Here's what I would have said after the first six episodes: Despite claims to the contrary by some fans of the novels, the series is mostly brilliant. Beautifully filmed in (disagreeing with some) a charming locale, the stories are riveting. I could go on, but I likely would have rated this series at a 9.
Then I watched the last two episodes. Generally, these two continued in the same vein. Inspector Gamache solves the fourth series murder and the over-arching Blue Two Rivers mystery (although how he didn't catch on that his buddy was manipulating the evidence, I can't understand; it was blatant).
Then they screwed everything up in two stupid steps. First, Isabelle Lacoste comes face to face with Jean-Guy but doesn't notice that he's been drinking? And she lets him drive in a high-speed pursuit? Kind of wrecks her cred as a detective. Finally, the brilliant Inspector Gamache turns his back on the crooked cop who just committed ANOTHER murder, this time of a fellow (crooked) police officer and gets shot. It's not clearly stated that Gamache dies, but the imagery with the blue jay strongly implies as much. Dumb. Simply dumb. Killing Gamache does nothing for this series but to irritate the viewers.
Then I watched the last two episodes. Generally, these two continued in the same vein. Inspector Gamache solves the fourth series murder and the over-arching Blue Two Rivers mystery (although how he didn't catch on that his buddy was manipulating the evidence, I can't understand; it was blatant).
Then they screwed everything up in two stupid steps. First, Isabelle Lacoste comes face to face with Jean-Guy but doesn't notice that he's been drinking? And she lets him drive in a high-speed pursuit? Kind of wrecks her cred as a detective. Finally, the brilliant Inspector Gamache turns his back on the crooked cop who just committed ANOTHER murder, this time of a fellow (crooked) police officer and gets shot. It's not clearly stated that Gamache dies, but the imagery with the blue jay strongly implies as much. Dumb. Simply dumb. Killing Gamache does nothing for this series but to irritate the viewers.