday card :') rewatched the very first episode of the series yesterday, too. Happier times. Differences: None of the scenes w/ amanda should exist, dickens doesn't exist :'(, they changed to where sidney and geordie were basically meeting for the first time instead of already being drinking/backgammon buddies before the story starts, and they cut out a lot of the sidney/hildegard bonding/flirting. Obviously you can't fit all that into an hour of tv, but those are the biggest differences imo.

Update: finished mystery #1 of book one (so part 1? Chapter 1?). Can confirm there is literally no mention of amanda in the first mystery. I'm now questioning why we got what we got in the pbs series. Whhhyyyyyy????? Sidney and hildegard are adorable, imo. Loved their bonding. Anyways, she even suggests that sidney come visit her in germany and you know he totally already likes her based on his being sad and unable to focus after she leaves. Some differences: Sidney overall seems more...quiet? Soft spoken? Just plain soft? compared to his show counterpart. Also, definitely has the church, churchy things on the mind much more than show! Sidney. I've noticed that the war ptsd aspect doesn't really seem to exist in the book (from what i've read so far). There's only been very minor mentions of the war usually asking what basically boils down to 'did you serve?'...'yes.' The ptsd storyline was something i actually really liked in the first season and was kinda sad to see go when sidney seemed to be fine from season 2+ (i mean good for him, but in terms of storylines i always wished it was explored just a bit more). Final thoughts: i find the series relatively enjoyable so far. I guess in terms of mysteries they're probably pretty basic, but as someone who normally doesn't read mysteries they're satisfactory enough. Thinking about rewatching the first season as i read further along.

Saved the best for last imo. By far my favorite episode of the season. It went by so fast :'(. A pretty good series finale. Glad to see it end on a strong note. We've finally come full circle. I'm gonna miss this show.

Started reading the first book: I'm almost 60 pages in and not a single whisper of amanda yet. I'm in heaven right now. Yet it also makes me even more bitter that we got stuck with...that *waves to everything amanda in the pbs adaptation* :( sidney doesn't have red hair. That's the biggest shocker so far. And reading this first mystery; good to have hildegard back. I was (and still am) one of those who liked her in the first series of the show, so let's see how things go in the book.

The middle of the episode suffered imo Monologuing nyssa was a terrible 'final' villain so to speak. Thought the whole fight with babs, jimbo and nyssa was pretty...not good. The bat thing with bane was also kinda cheesy (in the not so good way). My comics knowledge is limited; does bane ever flip out bc of a cloud of bats swarming him? Bc i can't really picture bane of all people doing that. Onward to the positives: Thought they definitely must have fixed up bane's voice from last episode. Could actually understand what he said. Nice. Lots of dots being connected: batgirl finally got her name, ozzy's gonna need a monocle, bruce leaves, commissioner jimbo, etc. The bruce/alfred goodbye scene made me tear up.

There's been very little momentum this season and it feels like it's only just finally picking up a little steam...with only two episodes to go :( honestly the best part of the episode for me was was Lee wheeling an in-labor babs through the hallway at full throttle while babs shot down the mooks. That had me reeling with laughter. Couldn't understand a majority of what bane was saying, but what's new? Nyssa showing up just makes me miss ra's :'(

Nice quality harvey this episode. Love him to death. He loves jim so much :') and whether or not people like jimlee together, i'm just so happy nothing bad happened at the wedding. It was a really nice moment. Had a big grin on my face the entire time. another 2 week break :( 3 more episodes left :( ughhhh it's really ending soon T︵T

The Scarface and Ventriloquist plot was fun. Harvey :'( i wanna give him a big hug. You could feel how crushed he was when he shot her. Ugh. Donal logue can really nail the serious and emotional scenes when he's given the opportunity. Makes me sad he didn't get more meaty plots throughout the show's run. Least favorite plot was bruce and alfred's. It wasn't bad...it just felt like it was kinda just there to give them something to do.