Another "Morse" series in the books. I especially liked the tension here. We had here a group of characters who had suffered serious losses, both physically and emotionally. At the center of everything was a knowledge of chemistry, but that was maintained by the fact that outside forces may be at work. The conclusion was pretty satisfying. As subtext we have Lewis's fear that if he went on a six-month excursion to New Zealand with Laura, there wouldn't be a place for him when he returned. He has put all his eggs in one basket. Meanwhile, Hathaway has learned a lot watching his father deteriorate into the depths of dementia, knowing, for the first time, how family is so important. His stoic exterior blanched for the first time in ages. This is a very decent series. People often say that it isn't the quality of the "Morse," and overall it may not be, but it's quite substantial.
7 Reviews
Farewell Lewis - Au Revoir Hathaway?
thesinginghouse13 November 2015
Warning: Spoilers
I'm not a big fan of detective and crime shows in general. I don't usually care whodunit and often, by the first commercial break and a glass of wine, I've forgotten just what was done. Recently, scanning the schedules in desperation for something other than trashy reality shows I landed on "Lewis". Well, that's daft, I thought when I saw the name. Fancy trying to milk the popularity of "Morse" by featuring his more mundane sidekick. How wrong I was.
"Lewis" turned out to be "strangely magnetic" in the words of an Oxford academic friend of mine - who should know what she's talking about. True, it was a bit schlocky but what glorious schlock it was - all those bonkers deaths and bizarre corpses: pokers through the eyeball St Sebastian-style arrows on a naked corpse, brains bashed out by a bust of Vulcan - the more academic the murder the better.
Of course as a detective show, it had to make that strange emotional demand on the audience that the genre makes as a matter of course: that we engage with the dilemmas, angst, heartaches etc of people we've only just met (the victims and perpetrators) , who have no back- story but just come in, maybe do something terrible, are then found out and get about 5 minutes of really big, almost gigantic, acting before being carted off in a hearse or police van. That explains the presence of all the well-known thespians in the casts. In the meantime, the detectives, whom some of the audience have been dropping in on for almost a decade of their lives, don't get developed that much. We get just the occasional teasing glimpse of who they are, where they live, what they want. It's a tantalizing and, frankly, frustrating genre for all but the most avid puzzle-solver.
But still the show exerted that magnetic force. A Cambridge friend of mine confessed that he was just happy to pour a glass of sherry and gaze at "the gorgeous golden light on those Oxford rooftops." I soon found out that all sorts of people I know have been quietly devoted to the series that I had scorned for years: a lonely airline pilot on layovers, a similarly lonely opera singer, the guy who fixed my boiler this week and my friend's firefighter son in the backwoods of Canada. They described it variously as "reassuring, comforting, beautiful, batty, excessive" and had all grown deeply fond of the workaday, stolid Lewis and his cosy bond with his young brilliant sidekick Hathaway. Add to this, the show's surprising sexual "heat" in the form of this same gangly, blonde, virtually celibate, DS Hathaway, and the magnetism was guaranteed.
And so this week, Lewis, Hathaway and those golden rooftops left us, ostensibly, forever.
In a "closing of the circle", Hathaway took Lewis to Heathrow airport where he'd picked him up 10 years earlier. Robbie was wearing a Hawaiian shirt then and a plumper, greyer Robbie wore a Hawaiian shirt now. A very boyish, unmarked young Hathaway picked him up then ; a harder, wearier man drops him off now. But where Lewis was the lonely widower, he now leaves for New Zealand with the lovely Laura. His circle is complete. And the deep loneliness belongs entirely to Hathaway whose story seems to have been left suspended in mid-air in the Heathrow terminal. Ever the steadfast tin soldier, he manages just a pat on Lewis's back as the older detective leaves.
The loneliest of cops in a profession of lonely men, Hathaway ends the series watching sadly from the terminal as one of his father figures, Lewis, flies away across the world. Meanwhile, his real father awaits in the care home, demented and unable to recognize the son with whom he never formed a real bond. I reached for the box of Kleenex as the ever-excellent Laurence Fox walked towards the camera for the last time. But I was left unsatisfied by this part of the drama: Hathaway's character and his story feel uncomfortably unfinished.
