Midsomer Murders (TV Series) The Devil's Work (2023) User Reviews

Betty finally speaks!!!

[WhodunnitJB · 7/10 · 14 December 2023]

How many years has Betty Barnaby been on the show, and this episode is the first time she's ever said a word?

I was shocked and shouting for joy. That might sound silly, but why would the show runners have such an important member of the Barnaby family be mute for so many year? I mean, honestly. I've never understood that.

I hope they weave Betty into the storylines the way they did with Cully. It makes the Barnaby family seem more interesting, relatable, and dynamic.

I thought this was a great start to the season. I love Midsomer Murders. I particularly love the dynamic between John, Sarah, Winter, Fluer and now Betty.

Always a riveting watch.

[TJR21 · 9/10 · 9 December 2023]

What a welcome return to Midsomer.

Set in a foreboding country Manor House, with many Agatha Christie's vibes. It felt fresh and at the same time knowing of the series we've all become accustomed too.

The characters are very dysfunctional here and unlike some have said you couldn't tell who the culprit was even though it all seemed to point towards one certain person.

The direction and cinematography are always done extremely well and you really felt as though you were there with the characters. It's the direction that really tells it apart from other series.

The murders were rather gory and you have to have a sense of disbelief in what is real and fantasy. Murders two and three were quite intense!

Music in this one is quite subtle and could have been used for more suspense in murders one and three.

One the whole I enjoyed this one and like so many I love this ongoing journey through Midsomer. Long may the series be with us.

9 out of 10 from me.

A fantastic season opener!

[lbowdls · 9/10 · 16 February 2024]

There's no doubt there will be the usual dismissive reviews of this season opener, and no doubt the whole season. But this was excellent. A great whodunnit which keeps you guessing to - nearly the end.

Not too many suspects left considering there were 3 deaths but I still wouldn't have had the murderer as my first choice. Great pacing and probabilities as it goes through, with all the murders not being who you except to be murdered.

*I seriously don't understand how Betty is so tall. To my calculations for when she was born in the series she should only be 8, maybe 9 at the most. But she looks more like 11, even 12.

Anyway I've filled up enough space because of the silly rule about minimum words. But to end this is truly a great episode. I hope they will all be as great.

Loved it.

[valstone52 · 10/10 · 22 December 2023]

So many people complaining about this episode and earlier ones. Of course Neil is looking older, just as Tom Barnaby aged. As for him being fat he's not. If you all dislike him so much, you can always watch the ones with Tom. All of those weren't good, or better yet, use your remote to watch something else. Sooo tired of people comparison the two men. They both are great, as for the show ending like I said before, no worries is making you watch it. This is so annoying, you need to adapt to new things. Before when Brian True - may was in charge there was no diversity. Now there is, glad they got rid of him, narrow minded like some of these comments. Smh.

Good solid episode.

[lizzieqever · 9/10 · 17 February 2024]

A good solid and very solvable mystery for the opening of this season. Nice location for filling, good acting. A crisp, tight script, a good number of suspects.

You have to pay attention to solve the mystery, but if you follow motive, and what was going on, it should lead you to the killer. It wasn't too hard to figure out, they did do the reveal a little early in the movie.

What is I thought Barnaby was real understanding of the murderer at the end, allowing the murderer to linger in their garden. I don't think I would've been quite as understanding of someone who would killed so many.

Overall, though an excellent effort.

Unfortunately disappointing

[harrykivi · 4/10 · 4 December 2023]

I was looking forward to the 24th season, because "Midsomer Murders" has always been one of my favorite shows. "The Devil's Work", the premiere of the season, was sadly disappointing. It's not an awful episode, but pretty mediocre at best.

Let's start with the good aspects.

. The production values of the episode are great. The music fits the scenery and the direction's decent. The performances are fine for the most part. It was very nice to see Ginny Holder.

. There are moments of charm and some good ideas in the episode. The premise is relatively interesting and the murders are suitably brutal (especially the last two).

But...

. There are very few interesting characters in the story. The identity of the killer is too easy to figure out and the motive for the murders is generic. This is yet another one of those episodes, when they want the audience to care about the killer, which was not going to happen. Especially because the murders were quite gory.

. There aren't enough twists and turns in the narrative. Good ideas are few, far between and at times it felt like the story was streched out as much as they could. The dialogue is stiff and quite exposition-heavy.

Overall, a mediocre episode.

