Another series of Jonathan Creek and I'm still in love. The second series of any television series is hard to maintain the momentum of the first series while remaining fresh. The second series does have the added bonus of already establishing the characters but in some cases that can be a hindrance. For it's second series, Stewart Milligan replaced Anthony head as Adam Klaus and played a much bigger role. This was a disappointment. I wasn't a big fan of Milligan's voice it was a tad annoying for my tastes and I didn't like his approach to the role but I suppose I wouldn't have been that upset had Milligan started in the role but when comparing him to Anthony Head I would prefer the latter. The best of the series for me was The Black Canary, the Christmas special which had Kate Isitt in it who I know only from the UK Coupling. As my favorite character on that show it was nice to see her in something else.
The trouble with series two, well there are two problems but they're interconnected. The first is like I said before the importance of keeping the show fresh and new. We already now that any crime that will occur has to take place under impossible circumstance in order to bring both Maddy and Jonathan into the mix. It's not really a fault I guess as this is the problem with all mystery shows. (I always know Perry Mason will solve the case but yet I still love it.) I'm not sure it could necessarily be classified as problem except the problems are more easily solved and not as outrageous as they had been in the first series. I correctly guessed the murderer in two of the seven episodes (including the Christmas special). I don't usually try to guess the murderer but this series it was just too easy and I knew right away so by the end of it the solution wasn't all that interesting.
The series did take a risk with the two-parter episode The Problem at Gallows Gate 1 &2 but I don't know if it absolutely worked. There wasn't a great cliffhanger at the end of the first part. It was mostly just setting things up and taking the time to do it that I don't think they needed. So whether or not the freshness of the show is a problem is up for debate but the second problem was the relationship between Maddy and Jonathan. Throughout the first series there is marvelous tension between the two of them and you wonder if they're going to get together. The second series seemed to not know where to take that and they just repeated the same patterns again and again. Maddy gets jealous of Jonathan for seeing someone but yet won't let him make a move on her. I'm getting quite bored with Maddy treating Jonathan like a child. When Jonathan makes the salad she complains and makes them go out but yet the salad was really good. Really they should just do it already. The best bit was when Jonathan got really angry when she interrupted his night with Charlotte. "What are you like?" Ah, so British.
Gender wise it's an interesting dynamic, Jonathan is the brains but Maddy is the outgoing one who makes fun of Jonathan's habits. It just slightly reminds me of the 'new lad' from men Behaving Badly but not quite I guess it's just a different way to treat men as the passive non-aggressive type, something which is not seen on American television.
Although I've given a lot of criticism this has in no way dampen my view of the series and I'll be moving on with series three. What will they think up next? I think that's part of the reason behind detective shows. There has been so many of them and they've all approached mysteries in different ways. Really almost every show of every genre has a problem to solve, what makes this show different than the others is the real question?
And to further fuel my obsession I've stumbled upon this amazing website: The Jonathan Creek Homepage
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