That rule about "no love life" for the cops was first established, I think, back as far as 1928 by American art critic William Huntingdon Wright who said: "There must be no love interest. The business in hand is to bring a criminal to the bar of justice, not to bring a lovelorn couple to the hymeneal altar." (The Americans often throw that rule clean out of the window : q.v. dumpy Detective Sipowitz's shower scene in NYPD)
In the case of Hathaway, perhaps the writers took that rule a tad too far. Nobody expects shower scenes - the cops in "Lewis" don't get to remove a sock though Hathaway did once take off his tie to imitate phone sex! And it would have been a disaster to domesticate him or give him a standard happy ending. But here was this brilliant, detached, emotionally and sexually repressed character who was never given quite enough to do.
Passionate, buttoned-up Hathaway who longed for connection but had no idea how to to achieve it, managed just a couple of liaisons in the decade he was on our screens. One in, "Life Born of Fire" almost had him burned to death before it was consummated, and the other in, "The Dead of Winter" resulted in a betrayal by an accomplice to murder.
So we left this shy, yearning, sexy character with no arc, no resolution, not much of anything. I'm hoping that means that he may well show up again in a spin-off, a one-off drama, a Christmas special - something that might give a great actor a chance to do more than, in Fox's own words: "ask where someone was between 8 and12pm." I've a few ideas of my own if ITV are interested but please, don't leave him wandering the lonely corridors of Heathrow. He, and Laurence Fox, deserve so much more.
"Lewis" turned out to be "strangely magnetic" in the words of an Oxford academic friend of mine - who should know what she's talking about. True, it was a bit schlocky but what glorious schlock it was - all those bonkers deaths and bizarre corpses: pokers through the eyeball St Sebastian-style arrows on a naked corpse, brains bashed out by a bust of Vulcan - the more academic the murder the better.
Of course as a detective show, it had to make that strange emotional demand on the audience that the genre makes as a matter of course: that we engage with the dilemmas, angst, heartaches etc of people we've only just met (the victims and perpetrators) , who have no back- story but just come in, maybe do something terrible, are then found out and get about 5 minutes of really big, almost gigantic, acting before being carted off in a hearse or police van. That explains the presence of all the well-known thespians in the casts. In the meantime, the detectives, whom some of the audience have been dropping in on for almost a decade of their lives, don't get developed that much. We get just the occasional teasing glimpse of who they are, where they live, what they want. It's a tantalizing and, frankly, frustrating genre for all but the most avid puzzle-solver.
But still the show exerted that magnetic force. A Cambridge friend of mine confessed that he was just happy to pour a glass of sherry and gaze at "the gorgeous golden light on those Oxford rooftops." I soon found out that all sorts of people I know have been quietly devoted to the series that I had scorned for years: a lonely airline pilot on layovers, a similarly lonely opera singer, the guy who fixed my boiler this week and my friend's firefighter son in the backwoods of Canada. They described it variously as "reassuring, comforting, beautiful, batty, excessive" and had all grown deeply fond of the workaday, stolid Lewis and his cosy bond with his young brilliant sidekick Hathaway. Add to this, the show's surprising sexual "heat" in the form of this same gangly, blonde, virtually celibate, DS Hathaway, and the magnetism was guaranteed.
And so this week, Lewis, Hathaway and those golden rooftops left us, ostensibly, forever.
In a "closing of the circle", Hathaway took Lewis to Heathrow airport where he'd picked him up 10 years earlier. Robbie was wearing a Hawaiian shirt then and a plumper, greyer Robbie wore a Hawaiian shirt now. A very boyish, unmarked young Hathaway picked him up then ; a harder, wearier man drops him off now. But where Lewis was the lonely widower, he now leaves for New Zealand with the lovely Laura. His circle is complete. And the deep loneliness belongs entirely to Hathaway whose story seems to have been left suspended in mid-air in the Heathrow terminal. Ever the steadfast tin soldier, he manages just a pat on Lewis's back as the older detective leaves.