4/10 HK.

Dull

[heatsink98 · 4/10 · 14 December 2023]

Shouldn't the devil's work be more entertaining than this? Sitting through this episode was a chore. The writing for Midsomer has fallen into the doldrums in the past years, sadly.

We spend quite a lot of this episode in low-key dialog. Barnaby sits with Winter, passing back and forth a list of details. The estranged family members rattle off lists of information. We move on, slowly.

The quirky atmosphere of Midsomer is also missing. Compare this episode to the outings of seasons 14 or 15, and the latest episode might as well be multiple scenes where we watch paint dry. Although the production values are quite high, the storytelling lacks.

Scooby Dooby Doo Where Are You?

[Johnny_West · 3/10 · 10 December 2023]

Like so many times before, a wealthy family is at odds regarding the family mansion, money, power, inheritance. How many times can we go over the same ground?

When Daddy dies, it turns out that in the UK, there is no way to disinherit an evil drunken loser son. That is a tragedy, considering how many of those vile children show up in Midsomer Murders.

People are dropping like flies after evil Lucien inherits the Stierwick Family Trust, and starts evicting everyone off the massive property. The standard stock characters all come forth to complain about how their families have been on the land for 500 years, boo-hoo. The unknown love child pops up, and all the boxes are checked.

Slimy Lucien is played by a scraggly drunken weather-beaten actor (Peter Serafinowicz, formerly The Tick TV series superhero) who makes every sentence sound like Shakespeare's MacBeth or Charlton Heston's Moses. Lucien is ponderously over-acted to the point of being goofy.

Gideon (Charles Dale), one of the mansion's farmer tenants is another one who screams and yells through his 2-3 scenes, and he is just a red herring as the possible killer. Lots of lives are being upended so that Lucien can convert properties into art studios, art schools, and art galleries.

Ginny Holder and Agni Scott play two of the wives that are also getting evicted, and they create a lot of sadness and drama because they may have to get a job. Their lives sitting in the mansion sipping tea may be over, boo-hoo.

Joshua Griffin plays the son of Ginny Holder and Charles Dale (but he is the secret love child of Lucien), except Joshua is 33 years old in real life, looks forty, and yet he is playing a teenage boy. If my teenage son looked like he was pushing forty, I would sell the mansion too.

The bizarre and ridiculous deaths are very inconsistent with who it turns out to be the killer. Strangling someone and then putting a mask on his face and sticking a pick into the eyeball is not what wealthy aristocrats do. Totally over the top stuff especially when it turns out that the killer is an elderly lady. Then she confesses to a bonus kill from 30 years earlier. So genteel wealthy well-educated Granny is a serial killer from way back??

Meanwhile, Neil Dudgeon has gained at least twenty pounds since last season. He looks much older too, like a fat little old man walking around at the mansion. His creepy ultra pale blonde daughter from "Village of the Damned" has several irrelevant filler scenes of the android child dressing up for a party. Why are there any home-life scenes? His wife and kid never add anything useful or interesting to any story.

Hopefully Barnaby retires by next season and puts this series in the hands of somebody else. Laurence Fox from the Inspector Lewis TV series would be a good choice.

Genuinely made me angry

[has_no_pseudonym · 4/10 · 26 February 2024]

Never has a more unjust and cruel death been so glossed over and so unpunished.

The most innocent and unwitting of victims is burned to death alive in a kiln, and we actually see a bit of his horror and panic before panning away. But no one acknowledges how horrific it is, and no one chastises the murderer for how evil it was for her most undeserving victim. And it's written like we're supposed to feel sorry for her because she lost her baby decades ago? While she murders someone else's baby (he was 19) in the most sadistic way possible. She could have done ANYTHING but trap him alive and set him on fire, but no, she chose that.

And NO ONE is disgusted. Oh but please let me visit my roses before you take me away for my triple murder? Why the duck would they give her that courtesy? Especially since before that point we don't even know about her baby. But because they do let her see the roses we hear about it. Even the victim's father looks at her with pity and sympathy...the woman who killed "the son he didn't know he wanted" in the sickest way possible.

I do not know what the writers were smoking, they've done sympathetic murders before, successfully, but this was not it. The people who wrote this episode should be ashamed.

In general the past seasons there's been a rise in depicting the deaths more live onscreen, and I can't say it's a good choice. This show needs a bit of whimsy, and it's been too graphic at times.