I personally prefer the middle years of Morse, in the second series they really did seem to get into their stride, after a great first episode I found the two that followed somewhat unremarkable.
Service of all the dead has some very memorable moments, a good start, a cracking ending, but there are two things I'm not a fan of. Firstly, Morse moons after Ruth like a lovesick puppy, almost to the point of being obsessive, and secondly the story is very confusing, the motives for the murders seem wafer thin.
It's Morse, so it's still a very fine watch, Thaw and Whateley are as wonderful as ever, plus it works as a mystery, you are left guessing. It has a very dark, gothic feel to it, the music is perfect.
I really didn't care for the character of Ruth Rawlinson, although John Normington is very good here, if very creepy.
Pretty good, but much better episodes would follow, 6/10.