The loneliest of cops in a profession of lonely men, Hathaway ends the series watching sadly from the terminal as one of his father figures, Lewis, flies away across the world. Meanwhile, his real father awaits in the care home, demented and unable to recognize the son with whom he never formed a real bond. I reached for the box of Kleenex as the ever-excellent Laurence Fox walked towards the camera for the last time. But I was left unsatisfied by this part of the drama: Hathaway's character and his story feel uncomfortably unfinished.
That rule about "no love life" for the cops was first established, I think, back as far as 1928 by American art critic William Huntingdon Wright who said: "There must be no love interest. The business in hand is to bring a criminal to the bar of justice, not to bring a lovelorn couple to the hymeneal altar." (The Americans often throw that rule clean out of the window : q.v. dumpy Detective Sipowitz's shower scene in NYPD)
In the case of Hathaway, perhaps the writers took that rule a tad too far. Nobody expects shower scenes - the cops in "Lewis" don't get to remove a sock though Hathaway did once take off his tie to imitate phone sex! And it would have been a disaster to domesticate him or give him a standard happy ending. But here was this brilliant, detached, emotionally and sexually repressed character who was never given quite enough to do.
Passionate, buttoned-up Hathaway who longed for connection but had no idea how to to achieve it, managed just a couple of liaisons in the decade he was on our screens. One in, "Life Born of Fire" almost had him burned to death before it was consummated, and the other in, "The Dead of Winter" resulted in a betrayal by an accomplice to murder.
So we left this shy, yearning, sexy character with no arc, no resolution, not much of anything. I'm hoping that means that he may well show up again in a spin-off, a one-off drama, a Christmas special - something that might give a great actor a chance to do more than, in Fox's own words: "ask where someone was between 8 and12pm." I've a few ideas of my own if ITV are interested but please, don't leave him wandering the lonely corridors of Heathrow. He, and Laurence Fox, deserve so much more.
Worth it though.
n-j-toner15 February 2016
Warning: Spoilers
I really enjoyed the ending, and this review is only really about the last farewell.
I liked that we the audience were shown what would happen next.
Hobsons, "Like Morse?" shows us that Lewis could keep going until they killed him off, but his choice to go on holiday showed that he and Hobson would be okay in the long run.
But for the possible, though unlikely, Hathaway series, we saw that James would probably start his series dealing with the death of his father. Maddox would likely go through a divorce, and pure supposition on my part, present a potential love interest for Hathaway in the mold of Lewis and Hobson. And Lewis even got an invitation to be a recurring guest star from the Chief. They let us know that they could do more stories if they wanted to, but that life goes on and they don't need to do 'Hathaway' or 'Maddox' if they don't want to, we already know how it goes.
The final reflection of the very first meeting was beautiful, and it showed that Robbie had finally surpassed Morse, because he learned to live.
I liked that we the audience were shown what would happen next.
Hobsons, "Like Morse?" shows us that Lewis could keep going until they killed him off, but his choice to go on holiday showed that he and Hobson would be okay in the long run.
But for the possible, though unlikely, Hathaway series, we saw that James would probably start his series dealing with the death of his father. Maddox would likely go through a divorce, and pure supposition on my part, present a potential love interest for Hathaway in the mold of Lewis and Hobson. And Lewis even got an invitation to be a recurring guest star from the Chief. They let us know that they could do more stories if they wanted to, but that life goes on and they don't need to do 'Hathaway' or 'Maddox' if they don't want to, we already know how it goes.
The final reflection of the very first meeting was beautiful, and it showed that Robbie had finally surpassed Morse, because he learned to live.
The final Goodbye, much missed.
Sleepin_Dragon27 August 2021
Lewis faces a big decision, to carry on with work, or to head to New Zealand with Laura, his mind is very much on the case, as he and Hathaway find themselves in a very dangerous situation.
