Masterpiece Mystery! Endeavour, Season 5

DVD Wholesale Quick Overview:

With Season 5, “Endeavor” continues with its complex plotting, intelligent writing and overall rather bleak tone. Joan Thursday is back in Oxford, and she and Morse circle each other with studied and unconvincing indifference. On the positive side, Morse has finally been promoted, and he’s now Detective Sergeant (DS) Morse and Strange is now a Sergeant.

As you’d expect in a great series, in addition to the mystery plotting, there are memorable moments which flesh out the characters. Tend to think that Morse is totally buttoned up with no humor? See him smile at himself, when he can’t help but tilt his car’s rear-view mirror to watch Joannie walking away in her mini-skirt. The mini-story line with Thursday and his brother is a bit heartbreaking. But the part where Mr. and Mrs. Thursday tango their way through the 1968 All England Ballroom Championship Regional Quarter Final almost makes up for it.

I’ve included an episode synopses at the end of the review. I particularly enjoyed “Quartet”. In a great touch, I was delighted to see Ellie Haddington play Miss Bagshot, an MI6 operative. You may remember her playing Hilda Pierce, the stony-faced spy master in “Foyle’s War”, see especially the Incredible Season 8.

Season 5 consists of six episodes totaling almost 9 hours. This is the UK edition, so all scenes are included if you buy the show on disc. English subtitles are available on the episodes and the Bonus Features:
…A…”Odd Couple” (2 minutes) Commentators include Shaun Evans (plays Morse), Sara Vickers (plays Joan Thursday) and Sean Rigby (plays DS Strange). To save money, Morse and Strange are temporarily sharing an apartment. Rigby: “You really have two people with very different relaxing styles. Strange is fond of a Chinese [take out] and watching the telly. Whereas Endeavor’s more of a crossword and perhaps a nice record.”
…B…”Favourite Scenes” (2 minutes) New commentators include Roger Allam (plays DI Thursday), Lewis Peek (plays DC Fancy) and Dakota Blue Richards (plays WPC Trewlove).
…C…”Costume Design” (2 minutes) Mary-Jane Reyner (costume designer) takes about designing for 1968.

– Happy Reader

Continuing development of the young Morse. The ongoing heartbreak with Miss Friday is sad and horrible and utterly wonderfully acted, plus the music — wow. Intense. Not for binge watching — plan on spreading these out over a few days to allow some recovery time.

If you like watching DVDs on your computer, note that this disc uses the intentional DVD error copy protection scheme that PBS has been using on recent releases. The DVD will play correctly on a dedicated DVD player, many computer DVD player software will quit randomly due to the intentional errors on the DVD media.

-David Boyes

We love British Detective Series. Endeavour follows the young inspector Morse during his early career. A great cast expertly weave together complex chains of events and uncover clues. Morse is a bit high minded and so is this series so, you’ll want to pay attention, or even watch some episodes more than once just to grasp all the details. Great period fiction for the thinking armchair detective.-Darth Rater

DVD Wholesale Main Features:

Actors: Shaun Evans;Roger Allam;Anton Lesser;James Bradshaw;Sean Rigby;Dakota Blue Richards;Lewis Peek;Abigail Thaw;Jack Bannon;Caroline O Neill;Sara Vickers
Directors: Russell Lewis;Brady Hood;Andy Wilson;Jim Field Smith;Robert Quinn;Geoffrey Sax;Gordon Anderson
Format: Box set, Color, NTSC, Widescreen
Language: English
Subtitles: English
Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only.)
Number of discs: 3
Rated: PG-13 Parents Strongly Cautioned
Studio: PBS Distribution
DVD Release Date: July 10, 2018
Run Time: 540 minutes
Average Customer R