It's great that they ended the series on such a high, it's been an excellent two part series, known for sometimes heavy, complex mysteries, this one was perhaps slightly faster paced, definitely more explosive.
Memorable, it's the end of an era, but fortunately not the end of a franchise, fortunately we'd be able to enjoy the magical Endeavour series.
Steve Toussaint is officially the smartest walker on Earth, smart guy.
Nice touch at the end with the sign, that takes me back.
Great end to a great series. 9/10.
It's great that they ended the series on such a high, it's been an excellent two part series, known for sometimes heavy, complex mysteries, this one was perhaps slightly faster paced, definitely more explosive.
Memorable, it's the end of an era, but fortunately not the end of a franchise, fortunately we'd be able to enjoy the magical Endeavour series.
Steve Toussaint is officially the smartest walker on Earth, smart guy.
Nice touch at the end with the sign, that takes me back.
Great end to a great series. 9/10.
The end of an era
Tweekums11 November 2015
Warning: Spoilers
These comments refer to the entire two part story, not just the second episode.
This, apparently the last ever 'Lewis' story sees Lewis, DI Hathaway and DS Maddox investigating the death of Adam Capstone, a maths professor, who was killed by a parcel bomb. Suspects quickly emerge; most notably a student who claimed Capstone has stolen her work and the family of another student who committed suicide after claiming Capstone had raped her. The case is further complicated when a second bomb is sent to Capstone's brother David; this doesn't kill anybody but it does injure David and stuns Lewis and Hathaway who were with him when it detonated. The duo must consider the possibility that the original bomb was sent to the wrong brother. As the second episode progresses more suspects emerge including a chemistry student who might not be who he claims and a man who was upset that David had pulled out of a gambling scheme. While the case progresses Lewis also has some personal concerns; he worries that if he goes away to New Zealand for six months with girlfriend Laura Hobson he won't have a job when he returns.
This was another solid 'Lewis' mystery with plenty of suspects and motives that should keep the viewer guessing till almost the end. Given the nature of the murder attempt there are a number of impressive explosions; including one that threatens our protagonists just as the first episode concludes leaving one wondering how badly they might be hurt; the fact that this was the final episode made things less certain than they would be otherwise. Away from the case there was the question of whether or not Lewis would decide to go to New Zealand and whether his choice would affect his position with the police; these questions are answered in a way that does leave things open for further stories even though we have been told that this is the end. Overall a good episode even if it isn't one of the very best while I'll miss the series I'm glad it didn't drag on until it got boring.
This, apparently the last ever 'Lewis' story sees Lewis, DI Hathaway and DS Maddox investigating the death of Adam Capstone, a maths professor, who was killed by a parcel bomb. Suspects quickly emerge; most notably a student who claimed Capstone has stolen her work and the family of another student who committed suicide after claiming Capstone had raped her. The case is further complicated when a second bomb is sent to Capstone's brother David; this doesn't kill anybody but it does injure David and stuns Lewis and Hathaway who were with him when it detonated. The duo must consider the possibility that the original bomb was sent to the wrong brother. As the second episode progresses more suspects emerge including a chemistry student who might not be who he claims and a man who was upset that David had pulled out of a gambling scheme. While the case progresses Lewis also has some personal concerns; he worries that if he goes away to New Zealand for six months with girlfriend Laura Hobson he won't have a job when he returns.
This was another solid 'Lewis' mystery with plenty of suspects and motives that should keep the viewer guessing till almost the end. Given the nature of the murder attempt there are a number of impressive explosions; including one that threatens our protagonists just as the first episode concludes leaving one wondering how badly they might be hurt; the fact that this was the final episode made things less certain than they would be otherwise. Away from the case there was the question of whether or not Lewis would decide to go to New Zealand and whether his choice would affect his position with the police; these questions are answered in a way that does leave things open for further stories even though we have been told that this is the end. Overall a good episode even if it isn't one of the very best while I'll miss the series I'm glad it didn't drag on until it got boring.
What Lies Tangled: The second half
TheLittleSongbird3 July 2017
Hearing about 'Lewis' for the first time when it first started, there was a big touch of excitement seeing as 'Inspector Morse' was and still is one of my favourites but also a little intrepidation, wondering whether the series would be as good. The good news is, like the prequel series 'Endeavour', 'Lewis' is every bit as good as 'Inspector Morse' and stands very well on its own two feet as a detective mystery and show in general.
'Lewis' was a show that started off promisingly with the pilot and the first season, while getting even better with a more settled Season 2 where the show hit its stride. Season 3 was more of a mixed bag (not a bad season at all, but started a little disappointingly, though better than reputed, with one of the show's generally lesser episodes "Allegory of Love"). Season 4 generally was one of the better seasons of 'Lewis', with all the episodes very good to great, and Season 5 was solid with the only disappointment being "The Mind Has Mountains".
Season 6 started off very well with "The Soul of Genius", while "Generation of Vipers" was even better. Unfortunately, "Fearful Symmetry" was very disappointing and has always been one of my least favourite 'Lewis' episodes. On the other side of the coin, fortunately the season gets back on track with a great finale and its best episode "The Indelible Stain".
The show's seventh season suffered from the rather bizarre decision to split its three episodes into two halves, meaning having to wait until the next week until the conclusion. In all three of the Season 7 episodes, this has proved to be rather awkward and in "Down Among the Fearful" and "The Ramblin' Boy" ran the risk of forgetting what happened previously and being even more confused by events and who the characters were. "Intelligent Design" however was much better and easily the best of that season.
"Entry Wounds" was decent if unexceptional, with things getting better with "The Lions of Nemea" (although that didn't wow me either). "Beyond Good and Evil" is generally the best episode of Season 8.
"One For Sorrow" was a promising start to the ninth and final season, and the succeeding episode "Magnum Opus" while a long way from great was also decent. Naturally for being the last ever episode "What Lies Tangled" is the best of Season 9.
Will admit to still not caring for Maddox, she is bland and doesn't gel and Angela Griffin's acting doesn't make me feel any different. Would have liked more resolution for Hathaway too, to me his future shouldn't have been treated with that much ambiguity.
As always however the acting is solid, on the other hand, with Kevin Whately very good and Laurence Fox a breath of fresh air. Their chemistry is wholly convincing, always a huge part of the show's charm, with a strong contrast between Lewis being the world weary one with the hunches and Hathaway being the more logical and witty. Really like the chemistry between Lewis and Hobson (Clare Holman doesn't disappoint) too, and that Hobson's character has expanded for the better overtime in the show.
Moody seems to be settling in well and one doesn't miss Innocent too much. The support acting is good, especially David Warner, Zoe Tapper and Oliver Lansley. Nicholas Jones registers strongly.
Production values are of very high quality. It's beautifully shot as always, with a standout moment being the long lingering shots, and Oxford not only looks exquisite but is like a supporting character in itself. Barrington Pheloung returns as composer, and does a first-rate job, some of the scoring here even more elaborate than usual. The theme tune, while not as iconic or quite as clever as Morse's, is very pleasant to listen to, the episode is charmingly and hauntingly scored and the use of pre-existing music is very well-incorporated.
Some of the writing is thoughtful and fun and the story is mostly compelling and suitably twisty without being too convoluted. The final solution is one of the more satisfying ones in a while for the show, and the ending has a real poignancy and nostalgia.
All in all, mostly very good final episode. 8/10 Bethany Cox
'Lewis' was a show that started off promisingly with the pilot and the first season, while getting even better with a more settled Season 2 where the show hit its stride. Season 3 was more of a mixed bag (not a bad season at all, but started a little disappointingly, though better than reputed, with one of the show's generally lesser episodes "Allegory of Love"). Season 4 generally was one of the better seasons of 'Lewis', with all the episodes very good to great, and Season 5 was solid with the only disappointment being "The Mind Has Mountains".
Season 6 started off very well with "The Soul of Genius", while "Generation of Vipers" was even better. Unfortunately, "Fearful Symmetry" was very disappointing and has always been one of my least favourite 'Lewis' episodes. On the other side of the coin, fortunately the season gets back on track with a great finale and its best episode "The Indelible Stain".
The show's seventh season suffered from the rather bizarre decision to split its three episodes into two halves, meaning having to wait until the next week until the conclusion. In all three of the Season 7 episodes, this has proved to be rather awkward and in "Down Among the Fearful" and "The Ramblin' Boy" ran the risk of forgetting what happened previously and being even more confused by events and who the characters were. "Intelligent Design" however was much better and easily the best of that season.
"Entry Wounds" was decent if unexceptional, with things getting better with "The Lions of Nemea" (although that didn't wow me either). "Beyond Good and Evil" is generally the best episode of Season 8.
"One For Sorrow" was a promising start to the ninth and final season, and the succeeding episode "Magnum Opus" while a long way from great was also decent. Naturally for being the last ever episode "What Lies Tangled" is the best of Season 9.
Will admit to still not caring for Maddox, she is bland and doesn't gel and Angela Griffin's acting doesn't make me feel any different. Would have liked more resolution for Hathaway too, to me his future shouldn't have been treated with that much ambiguity.
As always however the acting is solid, on the other hand, with Kevin Whately very good and Laurence Fox a breath of fresh air. Their chemistry is wholly convincing, always a huge part of the show's charm, with a strong contrast between Lewis being the world weary one with the hunches and Hathaway being the more logical and witty. Really like the chemistry between Lewis and Hobson (Clare Holman doesn't disappoint) too, and that Hobson's character has expanded for the better overtime in the show.
Moody seems to be settling in well and one doesn't miss Innocent too much. The support acting is good, especially David Warner, Zoe Tapper and Oliver Lansley. Nicholas Jones registers strongly.
Production values are of very high quality. It's beautifully shot as always, with a standout moment being the long lingering shots, and Oxford not only looks exquisite but is like a supporting character in itself. Barrington Pheloung returns as composer, and does a first-rate job, some of the scoring here even more elaborate than usual. The theme tune, while not as iconic or quite as clever as Morse's, is very pleasant to listen to, the episode is charmingly and hauntingly scored and the use of pre-existing music is very well-incorporated.
Some of the writing is thoughtful and fun and the story is mostly compelling and suitably twisty without being too convoluted. The final solution is one of the more satisfying ones in a while for the show, and the ending has a real poignancy and nostalgia.
All in all, mostly very good final episode. 8/10 Bethany Cox
Fare thee well
safenoe16 August 2021
Warning: Spoilers
What a journey it's been. Lewis is one of my favorite British TV police dramas, and I really didn't want it to end. But all good things come to an end sadly, and here we are with the series finale, broadcast at the end of 2015. Lewis paid testament to Morse in this finale. I was hoping there would be a photo of Morse. I was also hoping Rebecca Front would make a cameo.
Also poignant to see Hathaway reconcile with his father Philip (played by Nicholas Jones) and his sister Nell (Sally Scott)
The explosive special effects looked quite authentic.
Maybe one day Lewis can be rebooted please for these more contemporary times. If so, Danny Dyer should be cast as Lewis, with Ant or Dec playing Hathaway. They can investigate crimes around Oxford Brookes University (no relation to Oxford University) and crime ridden areas in Blackbird Leys, Rose Hill, Wood Farm (especially the area behind Awgar Stone Road).
Also poignant to see Hathaway reconcile with his father Philip (played by Nicholas Jones) and his sister Nell (Sally Scott)
The explosive special effects looked quite authentic.
Maybe one day Lewis can be rebooted please for these more contemporary times. If so, Danny Dyer should be cast as Lewis, with Ant or Dec playing Hathaway. They can investigate crimes around Oxford Brookes University (no relation to Oxford University) and crime ridden areas in Blackbird Leys, Rose Hill, Wood Farm (especially the area behind Awgar Stone Road).
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